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The Attaché; or, Sam Slick in England — Complete by Thomas Chandler Haliburton
page 59 of 362 (16%)
I guess I have feelins as well as other folks have, that's
a fact; one can't help being ryled to hear foreigners
talk this way; and these critters are enough to make a
man spotty on the back. I won't deny I've got some grit,
but I ain't ugly. Pat me on the back and I soon cool
down, drop in a soft word and I won't bile over; but
don't talk big, don't threaten, or I curl directly."

"Mr. Slick," said I, "neither my countrymen, the Nova
Scotians, nor your friends, the Americans, took any thing
amiss, in our previous remarks, because, though satirical,
they were good natured. There was nothing malicious in
them. They were not made for the mere purpose of shewing
them up, but were incidental to the topic we were
discussing, and their whole tenor shewed that while "we
were alive to the ludicrous, we fully appreciated, and
properly valued their many excellent and sterling qualities.
My countrymen, for whose good I published them, had the
most reason to complain, for I took the liberty to apply
ridicule to them with no sparing hand. They understood
the motive, and joined in the laugh, which was raised at
their expense. Let us treat the English in the same style;
let us keep our temper. John Bull is a good-natured
fellow, and has no objection to a joke, provided it is
not made the vehicle of conveying an insult. Don't adopt
Cooper's maxims; nobody approves of them, on either side
of the water; don't be too thin-skinned. If the English
have been amused by the sketches their tourists have
drawn of, the Yankees, perhaps the Americans may laugh
over our sketches of the English. Let us make both of
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