The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-03-26
Social Habits of the Americans.

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National habits, tastes and feeling
differ, and Americans, in several partic
ulars, are unlike their English relatives
The Englishman is shy and exclusive
He builds high wall around his house
and garden, to keep out the eyes of the
public. The American builds fine
house and lays out handsome garden
that others may see and enjoy them as
well as himself. Shut in and hidden,
they would lose half their value. He
builds near the road to be bstter seen
by the passers by; aud his only fence
is low palipg, as light aud open as
possible. The Englishman likes to eat
in private-shut up in his room or q
close little box. The American prefers
a large, gay dining. room, and the pres
ence of many guests. What has he to
be ashamed of? He wishes to see and
be seen. He suns himself in the public
gaze. He enjoys society, and enters
into the life around him. The more
the merrier. The larger the hotel, the
bigger the steamboat, the more people
about him, the greater his enjoyment.
On the railway an Englishman's ideal
is to be shut up alone, or, at the most,
with his little private party. He has
taken the coach with two seats facing
each other, so that half the passengers
must ride backwards as the model of
his railway carriage. The American
prefers his spacious and handsome car
with its fifty passengers. He likes to
walk through the train, and finds some
one he knows. He is not afraid of in
truding, is gregarious and social-ready
to discuss trade or politics with a
stranger, without buttoning up his
pockets. He is not afraid that some
person below his rank will claim his
acquaintance. He shakes hands with
the president, and discusses the coming
election with the blacksmith or shoe
maker. He calculates to treat every
well behaved man like a gentleman,
and every woman is to him lady, to
whom he is courteous, respectful, and,
if need be, protective. Perhaps the
most repulsive thing an English trav-
eler meets with in America is the want
of any distinction of classes. On the
railroad there is but one class and one
price. The best cars are, of course,
reserved for ladies and those who ac-
company them; but all paid the same
fare. The rudest American understands
that lady, that any woman, has pre-
scriptive right to the front seat in the
show, to the head of the table at dinner,
to the best cabins and state-rooms on |
the steamer, and the best cars in the |
railway train. She may be rich or
poor, mistress or maid these are her |
rights as woman. There is not a
steamboat running on the widest west |
ern river where a male passenger ever |
takes his seat at table until every |
woman is seated in her own place Of
honor. A hundred hungry men, with
hot dinner smoking before them, will |
patiently wait until some young miss
has fixed her last curl, and taken her
seat near the head of the table. And a
lone woman, old or young, pretty or
ugly, may travel from one end of
America to the other, finding kindness,
civility and every assistance she needs
from every man she meets. There are
then, in price and privilege, no first
class, second, class, or third-class pas
sengers. But there are on steamboats,
deck passengers, generally emigrants
going west, or up the Mississippi (; and
emigrant trains, at very low rates, are
run upon some of the principal lines of
But an American never trav
els by these trains. He puts on his
Sunday clothes, pays full fare-as high
as the highest and holds himself as
good as the best. t.--Dr. NicOLS.