My Discovery of England
roughly scrawled with chalk, the lids slammed to, and that was all. Not one of the officials seemed to care to look at my things or to have the politeness to pretend to want to. I had arranged my dress suit and my pyjamas so as to make as effective a display as possible: a New York customs officer would have been delighted with it. Here they simply passed it over. "Do open this trunk," I asked one of the officials, "and see my pyjamas." "I don't think it is necessary, sir," the man answered. There was a coldness about it that cut me to the quick.

   But bad as is the conduct of the English customs men, the immigration officials are even worse. I could not help being struck by the dreadful carelessness with which people are admitted into England. There are, it is true, a group of officials said to be in charge of immigration, but they know nothing of the discriminating care exercised on the other side of the Atlantic.

   "Do you want to know," I asked one of them, "whether I am a polygamist?"

   "No, sir," he said very quietly.

   "Would you like me to tell you whether I am fundamentally opposed to any and every system of government?"

   The man seemed mystified. "No, sir," he said. "I don't know that I would."

   "Don't you care?" I asked.

   "Well, not particularly, sir," he answered.

   I was determined to arouse him from his lethargy.

   "Let me tell you, then," I said, "that I am an anarchistic polygamist, that I am opposed to all forms of government, that I object to any kind of revealed religion, that I regard the state and property and marriage as the mere tyranny of the bourgeoisie, and that I want to see class hatred carried to the point where it forces every one into brotherly love. Now, do I get in?"

   The official looked puzzled for a minute. "You are not Irish, are you, sir?" he said.

   "No."

   "Then I think you can come in all right." he answered.

   The journey from Liverpool to London, like all other English journeys, is short. This is due to the fact that England is a small country: it contains only 50,000 square miles, whereas the United States, as every one knows, contains three and a half billion. I mentioned this 
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