They will not speak to a stranger without a proper introduction; but in the case I have mentioned surely the rule would have been more honored by a breach than by the observance.

Seeing that we were fellow students, it might have been presumed that we were gentlemen and on an equal footing.

How different are the manners of the American! You can hardly take a walk, or go for any distance in a train, without being addressed by a stranger, and not infrequently making a friend.

In some countries the fact that you are a foreigner only thickens the ice, in America it thaws it.

This delightful trait in the American character is also traceable to the same cause as that which has helped us to explain the other peculiarities which have been mentioned.