Explore "Europe Revised" by Irvin S. Cobb on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Wherever we went I was constantly on the outlook for a kind of tourist / who had been described to me frequently and at great length by more / seasoned travelers -- the kind who wore his country's flag as a buttonhole / emblem, or as a shirtfront decoration; and regarded every gathering and / every halting place as providing suitable opportunity to state for the / benefit of all who might be concerned, how immensely and overpoweringly / superior in all particulars was the land from which he hailed as / compared with all other lands under the sun. I desired most earnestly to / overhaul a typical example of this species, my intention then being to / decoy him off to some quiet and secluded spot and there destroy him in / the hope of cutting down the breed.
At length, along toward the fag end of our zigzagging course, I caught / up with him; but stayed my hand and slew not. For some countries, you / understand, are so finicky in the matter of protecting their citizens / that they would protect even such a one as this. I was fearful lest, / by exterminating the object of my homicidal desires, I should bring on / international complications with a friendly Power, no matter however / public-spirited and high-minded my intentions might be.