After some time in the extractor house I was given charge of the stills, where the naphtha was driven off, cooled, and returned to its tank, and the pure bitumen left, which was run into barrels. A short while after I got this move, a firm in New York contracted to take our entire output to make into paint and varnish. They were looking for a local agent, and I got the position. I had to see that all the output was up to a certain grade, and when stored in the warehouse or shipped I gave receipts for it on which the company got their money. One day when I was at work a man came out to the warehouse, got into conversation, and after a while offered me a cigar. I told him I could not smoke there, but he insisted on my taking it anyway and smoking it later. He and I had quite a chat, and after a long while he finally drew a card out of his pocket and asked for my vote, as he was running for some county office. The look of disgust that spread over his face when I informed him that I was a British subject and had no vote was truly ludicrous, as he thought of his wasted time and cigar. On railway journeys sometimes this canvassing is a nuisance; moreover, the excuse that you are a Britisher is not always cordially accepted. I said in an early part of these reminiscences that I had been roasted by Americans for many years, and now had a chance when they could not reply to me of getting back a little. But it is a fact that among a certain class of people in the States that the instant they find you are English they immediately drop all other topics of conversation to refer to the time “we licked you badly,” or to discuss the degeneracy of the House of Lords, or some other topic which they think will be of interest to you. At first I used to get very angry and try to argue with them, but later I gave this up, and found the only position to take was one of superiority, and say in so many words, “How can people be so ignorant of facts, so dense as to talk such utter rot? Yet they look intelligent.” CHAPTER XVII Elections in Texas—Feuds and shooting affrays—Family pride—Local Prohibition.