New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-09-22
the New-Jersey mosquito must have been
singular and fortunate one.
orr NAyYERs AT THE EXPOSITION


There is a good deal of complaint. we learn,
among foreign exhibitors and commissioners at
the Exposition of the ill-breeding OF the
American people. They say they are forced
daily to remind the staring crowds about them
that they are not part of the Exhibition, or, as
an indignant Turk cried the other day. The
"sbow is in the cases; we are not thrown IN
"for your fifty cents" II they retreat to
transact business into their offices, they are
unearthed, the doors pushed open and throngs
of well-dressed women stand gaping at them
in silence, precisely as though they were beasts
in cage. If they have darker skin than
usual or wear their national costume, their
sufferings become intolerable. The surglDg
crowds close in on them, point them out to
each other with nudges and loud comments,
while their imperfect English is met with a
ieer, OF at best an astonished giggle In their
faces.
Now all this is lamentably true, and we may
as well reap the full benefit OF the sharp CRU
cism of our foreign observers. We boast much
of the intelligence of our middle classes, and
the cosmopolitan character of the education
offered TO them by cheap and frequent travel;
but it Is no less fact that one-hait OF the
people who receive public school education,
and use their brains with shrewdness and eff
feet afterward in their daily business or house.
hold work. do not absorb any culture outside
of these limits. Literature is represented to
them by the newspapers and semi-religlous
novels Art by chromos; while man who
speaks different language from their own, or
does not wear the orthodox trousers and hat,
nil I
great masses who comprise this class the Ex-
position is probably the first chance OF
glimpse into the great unknown world, where
Beauty and Art are real active principles, and
where human nature presents itself III dliier-
ent conditions from that of their country town.
Much might be pardoned to natural curiosity,
but nothing to the insolence of ignorance.
Our rustic friend who stares ut the japanese
gentleman az OF an inferior animal would learn
the most useful lesson of his life if he would
read the amazement with which he is in turn
scanned and judged by the code OF liner
school of manners than our own.
1t might not be amiss either to suggest to
our women visiting the Exposition that they
are subjected to the scrutiny of observers
whose code of decorum is very different from
that of America, and that however innocent or
pure they may be, their manners, so far as
intercourse with foreigners is concerned, might
wisely be guarded by more strict personal
reserve than is usual, simply to protect them
selves from misapprchension. Their freedom
of manner is founded, as Americans know, on
the purity and safety Of our social life. But
1t is hardly the time, nor are they the fitting
agents, to convert the outside world to belief
in this fact. Meanwhile, it does redeem our
manners from a vulgarity much coarser than
that of curiosity. The American mechanic may
know nothing of art and his wife may punch
her parasol into statue or heather Turk,
in pursuit of knowledge but you may be
crowded with thousand American mechanics
and their wives in the blocked avenues of the
Exposition, and You shall not hear an oath
or i'll -humored word, or meet a look or gesture
directed toward a woman which is not decent
and courteous. We know no other nation
which could merit this praise, and the charac-
ter for chaste, happy domestic life which it
irnnliaa