"An' so it goes. I'm in a state iv alarum all th' time. In th' good old
days we wudden't have thought life was worth livin' if we cudden't
insult a foreigner. That's what they were f'r. Whin I was sthrong,
befure old age deprived me iv most iv me pathritism an' other infantile
disordhers, I niver saw a Swede, a Hun, an Eyetalian, a Boohlgaryan, a
German, a Fr-rinchman, that I didn't give him th' shouldher. If 'twas an
Englishman I give him th' foot too. Threaty rights, says ye? We give
him th' same threaty rights he'd give us, a dhrink an' a whack on th'
head. It seemed proper to us. If 'twas right to belong to wan
naytionality, 'twas wrong to belong to another. If 'twas a man's proud
boast to be an American, it was a disgrace to be a German an' a joke to
be a Fr-rinchman.
"An' that goes now. Ye can bump anny foreigner ye meet but a Jap. Don't
touch him. He's a live wire. Don't think ye can pull his impeeryal hat
down on his bold upcurved nose. Th' first thing ye know ye'll be what
Hogan calls Casey's Bellows, an' manny a peaceful village in Indyanny'll
be desthroyed f'r ye'er folly. Why, be Hivens, it won't be long till
we'll have to be threatin' th' Chinese dacint. Think iv that will ye. I
r-read in th' pa-aper th' other day that th' Chinese ar-rmy had been
reorganized an' rearmed. Hincefoorth, instead iv th' old fashioned
petticoats they will wear th' more war-like short skirt. Th' palm leafs
have been cast aside f'r modhren quick-firin' fans, an' a complete new
assortment iv gongs, bows an' arrows, stink-pots, an' charms against th'
evil eye has been ordhered fr'm a well-known German firm. Be careful th'
next time ye think iv kickin' an empty ash-barl down yefer frind Lip
Hung's laundhry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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