"Because he loves his own country better than Heaven; if we were to set him free, the first thing he would do would be to quit Heaven, and go back to earth."

"Is that so? Where is he from?"

"From what other place can he be? He

is from Virginia."

CHAPTER II.

AMERICA AND AMERICANS-Continued.

Some anomalies in nomenclature-Hindu dressed in feathers and blankets-"English spoken, American understood"-The most go-ahead people-Not tied down to traditions-Simplified spelling-Cutting short the Red Indians' names-Dignity of labour-No American beggars-"The governor is a fellow of the name of Crothers"-Yale Reunion-Cornell Spring Day-Love of excitement-The Black Hole of Calcutta -Wake up only to find himself dead-Martyr in the cause of progress.

There are several anomalies regarding the nomenclature of America and her inhabitants. Columbus discovered the New World, but it was after Amerigo Vespucci, who came later that the country was called America. Because Columbus when he discovered the continent, thought it was India, the primitive inhabitants have been misnamed Indians, so that if a real Indian from India now lands in America,

to avoid confusion, he will have to call himself East Indian or Hindu. If the stranger through his ignorance of American history, introduces himself as an Indian, the people will take him for an American Red Indian, and will expect to see the poor Hindu dressed in feathers and blankets. It may also be argued that if the continent is called America, then the aborigines, of all men, have the primary right to bear the name of Americans. But the white settlers usurped not only the lands of the red men, but also the name to which they were entitled.

Although the Americans are a composite people, made up of the different nations of Europe, the language of the country, however, is English. But there are so many Americanisms, even if the slang expressions are not taken into consideration, that an Englishman or a person well-versed in the English language would hardly understand many of the American words when he hears them for the first time. He will be confronted with linguistic difficulty as soon as he lands from the steamer, and learn

that the tram is called a car, the lift is called an elevator, the shop is a store, the railway station is a depot, the guard is a conductor, the travelling bag is a grip, the theatre is a show, and so forth. That French shopkeeper must have had a keen sense of humour, who on the signboard of his shop at Rue de Rivoli in Paris put down the following statement :

“ENGLISH SPOKEN, AMERICAN UNDERSTOOD.'

The American in the beginning found himself face to face with a vast undeveloped country, which engendered in him a spirit of enterprise and gave ample scope to his inventive genius, so that at the present day he is supposed to be the most go-ahead of all the peoples in the world. When an Englishman says "all right," the American says "go ahead." These last two words strike to a student of sociology the whole keynote of the American character. The American is not tied down to traditions; he does not stick always to the beaten track, but he carves out a path for himself. His go-ahead nature is

perceptible in every sphere of life. Life is short and every moment is valuable to him, so he has changed the slow English game of cricket into the quick American baseball game. He does not follow a custom simply because it has the sanction of history and antiquity in its favour. He has no blind veneration for a time-honoured system. He invents new things and improves upon the old; he goes ahead. He has not only cut short the English game, but he has also cut short many English words by forming the code of simplified spelling; and there he has not stopped. He is not satisfied with divesting the mother tongue alone of its superfluous appendages, but he has also introduced systematic pruning into the reservation of the American Indians, and is having their poetic and historic names cut short to suit the demands of the business world. If the ancestors of the American bore a big Russian name as Nevinsky or Wolkowisky, that also he would shorten to Nevins or Walker.

There is a spirit of self-help and self