Jonathan and His Continent: Rambles Through American Society

the Centre of America?--Jonathan cannot get over it, nor can I.--America, the Land of Conjuring.--A Letter from Jonathan decides me to set out for the United States.

Ways of Discussing the Merits of a Sermon.--Contradictions and Contrasts.--Sacred and Profane.--Players of Poker on Board Ship.--A Meek and Humble Follower of Jesus.--The Open S...

Dollar is the Unity of the Metrical System.--Jonathan is Matter-of-fact.--How he Judges Man.--The Kind of Baits that Take.--Talent without Money is a Useless Tool.--Boston and K...

Sweat of Jonathan's brow crystallized in his Wife's Ears.--Avarice is a vice little known in America.--Jonathan is not the Slave of the Almighty Dollar to the Extent that he is...

Woman.--Youthful Reminiscences.--Flirtation Perfected.--The "Boston."--Why the Young American Lady does not Object to the Society of Men.--European Coats of Arms Regilt and Rede...

Vengeance.--A Battle with Rotten Eggs.--An Unsavoury Omelette.--Tarring and Feathering.--Description of the Operation.--An Awkward Quarter-of-an-hour.--Vengeance of a Ladies' Sc...

Pennsylvanian Town.--Women's Dress.--Style and Distinction.--Bonnets fit to Frighten a Choctaw.--Dress at the Theatre.--Ball Toilettes.--Draw a Veil over the Past, Ladies.--The...

Headlines.--"Jerked to Jesus."--"Mrs. Carter finds Fault with her Husband's Kisses."--Jacob's Ladder.--Sensational News.--How a Journalist became Known.--Gossip.--The Murderer a...

Sacred.--Demolition of the Wall of Private Life.--Does your Husband Snore?--St. Anthony and the Reporters.--I am Interviewed.--My Manager drops Asleep over it.--The Interview in...

Jonathan Goes to Church.--Walk in, Ladies and Gentlemen, "this is the Place to be Saved and Happy."--Irresistible Invitations.--The Esoterists.--Why Die when Immortality is Atta...

Procedure.--The Accused was Paid Cash.--A Criminal Hunt.--The Juries and their Powers.--Slow Dealings of American Justice.--False Philanthropy.--Twelve or Sixteen Minutes at the...

States.--A Public Reception at the White House.--A Private Audience.--Why a Yankee Refrained from Accompanying Me.--What the President Costs the Nation.--Mrs. Cleveland.--Her Po...

Politician.--"Honest John" and "Jolly Roger."--The Irish in America.--Why the Americans are in favour of Home Rule.--The Mayor of New York and the Green Flag.--The German Yankee...

Button, S.V.P.--Marketing in the House.--Magic Tables.--The Digestive Apparatus in Danger.--Gentlemen of Leisure.--Labour Laws.--A Six Days' Journey to go to a Banquet.--My Mana...

Cold.--Why Drunkenness is Rare in America.--Do not Lose Sight of your Nose.--Advice to the Foreigner intending to Visit Jonathan in the Winter.--Visit to the Falls of Niagara.--...

being Hirable, an American proposes to Buy it.--The Town Council of Paris do not Close with Him.--Cathedrals on Hire.--Companies Insuring against Matrimonial Infidelity.--Harmon...

Yankee on the Look-out for a Living,--"Her Heart and a Cottage."--A Circus Proprietor and the President of the United States.--Irresistible Offers of Marriage.--A Journalist of...

and Ventilators, and their Uses.--Pitiless Firemen.--Conductors and their Functions.--A Traveller's Perplexity.--Rudeness of Railway Servants.--The Actress and the Conductor.--A...

of Equality.--Unchivalrous Man.--The Ladies of the Feather-broom.--Mr. Vanderbilt's Cook.--Negroes.--Pompey's Wedding.--Where is my Coat?--Kitchen Pianists.--Punch's Caricatures...

