I went back to my own car, resumed my seat, and betook myself to reflection.
What I cannot, for the life of me, understand is why, in a train which has a dining car and a kitchen, a man cannot be served with a cup of tea, unless he pays the price of a dinner for it, and this notwithstanding the fact of his having paid five dollars extra to enjoy the extra luxury of this famous vestibule train.
“WELL, WHAT DO YOU WANT?”
After all, this is one out of the many illustrations one could give to show that whatever Jonathan is, he is not the master in his own house.
The Americans are the most docile people in the world. They are the slaves of their servants, whether these are high officials, or the “reduced duchesses” of domestic service. They are so submitted to their lot that they seem to find it quite natural.
The Americans are lions governed by bull-dogs and asses.
They have given themselves a hundred thousand masters, these folks who laugh at monarchies, for example, and scorn the rule of a king, as if it were better to be bullied by a crowd than by an individual.
In America, the man who pays does not command the paid. I have already said it; I will maintain the truth of the statement that, in America, the paid servant rules. Tyranny from above is bad; tyranny from below is worse.
Of my many first impressions that have deepened into convictions, this is one of the firmest.