From this moment dates the humiliation of the discoverers.All their booty and plunder seemed worthless in comparison with the Elysian delights they imagined were concealed behind the closed doors of those holy places, visions of which tortured the women from the western hemisphere and prevented their taking any pleasure in other victories.To be received into those inner circles became their chief ambition.With this end in view they dressed themselves in expensive costumes, took the trouble to learn the "lingo" spoken in the country, went to the extremity of copying the ways of the native women by painting their faces, and in one or two cases imitated the laxity of their morals.
In spite of these concessions, our women were not received with enthusiasm.On the contrary, the very name of an American became a byword and an abomination in every continental city.This prejudice against us abroad is hardly to be wondered at on reflecting what we have done to acquire it.The agents chosen by our government to treat diplomatically with the conquered nations, owe their selection to political motives rather than to their tact or fitness.In the large majority of cases men are sent over who know little either of the habits or languages prevailing in Europe.
The worst elements always follow in the wake of discovery.Our settlements abroad gradually became the abode of the compromised, the divorced, the socially and financially bankrupt.
Within the last decade we have found a way to revenge the slights put upon us, especially those offered to Americans in the capital of Gaul.Having for the moment no playwrights of our own, the men who concoct dramas, comedies, and burlesques for our stage find, instead of wearying themselves in trying to produce original matter, that it is much simpler to adapt from French writers.This has been carried to such a length that entire French plays are now produced in New York signed by American names.