Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-12-12
The Americans England.

It is upon the pages of Washington
Irving that we must look for the most
fascinating picture of the traditional
and ideal England. His imaginative
fondness for old English customs and
life led him to describe them with
charming grace, and to decorate them
with quaint illusions and quotations,
40 that he throws q delicate glamour
over England, which makes it to the
half English American heart the most
romantic Of lands. The very warmth
of jealousy with which We often speak
of England is due to the family feeling.
With the advent of universal suffrage
and the Irish immigration, it has been
part of the politics of great American
party to appeal to . hostile sentiment
which has a mixed origin. Indeed,
politicians of all schools find it conven-
lent and easy to stir the British lion.
That kind of appeal is the stock "gag"
of the political scene, but It's as inno-
cent as "Thisne, dear"
Irving, indeed, was reproached with
unpatriotic fondness for the Old Home.
This was natural enough, for he lived
long in England, and his favorite
themes were often characteristicall
English. But little reflection shows
that they are thoroughly American
sketches both in their spirit and their
point OF view. England is not roman
tic to Englishmen in Irving's way. In
deed, it can be so only to the descend
ants of EnRlishmen in other lands, who,
with perfect satisfaction With their lot,
and pride in their own career. turn
with sweet pensiveness of reminiscence
to their Fathers country-reminiscen
which is tenderly imaginative, and
= which invests is subject with faeTy
Dhues. An American who finds his own
country inspiring and ennobling in its
opportunity and its prospect often con-
fesses that it lacks a soft poetic per-
and ancestral trees in whose shade Sid
ney's sister walked. But were he born
among them, they would have lost the
spell that he now feels, and his life
would have lost the richness of that re-
greet. As you look up the Val An.
Zasca,
How family flushed, how phantom fair,
Was Monte Rosa hanging there
A thousand shadowy pencilled valleys
And snowy dells in golden air.
But it is only so from the Val Anzasca.
1t is not so when you try the terrible
ascent.
Indeed, it is one of the advantages
of America that with the modified Eng
lish blood in our veins we have Eng
land to go to. The consciousness OF
being in London is second only to that
of being in Rome or Jerusalem. Is it
second? Is the soul of the American
more stirred by st. Peters, by the yell
low Arno, by the Coliseum. by the tomb
in Arqua, than by London, by the
daisy in the field, the hawthorn hedge,
the lark in the sky, Westminster, Run!
nymede? And the fond regard, the
surprised. eager delight, the pathos of
pleasure, do not weaken, they do but
strengthen, that lettering scion Of kin
beyond the sea. The stronger and
deeper his romantic reverence for Eng
land, the better American is he, because
bss narrow and prejudiced. Generos.
lily of soul is greatness Of soul. With
gratitude and sympathy and Joy the
sincere American wanders through
England; and yet, child of his country
and time, he still murmurs, wistfully
Il like monk. l like cowl,
love prophet of the soul;
And on my heart monastic aisles
Fall like sweet strains or pensive smiles
Yet not for all his faith can sec
Would that cowled churchman be-"
-EDIToRs EASY CHAIR, in Harper's
Magazine.