B678 <=> B680 [BTG XXXVII France, p. 679]

“’But here in the city Paris, thank the Lord, there are plenty who wish to learn that fox trot, and who will pay well for it.’

“’I do not understand,’ I interrupted. ‘You tell me that your pupils are entirely of your countrymen who come here, and at the same time you say that nobody over there would attend your school. How am I to understand this?’

“’That is just the point,’ answered the honorable American.

“’The cause of this is a very little psychological kink from the number of those many other specific kinks which all together make up the stupidity of my compatriots.

“’The point is that my school is in Paris, or, as “clever” men say at home in America, in the “contemporary Babylon.”

“’And this contemporary Babylon is very popular among all our Americans, and all of them consider it an obligation to visit this world capital.

“’Every one of our Americans who has saved up, if only a little, must without fail come here.

“’And, by the way, you must know it is not so easy for us to save up in America. It is only here in Europe that they think that, in America, dollars almost roll about the streets. But in reality those American dollars, I repeat, are not at all easily acquired by those who live there. Every cent must be earned by one’s own physical labor.

“’They do not at all pay at home in America as they do here in certain European countries for various ephemeral values, such as fame, renown, talent, and so forth.

“’For example, here in Europe, if some, let us say, painter, happens to paint at some time or other a good picture, and he becomes famous, then ever afterwards, no matter what trash he may produce, the public will always pay a great deal of money for that trash, simply because it is said to be the work of that “famous” painter.