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"This was the first time I had ever found myself in
a large party of Americans, and, as in the gambling houses
of San Francisco, the first thing that struck me was the strange
contrasts in their dress. The ladies were all in a grand state,
and might have gone into any full-dressed parties without
changing their traveling costume (the author is on a riverboat
on the Sacramento); but the case was widely different
with the gentlemen. Some few were well dressed, but the majority
wore jackets, often torn ones, dirty boots pulled up over
their trousers, and had hands so extraordinarily coarse and
burned--even the best dressed gentlemen among them--that they
looked as if they belonged to the commonest plowman.
The company passed the time in playing cards and chewing
tobacco, without excepting even the boys of ten and twelve
years old; but they did not spit about at the dreadful rate
described by many travelers. They had another practice, however,
if possible more abominable--namely, though they carried a
pocket handkerchief, of making use of their fingers instead
of it.
I actually saw this atrocity committed by quite elegantly
dressed men.
If, however, these points fell grievously short, in another
they maintained without any exception the character of gentlemen.
The men, one and all, showed the utmost attention and politeness
to our sex. Old or young, rich or poor, well or ill-dressed,
every woman was treated with respect and kindness; and in
this the Americans are far in advance of my countrymen [the
Austrians] and indeed, Europeans in general, who usually keep
their civilities for youth, beauty, and fine clothes."
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