The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-05-22
The Raw American.

London at present abounds in Americans
on their way to the Vienna Exposition.
Many of them are commissioners from vari-
Gus States. Some have lands to sell or other
financial axes to grind. OF such the Lang
ham Hotel is full. The Langham is the
nearest approach to an American hotel in
London. There. though not Il guest. YOU
NAV pass in and ont without explaining to
the hall-porter who you are. what you are,
where you come from, or what you want :;
YOU may there enter and retire without
giving your pedigree, naturalization papers,
or certificate of good character. At other
English hotels something analogous to this
is commonly required.
We who have been in England a full year
look down with an air of superiority on the
raw, the newly-arrived American. We are
quite English. We have worn out our
American clothes. We have Oh English
hats with tightly-rurled rims and English
stub.tocd boots. We know the intricacics
of London street navigation, and lSlinSton,
Blackfriars, Camden Town, Hackney. the
"Surrey Side" Piccadily, Regent and OK
ford streets, the Strand and Fleet street, are
all mapped out distinctly in our minds eye.
We are skilled in English money, and no
longer pass off halfcrowns for two-shilllnS
pieces. We are real Anglo-Ameilcans.
But the raw American, only arrived i
week, is in maze, Il confusion, hurry. He
is excited and mystiticd. He tries to appear
cool aud inconcerned, and is simply rdicu-
lous. His cards, bearing his name, title.
and official status. he distributes as freely rs
doth the winter wind toe Sn0w-flakes. In
qure at the Langham otti& for Mr.. Smith,
and YOU find he has bloSsomcd into General
Smith.
He is always mrtaking or about to partake
of official dinners. He feels that the eyes of
all England are upon him. He is dressed
Il la handboX-hat immaculate in its prs-
tine gloss, white eravat. umbrella of the
simmcSt encased in slkcn wrapper. y
sperk OF mud on his boots would tarnl>l the
national honor. Commonly he is taken for
lead-butler. He drinks much stout He
eats whitehall dinner before being forty
eight hours in London. and tells of it. All
this makes him feel English.
You meet him. He is ovcrioyed. He
would talk of cverything-your mutual en-
lrriencc in America. his sensations and I'M
prcSSions since arriving in England He
talks inteiligibly of nothing. His brain is a
mere rag-bag-shreddy confused, parti-co-
ored. Thus he emptes it: passage over
rough" London wonderful" "Dincd with
the Earl of - Yesterday" Dine with SIR
$50 to-day" To the tower" "Wc,tmn-
ster."" New York growing" st. Paul's -
going. going, gone! and he shakes hands
with you, and is off at a Broadway gait
straight toward the east end of London for
hiS hotel, which lies at the west end
In reality the man is not in bis right mind.
He Is undergoing the mental accinmtization
fever. Should he stay in London for three
months he might recover and begin to find
out where he is. But six months hence he
will have returned to America, ianrying he
has seen London, Paris, Rome, Geneva,
Vienna, and whatever other places his body
has been hurried through, not his mind; for
that, in the cXcit, ment and rapidity CT his
fight, has streamed behind him like the tail
of comet-li.ht attenuatcd, vapory, CATCH
ing nothing, absorbing nothing.
Occasionally this fever takes an abusive
phase. He finds in England nothing to like.
nothing TO admire. Sometimes he wishes
immediately to reyolulionzc the govern
mcnl. He is incen>cd at the cost of royalty.
He sees on every side indications of poIti-
cal upheaval. Or he becomes cuiuarily dis
|uSted. Because there are no buckwhcat
cakes, no Goldfish cakes, no hot bread. no
pork and beans, no mammoth oysters,
stcwed. fried, and roasted, he can find
nothing hit to cat. The English cannot
cook. Because he can find no noisy, clattcr-
ing diSh-SmaShipg restaurant, full of aero
baltic walters racing and balancing under
immense piles of plates, and shouting
jargon untran>latable, uninteliiyible. and
unpronounccable, down into tie lower kitch-
l., lF..T
tor', IN O,r Monthty GOSSIP IN ne J"nc
No. Of LappancotfS Adgazine.
A CHAMPION OLp MAN or TIE PERJor.