Fifteen years of a dancer's life : $b With some account of her distinguished friendsFuller, Loie
General
Fifteen years of a dancer's life : $b With some account of her distinguished friends
Fuller, Loie
Dancers -- United States -- Biography; Fuller, Loie, 1862-1928
What was the matter? He wore a straw hat with very narrow brim, one
of those hats called “American” in Paris and of a kind that is never
worn in America. He also had “New Yorkey” trousers such as were never
cut in New York. That was enough to let loose the risibilities of this
Yankee public, a public that is far from being indulgent of little
eccentricities in other people.
Instead of calming him our explanations exasperated him, and it was
only after he had spent his violence that we succeeded in getting him
down to breakfast again.
The breakfast was not extraordinarily expensive. But when he looked
over his account Mortier went into a rage. He had ordered the same
things that we did, and his bill was two dollars and a half, that is
about twelve and a half francs, higher than ours. These twelve and a
half francs represented the price of a bottle of very ordinary red
wine, which he had ordered.
“Do you want me to tell you what your Americans are,” he shouted.
“Well, they are, and don’t you forget it either, they are every one
thieves, savages, hogs. They are hogs, hogs! That one word expresses
it.”
One morning at eight o’clock, after we had had coffee together, he left
us.
“I am going to take a little walk,” he said. “I shall be back in half
an hour.”
The half hour lasted until seven o’clock in the evening. You can
imagine how anxious we became.
This is what happened.
Seeing that everybody, almost without exception, was headed in the
same direction, he followed the crowd along the side walk. Presently
he found himself on Brooklyn Bridge, black with people and burdened
with cars, those bound to New York filled to overflowing, the others
returning to Brooklyn completely empty.
Mortier did not know that all Brooklyn goes to work on the New York
side, where the business district is situated, and that everybody goes
to work at the same hour in this peculiar country. Astonished, curious,
a little bewildered, he followed the crowd. Once across the bridge he
found himself in one of the innumerable streets of New York.
On the New York side he looked round him to establish a landmark by
which he could find his way back. He did not discover one, but it
seemed impossible to get lost, as he had only to return to the base
of this big bridge to retrace his steps to Brooklyn. He kept on,
therefore, until he had completely satisfied his curiosity. Then he
retraced his steps, or at least he thought he was doing so. He looked
for the bridge, but in vain. Everybody walked so quickly that his very
courteous “Pardon, Monsieur,” met with no response. Once or twice he
made a bad effort at asking for “Brooklyn Bridge.” This met with no
better success.
All the while he was unable to find a policeman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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