But what can you expect when one of the rulers of the land asserted to
Caper that he knew that 'pop-corn grew in America on the banks of the
Nile, after the water went down,--for it never rains in America'?

It was a handsome man, an advocate for Prince Doria, who, once traveling
in a _vetturo_ with Caper, asked him why he did not go to America by
land, since he knew that it was in the south of England; and gently
corrected a companion of his, who told Caper he had read and thought it
strange that all Americans lived in holes in the ground, by saying to
him that if such houses were agreeable to the _Signori Americani_ they
had every right to inhabit them.

The landlord of a hotel in a town about thirty miles from Rome asked
Caper if, when he returned to New York, he would not some morning call
and see his cousin--in Peru!

This same landlord once drew his knife on a man, when, accompanied by
Caper, he went to observe a saint's day in a neighboring town. The cause
of the quarrel was this--the landlord, having been asked by a man who
Caper was, told him he was an American. The man asserted that Americans
always wore long feathers in their hair, and that he did not see any on
Caper's head. The landlord, determined to stand by Caper, swore by all
the saints that they were under his hat. The man disbelieved it. Out
came the 'hardware' with that jarring cr-r-r-rick the blade makes when
the notched knife-back catches in the spring, but Caper jumped between
them, and they put off stabbing one another--until the next saint's day.

It was with pleasure that Caper, passing down the Corso one morning, saw
there was an Universal Panorama, including views of America, advertised
to be exhibited in the Piazza Colonna. 'Here is an opportunity,' thought