B681 <=> B683 [BTG XXXVII France, p. 682]
“’These “sleepy-types” have very weak voices and look half-consumptive because they are usually very tired and don’t get enough sleep; and this is probably explained by the fact that many of these types work hard somewhere at night, besides working for “Book and Son,” in order to get, together with the tiny earnings from “Book and Son,” enough for their families to live on, as it is no easy task to support a family, especially in Paris.
“’And the fact that my dear compatriots hear little of what these “sleepy-types” with weak voices say has no great significance. Is it not the same to them what that sleepy-type mutters, or in what voice? For it is quite unnecessary for them to know any of the details of what they are seeing. Is it not all the same to them what they see and what it all means? All they need is but the “fact” that they were in that place itself and in a general way saw everything.
“’They are fully satisfied with this, for afterwards in conversation they can freely say with a “clear conscience” that they were here, there, and everywhere, and all the other Americans will think that the speaker is not just the tail of a donkey, but that he also has been in Europe and has visited everything there and seen every “sight” that every contemporary “educated” person must see.
“’Ekh! . . . my good Sir. Do you think that it is I alone who live by the “stupidities” of my compatriots?
“’What am I? . . . I am a little man, only a dancing teacher.
“’But did you notice that fat man sitting with me in the first restaurant? Well . . . that is a real “shark.” Many of them, incidentally, have “sprung up” at home in America, especially in recent times.
“’That fat man, an Americanized English Jew, is the principal partner of a well-known, very solid American firm.
“’This firm has its branches in many cities in America as well as in Europe, and the fat man who sat with me in the first restaurant is the one who fulfills the duties of director of the Paris branch of the firm.