So far as controversies with opponents were concerned, he was courageous to the point of indifference; but, as already noted, in crossing busy streets and making his way through the hurly-burly of city life he was as careful, not to say timid, as a woman; he had many superstitions which influenced his actions. One afternoon he said to a sitter: “To-morrow, you know, we won’t work.” “Why not?” “Well, you see, it’s Friday; and last Friday, you remember, what a bad time we had,--accomplished nothing. An unlucky day anyway. We’ll take a holiday to-morrow.” * * * * * The military spirit clung to him through life, and he was ever in the habit of referring to his experience at West Point as if it were the one entirely satisfactory episode in his career. He called himself a “West-Pointer,” and insisted that the Academy was the one institution in the country the superiority of which to everything of its kind in the world was universally admitted. “Why, you know, West Point _is_ America.” Though living in Paris at the time and the sympathy of all France was with Spain, he lost no opportunity for upholding the United States in the war. He could see no flaw in the attitude or the diplomacy of this country, and was especially eloquent over the treatment of Admiral Cervera after his defeat. On the other hand, such was his ingrained dislike for England that he lost no opportunity for declaiming against her war in South Africa. He delighted in berating the English and in prodding any English sympathizer who happened in his way. One day a friend from this side, of Irish birth, but who sided with England, was in his studio, and the discussion waxed warm until the visitor said: “I’ll be dashed if I’ll talk with you, Whistler. What do you know about the matter? Nothing at all.” After a short silence, Whistler said: “But, I say, C----, do you remember how the Boers whipped the Dublin Fusileers?” Whereupon the air became sulphurous. The friend afterwards remarked: “There was nothing in the malicious innuendo anyway, for, you know, those regiments are recruited from all quarters, and there may not have been a single Irishman in the Fusileers at the time of the fight.” * * * * * Whistler held some extraordinary opinions concerning the Dreyfus case, the outcome of his strong military bias. It did not matter to him whether the accused was guilty or not, the prestige of the army must be maintained, even at the sacrifice of the innocent,--the view which led the military section of France to such violent extremes against Dreyfus,--and Whistler resented the assaults upon the army as treachery to the most sacred institution of the state.