A Traveler from Altruria | Page 4

himself. He kept a sharp eye on my friend, as if he were not quite sure he was safe, but the Altrurian resumed the conversation with all that lightness of spirits which I noticed in him after he helped the porter with the baggage. I did not think it the moment to take him to task for what he had just done; I was not even sure that it was the part of a host to do so at all, and between the one doubt and the other I left the burden of talk to him.
"What a charming young creature!" he began. "I never saw anything prettier than the way she had of refusing my help, absolutely without coquetry or affectation of any kind. She is, as you said, a perfect lady, and she graces her work, as I am sure she would grace any exigency of life. She quite realizes my ideal of an American girl, and I see now what the spirit of your country must be from such an expression of it."
I wished to tell him that while a country school-teacher who waits at table in a summer hotel is very much to be respected in her sphere, she is not regarded with that high honor which some other women command among us; but I did not find this very easy, after what I had said of our esteem for labor; and while I was thinking how I could hedge, my friend went on.
"I liked England greatly, and I liked the English, but I could not like the theory of their civilization or the aristocratic structure of their society. It seemed to me iniquitous, for we believe that inequality and iniquity are the same in the last analysis."
At this I found myself able to say: "Yes, there is something terrible, something shocking, in the frank brutality with which Englishmen affirm the essential inequality of men. The affirmation of the essential equality of men was the first point of departure with us when we separated from them."
"I know," said the Altrurian. "How grandly it is expressed in your glorious Declaration!"
"Ah, you have read our Declaration of Independence, then?"
"Every Altrurian has read that," answered my friend.
"Well," I went on smoothly, and I hoped to render what I was going to say the means of enlightening him without offence concerning the little mistake he had just made with the waitress, "of course we don't take that in its closest literality."
"I don't understand you," he said.
"Why, you know it was rather the political than the social traditions of England that we broke with, in the Revolution."
"How is that?" he returned. "Didn't you break with monarchy and nobility, and ranks and classes?"
"Yes, we broke with all those things."
"But I found them a part of the social as well as the political structure in England. You have no kings or nobles here. Have you any ranks or classes?"
"Well, not exactly in the English sense. Our ranks and classes, such as we have, are what I may call voluntary."
"Oh, I understand. I suppose that from time to time certain ones among you feel the need of serving, and ask leave of the commonwealth to subordinate themselves to the rest of the state and perform all the lowlier offices in it. Such persons must be held in peculiar honor. Is it something like that?"
"Well, no, I can't say it's quite like that. In fact I think I'd better let you trust to your own observation of our life."
"But I'm sure," said the Altrurian, with a simplicity so fine that it was a long time before I could believe it quite real, "that I shall approach it so much more intelligently with a little instruction from you. You say that your social divisions are voluntary. But do I understand that those who serve among you do not wish to do so?"
"Well, I don't suppose they would serve if they could help it," I replied.
"Surely," said the Altrurian, with a look of horror, "you don't mean that they are slaves."
"Oh no! oh no!" I said; "the war put an end to that. We are all free now, black and white."
"But if they do not wish to serve, and are not held in peculiar honor for serving--"
"I see that my word 'voluntary' has misled you," I put in. "It isn't the word exactly. The divisions among us are rather a process of natural selection. You will see, as you get better acquainted with the workings of our institutions, that there are no arbitrary distinctions here but the fitness of the work for the man and the man for the work determines the social rank that each one holds."
"Ah, that is fine!" cried the Altrurian, with a glow of enthusiasm. "Then I suppose that these intelligent young people who