At heart, we in England dislike well-managed
places. Nor can I see New York's public distribution of hot water
adopted in London. Such little geysers as expel steam at intervals
through the roadway of Fifth Avenue will never, I fear, be found in
Regent Street or Piccadilly. Our communism is very patchy.
There are some unexpected differences between America and England. It is
odd, for instance, to find a nation from whom we get most of our tobacco
and who have the reputation of even chewing cigars, with such strict
rules against smoking. In the Music Halls, which are, as a rule, better
than ours, smoking is permitted only in certain parts. Public decorum
again is, I should say, more noticeable in an American than an English
city, and yet both in San Francisco and New York I dined in restaurants
--not late--between 7 and 8--and not furtive hole-in-corner places,--
where girls belonging to the establishment, wearing almost nothing at
all, performed the latest dances, with extravagant and daring variations
of them, among the tables. In London this kind of thing is unknown. In
Paris it occurs only in the night cafes. It struck me as astonishing--
and probably not at all to the good--that it should be an ordinary
dinner accompaniment.
I was asked while I was in America to set down some of the chief things
that I missed. I might easily have begun with walking-sticks, for until
I reached New York I seemed to be the only man in America who carried
one, although a San Francisco friend confessed to sometimes "wearing a
cane" on Sundays.
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