改编自《关于烟草》男人是什么?和其他论文马克·吐温(1906)
关于烟草,有许多迷信。最主要的是,这事有一个标准,而没有这样的标准。每个人自己的喜好是他唯一的标准,是他唯一能接受的标准,是唯一能指挥他的标准。一个由世界上所有烟草爱好者组成的大会不可能选出一个对你我都有约束力,甚至对我们都有很大影响的标准。
第二个迷信是男人有自己的标准。他还没有。他以为他有,但他没有。他认为他可以区分他认为是好的雪茄和他认为是坏的雪茄,但他不能。他说的是品牌,但他以为他说的是味道。一个人可以把最坏的假币骗到他身上;如果有他的牌子,他会心满意足地抽着,从不怀疑。
25岁的孩子,有7年的经验,试图告诉我什么是好雪茄,什么不是。我,从没学过抽烟;我,为了光明来到这个世界。
没有人能告诉我什么是好雪茄——对我来说。我是唯一的法官。自称知道的人说我抽的雪茄是世界上最糟糕的。他们来我家的时候会自带雪茄。当我给他们一支雪茄时,他们流露出一种没有男子汉气概的恐惧;他们撒了谎,匆匆忙忙地跑去赴约,而他们并没有赴约,因为他们受到了我的包厢的盛情款待的威胁。现在,看看迷信在一个人的名声的辅助下能做什么吧。一天晚上,我要请十二个朋友来吃晚饭。他们中的一个人因为抽昂贵而优雅的雪茄而臭名昭著,就像我抽廉价而糟糕的雪茄一样。我去了他家,趁没人看的时候,向他借了两把最好的。 cigars which cost him forty cents apiece and bore red-and-gold labels in sign of their nobility. I removed the labels and put the cigars into a box with my favorite brand on it—a brand which those people all knew, and which cowed them as men are cowed by an epidemic. They took these cigars when offered at the end of the supper, and lit them and sternly struggled with them—in dreary silence, for hilarity died when the fell brand came into view and started around—but their fortitude held for a short time only; then they made excuses and filed out, treading on one another's heels with indecent eagerness; and in the morning when I went out to observe results the cigars lay all between the front door and the gate. All except one—that one lay in the plate of the man from whom I had cabbaged the lot. One or two whiffs was all he could stand. He told me afterward that some day I would get shot for giving people that kind of cigars to smoke.
我确定自己的标准吗?完美的;是的,绝对是——除非有人把我的牌子印在别的雪茄上骗我;因为毫无疑问,我和其他人一样,只知道雪茄的牌子,而不是味道。然而,我的标准是一个相当宽泛的标准,涵盖了相当多的领域。对我来说,几乎所有没人抽的雪茄都是好雪茄;对我来说,几乎所有别人认为好的雪茄都是坏雪茄。几乎任何雪茄都可以,除了哈瓦那雪茄。当人们带着救生衣来我家时——我的意思是,口袋里还揣着他们自己的雪茄——他们认为他们伤害了我的感情。这是一个错误;我用同样的方式照顾自己。 When I go into danger—that is, into rich people's houses, where, in the nature of things, they will have high-tariff cigars, red-and-gilt girded and nested in a rosewood box along with a damp sponge, cigars which develop a dismal black ash and burn down the side and smell, and will grow hot to the fingers, and will go on growing hotter and hotter, and go on smelling more and more infamously and unendurably the deeper the fire tunnels down inside below the thimbleful of honest tobacco that is in the front end, the furnisher of it praising it all the time and telling you how much the deadly thing cost—yes, when I go into that sort of peril I carry my own defense along; I carry my own brand—twenty-seven cents a barrel—and I live to see my family again. I may seem to light his red-gartered cigar, but that is only for courtesy's sake; I smuggle it into my pocket for the poor, of whom I know many, and light one of my own; and while he praises it I join in, but when he says it cost forty-five cents I say nothing, for I know better.
在这篇文章中,作者对他邀请到他家里的客人的态度主要是一种__________。