Page:Travel letters from New Zealand, Australia and Africa (1913).djvu/280

 because he pronounced "Ohio" as he had heard his father and mother pronounce it: the teacher said the correct pronunciation is "O-e-o." The teacher was an Oxford man, and the English school books in use named only four American seaports—none at all on the Pacific. The history in use devoted only seven lines to the American Revolution, treating it as a trifling affair in which the English gave the Americans their independence (When Americans abuse the English, it is customary for them to say, "Of course the English are, in many respects, a great people." Mr. Atterbury said it at this stage of the conversation.) Probably you know that in England and its colonies, the song, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow," is sung very frequently, particularly at banquets and other places where grog is passed around. Mrs. Atterbury says that once an equal suffrage meeting was held in the banqueting-room of the Grand National. Only women attended, and they frequently sang, "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow." An equal suffrage meeting was being held in the banqueting-room of the Grand National the night I was there, but, greatly to our surprise, no windows were smashed. Several stout ladies appeared who, I thought, certainly had rocks under their aprons, but the meeting was quiet, and the noticeable protuberances turned out to be the middle-age spread instead of rocks The American party finally broke up at 10:20, with a statement from Mrs. Atterbury that an English paper here lately referred to an incident as happening in America in "the state of Cincinnati." We handled the English rather roughly, but I venture to say they get