But I want
to be peaceable, and I can't get no peace about voting for you next
term, so I thought I'd let you know, that you mightn't be
disappointed."
In that way Mr. Rogers washed his hands of me. I said I was sorry I
did not please the ladies, but I liked to hear a man who spoke his
mind freely.
Soon afterwards the Germans brought me word that the Yankees were
calling a meeting about me. I was aware by this time that when a
special gathering of citizens takes place to discuss the demerits of
any individual, it is advisable for that individual to be absent if
possible; but curiosity was strong within me; hitherto I had never
been honoured with any public notice whatever, and I attended the
meeting uninvited.
The Yankees are excellent orators; they are born without bashfulness;
they are taught to speak pieces in school from their childhood; they
pronounce each word distinctly; they use correctly the rising
inflection and the falling inflection. Moreover, they are always in
deadly earnest; there is another miserable world awaiting their
arrival. Their humorists are the most unhappy of men. You may smile
when you read their jokes, but when you see the jokers you are more
inclined to weep. With pain and sorrow they grind, like Samson, at
the jokers' mill all the days of their lives.
The meeting was held in the new two-storey school-house.
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