Chapter 260: American, be confident! (K4)

Chapter 259 – American, Be Confident! (4K4)

Today Arthur didn’t choose to go straight home after work as usual, nor did he choose to go to the Wheatstone Gramophone Manufacturing Workshop in Greenwich, but instead, he walked across Whitehall Street to the cafe located next to Trafalgar Square.

Arthur greeted the waiter in the cafe and ordered a few snacks and drinks to fill his stomach, and just after the hot cocoa was served, he heard the wind chime hanging in front of the cafe ringing.

With a sailor red face and a blue and white T-shirt, Colt, a young man with two holsters around his waist, strutted in.

He had just entered and was about to find a seat, but with a sweep of his eyes he spotted Arthur sitting in the corner, and he raised his hand in slight surprise to greet him, “What a coincidence! Mr. Hastings, I didn’t expect you to be here.”

Arthur smiled and extended his hand to gesture for him to come and sit down, “Mr. Colt, there are no coincidences in this world, but they are all destiny. Just as there is no gravity in the world, it is only the mass of matter that distorts space and time. Just as time is only a human definition, you and I will eventually part ways, and will eventually meet again somewhere.”

The young American boy, not yet twenty years old, was flabbergasted by Arthur’s passage, but the Red Devil, sitting on the sidelines, couldn’t sit still when he heard it.

Agares, who was originally holding the parchment scroll and reading it carefully, shuddered and looked up at Arthur with a few more hints of suspicion in his eyes, “Damn it! You’re Arthur Hastings? I fucking thought you were Isaac Newton! Although most human philosophers are proficient in math, it doesn’t mean they should be proficient in physics! Arthur, have nothing to do but go pick up more girls and don’t think about useless things!”

Colt obviously couldn’t sense the red devil’s dissatisfaction, he was still pondering over Arthur’s earlier words, “No gravity? And no time? Mr. Hastings, are you trying to overthrow the system of physics established by Newton? Or is this some kind of latest research from the Britannian academy? The idea does sound interesting.”

Arthur waved his hand and said, “No, no, no, no, that’s just an inappropriate analogy made by a Scotland Yard Superintendent who doesn’t have much education. I was just trying to tell you that our reunion was not by chance but by necessity. Don’t forget, I’m a detective. Do you know what the duty of a detective is? The duty of a detective is to reason out the possibilities of the future from the clues of the past.”

When Colt heard this, he couldn’t help but forget, “Why does this sound like a prophet?”

Arthur stirred the spoon, “Prophet? Prophets do a much more advanced job than detectives. It’s a myth that they can not only accurately predict the future, but also convince the community to avoid plagues.”

Colt nodded slightly, “I agree that guessing everything is too fake.”

Arthur shook his head gently, “That’s not what I was referring to, the main reason I think it’s a myth is because the community the prophet is with actually listens to persuasion.”

Colt was stunned at the words, then laughed out loud, “Is that what you’re talking about originally? But if you think about it, it seems like it. There are times when reasoning with a group of people is indeed quite agonizing. Coming back, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of the New York theater’s habit of applauding?”

“Drinking backward?” Arthur asked, “What is that custom?”

Colt reached out for a cup of coffee, “American theaters are popular for all kinds of Revolutionary War themes, things like The Battle of Bunker Hill and The Siege of Quebec and The Death of General Montgomery are popular plays in theaters that are always sold out at every performance. Whenever Washington’s name was read out on stage and the actor playing Washington appeared, the audience would cheer. When the King of England was mentioned, the audience booed in unison.

When Mr. William Dunlap’s Andre premiered at the Park Theatre earlier, it contained this play. Washington ordered the execution of the British spy Andre, and the character Brand, being displeased with this, took off his Continental Army cap badge and smashed it hard on the ground. The theatre audience at the time saw this scene and got up in a flurry of emotion and physically attacked the actor and Mr. Dunlap.

After the show, the New York newspapers continued to go after Mr. Dunlap, saying that he was insinuating that he was denigrating Washington, maligning the American Revolution, and bowing to the capitulationism of Evil Britannia. The newspapers also sarcastically said that we don’t know whether the character Andre in the play was a British spy, but Mr. Dunlap was 100% a Cockney spy.

Some defended Mr. Dunlap by saying that his father had been wounded in the War of Independence, and that Mr. Dunlap himself had painted a portrait of George Washington, and was unlikely to be a British spy.

