The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-07-08

city of spacious leisure.
My first experience of this strange
fact was in a restaurant. 1 ordered a
lunch, a modest little lunch-some fried
chicken, an ice, and a cup of coffee. 1t
took ten minutes to get the chicken,
seven more minutes interviewed between
the removal of it's bones and the COM
ing of the ice. Then 1 had six minutes
in which to digest the ice before I got
the coffee. This is the ordinary pro-
cedure in American hotels and r~estaur-
ants. The Americans themselves like
it. They smoke Cigarets after ordering
their meals, and a cigaret or two be-
tween each course. Only a people in
love with leisure would eat in such a
fashion.
In England, and in Belfast, If you
go into a ans office to transac bust
ness o transac it and then go. Some
thing very unpleasant would happen to
you if you starved. In America you
transact your business and Their your
host shows you round his premises,
takes you somewhere to lunch, exhibits
the most interesting things in his
neighborhood to you, and then presses
you to stay on with him and explain
thoroughly the Irish question, with
special reference to Ulster and home
rule. This is partly due to h fact
that the Americans are a much more
hospitable and social people than the
erican's contempt for time. He real
ICES, as the .Englishman never does,
that the clock and even the sun are
made for man, not man for them.
A Strangers Day In New York.
The only person who is eve hustled
in New York is the stranger who has
not yet adapted himself to American
avs He makes, let US say ten en-
the morning convinced that he can get
through the whole ten easily. Three
Of them are meals which he proposes
to eat. Five more are interviews with
people of Importance. The other two
mobile rides" offered by kind million
aires who wish to show off the beauties
of the city.
The first shock is breakfast. 1t lasts
over into the time appointed for the
first interview. He is late for. that;
but the other man is later still. At
midday he is, so to speak, o~verlapped
by time. He has got a whole round of
his course behind the fastening clock.
Then he begins to hustle in good earn
est; but the Americans, his fellow
| competitors in the race, do not hustle.
They too have their engagements, but
they are quite cheerfully late for them.
They are in no way fused towards the
end of the day, as the stranger is. They
are sustained by a conviction that they
have been living all the time at high
pressure, and are sure hat they are
never late for anything. This Is part
of the American philosophy of life. Ac-
cording to the clock they are late con-
| %tinuously and regularly late for every
thing; but the American realizes, as the
Englishman does not, that man is the
superior of the clock. What, after all
is a clock but a machine? What is the
sun itself but lifeless matter? Man, az
a living soul, ought to be and in Am
erica is the superior of any machine
No self-respecting man would allow hi:
typewriter to decide what letters hi
will write or let himself be dictated tc
by his piano as to what times he will
play. A clock is no more than a type.
writer, has hardly as much soul as g