“You air from Europe, sir?”
“I am,” said Martin.
“You air fortunate, sir.”
Martin thought so too; but he soon discovered that the gentleman and he attached different meanings to this remark.
“You air fortunate, sir, in having an opportunity of beholding our Elijah Pogram, sir.”
“Your Elijahpogram!” said Martin, thinking it was all one word, and a building of some sort.
“Yes sir.”
Martin tried to look as if he understood him, but he couldn’t make it out.
“Yes, sir,” repeated the gentleman, “our Elijah Pogram, sir, is, at this minute, identically settin’ by the engine biler.”
The gentleman under the umbrella put his right forefinger to his eyebrow, as if he were revolving schemes of state.
“That is Elijah Pogram, is it?” said Martin.
“Yes, sir,” replied the other. “That is Elijah Pogram.”
“Dear me!” said Martin. “I am astonished.” But he had not the least idea who this Elijah Pogram was; having never heard the name in all his life.
“If the biler of this vessel was Toe bust, sir,” said his new acquaintance, “and Toe bust now, this would be a festival day in the calendar of despotism; pretty nigh equallin’, sir, in its effects upon the human race, our Fourth of glorious July. Yes, sir, that is the Honourable Elijah Pogram, Member of Congress; one of the masterminds of our country, sir. There is a brow, sir, there!”
“Quite remarkable,” said Martin.
“Yes, sir. Our own immortal Chiggle, sir, is said to have observed, when he made the celebrated Pogram statter in marble, which rose so much con‑test and preju‑dice in Europe, that the brow was more than mortal. This was before the Pogram Defiance, and was, therefore, a pre‑diction, cruel smart.”
“What is the Pogram Defiance?” asked Martin, thinking, perhaps, it was the sign of a public-house.
“An o‑ration, sir,” returned his friend.
“Oh! to be sure,” cried Martin. “What am I thinking of! It defied—”
“It defied the world, sir,” said the other, gravely. “Defied the world in general to com‑pete with our country upon any hook; and devellop’d our internal resources for making war upon the universal airth. You would like to know Elijah Pogram, sir?”
“If you please,” said Martin.
“Mr. Pogram,” said the stranger—Mr. Pogram having overheard every word of the dialogue—“this is a gentleman from Europe, sir; from England, sir. But gen’rous enemies may meet upon the neutral sile of private life, I think.”
The languid Mr. Pogram shook hands with Martin, like a clockwork figure that was just running down. But he made amends by chewing like one that was just wound up.
“Mr. Pogram,” said the introducer, “is a public servant, sir. When Congress is recessed, he makes himself acquainted with those free United States, of which he is the gifted son.”
It occurred to Martin that if the Honourable Elijah Pogram had stayed at home, and sent his shoes upon a tour, they would have answered the same purpose; for they were the only part of him in a situation to see anything.
In course of time, however, Mr. Pogram rose; and having ejected certain plugging consequences which would have impeded his articulation, took up a position where there was something to lean against, and began to talk to Martin; shading himself with the green umbrella all the time.
As he began with the words, “How do you like—?” Martin took him up and said:
“The country, I presume?”
“Yes, sir,” said Elijah Pogram. A knot of passengers gathered round to hear what followed; and Martin heard his friend say, as he whispered to another friend, and rubbed his hands, “Pogram will smash him into sky-blue fits, I know!”
“Why,” said Martin, after a moment’s hesitation, “I have learned by experience, that you take an unfair advantage of a stranger, when you ask that question. You don’t mean it to be answered, except in one way. Now, I don’t choose to answer it in that way, for I cannot honestly answer it in that way. And therefore, I would rather not answer it at all.”
But Mr. Pogram was going to make a great speech in the next session about foreign relations, and was going to write strong articles on the subject; and as he greatly favoured the free and independent custom (a very harmless and agreeable one) of procuring information of any sort in any kind of confidence, and afterwards perverting it publicly in any manner that happened to suit him, he had determined to get at Martin’s opinions somehow or other. For if he could have got nothing out of him, he would have had to invent it for him, and that would have been laborious. He made a mental note of his answer, and went in again.
“You are from Eden, sir? How did you like Eden?”
Martin said what he thought of that part of the country, in pretty strong terms.
“It is strange,” said Pogram, looking round upon the group, “this hatred of our country, and her Institutions! This national antipathy is deeply rooted in the British mind!”
“Good Heaven, sir,” cried Martin. “Is the Eden Land Corporation, with Mr. Scadder at its head, and all the misery it has worked, at its door, an Institution of America? A part of any form of government that ever was known or heard of?”
“I consider the cause of this to be,” said Pogram, looking round again and taking himself up where Martin had interrupted him, “partly jealousy and pre‑judice, and partly the nat’ral unfitness of the British people to appreciate the ex‑alted Institutions of our native land. I expect, sir,” turning to Martin again, “that a gentleman named Chollop happened in upon you during your location in the town of Eden?”
“Yes,” answered Martin; “but my friend can answer this better than I can, for I was very ill at the time. Mark! The gentleman is speaking of Mr. Chollop.”
“Oh. Yes, sir. Yes. I see him,” observed Mark.
“A splendid example of our na‑tive raw material, sir?” said Pogram, interrogatively.
“Indeed, sir!” cried
