Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-03-18

NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS Euro
peap correspondent of the Syracuse Journal
writes from London as follows:
"You see no such fine rows of stores in Lon
don as you find in New York and Philadel-
phia-no thoroughfare that will at all compare
with Broadway. Regent and Oxford streets,
at the West end, are the most fashionable and
afford the two best specimens of stores and
shops. The buildings are mostly plain and
not lofty, the only noticeable feature Of which
are the large and rich plates of glass in the
fronts Of the shops and fine show of fabrics
within. The front of the London shop, except
the entrance, is one great showcase. You
look at the goods from the street as you pass
There Is another contrast of London with
New YORK and other American cities, which
will illustrate national differences There is
not the noise and hustle here which one meets
IN New York. Everybody and everything is
quiet Even the carts and carriages seem to
make less noise. People do not talk so loud,
beggars, though more numerous, are less OBJ
truslve. Business men are less pretentious in
doing what they have to do. Women make
much less show, and the men dress palmer
than we do. Men do not congregate in hotels
and retreshment rooms, as with us. No one
stops at hotel, and they have no hotels that
will compare with ours. There is no such
thing as living in crowd and hustle of
life, as with us. In such places, the En-
glishman is quiet and silent, but if address
ed, l think him kinder and better man
nered, than the majority of Americans are
In the amenetIes of social intercourse, that
which comes from what he considers a proper
acquaintance, the Englishman is more and will
do more than the American. When you get
to this you will find him well educated and
accustomed to those offices and courtesies
which legitimately arise. In a difiusive gen
eral courtesy away from home, the Americans
are vastly more agreeable. If an Englshman
have home at ALL it is generally one where
he is not ashamed or afraid to take his &C
quaintances and make them comfortable In
America it is quite different. We are apt to
think we appear better abroad than at home.
and consequently any one out of the family
circle Is rarely invited.
Something of this has to do with the poor
hotels in England and the good ones in Ameri-
ca. We all like to put on airs better than the
English. We will all stop at the Astor House,
ST. Nicholas, or Metropolitan, and while there
take it as quite our ordinary style of living
Indeed, we will criticise the dishes with asper-
ity, when the like of such we had never tasted
before stopping at the same hotel on a previ-
GUS occasion. The Englishman is not up to
these things He is palmer, less pretentious,
but more comfortable than the American His
confidence IS more than ours without that
confidence he is much less than ours.
INcEEAsE OF LoNGEvITY.-It is prevail
ing impression among many that long life was
more common in the time of our ancestors
than at present Facts would seem to prove
Otherwise. In the latter part of the 10th CEN
+dry, one-half of all who was born, died under
five years of age, and the average proportion
of the whole population was but eighteen
years. In the seventeenth century, one-half
Of the population died under twelve years.
But in the first sixty years of the 18th century,
one-half of the population lived over twenty
seven years in the latter forty years, one-half
exceeded thirty-two years of age.
AT the beginning of the present century, one
half exceeded forty years. The average Ion
gevity of these successive periods has been
increased from Is years in the 18th century up
to 43.7 by the last reports This increase in
the duration of life is believed to be the result
of improved medical science, improvement in
the construction of houses, drainage of streets,
and superior clothing.