Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-07-17
AMERICANS IN ENGLAND.
Why the English are Shy of Them.

Saturday Review.l
What is there here to tempt them
to stay, used as they are to a free social
life at home, and fresh perhaps from
months of delightful v~agabondage in
Italy, except the home intercourse of
English society, which is precisely
what they find so rarely accessible ?
And this brings US round again to the
question why this should be the case.
An Englishman, if the question were
put TO him by an American, would
probably answer pretty much as fol-
lows To begin with" he would say.
it is not universally true that Ameri-
cans are excluded from English homes.
There are quite enough instances Of
Americans who have been cordially
welcomed, and have won a high posi-.
ton both in the fashionable and in the
rational classes Of English society, to
dispel any fancy that you may have
that there is a feeling against you on
the ground of nationality, There is
none. On the contrary, if you are
personally acceptable, and if your Gre
dentials are satisfactory, and if YOU
take half the trouble to know us thatwe
take to know one another, you will find
that the fact of your being American
will tell very much in your favor.
You are enough of foreigners to be
made welcome, and to be we'll treated
on that score and at the same time
you are allied to us so closely that you
can understand us as no other foreign
eIs can, Further, you must remember
what u national character is and
what our social usages are. Nearly
all OF us r conscious of a certain
reserve toward strangers. We are so
constituted, and there's an end of it.
1t keeps us apart frOM one another,
and you must not be surprised if it
tends to keep us apart from you.
Further, it is one thing to introduce a
stranger into an American home and
another to introduce him into an
English home. We take the inviting
OF people to our house to mean more
and to pledge US to more. We have
not-unfortunately, as many of us
think-the same ease and simplicity
of social life that you have. 1t gives
us a great deal more trouble and ex-
pense to entertain and treat you as we
would wish to treat you, and as it is
our habit to treat those whom we
entertain at all, than is the case on
your side of the Atlantic-especially
as WI generally travel singly in Amer
lea and you travel commonly in parties
in Europe. And again-and this is
the chief point-you all of you travel,
good, bad and Indifferent. Setting
aside the purely commercial traveller,
the Englishmen who go to see you are
mostly Of the better s.rt. They are
gentlemen and men of education.
Would you-could you, be as kind to
us as you are, if the class of English
people who now visit the continent
under the fatherly guidance Of Mr..
Cook were to come over by thousands
and tens of thousands every season to
the United States? A great deal
which now goes without saying as to
the fitness Of your English visitors
to be received into good American
houses would then be accepted only
upon evidence. You would have
to pick and choose, and you
would find that your better peo-
pie would only care to open
their doors to those Englishmen
who we're thoroughly we'll acored-
tied. AS this state of things would
naturally react on the feeling of Eng
lish travellers. They would know that
they would haye.to be scrutinized be-
fore being accepted. They would
know that the arithmetical chances
were against their being acceptable.
The better bred, and therefore the
least conspicuous, among them would
often notice, with a feeling of shame,
that their country was supposed to be
represented by the louder and more
vulgar, A certain reserve, natural
under the circumstances and neces-
sary for the self-protection of both,
would grow up between English trav-
elers and American hosts. But it
would be a reserve which would last
only long enough to enable both par
ties to discriminate, and to decide
whether or not intimacy was possible
or desirable, Nor is there" he
would add, amy other reserve on our
part toward you when you como to see
us in England than such as may be
accounted for in this way"