Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/592

586 change. The South American has a racial right to look at such customs differently. But if some of his personal habits are unpleasant and even disgusting from our point of view, there is no question that we irritate him just as much as he does us. Our curt forms of address; our impatient disregard of the amenities of social intercourse; our unwillingness to pass the time of day at considerable length, and enquire, each time we see a friend, after his health and that of his family; our habit of elevating our feet and often sitting in a slouchy attitude when conversing with strangers are to him extremely distasteful and annoying. Our unwillingness to take the trouble to speak his language grammatically and our general point of view in regard to the "innate superiority" of our race, our language and our manufactures are all evidences, to his mind, of our barbarity. "We care far too little for appearances. This seems to him boorish. We criticize him because he does not bathe as frequently as we do. He criticizes us because we do not show him proper respect by removing our hats when we meet him on the street.

Furthermore, he regards us as lacking in business integrity. We are too shrewd. Our standard of honor seems low to him. In fact, a practical obstacle with which one accustomed to American business methods has to contend in South America, is the extreme difficulty of securing accurate information as to a man's credit. Inquiries into the financial standing of an individual, which are regarded as a matter of course with us, are resented by the sensitive Latin temperament as a personal reflection on his honesty. It seems to be true that the South American regards the payment of his debts as a matter more closely touching his honor than we do. He is accustomed to receiving long credits; he always really intends to pay some time and he generally manages to raise installments without much difficulty. Yet when pressed hard in the courts, he is likely to turn and resent as an intentional insult the judgment which has been secured against him. I have known personally of a case where a debtor informed his creditor that it would be necessary for him to come well armed if he accompanied the sheriff in an effort to satisfy the judgment of the court, for the first man, and as many more as possible, that crossed the door of his shop on such an errand would be shot. This we criticize as defiance of the law. To the South American, the law has committed an unpardonable fault in venturing to convict him of neglecting his honorable debts.

It is unfortunate that the South Americans themselves are generally quite unaware of their failings—a species of blindness that has frequently been laid at our own doors. It is due to a similar cause. South American writers who have traveled abroad and seen enough to enable them to point out the defects of their countrymen rarely venture to do so. The South American loves praise but can not endure