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her; & we had some pleasant conversation about the Society of the Plains & Mountains. She was very decided in her preference for it over that of cities. She thought that life in old settled districts was mere existence & not life. She talked of the delights of camping out, & of long excursions of fifty or eighty miles on horse-back. At La Porte the Colonel handed her out of the coach. Supper was soon announced & we took our places at the table. When text crossed throughthe Lady who had been conversing so pleasantly in the coach appeared behind my chair & asked me in an easy & well mannered way, What I wd take? I saw text crossed through now that she was the Landlady of the little roadside inn at which we had stopped, & that she did the waiting herself. She supplied everybody with what they required, changed the plates, filled the glasses & cups, & brought whatever was wanted. All the time talking much as the Mistress of a house would talk to her guests. But though perfect equality is the first principle of Western life, yet the superiority of refinement & mental? unclear is fully recognized, & everybody readily defers to them. crossed out This, however, is only done on the unclear him that there is no assumption on the part of the person himself. To pretend unclear superiority to others, what we call to give yourself airs, is in American society, whether it be in the East or the West, an unpardonable offence: it is like sin against equality, which is never forgiven in the world, & which every true American trusts will not be forgotten in the unclear. Only leave it to them to discover your merits, & you will have no reason to complain of want of appreciation. They are a people who measure others much more fairly than we do.