Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-08-23
PARIS LETTER.

What An BGGl1ah Lady knOWs
AbOuS Us-An Eagliahmanss Unique
Arsument In Favor OF Seees-IOn-
our Habits, Manners and Dress Of
EensiVe 20 the Refined Apes and Vel
VeI-PaWed Tigers Of PaFts-The Ma
nEa for European TraVeI-EurOPean
ShOPmen aud Innkeepers-KIIIIng
The Productive GOOse-AmeFlcan
SOeIabIIiIy AbrOad-A subject on
which Travellers Disagree.
FROM our Regular Correspondent
1t tiswOrth while 10 come &c Europe, if
for no other purpose, to a get birds eye
view Of America, or, as bright American
girl expressed it, to look at our own eoun-
try through an inverted telescope. We
will never as people see ourselves US Eu-
rope sees US, and it is not well that We
should, for, with all our national pride and
vanity, We have not the exaggerated opin-
ion Of our own greatness, and the contempt
for the uHworthiness Of everything trans
Atlantic, that is so charming and ingenu-
Gus in Englishmen and Frenehmen. The
average American has not as much eonceit
as the Frenchman or as much StOlid AFRO
gance as the Englishmsn. But, however
so little We may admit the justness Of their
verdict, it is a wholesome edifcation to
know that large majority Of foreigners,
especially in France and England, look
upon US with very much tie same pitying
contempt that we regard the South Ameri-
can republics. l have come to the conclu-
sion, since have had an opportunity for
observation. that We are more liberal and
cosmopolitan than our cousins on this side
of the water. Their ignorance of every
thing American is sometimes amusing.
Last week was talking with an lntelligen.
English lady. we'll versed in English liter
atufe and politics. We we're felieitating
each other on the immense number of peo-
pie that spoke the English language and
the larger number that would speak it in
the future. / told her that the English
speaking people in the United States num-
bered 40, 600, 600; she replied, but that in
cludes the slaves does it not? l have heard
of an Englishman who insisted on the
right and necessity Of secession because, he
said, if Providence had intended that the
North and South should be one govern
ment he would have given the two sections
broader geographical connection than the
isthmus Of Darien. We have not succerd-
ed in making very good impression on
this side the water, and especially are the
habits, dress and manners of our tourists
population offensive to the French. The
French are a superficial people themselves,
and take superficial view of everything,
and, it must be admitted that the average
American Traveller is not specifically at
tractive. With these vOlitile, amiable,
graceful, conceited apes-elegance Of man
ner. Of dress and address, are ali the law
and prophets. The American abroad is
good-natured, amicable, direct, and un'
conventional, or, in the eyes of the French,
awkward, rude, addressed, and disgusting.
He is tolerated only in shops, and only for
his purchasing power. The mean way in
which he is imposed upon and made to pay
from twenty to fifty per cent. more than
the regular price for everything he touches,
tastes, wears, or looks at-for his newspa-
per, towel, soap, napkin, ct ceterG ad iHfnt-
tstn, sometimes make him use bad Ian
guage, in plain English, Of course, for the
language of diplomacy and love, even if
he knew it, would not be sufficiently en-
phatic. When he uses the emphatic Ian
guage accompanied by energetic gesture,
the polite thieves and pickpOckets who
have robbed him look on with aggravating
urbanity, their charitable hearts full Of
pity and contempt for the barbarian who
has been so unfortunate as to exist all his
existence out of Paris, without opportuni-
ty for acquiring the perfection of bows,
smiles, facial gayety, gracefulness of pose,
and deceitfulness of phrase, peculiar to
the people whom Voltaire described as a
combination of the monkey and the tiger.
l wish had space to tell Of some of the
outrageous skinning and gouging of Amer
leans that have come under my own OBJ
servation. think it will react on these
people, and in time, they will learn that
they have killed the productive goose.
But. at presant, the mania for European
traYel is strong. 1t has become the fash
iOnable thing to come to Europe. Swarms
os Americans from all parts of the Union,
and from Canada, are ranging the eonti-
nent. spenoing usually the largest portion
Of their time and money in Paris. Form
erly only Americans of wealth came to
Europe, those who had struck oil, gov
ernment contract, or cotton plantations.
Now the United States sends forth battal-
lions who come with only four or five hun
dred dollars, for pleasure, to study art, or
for general culture. The old class set the
example for high prices, and Europeans
have been only too happy 20 believe that
the chief pleasure Of Americans is to spend
money. The old wealthy class Of Ameri-
can travellers have by their prodigality done
great wrong TO those who come after them.
II is edifying to see number Of Ameri-
CdlS JOSclu6E hDEOdus NO pOOpic III Gub
world have such facility of fraterniza-
ton on foreign soil. The English and the
French hold themselves loof from their
felISw countrymen for fear they may meet
some one they cannot speak TO at home
But Americans whether from Charleston
or Boston, San Francisco or Baltimore are
au bon rapport with one another and the
way they denounce the customs Of the peo-
pie, the avarice of shopmen and innkeep-
ers, and the poorness Of the table from one
end of Europe to the other. is, as show
man would say. both moral and instructive.
There is only one subject on which they
disagree, and that is in reference to pre-
cedence in dishonesty of different peoples.
The party is usually divided between the |
French and Italians, but the Swiss have a |
large and enthusiastic constituency.
C. AS.
The New York Herald comes to front |
T.. al |