Europe Revised by Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb
page 9 of 313 (02%)
page 9 of 313 (02%)
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Lubly ran true to form. The British serving classes are ever like
that, whether met with at sea or on their native soil. They are a great and a noble institution. Give an English servant a kind word and he thanks you. Give him a harsh word and he still thanks you. Ask a question of a London policeman--he tells you fully and then he thanks you. Go into an English shop and buy something--the clerk who serves you thanks you with enthusiasm. Go in and fail to buy something--he still thanks you, but without the enthusiasm. One kind of Englishman says Thank you, sir; and one kind--the Cockney who has been educated--says Thenks; but the majority brief it into a short but expressive expletive and merely say: Kew. Kew is the commonest word in the British Isles. Stroidinary runs it a close second, but Kew comes first. You hear it everywhere. Hence Kew Gardens; they are named for it. All the types that travel on a big English-owned ship were on ours. I take it that there is a requirement in the maritime regulations to the effect that the set must be complete before a ship may put to sea. To begin with, there was a member of a British legation from somewhere going home on leave, for a holiday, or a funeral. At least I heard it was a holiday, but I should have said he was going home for the other occasion. He wore an Honorable attached to the front of his name and carried several extra initials behind in the rumble; and he was filled up with that true British reserve which a certain sort of Britisher always develops while traveling in foreign lands. He was upward of seven feet tall, as the crow flies, and very thin and rigid. |
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