PREJUDICES PREJUDICES BY CHARLES MACOMB FLANDRAU Author of “Viva Mexico!” “The Diary of a Freshman,” “Harvard Episodes,” etc. [Illustration] NEW YORK AND LONDON D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1911 COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY _Published May, 1911_ Printed in the United States of America These extracts from my notebook originally appeared in _The Bellman_. For permission to reprint them I beg to thank the editor. C. M. F. A BIRTHDAY PRESENT FOR R. B. F. CONTENTS PAGE SOME DOGS 3 LITTLE PICTURES OF PEOPLE 21 WANDERLUST 43 TRAVEL 69 FELLOW PASSENGERS 87 PARENTS AND CHILDREN 99 WHAT IS EDUCATION? 115 JUST A LETTER 131 IN THE UNDERTAKER’S SHOP 151 WRITERS 167 “ANN VERONICA” 185 HOLIDAYS 207 SERVANTS 223 MRS. WHITE’S 239 SOME DOGS When the occasion is propitious, I always find it interesting to ask a person I don’t know well if he, or she, is fond of dogs. The propitiousness of the occasion is perfect, however, only when there is a dog in the same room or on the same piazza, or wherever we, for the moment, happen to be talking. The reply to this question is to me a kind of exquisitely personal barometer. From it I have always been able to gauge with extreme accuracy the degree to which my sympathy and friendship with him who makes it might possibly rise. False answers to other questions have often deceived me, but a reply to the inquiry: Are you fond of dogs? never has. From the way in which the reply is phrased, from the tone in which it is spoken, from the facial expression that accompanies it, I am instinctively able to “size it up,” weigh it, and see exactly what there is behind it.