, 1876-11-18
LOCAL COLOUR.
Correspondence Qrtdc Iimes.)

A lady III whose house | was dining last
night told me that an English friend had grit
ten to her 70 complain that my letters about
Amer lea we're toe Gattering, and wanted
.local colour - that no reader would discover
from them that the Americans were the very
eccentric, peculiar people, more or less IN
civilized. which all well-informed persons
knew them to bp.-the Quadroons. as it were,
or ocforoons, Of civilization, witb so May
drops Of savage blood IN their veins. Knowing
The writer. ! have my reason for suspecting that
the complaint was made in JEST but fit had
been made in sober earnest It would, | fear,
have faithfully represented the feeling which
many people IL England have about America.
Indeed, | have heard, on good authority, that
the same complaint was made against the
enecial artist Of an illustrated newspaper
because his sketches Of Philadelphia represent
ed It as il really is, and not as the British pub.
lie have a prescriptiye right to expect that an
American city should be. Fortunately for all
concerned, except, perhaps, the PhiladeIphlansl
the offending artist vas soon wanting else
where, and some one else has been contribut.
fnr sketches abIazo with what ! dare say does
admirable duty at home for local colour, =
but gives about as true q picture OF PhlladeI-
phian as ofLondon life. Readers whose know
ledge of America is derived chiefly from
Cooper's novels and Longfeliow have been
charmed TO find, for instance, their Old friends
Chingnchgook AMI Pan-puS keewis s%tfutt'ng
with tomahawks shout the streets Of PhlIadel-
pbia, where, In real prOSaic life, they are about
as likely to be found az on Clapham-C0mm0n.
The phiIudeIphiaus-who DO not always, l
grieve TO say. display that Christian calmneSs
and rpeckucss and lofty tolerance Of worldly
MISREPRESENTATION which a lover Of " local
colour" would ike to find in the Quaker city"
are very angry, or, as the Americans say,
mad" J have had the carlcstures so often
thrown 10 my English teeth-hera even, in
Newport, at this distance from the scene Of the
crime-as if ! were in ally way responsible for
them. that at least the fire huns within me aud
speak. My only consolation is that ! have a
fellow victim, moi lees innocent, and even more
ill-used, than myself. The artist who was
found fault with for his t8meness and want Of
+" local COLOUR and whose name figured at
6rRt NEST prominently, after American fashion,
in connection with his journal, gets the credit
Of all these spirited caricafures. and is one Of
he best abused men in Philadelphia, 1t may
crafty him TO hear that. whatever success no
may he achieving in the far East, does not
interfere with bis growing reputation and the
speedy development Of HE lame into o house
hold word in the distant West.
But what matters II, alter all, II a mere
provincial viilags"-as a Bostonlan once, to
my horror and alarm, in a crowded Pbiladel-
phian horse.car described Philadelphia to me-
gets as "mad'' as it likes, so long as q real
metropolis like London is pleased I The Lon.
doner pays bis money, and has a right to take
his choice. During the last agOnies of the
Paris Commune / saw an artist sketch q very
stirring scene in which a bsrricade played O
prominent part. A hght was going on, but as
no one had been killed on the artists side, his
barricade went to London without g. body. 1t
returned, however, to Paris with one body
OF two-1 forget now whioh-to no ones great
er establishment than the artists; but when be
asked for an explanation-not, perhaps, without
some indignation at THE treatment OF o sketoh
which he had made as faithful as q photograph,
the very names Of the streets and shops being
copied--be was. in his turn, asked, with at
least equal warmth how be could expect the
British public, just az that moment supping
full on horrors, to believe 10 a Paris barrioade
without a body on 1t. The artist in question
had experience enough to have known better
but the mi mistake is often made, with more
excuse. by young amateurs, who send home
sketches Of Indian see nry without palm trees,
merely because in the part OF India which they
are representing the palm tree happens to be