It is as though he were cradled on a peak; and thereafter, wherever his wanderings may take him, and whether into Congress, Cabinet, or White House, he travels always downhill.

It is this to account for that benignant urbanity, the inevitable mark of a Southern man, which teaches him faith in you as corollary of completest confidence in himself.

It is a beautiful, even though an unreasonable trait, and as such the admiration of Richard recorded it.
Those others, not Southern, educated to a notion of office as a pedestal, were inclined to play the turkey cock and spread their tails a trifle.

Since that sort of self-conceit never fails to transact itself at the expense of the spectator, Richard looked upon it with no favor, and it drew from him opinions, not of compliment, concerning those by whom it was exhibited.

It set him to comparisons which ran much in Southern favor.
After Congressmen and Cabinet men, Richard studied Washington itself.
The common condition--speaking now of residents, and not of those who were mere sojourners within the city's walls--he found to be one of idleness, the common trait an insatiable bent for gossip.