The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1861-03-16

PSe.ans xngiasA ,yievs sf Anerfcan In.
nom ne London Telegraph, February 1. /
This Il mot the first time that the conviction
has bsen forced upon rs that the portion Of the
transatlantic continent heretofore known a. the
United States of North America is the most
wonderful country in the world. Every thing
American is marvellous. "Wc are great coun.
try. sir, is the common remark between whit
fling and expectorating -of shrewd Yankees to
English tourists We 60 further than this asser-
ton. Not only are the States prodigious in ex'
tent, but they are extraordinary, astonishing,
bewildering, to an almost incredible extent, ID
their progress, their civilization, their press,
their politics and their government. In discuss.
ing things American, We feel the weakness of
words. however wo may .'pile up the agony" Ito
use an American phrase of verbal application.
What rivers are 90 great Is the American rivers;
what cataracts 90 big a. their cataractsy Do we
possess any prairies, any salt lisks, any ailiga.
tors, any rattlesnakess Is there single "snag'
in the Isis, or solitary "sawyer" in the Cam!.--
Can we build railway in fortnight, throw the
metals over corduroy roads, and sweep cattle OH
the line by means of hearth broom attached to
the locomotive! What are our tame pubic
meetings compared with the gigantic eaucuses
and Indignation meetings OF the states! Must
not our Christmas show of prize swine hide It's
diminished head before the porcine goriess OF
the great pig city Of CINCINNATI! we havhs =
street in London as long as Broadway, we havn't
harbor in Great Britain to equal the Bay OF
New York, our fire engines are puny toys when
opposed to the wondrous hydraulic machines OF
the New York brigade. The American trotting
horses can laugh our cleverest butchers ponies
10 scorn. We can't make eight-and-twenty diff
ferent 'sdrinks" with eight-and-twenty different
names out of a bottle Of sherry, quartern OF
brandy. a ha'porth of milk and an egg Now,
the Americans can. We don't know the use OF
bowle-knife They do. We can't play 'po-
kerr They are adapts at that exciting game. !.
Our transatlantic cousins have picked our
locks; outsaileJ our yachts; very nearly, but not
quite. beaten our champion gladiators and Derby
cracks. reprinted our literature without paving
rs ANYTHING for authorship, and ''catawampously
chawed us up" in a variety of other ways, to say
nothing of having captured Gen. Burgoyne and
Lord CORVALLIS, with all their horses and all
their men, and driven the veteran legons OF the
Peninsula away from New Orleans by the instru-
mentality of popguns placed between cotton
bales.
When we have to deal with land of such al.
most fabulous wonders as the United States, we
may we'll BE- exensed for surmising that it must
be difficult, if not impossible for any Englishmnn
who has not resided many years on the other slde
of the Atlantic to have anything beyond the ha-
ziest and most indefinite notions of American
notifies. In common with the majority OF our
contemporaries, we have been seriously deploring
the apparently imminent disintegratons of the
American Union. Wehave expressed our bitter
and unfeigned regret at the unfortunate compli-
cations between North and South-all gravita-
ting toward that abhorred question OF slavery
which has threatened and partly brought about
a rupture between the States of the great feder
alton of the New World. But SO astounding
and inexplicable are all American institutions,
from the ballot-box to the bowie-knife-from
caucusses to canvasback ducks-from Ameri-
can oysters to American shoes-that we should
not be at all surprised if we were told next
March that the whole of the secession movement
is only joke, and only SO much "bunkum."
We only hope the too famous Barnum is not
the Deur er macAlna who has got up this agita.
ton, and that the publicity of the quarrel be-
tween the North and South is not preparatory
step to Advertisements setting forth the approx
innate appearance Of fresh mermaid or new
woolly headed horse To sober English minds it
seems that the State of South Carolina has al
ready committed supdry overt acts of rebellion
and high treason against the Federal Govern
ment, but Americans even on the Northern side,
seem inclined to regard the seizure of forts and
the firing upon Federal vessels as rather proof
of Caroiinian ''smartnessp and go aheadism'
than otherwise. While the American newspapers
fill one portion of their columns with warkc
proclamations, intelligence of the actual com
mencement of hostilit es, and the most siniste.
representations of seryile rebellion and an
internecne war. in another part may be found
light-hearted aspirations for the future, grandl
oquent eulogy on the grandeur and importance
of the Union, and jocular comments on the state
affairs "down South" The American commu
nifty resident in Europe are, we are informed, the
most determined skeptics as to the likelihood o
dsunion, and cheerfully assure their friends tina
| there it no real danger, and that the ''muss" ii
which Uncle Sam now finds himself will bt
| cleared up ''before next fall"