human
Well, he said with an air of whimsical reflection in answer to one question,
gpt
I suppose my chief complaint is an excess of individuality. They beat it out of you with clubs in England, unless you're rich--really rich--when you can, of course, do anything. On the other hand, the man who is merely stodgily prosperous is hampered by more rules than anybody else. This is, I must explain, another notion I've arrived at by observation and not from experience.
human
One supposes that a certain amount of uniformity and subordination is necessary to progress,
gpt
Oh, yes, agreed Thorne;
human
Then you prefer to act with the vedettes and skirmishers?
gpt
No, said Thorne;
human
It can't be a luxurious life.
gpt
Are you quite sure you didn't mean a useful one?
human
I'll answer the question, anyway, continued Thorne.
gpt
These people and those in the wheat-growing lands across the frontier work twelve and fourteen hours every day. It's always the same unceasing toil with them--they have no diversions. We go round and carry the news from place to place, tell them the latest stories, and now and then sing to them. We don't tax them too much either--a supper when they're poor--a dollar for a mirror or a bottle of elixir, which it must be confessed most of them have no possible use for.
human
Did you never do anything else? Alison inquired;
gpt
Oh, yes, replied her companion.
human
I was clerk in an implement store which I walked out of at its proprietor's request after an attack of injudicious candor. You see, a rather big farmer came in one day and spent most of the morning examining our seeders and pointing out their defects. Then he inquired why we had the assurance to demand so much for our implement when he could buy a very much better one several dollars cheaper. I asked him if he was sure of that, and when he said he was I suggested that it would be considerably wiser to go right away and buy it instead of wasting his time and mine. The proprietor desired to know how we expected him to make a living if we talked to customers like that, and I pointed out that we couldn't do so anyway by answering insane questions.
gpt
Had you any more experiences of the same kind?
human
I was shortly afterward projected out of a wheat broker's office.
gpt
Projected?
human
I believe that describes it. You see, they were three to one; but I took part of the office fittings along with me. I must own that I lost my temper and insulted them.
gpt
But why did you do so?
human
Well, answered Thorne reflectively,
gpt
I like the Colonial, and especially the Westerner, though he's rather fond of insisting on his superiority over the rest of mankind. One gets used to this, but it now and then grows galling when he compares himself with the folks who come out from the old country. On the day in question the trouble arose from a repetition of the usual formula that if it wasn't for the ocean they'd have the whole scum of Europe coming over. I, however, shook hands with the man who said it not long afterward, and he told me that after I had gone, which was how he expressed it, they sat down and laughed until they ached, thinking what the wheat broker, who was out on business, would say when he saw his office.
human
Did you leave your situations in England in the same fashion?
gpt
As it happened, I hadn't any.