August 23 Sunday – In Marienbad:

One of the most curious things in these countries is the street manners of the men and women. In meeting you they come straight on without swerving a hair’s breadth from the direct line and wholly ignoring your right to any part of the road. At the last moment you must yield up your share of it and step aside, or there will be a collision. I noticed this strange barbarism first in Geneva twelve years ago.

In Aix-les-Bains, where sidewalks are scarce and everybody walks in the streets, there is plenty of room, but that is no matter; you are always escaping collisions by mere quarter inches. A man or woman who is headed in such a way as to cross your course presently without a collision will actually alter his direction shade by shade and compel a collision unless at the last instant you jump out of the way. Those folks are not dressed as ladies and gentlemen. And they do not seem to be consciously crowding you out of the road; they seem to be innocently and stupidly unaware that they are doing it. But not so in Geneva. There this class, especially the men, crowd out men, women, and girls of all rank and raiment consciously and intentionally — crowd them off the sidewalk and into the gutter.

There was nothing of this sort in Bayreuth. But here — well, here the thing is astonishing. Collisions are unavoidable unless you do all the yielding yourself. Another odd thing — here this savagery is confined to the folk who wear the fine clothes; the others are courteous and considerate. A big burly Comanche, with all the signs about him of wealth and education, will tranquilly force young ladies to step off into the gutter to avoid being run down by him. It is a mistake that there is no bath that will cure people’s manners. But drowning would help [“Marienbad — A Health Factory”]. Note: the complete letter may be found in Neider’s Complete Essays, p. 99-109.

In Marienbad, Livy wrote to Grace King, who was about to take her first trip to Europe with her sister Annie (Nan) [MTP; Bush 115]. Rodney quotes:

We are having a very pleasant stay here…These lands over here are desperately interesting and charming, yet I must confess to much of homesickness [135].