"I was just asking Mrs. Boyd what she thought the most singular thing in
America," said Miss Bascombe, by way of putting me _au courant_ with the
conversation after my greeting was over with our hostess.
"And I," replied Mrs. Boyd, "was just going to say I really did not know
what was the one most curious thing in America, where most things seem
curious, being different from here, you know. I suppose it is their
strange whining speech which most strikes one at the outset. It is
strong in New York, certainly, but when you get out West it is simply
amazing. But then they thought my speech as curious as I did theirs. A
good woman in Arkansas said I talked 'mighty crabbed like.' But a man
who travelled in the next seat to me, across Southern Illinois, after
talking with me for a long time, said, 'Wal, now, you dew talk purty
tol'eble square for an Englishwoman. You h'aint said 'Hingland' nor
'Hameriky' onst since you sot there as I knows on!'"
Mrs. Boyd put on so droll a twang, and gave her words such a curious,
downward jerk in speaking, that we all laughed, and felt we had a pretty
fair idea of how the Illinois people talk at all events.
"Everybody is very friendly," continued Mrs. Boyd, "no matter what may
be their station in life, nor what you may suppose to be yours. I
remember in Cincinnati, where I stopped for a couple of days, the porter
who got out my box for me saw it had some London and Liverpool labels on
it, whereupon he said, with a pleasant smile, 'Wal, how's Europe gettin'
on, anyhow?' Fancy a Cannon Street porter making such a remark to a
passenger! But it was quite simply said, without the faintest idea of
impertinence.
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