Americans are Water-drinkers.--I Discover a Snake in my Tumbler.--The Negro Waiter Comforts Me.--Accommodation for Travellers.--The Menu.--Abbreviated Dinner.--The Little Oval D...

their Mecca.--Mammoth Hotels.--Jacksonville and St. Augustine.--The Ponce de Leon Hotel.--Rocking-chairs.--Having a "Good Time!"--The American is never Bored.--The Food is not v...

American Women must Spend on Dress.--Why so many Americans come to Europe every year.--Current Prices.--The Beggar and the Nickel.--Books and Oysters are Cheap.--Salaries.--"I c...

_Population of America.--An Anecdote about the Sun.--Where is the Centre of America?--Jonathan cannot get over it, nor can I.--America, the Land of Conjuring.--A Letter from Jon...

"But I do not fancy anything of the kind," I replied; "I have no such pretension. When a man of average intelligence returns home after having made a voyage to a foreign land, h...

_Characteristic Traits.--A Gentleman and a Cad.--Different Ways of Discussing the Merits of a Sermon.--Contradictions and Contrasts.--Sacred and Profane.--Players of Poker on Bo...

The American men are generally thin. Their faces glow with intelligence and energy, and in this mainly consists their handsomeness. I do not think it can be possible to see anyw...

_All that Glitters is not Gold, especially in America.--The Dollar is the Unity of the Metrical System.--Jonathan is Matter-of-fact.--How he judges Man.--The Kind of Baits that...

_Diamonds.--How Diamonds are Won and Lost in Tripping.--The Sweat of Jonathan's brow crystallized in his Wife's Ears.--Avarice is a vice little known in America.--Jonathan is no...

_Notes on the great American Cities.--New York.--Boston.--A Visit to Oliver Wendell Holmes.--Washington.--Mount Vernon.--Philadelphia.--Chicago.--Rivalry between these Cities.--...

American houses are furnished very luxuriously, and for the most part in exquisite taste. Here you see the influence of woman in the smallest details of life; indeed, at every s...

_Society Jottings.--Blue Blood in the United States.--Fashionable Society.--Plutocracy.--Parvenus and Arrives.--Literary and Artistic Society.--Provincialism.--All the Americans...

Name. Capital. Revenue at 5%. J. Gould L55,000,000 L2,750,000 J. W. Mackay 50,000,000 2,500,000 C. Vanderbilt 25,000,000 1,250,000 J. P. Jones 20,000,000 1,000,000 J. J. Astor 1...

_The American Girl.--Her Liberty.--Her Manners.--Respect for Woman.--Youthful Reminiscences.--Flirtation Perfected.--The "Boston."--Why the Young American Lady does not Object t...

In a country where woman is a spoilt child, petted, and made so much of, who can do and dare almost anything, it is strange to find women who are not content with their lot, but...

_Prudery.--"Shocking" Expressions.--Transformation of the Vocabulary.--War on Nudities.--The Venus of Milo does not escape the Wrath of the Puritans.--Mr. Anthony Comstock in Ch...

_John Bull's Cousin German.--A Salutary Lesson.--Women's Vengeance.--A Battle with Rotten Eggs.--An Unsavoury Omelette.--Tarring and Feathering.--Description of the Operation.--...

_Dress.--My Light-Grey Trousers create a Sensation in a Pennsylvanian Town.--Women's Dress.--Style and Distinction.--Bonnets fit to Frighten a Choctaw.--Dress at the Theatre.--B...

What, for instance, could be more naive than the following remark I heard made by Mark Twain at a dinner in New York, one evening? It was given, of course, in his inimitable drawl:

The Americans are so good at taking a joke, so good-tempered that, even in public, they enjoy to banter each other and serve as butts for each other's sarcasms: it is on these o...

A drunkard's relatives thought to frighten him into better ways. During a fit of intoxication he was laid in a coffin, and a friend remained near at hand, waiting until the drun...

_Journalism.--Prodigious Enterprises.--Startling Headlines.--"Jerked to Jesus."--"Mrs. Carter finds Fault with her Husband's Kisses."--Jacob's Ladder.--Sensational News.--How a...

