"I make more in a day with these than I could in a week with other tunes."
"Oh yes. In two years I will retire and let my younger brother play here."
"He says that he finds he makes money by playing American tunes to Americans."
"Hm," said the Senator, with some displeasure; "and he has no soul then to see the--the beauty, the sentiment, the grandeur of his vocation!"
The Senator turned away in disgust. "Yankee Doodle," he murmured, "ought of itself to have a refining and converting influence on the European mind; but it is too debased--yes--yes--too debased."
HOW A BARGAIN IS MADE.--THE WILES OF THE ITALIAN TRADESMAN.--THE NAKED SULKY BEGGAR, AND THE JOVIAL WELL-CLAD BEGGAR.--WHO IS THE KING OF BEGGARS?
"Well, Dick, to tell the truth, I have been thinking that if I do find the Spaniards they won't have reason to be particularly proud of me as a companion. Look at me."
"I look, and to be frank, my dear boy, I must say that you look more shabby-genteel than otherwise."
"That's the result of travelling on one suit of clothes--without considering fighting. I give up my theory."
"Give it up, then, and come out as a butterfly."
"Friend of my soul, the die is cast. Come forth with me and seek a clothing-store."
It was not difficult to find one. They entered the first one that they saw. The polite Roman overwhelmed them with attention.
Signore sprang nimbly at the shelves and brought down every coat in his store. Buttons picked out one that suited his fancy, and tried it on.
With a profusion of explanation and description the Roman informed him: "Forty piastres."
"I'll give you twelve," said Buttons, quietly.
The Italian smiled, put his head on one side, drew down the corners of his mouth, and threw up his shoulders. This is the _shrug_. The shrug requires special attention. The shrug is a gesture used by the Latin race for expressing a multitude of things, both objectively and subjectively. It is a language of itself. It is, as circumstances require, a noun, adverb, pronoun, verb, adjective, preposition, interjection, conjunction. Yet it does not supersede the spoken language. It comes in rather when spoken words are useless, to convey intensity of meaning or delicacy. It is not taught, but it is learned.