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Were Americans, indeed, disposed to assume the plain unpretending
deportment of the Switzer in the days of his picturesque
simplicity, (when, however, he never chewed tobacco), it would
be in bad taste to censure him; but this is not the case.
Jonathan will be a fine gentleman, but it must be in his own way.
Is he not a free-born American? Jonathan, however, must
remember, that if he will challenge competition with the old
world, the old world will now and then look out to see how he
supports his pretensions.
With their hours of business, whether judicial or mercantile,
civil or military, I have nothing to do; I doubt not they are all
spent wisely and profitably; but what are their hours of
recreation? Those hours that with us are passed in the enjoyment
of all that art can win from nature; when, if the elaborate
repast be more deeply relished than sages might approve, it is
redeemed from sensuality by the presence of elegance and beauty.
What is the American pendant to this? I will not draw any
comparisons between a good dinner party in the two countries; I
have heard American gentlemen say, that they could perceive no
difference between them; but in speaking of general manners, I
may observe, that it is rarely they dine in society, except in
taverns and boarding houses. Then they eat with the greatest
possible rapidity, and in total silence; I have heard it said by
American ladies, that the hours of greatest enjoyment to the
gentlemen were those in which a glass of gin cocktail, or egging,
receives its highest relish from the absence of all restraint
whatever; and when there were no ladies to trouble them.
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