. 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