Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-08-20

Tle Qu6eny rose he .oEeu SO well
Law ia HIS arms with dropping head
Ear Death has chilled my lips before,
Il Live cnce dies, he may return
0TSnslcy, Maga,.ns.
What an English Radical Thinks.
GEORGE JACOB HoLYoAkE on HIS VISIT TO
AMERICA.
fF.om the Nineteenth C,ntury.l
After all l had read, Or heard, it SEEM
cd to me that there were great features OF
social life there unregarded or disre-
garded. New York itself is miracle
which large booi. would not be sufficient
TO explain. When | stepped ashore there
Thought ] was in n larger Rotterdam /;
whaa / found my way 20 Broadway, it
seemed 20 ne as though l was in Paris,
and that Paris had taken to business.
There were quaintness, grace. and gay
ETY., brightness and grimness all about.
Broadway 4 thought q Longway, for my
first invitation in 1t was 10 No. l, 400. Ny
first days in the city were spent at No.
Broadway, in the Washington hotel, al
lured thither by its English military and
diplomatic associations, going back to the
days when an Indian war-hoop was posi-
be in Broadway At that end you are
lazed hy forest of tall telegraph poles,
and 4 clatter by night and day that no
pathway of pandcmonium could rival.
Car bells, omnibus bells, dray-horse
hella. railway bells, and locomotives in
the air were resounding night and day,
An engineer turns eff his steam at your
bedroom window. When got up to See
what WIS the matter, l found engine No.
SO almost within reach of my arm, and
the other 9S had been there that morning
before awoke. When one day at rail
way junction ] heard nine train bells
being rung by machinery, 1t sounded as
though disestablishment had occurred
and all the parish churches Of England
were being imported.
A wholesome distinction of America is
that industry alone is universally honor
able there, and has good chances. There
are no common people there, in the En-
Clish sense. When speaking in the Coo
per institute, New York, L was reminded
that the audience would resent being SO
addressed Every man il America feels
as though he owns the country, because
the charm of recognized equality and the
golden chances Of ownership have
entered his mind. He is proud of the
statues and public buildings. The great
rivers, the trackiess praires, the regal
mountains, all seem his. Even the steep
cl.rbstones of New York and Boston,
which brought me daily distress, | was
asked to admire for some reason yet TN
known to me. In England nobody says
to the visitor or foreigner when he first
meets him, What do you think of Eng
land The people do not feel that they
own the country; or- r-lesE haze Grespoasl1le CON-
troll over it. The country is managed by
somebody else. Not even the members
Of parliament know when base treaties are
made in the nations name, and dlshon-
oring wars are entered into, which the |
lives and earnings of their constituents may
be ccatiscated TO sustain. All that our rep |
resentatives can tell us Is that that Is
an affair OF the crown. In America there
is no crown, md the people are kings, and !
they know it. had not landed on the |
American shores an hour before | became |
aware that was in q new nation, ANNA
ted by a new life which had never seen.
If young Englishmen could be sent n
couple Of years to take part IN American
business, they would come back much
improved An eminent English professor,
whom 1 lately asked whether it would not
do this country good If we could get our
peers to emigrate, answered mo doubt,
if you could smarter them up bit first.
Everywhere in America you hear the
Injunction, "Hold on :" In every vessel
and car there are means provided for
doing it; for unless man falls upon his
feet-if he does fall-he finds people to
busy to stop and pie; him up. The ma
ton is in conmotion. Life in America is
battle and z march. Freedom has set
the race on fire-freedom with the pros
pect OF property. Americans are ma
ton of men wEo have their own way, and
10 very well with it. 1t is the only coun-
try where men are men in this sense, and
the unusuainess CT the liberty bewilders
many who do wrong things in order to he
sure they are free to do something. This
error is mostly made by newcomers, to
whom freedom is O novelty; and it is only
by trying eccentricity that they can test
the unwonted sense of their power Of
self-disposal But as liberty grows into
d habit, one by one the eyperimcutcrs
become conscious Of tie duty Of not
betraying the precious possession by
making it repulsiye Perhaps se'f-asser-
ton seems little in excess of interna-
tioual requirements. MANY citizens"
give Il stranger the impression that they
10 think themselves equal TO their supe-
Tiors, and superior to their equals; yet
all of them are manlier than they would
be through the ambition Of each to be
equals Of anybody else.
The effect Of American inspiration on
Engiishmen was strikingly evident. !
met voTamen in many cities whom | had
known in former years in England. They
were no longer the same men. There
their employers seldom or never spoke to
them. and the WoTj.EI.n were rather glad,
= Ii
relate 20 a X lGction OF wages They
thought it hardly prudent to look fore
man CT oyerseer in the face. Masters are
more genial, as a rule, III these days but
in the days when last / visited these
workmen at their homes in Lancashire 1t
never entered into their heads to intro
duce me to their employers. But when
met them in America they instantly pro-
posed to introduce me to the mayor Of
the city. This surprised me very much I;
for when they were in England they
could not have introduced me to the re-
ieving officer of their parish, with any
advantage to me, had need to know him
These men were still workman, and they
did introduce me to the mayor as ''afriend
of theirs; and in an easy, confident man
ner, as one gentleman would speak to
another, they said, "They should be
obliged if he would show me the civic
features of the city," The mayor would
do sc, order his carriage, and with the
most pleasant courtesy take me to every
place of interest. To this hour / do not
know whom / wondered at most-the men
OF the mayor. In some places the mayor
was himself ii manufacturer and il was q
pleasure to see that the men were as
proud Of the mayor as they were Of the
city.
However impetuou5 Americans may be,
they have one great grace Of patience
they listen like gentlemen. An Ameri-
can audience anywhere gathered together
make the most courteous listeners in the
world. If speaker has only the gif. Of
making fool Of himself, nowhere has ho
SO complete an opportunity Of doing it.
II he has the good fortune to be but
moderately interesting, and obviously
tries in some humble way, natural to him,
to add to their information, they come to
him afterward and congratulate him with
Partisan courtesy. At Washington, where
spoke at the request Of Gen. Mussey
and Major Ford, and in Cornell Univer-
sity, at Ithaca, where at the request of
the acting president, Prof. W. c. Rus
sell, addressed the students on 'Moral-
tiles of Cooperative Commerce." there
were gentlemen and ladies present who
knew more Of everything than did about
anything; yet they conveyed to me their
impression that had in some way added
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