_Reporting.--For the American Reporter Nothing is Sacred.--Demolition of the Wall of Private Life.--Does your Husband Snore?--St. Anthony and the Reporters.--I am Interviewed.--...

America has not yet produced a transcendent literary genius; but she has the right to be proud of a national literature which includes poets, historians, novelists, essayists, a...

The plays are written for certain actors, and the secondary parts are made to serve the purpose of throwing up the "star." This is why the French plays that are transplanted to...

_The Religion of the Americans.--Religious Sects.--Why Jonathan Goes to Church.--Walk in, Ladies and Gentlemen, "this is the Place to be Saved and Happy."--Irresistible Invitati...

He is one of the greatest figures of his great country. In a book on contemporary America one must needs speak of this celebrated advocate. He is a personality apart. He has lit...

_Justice.--Comparison Favourable to America.--Judicial Procedure.--The Accused was Paid Cash.--A Criminal Hunt.--The Juries and their Powers.--Slow Dealings of American Justice....

Lynch law is a summary justice which, in certain of the United States, is constantly being dealt out to criminals who, either from the insufficiency of the ordinary laws, or bec...

As I have said elsewhere, each State of the Union makes its own laws. The result is, that a thing which is legal in one State is not necessarily legal in the others.

_Mr. Grover Cleveland, President of the United States.--A Public Reception at the White House.--A Private Audience.--Why a Yankee Refrained from Accompanying Me.--What the Presi...

_Politics.--Parties.--The Gentleman and the Politician.--"Honest John" and "Jolly Roger."--The Irish in America.--Why the Americans are in Favour of Home Rule.--The Mayor of New...

He takes liberties with his fellow-creatures, and with the English grammar. He murders your ears, and the mother-tongue of Shakespeare. He chews, hawks, and spits; but he has a...

_American Activity.--Expression of the Faces.--Press the Button, S.V.P.--Marketing in the House.--Magic Tables.--The Digestive Apparatus in Danger.--Gentlemen of Leisure.--Labou...

Two or three years ago, Mr. Courtlandt Palmer,[14] one of the principal inhabitants of New York--a gentleman as rich in intellectual attainments as in dollars--conceived the hap...

_Climate Incites Jonathan to Activity.--Healthy Cold.--Why Drunkenness is Rare in America.--Do not Lose Sight of your Nose.--Advice to the Foreigner intending to Visit Jonathan...

_Jonathan's Eccentricities.--The Arc de Triomphe not being Hirable, an American proposes to Buy it.--The Town Council of Paris do not Close with Him.--Cathedrals on Hire.--Compa...

_Advertisements.--Marvellous Puffs.--Illustrated Ditto.--A Yankee on the Look-out for a Living.--"Her Heart and a Cottage."--A Circus Proprietor and the President of the United...

_Railways.--Vestibule Trains.--Hotels on Wheels.--Windows and Ventilators, and their Uses.--Pitiless Firemen.--Conductors and their Functions.--A Traveller's Perplexity.--Rudene...

_Jonathan's Domestics.--Reduced Duchesses.--Queer Ideas of Equality.--Unchivalrous Man.--The Ladies of the Feather-broom.--Mr. Vanderbilt's Cook.--Negroes.--Pompey's Wedding.--W...

_Jonathan's Table.--Danger of Steel Knives.--The Americans are Water-drinkers.--I discover a Snake in my Tumbler.--The Negro Waiter Comforts Me.--Accommodation for Travellers.--...

_How the Americans take their Holidays.--The Hotel is their Mecca.--Mammoth Hotels.--Jacksonville and St. Augustine.--The Ponce de Leon Hotel.--Rocking-chairs.--Having a "Good T...

_The Value of the Dollar.--A Dressmaker's Bill.--What American Women must Spend on Dress.--Why so many Americans come to Europe every year.--Current Prices.--The Beggar and the...

_Conclusion.--Reply to the American Question.--Social Condition of Europe and America.--European Debt and American Surplus.--The Americans are not so Happy as the French.--What...