New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-06-03
THE HANDSOME ENGLISHMAN.

THE HANDSOuE EMO DIoHM6N'
Mr.. Darwin seems strong in his facts when
collected by other people, and only arranged
by himself. He is an authority on six-toed
cats, and benevolent monkeys, and aesthetic
bower birds, even without having seen them.
But when it comes to the high-bOrn Brlton,
whom he must have seen-for if cat may
look upon a king, surely dissector OF cats
may contemplate a marquis some glamour
seems to come over him. He does not use his
eyes, apparently, but accepts the traditions OF
ages as reverenty IA if no were an archbishop.
He attributes "the beauty of the upper classes
Gin England to the men having long selected
"the more beautiful women" descent of Man,
H. 340-1, Am. ed)
The annual inroad of travelling Englishmcn
is now becoming so large among us that even
untraveled Americans are becoming familiar
with their looks. Many of these youths are, or
purport to be, of high social position; and
anxious inquiries are beginning to be made
why the representatives of this aristOcratlc
beauty do not appear among these travellers.
In the frank language of the Washington
young lady, demonstrating with the High JOINT
Commissioner on this very subject " If the
"Queen has them, why does she not send one
"of them over here r. One sees handsome
Englishmen, no doubt, but they are apt to be
on the forward deck of the yacht, not in the
cabin; on the outside of the carriage in Central
Park, not inside. They are apt to be grOOms,
or gardeners, or sailors, or belong in some
way to the degraded class of "cads."
Why should there be this diiferenceP
As Darwin justly remarks (hOugh with an
opposite application, these classes care placed
"under equally favorable circumstances for
"the perfect development of the body" Why
is it that, as a general rule, the fine young En-
glish gentleman who visits us is less good
looking than the man servant he brings with
him. We speak in sorrow, not in anger.
Everybody likes to see a handsome man.
When we are to meet Lord Frederick Fitzre-
gal at the club or at a dinner party, we de-
sire TO see some one who has stepped out of
"Guy Livingstone youth as Bulwer
first created and Wilkie Collins is now endeav-
oring TO extnguish The chances are that
when the door opens, there shufiies IN an UNI
dersized, lght-haired, near-sghted, awkward
boy, with a drawing Dundreary voice, who
seems afraid of his own shadow, and can
not greet man or woman in frank
or easy way. He has a certain blunt
and stammerng simplicity, which is
not to be despised. But even the magma
ton of Mr. Darwin, which sees infinite tender
ness in bowling mOnkey-even the beautiful
self abnegatiOn of Mr. Disraeli, which bows its
head before class, cannot possibly attribute
anything but physical fOrlOrnness to this indi-
vidual representative There may be hand
some Englishmen of the upper classes, but
they must love their homes very much. They
rarely come here. We remember a certain
public ball at watering place whittier Young
New-York carried its thinnest legs and its
slenderest chests; and the general result, to a
lover of his country, was not encouraging
Presently there entered the room an English
viscount, the son of an earl. All eyes were
turned on him with renewed cheerfulness; he
was 80 utterly insignificant of aspect, that
even the fast young ew-Yorkers seemed a
race of giants.
Punch had carcature, the other day, rep
resenting two young English clerks or bag
men of the most wee and emaciated aspect
seated on tObaccOnst's counter, pulling
cigars obviously beyond their strength, and
deploring the physical degeneracy of the
Americans. But Punch, with all his daring,
still cherishes the traditional reverence for the
aristOcracy, or he would have taken his two
youths from higher class. The average En-
glish rustic who comes to America is phys
ically respectable, coarse but strong; he mis-
pr0nounces, but he has manly chest-tOnes he
is not near-sighted, nor one-sided, nor under
sized he is what the French call sun hOmme
"solide.r But who could see anything solid
or commanding in most of the young noble
men who run through America and pause a
little while in Washington, or New-YOrk, or
Newport, on their way to Salt Lake City !
Actually, we Americans are beginning to dis
believe in Pelham and all his progeny, and to
hold the only true type of the blood in En-
gland to be Mrs. Edwards's "little Lord Petre'
in "Steven Lawrence" Or is it, after all, that
the Lord Petres travel-fOr their health-and
that Mr.. Darwin's beauties of the upper
classes stay at home'