word36 - The Monday Morning Memo

“[In America] the ‘almighty dollar’ is the true divinity, and it’s worship is universal. ‘Smartness’ is the quality thought most of. The boy who ‘gets on’ by cheating at his lessons is praised for being a ‘smart boy,’ and his satisfied parents foretell that he will make a ‘great man.’ A man who overreaches his neighbor, but who does it so cleverly that the law cannot take hold of him, wins an envied reputation as a ‘smart man,’ and stories of this species of smartness are told admiringly round every stove. Smartness is but the initial stage of swindling, and the clever swindler who evades or defies the weak and often corruptly administered laws of the States excites unmeasured adoration among the masses.”

- Isabella L. Bird (British explorer), “A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains,” 1873

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