I confess that I felt humbled and ashamed for my own country, when, so
soon as I trod on British ground, or British _planks_, the old absurd
drinking usages again saluted my eye. In all the States I met with
nothing more truly ludicrous than some of these. For instance, when
A.B.'s mouth happens to be well replenished with, "flesh, fish, or
fowl," potatoes, pudding, or pastry, at one table, C.D., from another
table far away across the room, at the top of his voice, calls out,
"Mr. A.B., allow me the pleasure to take a glass of wine with you."
A.B. makes a very polite bow, fills his glass in a great hurry, holds
it up with his right hand, C.D. doing the same thing with his; and
then A.B. and C.D., making another polite bow to each other,
simultaneously swallow their glasses of wine! Were we not _accustomed_
to the sight, it would appear as laughable as anything travellers tell
us of the manners and customs of the least enlightened nations. Surely,
if this childish practice is still a rule in polite society, it is one
"more honoured in the breach than the observance." In no city on the
Eastern side of the Alleghany Mountains did I meet a single drunken
American in the street. The few whom I did detect in that plight were
manifestly recent importations from Great Britain and Ireland!
5. I also greatly admire their _secular enterprise_. They afford a
fine illustration of the idea conveyed in their own indigenous phrase,
"Go a-head."