Page:Traveler from Altruria, Howells, 1894.djvu/215

Rh the war came, it brought the soldier to the front, and there was a period of ten or fifteen years when he denominated the national imagination. That period passed, and the great era of material prosperity set in. The big fortunes began to tower up, and heroes of another sort began to appeal to our admiration. I don't think there is any doubt but the millionaire is now the American ideal. It isn't very pleasant to think so, even for people who have got on, but it can't very hopefully be denied. It is the man with the most money who now takes the prize in our national cake-walk."

The Altrurian turned curiously toward me, and I did my best to tell him what a cake-walk was. When I had finished, the banker resumed, only to say, as he rose from his chair to bid us good-night, "In any average assembly of Americans, the greatest millionaire would take the eyes of all from the greatest statesman, the greatest poet, or the greatest soldier, we ever had. That," he added to the Altrurian, "will account to you for many things, as you travel through our country."