It was certainly interesting to see the difference between the arrival of this boat at Calais and the similar boat which took us off the _Mauretania_ at Fishguard. There, although the crowd which had arrived was equally large, all was peaceful and rather still. The porters went about their work in such a matter-of-fact manner. All was in apple-pie order. There was no shouting to speak of. Here all was hubbub and confusion, apparently, although it was little more than French enthusiasm. You would have fancied that the French guards and facteurs were doing their best to liberate their pent-up feelings. They bustled restlessly to and fro; they grimaced; they reassured you frequently by look and sign that all would be well, must be so. Inside of five minutes,--during which time I examined the French news-stand and saw how marvelously English conservatism had disappeared in this distance of twenty miles,--the luggage had been passed on and we were ready to enter the train. Barfleur had purchased a number of papers, _Figaro_, _Gil Blas_, and others in order to indicate the difference between the national lives of the two countries which I was now to contrast. I never saw a man so eager to see what effect a new country would have on another. He wanted me to see the difference between the English and the French papers at once; and although I was thoroughly familiar with it already, I carefully examined these latest productions of the French presses. The same delicious nudities that have been flourishing in the French papers for years were there, the same subtle Gallic penchant for the absurd and the ridiculous. I marveled anew at the sprightliness of these figures, which never cross the Atlantic into American papers. We do not know how to draw them because we are not accustomed to them in our lives. As a matter of fact the American papers and magazines adhere rigorously to the English standard. We have varied some in presentation, but have not broadened the least in treatment. As a matter of fact I believe that the American weekly and monthly are even more conservative than the British paper of the same standard. We think we are different, but we are not. We have not even anything in common with the Germans, from whom we are supposed to have drawn so much of our national personality.