The Portland daily press., 1880-12-31
America Abroad.
The Yankee Notions One Finds in Other
Lands.


Lands.
lRev JAS c. Mcclure, in the New York observer.1
To cross the Atlantic and leave America en-
tirely behind is to-day an impossibiity. The
traveller who sails away from his native shores
with any such expectation has surprises in
store for him at every point of his foreign
tour His heart beats lightly as he puts his
foot for the first time on European soil, and
his eye brightens as he thinks that all that he
is now to see will be new and strange. Scarce
ly has he reached his hotel at Liverpool before
he opens his window to look out upon the
-'.-~+.of England's second commercial city.
Night peiore hlnI II. s'-is land which has sung
the merits of its roast beef Tor centuries he
sees huge sign bearing the words, "hmari-
can Beef" and he is forcibly reminded of the
statement he has often heard, but mover ap-
preciated until now, that our Western cattle
supply England's tables with their choicest
joints. He turns away from the window to
search for shop where he may purchase a
pair of those stout English walking shoes,
which he has always understood to be the best
there is large shop not two blocks distant.
where every variety of the best boots and
shoes may be found. He reaches it and there,
above its doorway, in letters that cover its en-
tire front, he reads: "Shoes from New York
City, New Orleans and San Francisco" Such
a sign seems like challenge, declaring wheth-
er it be New York at the East, or New Or
leans at the South, or San Francisco at the
West, America can everywhere produce as
good shoes as those of Englishs famous walk.
erS
Leaving Liverpool for London, where Eng
lish life concentrates its individuality, the
American does not find himself without
country. The omnibus driver beside whom
he sits points to the horses that are drawing
the passing tram and declares that they came
from 'sthe States" Then be adds that the
shoes which his own strong team are wearing
were made in America. and that they are
cheaper and stronger than those made in Eng
land. Descending from the high seat of the ON
nibus to purchase some apples, the stall-keeper
in answer to the question, care they gocd?"
asserts that "they are the very best; they are
from America" He turns away from the ap-
pies sold by weight and hears the hoarse shout
of an oysterman proclaiming that he offers the
Choicest American Blue Points" On Sun
day morning he is invited to an early break.
fast, and he wonders with what national dish
the English family whose guest is to be will
tempt his appetite. AS the covers are re-
moved he is amazed at the revelation, for
there are baked pork and beans and brown
bread, which his host declares constitutes the
best of breakfasts, though they are New Eng
land dishes.
With the thought that the more conserva-
tive the place the less probability there will be
of the invasion of American enterprise, the
traveller turns away from the Metropolis to
Cambridge. Here, where English customs
are so unchanged that butter is made into
strips and sold by the yard. he finds the quaint
small shops adorning their shelves with
Canned Tomatoes from Name and "Cod-
fish Balls from Massachusetts," If, from
academic associations, he then penetrat into
the beautiful scenery of Yorkshire and at
tempts to aid in lifting the window shades of
all old English country house, where the black
oak secretaries of Queen Elizabeths time are
valued heirlooms, he is startled to hear that
those window shades are American, ard he
gladly listens to the further statement that
you Americans are SO clavar that be-
coming wholly dependent on your inventions"
ASOuotOhCu, do uO tuuS UocOmeS, TO the
products of his own country, the traveller
smiles when he reaches Scotland, the land of
salmon, to observe that Edinburgh grocers
advertise Fresh Salmon, prepared in Ore
gon." And it is almost ludicrous to go into
Glasgow, where once any musical instrument
Satan, and learn that American organs have
now a depot there. Scotch oatmeal and Irish
oatmeal were few years since the only oat-
meals supposed to be pure. To-day American
o11 q
pronounced in Scotland and Ireland the best
that can be sold.
If now the traveller enters the Continent,
he cannot get away from America. If he
crosses to Holland first, and wonders how in
such watery, damp place as Amsterdam lin
en- can be made stiff, the boxes of Cincinnati
Starch," of which he counts over forty in one
place, will solve the difficulty. If however,
he reaches Belgium first, and in Antwerp at
tempts to lose himself in the contemplation of
the cathedral, began before Americas discov-
cry, the attempt proves futile, for close at hand
his eye rests on several cases of "Florida Wa
ater," and soon after ON Canned Roast Beef,
from Fulton Co., Texas"
But most travellers cross first to France and
hurry to Paris. There they feel sure that only
novelties will be found. But american
drinks" with Sherry-cobbler" specified, is en-
blazoned near the Madeleine; and American
segars' are made as noticeable as large gilt
letters can make them. These may not cause
so much surprise as those other signs soon OBJ
served, for is not Paris the one centre from
which all fashions for ladies' apparel emanate?
And what does it mean that American firms
from New York and Philadelphia dare to dis
play their fashion" and pattern" shops un-
less it be that, like Scipio's carrying the war
into Africa, we are presumptuous enough to
attempt to carry the style into Parisl
And in other lands beside France this is the
same. Swiss watchmakers at Geneva hide
their precious possessions of jewelled cases in
American safes. Austrian farmers gather
their crops with American agricultural ma
chimes. In Heidelberg, where once in the old
castle oxen were roasted whole and chimney
ninety feet in height assembled from directly
over the fire, the agents of an Albany firm are
now demanding recognition for their stoves.
And Rome tries to tempt the Italians with
American toilet articles.
The climax is reached, however, when amid
perfect babel of strange sounds and sights
the traveller lands in Egypt. Customs, man.
ners, peoples, all are now TO be new. But the
first bookstore in Alexandria, where hero
glyphics would be in place, displays French
edition of the works of j. Fenimore Cooper,
just as the Melrose station in Scotland displays
an English edition. A drive into the adjacent
country where from the time of the Pharaohs
wicker baskets or by means of wheels which
the Egyptian buffalo turns, reveals an Illinois
windmill, with the manufacturers name
painted on it in English supplanting the bas-
ket and the wheel Nor can anyone attempt
to climb the great pyramid of Cheops, with the
thought that forty centuries are looking down
upon him, without the four Arabs who have
charge of him inquiring whether he is a "AIeri-
can man" and if the reply be yes, each one of
the four will try to say the whole OF Yankee
Doodle came to town." etc., louder than the
others, so that he may receive the backsheesh
which they expect national pride will consider
fit reward for this compliment to ones ma
tive land.
And then il disappointed because America
is everywhere, he investigates the Holy Land,
hoping to enjoy undisturbed communion with
the days of the prophets and apostles, the
blows falling heavily upon a donkey catch his
ear, and looking, he finds that the donkey's
burden is American Astral Oil' on its way to
Jerusalem. He goes to Constantinople, where
women veil their faces SO that you are not sup
posed to know whether they have any hair,
and where men wear the fez indoors as we'll
as out, so that their heads are never uncovered
to observation, and there will be thrust into
his hand an advertisement printed in Turkish,
French, Greek and German, enlarging upon
the merits of a certain American Hair Re-
storer." And if he then tries Athens and says
to himself, There in the land and city Of
Demosthenes we shall hear again the music of
the purest eloquence," he stops to listen to
sounds that seem familiar, and the american
Saving Machiue' is humminy its "SOnp of the