But when the group heard about the paintings, they got even more excited, and they brought up the fact that Mr. Dunlap had traveled to London to study painting under Benjamin Whist, saying that must have been when he received his grant from the British government. What’s more, although Dunlap appears to be draped in the Stars and Stripes, he is an unabashed St. George of the Cross heart. The government should have kicked Dunlap out to Canada like they did the royalists at home back in the day.

Mr. Dunlap had to rush all day and night to get the script changed to avoid controversy, and it took a while for the fuss to settle down completely.”

When Arthur heard this, he froze in his chair with his teacup in his hand, the steam rising from his hot cocoa muddying his face and covering his eyelashes with a fine layer of water droplets.

“Hmmm …… why does it sound so familiar ……”

Arthur put down the cup of tea and leaned back in the seat, silent for a while before he spoke, “Is there anything else like that? Although I have never been to the United States, but I also once before intended to go there to make a living, so if there is still this kind of strange stories, then you will tell me more, it is not allowed to say that one day I really go there, this kind of precautions I will use it.”

“You’re planning to go to America?”

Colt sniffed and was flattered, “Why would you want to go to America? Of course, America is a very good country. But Mr. Hastings, why would you want to go? Aren’t you doing quite well in London? Don’t look at the American theater and applaud every day, but the American merchants, as long as they have some savings, will surely come to Europe to mix a noble status in any way they can.

The most typical is to give their daughters a large dowry, so that she can marry a bankrupt nobleman in Europe. And they also like to compare with each other, in their evaluation system, the British knighthood is the most noble, the next level is the French, the next is the German state and Spain, Austria, etc..

If the daughter of any family could marry an English lord, his father and mother would have to give a week’s banquet, and then mention the matter in front of the guests eight hundred times. If the new aunt were willing to make a couple of trips to America now and then to show them a good time, I’d say they’d be willing to give away the family fortune.”

When Arthur heard this, although there was no smile on his face, his hand holding the teacup was trembling slightly, “Is it that exaggerated?” “Why not!”

The more Colt thought about it, the more angry he became, he returned, “You probably don’t know, two years ago there was a banker just because his daughter married the fourth generation grandson of a certain earl in England, he even purposely bought a page in New York’s newspaper to put up a newspaper to celebrate it, saying something like even though the wedding cost a lot of money, it’s all worth it because it’s the pursuit of the true essence of classical European culture at all costs.

You didn’t see that paper or you would have felt as angry as I did. The banker who had nothing but money didn’t say it explicitly, but what was revealed in that newspaper statement was that America was country, rustic, rude, and tasteless, and that England was the jewel of the world, fashionable, elegant, and classy. The water of the Mississippi is not good, the water of the Thames is sweet. Alas, my daughter, now a countess, can’t even breathe the earthy air of New York. In fact, my aunt and the girl did not want to come to the United States after they got married, they should have lived in London or Paris, every day to run salons, banquets, attend all kinds of high-class ball. But in order to spread the advanced civilization of Europe, they still came all the way here with a humanitarian spirit, and you must praise them twice.

In the past, when I did not come to the UK, I really believed his words, and now I come here to see, although the UK is to be more advanced, there are many factories and all kinds of high-grade products, the United States, although it is a little bit rustic, but …… but not to the extent that he said it! For fuck’s sake, why doesn’t he drown his big family in the Thames?”

Colt, after all, was still a bloodthirsty nineteen-year-old boy, and when he talked about it, his already sun-red, rough skin looked at the moment almost like a boiled duck covered in maple syrup.

He could not help but laugh at himself, “Mr. Hastings, your condition to go to the United States if I say, certainly no problem. But I think, even if you want to go, it is best to mix in Scotland Yard for two more years, if you can get a knighthood title. Heh …… an aristocrat several generations apart can make them spend a lot of money, if you can be knighted on your own, then you will not be drowned in money! I guarantee you’ll step on the docks of New York or Boston before you do, and the bankers will be coming in the back foot like shit-sniffing pugs with big bags of tabloids and their precious daughters to propose marriage.”

Hearing this, Arthur blandly replied back, “Mr. Colt, first let’s be clear, I’m not shit.”

Colt glared, “Of course, if you were meat that would be even more appetizing! Because they’re real dogs! On the one hand, they have to be treated as British spies for writing a script, on the other hand, they don’t want American citizenship if they can get French citizenship, they don’t want French citizenship if they can get British citizenship, and they can give away a bunch of family assets when they marry their daughters for the sake of an aristocratic title that doesn’t mean anything, and it’s not even a title yet but just a bloodline… do you think Americans are schizophrenic?”

