My System, Elaborated After
Considerable Experimentation, Is To Call For This Bill Every Morning
And, For The First Day Or Two After Arrival, Dispute In Friendly Fashion
Every Item, Remorselessly Cutting Down Some Of Them.
Not that they
overcharge; their honesty is notorious, and no difference is made in
this respect between a foreigner and a native.
It is a matter of
principle. By this system, which must not be overdone, your position in
the house gradually changes; from being a guest, you become a friend, a
brother. For it is your duty to show, above all things, that you are not
scemo - witless, soft-headed - the unforgivable sin in the south. You
may be a forger or cut-throat - why not? It is a vocation like any other,
a vocation for men. But whoever cannot take care of him-self - i.e. of
his money - is not to be trusted, in any walk of life; he is of no
account; he is no man. I have become firm friends with some of these
proprietors by the simple expedient of striking a few francs off their
bills; and should I ever wish to marry one or their daughters, the
surest way to predispose the whole family in my favour would be this
method of amiable but unsmiling contestation.
Of course the inns are often dirty, and not only in their sleeping
accommodation. The reason is that, like Turks or Jews, their owners do
not see dirt (there is no word for dirt in the Hebrew language); they
think it odd when you draw their attention to it.
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