The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1878-09-25
European Letter.
LONDON, Sept. 1st. 1873.

To the Editor of the Morristown Gazette:
} From Paris to London is not more
, than nine or ten hours, (they esti
! mate distance by time in Europe9
] but that gives no idea of the i'm
mense changes in the scenery life
and manners involved in the transit
tion from one city to the other. Par
is is clean, whitewalled, ever wear
ing an air of holiday and refinement
In Paris the humber classes are
cheerful, happy, healthy looking. and
cheaply but neatly attired; her dan.
dies are exquisite and diabolically
gay, and her ladies. what more need
be said of them than that they die
tate fashion to the female world,
and are at the bottom of hard times.
London is immense, labarynthine,
unclean, mephitic. Her lower clas-
ses are numerous, blear-eyed. filthy
and meanly clad-they wear a wor-
ried, wearied appearance, giving the
impression of a hard, struggling,
past, and and doubtful future. Her
middle classes have a SLOPPY air,
homely features. with ungainly phis-
ique, and elaborate but ungraceful
manners. The want of taste in dress
of the English people is proverbial,
but | am disposed to think that the
defect is less in the eye and aesthet-
ic sense of the subject than in the
want of a proper figure for the dis
! play of good clothes. The sartorial
genius has not yet been born that can
make an Englishman look like a
gentleman. The average English
man is neither an Adonis nor An
tinous. Either his arms are too
long. his shoulders too narrow, his
stomach too large, his shins too
short. or his toes are disposed to
turn in. l know that many who
imagine that they have seen Eng
lishmen will be disposed to criticise
my criticism; but let no one sup
pose that he has seen a people until
be has seen them in their own habi-
tas. The only way to compare the
English with the French or Ameri-
cans is to see them in the mass, as
they may be seen in their respective
countries. and I think that those
who have remained for few weeks
in England will bear me out in what
I have said. Next to the French,
there are perhaps fewer native Eng
lish people in the United States
than of any other great nation. and
the specimens with us do not fur
nish a sufficiently broad premise for
a general estimation.
Politically the Englishman is 10y
al. In spite of discontented ele-
ment that finds fitfnl expression
here and there. nineteen of every
twenty Englishmen you meet will
speak with pride and praise when
the Queen. the Prince of Wales, or
any of the Royal family, are refer
red to. The tenth one. however,
will call her Britanic majesty an old |
hag, and has awful stories to tell !
about the stupidity of the Prince of
Wales, his deceased body, and dis
solute life. All Englishmen praise
the superiority of our railway cars.
but there their concessions cease,
they think they have the best gov
ernment in the world, and are ready
to prove by figures that our frequent
elections, by breaking up industrial
routine and habits are indirectly q
greater strain upon the exchequer
than the enormous amount expended
for the maintenance Of the Royal
family, No Englishman can quar-
rel without informing his adversary.
at some stage of the alteration,
that he is an Englishman, and he
cannot talk long with an American
without denouncing the protective
sariff of the United States. That
Is where the shoe pinches. II we
would but give free ingress to the
numberless cheap and excellent i
things they make. they would love
rs more. The marvellous cheapness
and superior quality of the thousand
and one articles that are indispen,
'ible to civilized life, here in Lon
Ion, cannot but astonish Americans,
Who cannot see how they can be
made for twice the sum asked for
hem. A tooth brush that will cost
,orty cents in the States may be
bought In London for five or ten
cents and thousands of other things
II proportion. cannot of course, /,
make list. but will say in a gener-
Il way that our tailors and dealers
n useful and fancy manufactured
lrticles are perhaps the most extor-
ionate sinners in the world. and
hat one hundred and even two hun
lred per cent. is not an unusual
,rofit for them.
In England the cooperative sys-
cm is having a very appreciable
fleet on local trade. The object of
his system may be described as the