strike him as things to be objected to, or even wondered at; they are
simply to be submitted to and endured. If he were at home, he would die
sooner than yield that extra half-dollar; he would leave the house at
once in which he was told to get up at an unearthly hour in the morning;
but, being in another country, he submits, without even a thought of
resistance. In no other way can we account for the strange silence on the
part of English writers upon the tyrannical disposition of American
social life. A nation everlastingly boasting itself the freest on the
earth submits unhesitatingly to more social tyranny than any people in
the world. In the United States one is marshalled to every event of the
day. Whether you like it or not, you must get up, breakfast, dine, sup,
and go to bed at fixed hours. Attached upon the inside of your bedroom-door
is a printed document which informs you of all the things you are not to
do in the hotel-a list in which, like Mr. J. S. Mill's definition
of Christian doctrine, the shall-nots predominate over the shalls. In the
event of your disobeying any of the numerous mandates set forth in this
document-such as not getting up very early-you will not be sent to the
penitentiary or put in the pillory, for that process of punishment would
imply a necessity for trouble and exertion on the part of the
richly-apparelled gentleman who does you the honour of receiving your
petitions and grossly overcharging you at the office-no, you have simply
to go without food until dinner-time, or to go to bed by the light of a
jet of gas for which you will be charged an exorbitant price in your
bill. As in the days of Roman despotism we know that the slaves were
occasionally permitted to indulge in the grossest excesses, so, under the
rigorous system of the hotel-keeper, the guest is allowed to expectorate
profusely over every thing; over the marble with which the hall is
paved, over the Brussels carpet which covers the drawing-room, over the
bed-room, and over the lobby. Expectoration is apparently the one saving
clause which American liberty demands as the price of its submission to