AMERICANS AND OTHERS A Question of Politeness "La politesse de l"esprit eonsiste l penser des choses honnetes et d~licates." A GREAT deal has been said and written during the past few years on the subject of American manners, and the consensus of opinion is, on the whole, unfavourable. We have been told, more in sorrow than in anger, that we are not a polite people; and our critics have cast about them for causes which may be held responsible for such a universal and lamentable resuJt. Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, for example. is by way of thinking that the fault lies in the sudden expansion of wealth, in the intrusion in to the social world of people who fail to understand its requirements. and in the universal" spoiling H of Ameri- ITable of Contents Contents; A Question of Politeness I; The Mission of Humour 29; Goodness and Gayety 58; The Nervous Strain 85; The Girl Graduate 99; The Estranging Sea 119; Travellers" Tales 141; The Chill of Enthusiasm 155; The Temptation of Eve 173; tc...