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XXIV. a half-century of American literature (1857-1907）
The brilliant French author, Stendhal, used to describe his ideal of a happy life as dwelling in a Paris garret and writing endless plays and novels.
This might seem to any Anglo-American a fantastic wish; and no doubt the early colonists on this side of the
Atlantic Ocean, after fighting through the Revolution by the aid of
Rochambeau and his Frenchmen, might have felt quite out of place had they followed their triumphant allies back to
Europe, in 1781, and inspected their way of living.
We can hardly wonder, on the other hand, that the accomplished French traveler,
Philarbte Chasles, on visiting this country in 1851, looked through the land in despair at not finding a humorist, although the very boy of sixteen who stood near him at the rudder of a Mississippi steamboat may have been he who was destined to amuse the civilized world under the name of
Mark Twain.
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