What transpired at the business meeting the next morning at 8 A. M., I do not know, for I took the train for Colón at seven, fearing to delay any longer lest in the meantime a ship might arrive and set sail with my Chicago friends.
I was treated well by the Panamanians right up to the end, and will always retain a kind feeling for them and their gentlemanly doctors. I hope that Panama will apply for statehood in the United States in the near future. We like the Panamanians, and wish to take them into our family and share with them our prosperity, our affections and their afflictions. Colombians are apt to distrust us and believe that we have captured Panama, but they are mistaken. Panama has captured us and our money, and we forgive them.
CHAPTER V
To See Ourselves as Others See Us
Comparisons—Our Countrymen Refined in Feeling but often Inconsiderate in Conduct—Instances of the Latter Quality—Thoughtlessness and Indifference in Public—Gourmands—Three Varieties—The Young or Simple Gourmand—The Acquired or Temperamental Gourmand—The Specialized or Calculating Gourmand—Dangers of Gourmandizing—Evading the Results.
To be or not to be polite, that is the question.
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous manners,
As the courteous Spaniard does before U. S.,
Or to take up arms against a sea of courtesy