What social commentary does mark twain make in this excerpt from "the £1,000,000 bank-note"?
you will remember that the bank of england once issued two notes of a million pounds each, to be used for a special purpose connected with some public transaction with a foreign country. for some reason or other only one of these had been used and canceled; the other still lay in the vaults of the bank. well, the brothers, chatting along, happened to get to wondering what might be the fate of a perfectly honest and intelligent stranger who should be turned adrift in london without a friend, and with no money but that million-pound bank-note, and no way to account for his being in possession of it. brother a said he would starve to death; brother b said he wouldn't. brother a said he couldn't offer it at a bank or anywhere else, because he would be arrested on the spot. so they went on disputing till brother b said he would bet twenty thousand pounds that the man would live thirty days, any way, on that million, and keep out of jail, too. brother a took him up. brother b went down to the bank and bought that note. just like an englishman, you see; pluck to the backbone.
a. rich londoners love to profess their wealth and use it to settle any argument.
b. rich londoners are quick to bet huge sums of money to settle trivial arguments.
c. rich londoners are apathetic toward the condition of the poor and would often use them as subjects for bets.
d. rich londoners would spend huge sums of money to gain popularity in the upper class of london.