This individual simply shrugged his shoulders and turned his back.
I happened to be close to him.
"What inquisitive people there are, to be sure!" I said to him.
To an irritable person, the rudeness of the railway and hotel servants would be enough to spoil all the pleasure of a visit to America. But the Americans themselves are good-tempered, and pay no attention to these things. I know some who even get a certain amount of amusement therefrom.
The negro who makes your bed is more polite; but his politeness is not disinterested. A few moments before the arrival of the train at your destination, he brushes you down, and receives the invariable quarter (25 cents) for his trouble. These negroes, independently of the salary paid them by the company they work for, make from forty to fifty shillings a day in this way: say, from five to six hundred pounds a year.
How many a white would turn black for less!
There is another annoyance on the railway, a veritable bugbear that it is hard to bear philosophically.
On board the train is an indefatigable general dealer, whose store is in the last car.