Speaking of this, Colt couldn’t help but pull his revolver from his holster, “Fuck! The more I talk about it, the more angry I get, I just can’t wait to shoot the whole gang, just thinking about it makes me feel bad for Mr. Dunlap, who the hell is the British spy?”

Upon hearing this, Arthur, the real British spy, just calmly took a sip of his hot cocoa, ready to hear Colt continue to fire away.

Colt went on the attack, “The poems, plays, and novels are all anti-British works like ‘Columbia’s Vision,’ ‘Columbia Deux: Poems of the American War,’ ‘The End of British Tyranny,’ and ‘The Conquest of Canaan,’ and the depictions of Britain are all the same, with the poor people struggling to make ends meet, the rich people getting rich, and the whole society being morally bankrupt and socially disordered. When it comes to the United States of America, it’s all about the old-fashioned farmer, the upright and righteous citizen and all kinds of warm-hearted gentlemen.

But the reality is that the writers who produce these works head for Europe at every opportunity, squatting in Paris if they have the decency to do so, and settling in London if they don’t. If there is anything really wrong with Mr. Dunlap’s André, it is that he is too honest to say what is in the hearts of bankers, big businessmen and writers. As it turned out, it was those two truths that at once punctured the fragile pride of the American people. Since then, Mr. Dunlap should have sort of figured out that instead of telling the truth to the truth, he should choose to lie to him about his artistry.”

Arthur felt both a little weird hearing Colt’s words and an inexplicable sense of superiority being held up to him.

For the first time in his life, he recognized that this was what it felt like to be an old beige flag.

Agares also noticed Arthur’s change in mood, and the Red Devil rubbed his hands together with a bad smile and said, “Arthur, how is it? Isn’t this cheap pleasure marvelous? Obviously an American millionaire, but he had to find a raggedy English aristocrat to hold his back. Tsk, tsk, tsk, stupid humans always do that.”

Arthur took a sip of his hot cocoa and said blandly, “Almost done, Agareth, if you keep talking I’m going to buy a ticket to America tomorrow.”

“No, no, no, not now.” Agares pushed up his small glasses, “Didn’t you hear this young man? Now is not the time, you have to be knighted before you go. Sir Arthur Hastings, that name alone could pit the rich and powerful of New York against each other if you took it out. Arthur, you’re currently on the upswing at Scotland Yard, why are you in such a hurry to run off to a bunch of country bumpkins and play the big shot?”

Arthur couldn’t help glancing at him as he sniffed, and sighed heartily, “I can’t imagine that in this day and age, even the devil looks down on Yankees?”

Hearing Arthur speak, Colt couldn’t help but echo, “The devil? I think that gang of tycoons are a bunch of vampires! Lying on America’s belly and sucking their fill, twisting their heads and exchanging their large banknotes for a mouthful of Thames water. I’ll be rich in the future if I ……”

Hearing this, Arthur suddenly opened his mouth, “By the way, what I said to you before, it will still be a bit inconvenient for Americans to run factories in the UK, and what you are doing is again a business in arms like guns. So, do you want to consider getting a British nationality first? Although the nationality application is still quite troublesome, and you have to fulfill a certain number of years of residency and other conditions, but if you can really improve the Colt revolver and take the patent for this, I don’t think it’s impossible to run a quick operation.”

“I …… “Colt couldn’t help but jump his eyebrows three times when he heard this.

After all, he had just finished cursing, this time to let him change his mind is still quite difficult, young people’s skin has always been relatively thin.

Arthur of course understood where his psychological barrier lay, he spoke, “Samuel, I know you are a great patriot, a true American. But truth be told, there is another great patriot living in my house, a real fat Frenchman. Although he often hates his guts at the mention of Britain, that doesn’t stop him from pitching in and making money. To put it another way, isn’t it a truly patriotic act to take the money you make in Britain and spend it back in America? You’re a hell of a lot better than that banker who spent a fortune marrying his daughter.”

“Have you ……” Colt hesitated, “and has that French friend of yours been naturalized in England?”

“That’s not true.” Arthur shook his head, “But I just completed the naturalization application of another Frenchman two days ago, and that is an equally great patriot. His level of patriotism even made me think that if there was another person in the world who was loyal to France, it would be him.”

“Is that such an exaggeration?”

“Of course.” Arthur twisted a crunchy cookie and took a gentle bite, “Incidentally, that man’s last name is Bonaparte.”

The allies add more in the middle of the night, so you can all get up in the morning and read it

(End of chapter)