The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1878-08-21
Paris Letter.

F I -r-
STANDING ON THE STANDPOINT
WHAT AN ENGLISH LADY KNOWS
ABoUT Us - AN ENGLIsHMANs s
i ~ UNIQUE ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF
sEoEssIoN-oUR HABITS, MANNERS
AND DRESS OFFENSIVE TO THE RE-
FNED APES AND YELyET-PAwED
TIGERS OF PARIS Is-THE MANS FOR
EUROPEAN TRAVEL - EUROPEAN
sHoPMEN AND nSKEEPERs KILLING
THE Productive eoosE-ANrERI-
4 CAN soCIABLTrY ABRoAD-A SUB
JECr ON WHICH TRAVELLERS DIsA-
GREE.
To the Editor Of the Morristown Gazette:
It is worth while to come to Eu-
rope. if for no other purpose. to get
a birds eye view of America. or. as
a bright American girl expressed it,
to look at our own country through
an inverted telescope. We will new
er as a people see ourselves as Eu-
rope sees US, and it is not web that
we should, for, with all our national
pride and vanity, we have not the
exaggerated opinion of our own
greatness, aud the contempt for the
unworthiness of everything trans-
Atlantic, that is so charming and
ingenious in Englishmen and
Frenchmen. The average American
has not as much conceit as the
Frenchman or as much stolid AFRO,
gance as the Englishman. But,
however so little we may admit the
business of their verdict, it is a
wholesome edifcation to know that
large majority of foreigners. es-
pecially in France and England, look
upon us with very much the same
plying contempt that we regard the
South American republics. 1 have
come to the conclusion, since have
had an opportunity for observation,
that we are more liberal and cosmo-
politan than our cousins on this side
the water. Their ignorance OF
every thing American is sometimes
amusing, Last week was talking
with an intelligent English lady,
well versed in English literature
and politics. We were felicitating
each other on the immense number
of people that spoke the English
language and the larger number
that would speak it in the future.
I told her that the English speaking
people in the United States number.
ed 10000 900. She replied But that
includes 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
he would have given
the two sections broader geographi-
cal connection than the istlmus of
Darien. We have not succeeded in
very good impression on
this side the water, and especially
are the habits, dress and manners,
of our tourist population offensive to
the French. The French are SUI
perfcial people themselves. and take
a superficial view of everything, and
it must be admitted that the aver
age American traveller is not super,
Gcially attractive. With these vol
title, amiable, graceful, conceited,
apes-elegance of manner, of dress
and address, are all the law and
prophets The American abroad is
coed natured, amiabie, direct, and
unconventional 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 every.
thing he touches, tastes, wears, or
looks at; for his newspaper. towel.
soap, napkin, ct ceterG I'D tgJtRttun1,
makes him use bad
language, in plain English, of course,
for the language Of diplomacy and
love, even If he knew it, would not
be sufficiently emphatic. When he
uses the emphatic language. accom-.
panied by energetic gesture, the
polite thieves and pick pockets who
have robbed him look on with aggra-
vating urbanity, their charitable
hearts full of pity and contempt for
the barbarian who has been SO un-
fortunate as to exist all his exist
snce out Of Paris, without opportuni-
y for acquiring the perfection OF
BOWS, facial gayety, gracefulness OF |
pose, ana deceitfulness of phrase.
peculiar to the people whom Yaltaire
described as a combination Of the
and tiger. 1 wish 1 had
space to tell of some Of the outrage
ous skinning and gauging of Ameri-
cans that have come under my o@H
Il t. VI II IL 4
/ think it will react
IN these people, and. in time, they
will learn that they have killed the
goose. Bot at present.