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. As I have said elsewhere, there are Americans in plenty, but _the_ American has not made his appearance yet. The type existed a hundred years ago in New England. He is there still; but he is not now a national type, he is only a local one. [Illustration: THE TYPICAL AMERICAN.] I was talking one day with two eminent Americans on the subject of the typical American, real or imaginary. One of them was of opinion that he was a taciturn being; the other, on the contrary, maintained that he was talkative. How is a foreigner to dare decide, where two eminent natives find it impossible to agree? In speaking of the typical American, let us understand each other. All the civilized nations of the earth are alike in one respect; they are all composed of two kinds of men, those that are gentlemen, and those that are not. America is no exception to this rule. Fifth Avenue does not differ from Belgravia and Mayfair. A gentleman is everywhere a gentleman. As a type, he belongs to no particular country, he is universal. When the writer of some "society" paper, English or American, reproaches a sociologist for writing about the masses instead of the classes, suggesting that "he probably never frequented the best society of the nation he describes," that writer writes himself down an ass. In the matters of feeling, conduct, taste, culture, I have never discovered the least difference between a gentleman from America and a gentleman from France, England, Russia, or any other country of Europe--including Germany. So, if we want to find a typical American, it is not in good society that we must search for him, but among the mass of the population. Well, it is just here that our search will break down. We shall come across all sorts and conditions of Americans, but not one that is really typical. [Illustration: THE AMERICAN OF A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.] A little while ago, the _Century Magazine_ published specimens of composite photography. First, there was the portrait of one person, then that of this same face with another superposed, then another containing three faces blended, and so on up to eight or nine. On the last page the result was shown. I can only compare the typical American to the last of those. This appears to me the process of evolution through which the American type is now going. What it will be when this process of evolution is over, no one, I imagine, can tell. The evolution will be complete when immigrati
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