, 1873-03-05
>CONTRAST.ED.
Some Of the Manners and Customs of
Europeans and Americans.
Street-Scenes Across the Atlantic, as
Seen by Wendell Phillips. !,
a Contrast Not Especially Flattering to
the Average American i.
Citizen.

/ - ~NA-tA &A<11 As0t AAoHNNAI&AAy @tlOA A4AE3
tine Average American
Citizen.
We are compelled to classify cmong the falls
prophets those people who have been foretel1in
the speedy decay Of the lecture system. Ever.
year we have a greater variety OF well-sclocte,
lecturers, who arc paid annually in an ascending
scale Of prices. Nothing could be better proc
Than tho money-gaugo Of the demand for thest
wandering gentlemen orators, and tho high esti
nation in which they arc held. The seven day
just past have been prolific in harangnes from
the peoples platform. We have had lecture
from hlr. Cough, two lectures from Mr. Beecher
and two from Mr. Wendell Phillips. All have
been we'll attended, and the peripa-
tetio rhetoriciana hare shut up ant
carried of in their disinterested Golfers quite 9
handsome amount Of their hearers riches. The
money was, no doubt, willingly paid, therefore
! ne feel constrained to say that ne have no com
| plaint to make on that score. Whether there
! waa value received for the financial considera-
tion given might be regarded by mnny as an open
| question.
Tho delivery Of Mr. Wendell Phillips discourse
| on "street Life IN Europe" at the Michigan
Avenue Baptist Church last evening, slightly re-
Ieyed the lecture plethora from which We have
been suffering. Tho audience was made up OF
cultivated people, such as the polished speaker
usually has for his hearers, who listened with
tho utmost attention, and we're not chary OF
their applause.
Thelecture Was series Of anecdotes hungo on a
thread Of criticism touching the differences be-
tween foreign manners and our own, Mr.,
Phillips considered travel and tho telegraph
the great peace~makers Of the day that quar-
rels sprung from ignorance OF ono nation by an
other; that one Of tho benefits OF our own VIC
tory we're that the South and the North knew
each other at last. He illustrated this by half-a-
dozen instances Of incredible ignorance Of
Euglishmen touching our own country, it's lan-
guage, it's habits, although there is no yai1 OF g
foreign tongue between England and ourselves
and told how Walter Scott once asked an Ameri-
can how many Indian tribes were to bo seen in
travelling from Boston to New York.
Proceeding with his criticisms of England and
that there ia moro individual Independence Of
character and manner in Europe than in this
country; that here We are overawed by the pub
Lie opinion Of the millions about us, that, in
politics, in business, even in the social ifo, al
most every American is afraid OF Mrs. Grundy.
He illustrated this point by clothes, dwellings,
and street-nanners, Gaping his selection OF
stories with that Of the recent wholesale kissing
OF Mr. O'Conor in New York court, which he
did not find would have been ut all singular on
this Continent, however much it might attract
attention here.
He then passed to the point which led him on
to Mr. Reecher's remarks OF the previous
evening, on the extreme development Of the
steam, and sending the Lightning on errands,
making Nature drudge and lifting man into q
superiority to ali toll. He cited Emerson's epi-
gram, that the genuine Yankee has more brains
in their heads. He alluded to the sluggish flow
OF the tide Of thought in Europe, and told Of
Horace Greeley's adventure with the French
peasant, in whoRe hands Mr. Greeley found, as
iron, and to whom he philosophically Suggested
that he could do three times as much work If he
had an ordinary modern scythe- To the rng-
gestions the peasant 1aconically replied, But
haven't three times the amount OF work to do"
which explained very clearly why he did not want
the scythe.
Thence the speaker gracefully diverged to the
elevators of Chicago, which he regarded as the
high tide, and as illustrating admirably the way
curae, and getting his living without the sweat
Of his brow After dwelling upon this portion
Of his theme at some length, he turned hls ut
tention to education in Europe, which received
tull measure e Of justice ;,; at hls hands and
prdised INC universal ctFtaty anu 1ponteness o.
people to each other II IN the street as worthy OF
al commentator. rms extreme pohteness, ne
eald, ls never seen N th1s county, 70
Prove m hls POINT quoting tue story OF
jna1 jjnaekefay, WHO. wandering aooue re" f
fork alone. 1ounu 6owe.y Peg,
leaning aealnse iatnp-poss, ano salo 20 NM
Nat5 ~ 1nar gen'at 9enevolence &c .na1 , cnalactoi
Why 10 h-l don't ron 60, then r. the specimen /
y the independent american 5epued an answer
s1ich the great novelist stated ne could not pos
,ibly have received u any capital IN EUROPE:
lhe Koman Catholic Chnrch re Iecelved tribute Of
praise from the speaker Tor the manner OF lts
.lms-giving,- tho deeorum Of its worship, and
9ther particulars The Catholcs, he asserted,
deserved much moro credlt than We, N our e1-
rene self-sa11s1act1on' arg nccus'o"eo TO give