Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-03-16
George A. sa!a,s American Mates.

ent of the London Telegraph writes as follows
about some of our American peculiarities.
Don't run away with the notion that in
America chance acquaintances are easily
made. The extreme taciturnity of the work
ing classes / have dwelt upon over and over
again In the cars, or on board steamboats,
stranger rarely speaks TO you, and more
rarely if YOU speak to him does he give YOU a
civil answer. You may live for weeks in an
hotel without exchanging a word with any
one save the clerks. At the table dhoteI there
IS no miscellaneous conversation. In the
smoking-room You pick up no chatty citizens
of the world, and what delightful cosmopolitan
acquaintance have we not picked up in ho-
tels, even IN England, the so-callad crusty,
and SuTIy Once or twice l have tried the
ladies' drawing room in American caravansa-
rIes but l have speedily grown frightened
OF that family vault handsomely carpeted with
corpses in crinoline, scattered about ike en-
balmed monks in the catecombs of Palermo
and have fed away dismayed. The truth Is
that the extreme publicity of hotel life in
America makes the respectable classes charv
OF talking TO strangers. They viii eat with you,
drink with you, smoke with you, spit with
YOU, and almost sleep with you-tor you fire.
queHtly have TO share steamboat stateroom
with q stranger, and once | have been ask
ed whether | wanted a bed to myself or
would :" room with a man / didn't know
from Adam-but they won't talk with
you You may be a - confidence man"
4 e., 4 swindler lou may have Just OBJ
tanned your exeat from some States Pris-
on: or at this moment, alas you may be
Secesh. a Copperhead-I have been informed
more than once that | am one Of the latter,
though, goodness knows, my locks arc inclin-
ing far more towards a grey than a coppery
hue-or a spy. In this country, too, no dis
tiuctions of dress mark the different classes
In society The~clergyman dresses ike a lay
man, and the prisoner in the dock is often
better attired than the Judge on the bench.
You don't know whether the person sitting
next 10 you Is prime minister or Peter
Funk auctiouecr, a member of Congress or a
spiritualIst medium. \ friend Of mine who
had a remarkable faculty for making friends
under the most unprOpitious circumstances,
did contrive to patch up an acquaintance with
a most atfable. fluent, and well-informed per
son al the Fifth Avenue Hotel The affable
person asked him TO liquor, and subsequently
handed him card informing him that he was
a chIropOdist, and offering to extract his corns
at the rate of dollar apiece-no root no
cash. With shame, too, | must confess, that
the only chance acquaintance | have made
here-a whiskered handful gentleman whom
took to be a brigadier general at the very
least, turned out, according to his own expla-
nation, to be interested in dentifrice. .
He had u fifth in "a patent for making tooth
powder, and lived royalty on the profits. Now
DO you comprehend the reluctance of Ameri-
cans TO f0regather with people they don't
know ? You may be highly respectable per
son; But per contra, YOU may be a croupier al
a faro table, or a distinguished felon, Just fu-
Citive from Europe
Produce however, one of those magic en-
velOpes containing note of Introduction
and the ease Is at once altered. The open
sesame seldom fails. The bullet rarely miss
g the billet. Once let the Americans really
know who and what you are, and they vel
come you with open arms Their houses,
their horses, Jheir carriages, their servants,
are all at -Our disposal, not metaphoricaly
as the Spaniards offer them, but actually and
entirely They viii dine you, they viii break
fast YOU, they viii sup you. and when there
IS nothing legitimate in She way of eating
ami drinking going on, they VIII press you
with oysters They viii give you, if you al
low them great deal more champagne, Ma
derid, Scotch ale, and Bourbon whisky tina, Is
good for YOU. If you say you a tetotaler,
they VIII send YOU a dozen of Congress wa
ter or etlervescing saTsaparilh. If you con
fess yourself a smoker, they viii cram your
pockets with Cabanas, or send YOU box of
lmpcrials almost as long and as strong as
pOkers. Admire an American author and
then YOU viii find his works. handsomely
bound on your table when YOU return home
1t happened the other day that, intending
to look IN at New Orleans, l thought | might
as well get up little Spanish. Forthwith
copy Of OlIcudOrfs Spanish grammar was sent
me. They viii insist on paying your hackney
coach your omnibus, and ferry fare; and
positively believe that were / mean enough
to ask. ! could find a dozen friends who
would pay my hotel bill. That which they
DO 70 strangers the Americans are no.
slow 10 do among themselves. 4 gentleman
Of mature years informed me lately that
his uncle had sent him "a thousand dollars
as new years gift. They are always making
presents. ANY person of good means, with
q house of his Own, Is sure TO have from six
TO a dozen nephews, uieces, and cousins
staying with him for months at a time.
I never knew such a people for having
cousins particularly females, and pretty Ten
10 one, also, but you viii find an adopted child
in every other family. When an American
fails in business-and most of them fail at
some time or auother-he is sure, if he be at
All a decent Kind Of man, TO find friends who
viii not only loan but give him money to
start afresh. And, pray let me add, that 1t
would be doing a cruel and shameful wrong
to this people, TO assume that their hospitality
towards the strangers within their gates is
dictated by a vulgar spirit of ostentation.-
That there are vulgarians, and ''stuck-up"
and ostentatious folks in the Union IS clear
enough but their great heartin respect to the
sacred duty Of hospitality is sound; and in
the performance of that duty they beat the
English the Irish, and the Bussians-which
is saving a great deal. In France YOU know,
YOU get little but sugar and water out of your
friends; in Germany nothing but smoke and
in Italy there are some grand houses where
you can only obtain supper by paying tor 1t.
In Spain YOU can obtain nothing TO eat, be-
cause, beyond eggs and chocolate, and garlic,
there IS nothing to eat But II the United
States YOU may ruin your digestive organs for
nothing in a fortnight. If the oysters and
couvas-bacll ducks dol't give you dyspepsia,
the eternal ico-creams and caudied sweet
meats viii; and when YOU fall sick, VIII have
plenty of kind friends to press Hostetter's
and brakes Plantation Bitters as curatiyes on
your acceptance. All this Is done in sheer,
bounteous generosity, and kindness of heart.
Not vapjd tourist lands in New 1ork-with
letters ALWAYS be 1t understood-not guards
man runs down from Canda, not a gunroOm
mess Of man-of-war comes into port, but
the tloodEates of American hospitality are
opened With al their real shrewdnes and