WHAT PAUL BOURGET THINKS OF US

He reports the American joke correctly. In Bean town they ask, How much
does he know? in New York, How more is he worth? in Philadelphia, Who
were his parents? And once an alien observer turns his telescope upon
us--advertisedly in our own special interest--a natural apprehension
moves us to ask, What is the diameter of his reflector?

I take a great interest in M. Bourget's chapters, for I cognize by the
newspapers that there are some Americans who are expecting to get a
whole education out of them; some who foresaw, and besides foretold, that
our long night was over, and a light about divine just about to break upon
the land.

"His utterances concerning us are bound to be weighty and well
timed."