New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-07-08
SOCIETY IN AMERICA.

20 aho ad lot Of fellows 10 equally oeyOnu d"uDt a
that its people have before them destiny oil unequal
ed power ard msgDicence we solemny believe. Bat
at the same time it is perfect the critical eye mas
no difficulty in detecting serious bemishes in the pres
ent state and ussges Of even our best society while
we have rid ourselves Of useless baggage and many
painful distractions that check the industrial aud poll
tie. progress of our brethren in Europe, it is more
than nrobsbe that We have developed some vices aud
foies Of our OVID, whose exposure, chsstsement and
correction we may think unpleasant Tor the moment
but really ought to be grateful for. Some time since
our primitive and vulgar manners got scoring IRON
Mrs Trollope, vherest American vanity lus'y groFl-
ed but from which American sense has duly prohted.
So it has been 10 the advice received from other Tor
egn critics even Capt Basil Halls lessons on the
proper mode of eating eggs have not proved altogether
useless; and any writer who will frankly tell rs what
are our fobles ard wherein ridiculous IN the eyes
of strangers Of distinction, may do so with certainty
that lie himself will be rOundy abused aud thai bis sug-
sestons will be carefully looked INTO. The patient
NAV sputter and make grmaces at the medicine, but II
it has any virtue, il is pretty sare TO do him some
good.
Whether The German writer's whose structures on
American society We this morning transfer to our col
is.s question which the Of reader will be likely az
first % answer with decided Affirmative. No doubt
they may now and then be found guilty of exaggeratiOn
as 10 the facts they aege. We do not believe the
average of womens education in this country, the
relations Of parents aud children 20 be such as one OF
them describes Nor is the tone of the writer
suggestive either Of good judgment mauy sincerity,
but rather of a person of efficient brains, excessive
.-;.k ~oI
disappointment and prompt to CORES sonding severity
in hs treatment of people who have failed IN the honor
due to 70 great aman Much more respectable 10 the
spirit Of another of these writer's who prOclams the
model Republic to be a humbug, with the American
Museum for s symbolic temple, and the proprietor OF
that establishment for its herOpnsnt aud who in tie
same connection disrespec fully says that humbug Is
Barnum idealzed aud Barnum is humbug presented"
And YET he too errs, all must err who ain merely to
pronounce one sided Judgment. His judgment on
this country is like crticbg the play Of Hamlet WITH
Hamlet omitted.
But il is not for the sake Of what is false in these dis
questions that lay them before readers but sm
ply because they contain truth worth our consider
ing Though written with q view to undecelve those
smpe-soued Germans, who fancy that in emgratlng to
the New World they are going to al earthly paradise
they VIII certain! READ WIN pOseOi!
profit on this side of the Atlantic we'll Accordingly
we hand them over to the public without further
troyerting or asserting TO their positions arguments
Let each reader laugh at their blunders aud eXaggera
tons, condemn what is false and lay TO heart what is
true in their observations One or two general sugges
tons will, however, not be out Of place.
fact which European critics OF America never re-
member is that the society they find fault with is made
! UP almost exclusively of what is known in the Old
World as the common people. We all have risen from
the ranks and necessarily have mefhng Of the orig
ipal rudeness about US We have no. enjoyed the
fniDg Influences of srstocrstc examples and culture
We wear dear clothes and live in dear houses, with
dear furniture for we can afford it, but there some
things which cannot be bought and which we have not
! got The extensively dressed men who parade them
selves in the windows OF hotels and disgust the OBJ
server by the Dartisc sprawl of their legs and per-
sons are but one or TWO from peasants in eda
! csti and manners Such nearly ais nation
of D. stnus thank God with the energy, the practi
cal power and the courage Of success, but with the
faults Of superfciaiy excessive selfreiance brusquA
ness ard little occasional sWagger Now, le:
the French or German traveller or scholar reflect
what bis own nation wGald be if its upper classes,
with their trad tional culture and hereditary
elegance courtesy and refinement were sud
denly removed, and the common people
let loose under democratic Institutions 10
work out new destiny for themselves ?
Supposisg that order maintained and things fol
lowed II cir natural development would that nation be
able in two or in five generations 10 reach point on
which French petii.Haitrs German ratOnslistic
philosopher would look with satisfaction and pronounce
II very GOOD or would no, cur philosopher End
every thing quite as much OUT Of tae way as be nov
finds America
Another fact uheh renders it biscuit for a German
or Freuchlasn attain just ides Of America Is that
they come here without knowing anything of England
while this coustry be phlOsoPAicaly understood
only BY one who is acquainted Eih hat Not only
is our Language English, but laws the Of
our houses cur modes of living social system and
relations al are essentially the those OF the
British people Ignorant OF this fact and assuming, IS
narrow minded people often do that the customs Of
their ow country alone good and beautiful these
continental crumblers at America often find the
desperate fault With novelty TO them. whose origin
very likely dates back to the Norman conquest They
nav be entirely right nevertheless but in such
il would be more correct not represent the objec
toDable thing as an original production Of the Americans
In fact there are not many things which be Sc.
down as original with any people. Every nation even
the American, perhaps quite much TO the pas,
and TO other countries creates in the present for II
self Still it does not appear true that this nation is
more initiative md less original than others 1t does not
work in Just the direction we admit but what
does is done without ssvih reference to foreign models
The gigantic public vorkh the canals railroads and tele
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