Arizona weekly citizen., 1881-09-04
BRITISH MANNERS.

Our cousins over the sea are never tired of criticising American mariners and pointing out the great superiority of their own. We hope this criticism has not disposed many Americans to ape British manners, especially if the young British snob and officer who WAS recently treated to a well merited logging at West Point by San Francisco lady is a fair sample of the English gentleman, anj his treatment of the lady i'll ques- ton a sample of EnglIsh breeding. The telegraph gives the following account of the episode:
 A somewhat sensational episode IS re- ported to have occurred at CranstOn's Hotel, West Point last night. The story Is that a young man, calling himself Captain Burslem, and representing him self as an officer in the British army, ar rived at the hotel three weeks ago and registered as from Windsor Palace" England. He had brought a letter of introduction from Grace Greenwood to President Garfield, and made many friends in New York among the Wall street brokers, by whom he had been in- troduced to the Union Club. At the hotel he met young lady of San Fran cisco, the daughter of mine owner, who was soiourning at West Point with her mother. A few mornings since Burs- lem, 1t Is stated, in conversation with the lady, informed her point blank that she lied, and she at once laid the case before the manager of the house, with the statement that person possessing such characteristics should not be tolerated by the guests. Hurslem, however, was too intimate with the hotel proprietors, and too firmly supported by the male guests, to permit his being turned away. Last evening the young lady went with her mother to Cadet hop, and as they were ascending the steps leading to the verauda the young lady met Burslem, who was leaning against post smoking. As she attempted to pass he blew a cloud of smoke in her face, and quickly followed 1t up with another, at the same time smiling at her discontinue. The young lady appealed to the bystanders for protection, but none being offered, she struck tLe alleged Captain full in the face, knocking his cigar from hls mouth. She followed this with a sec ond blow with her fist. Burslem raised his hand. containing a cane, to ward of the blows, when she caught the stick, wrenched it from his grasp, and boiling with rage struck him squarely in the face several times, cutting him badly. The Captain, who has a false leg, was thrown to the piazza in the melee. Later in the evening the lady and her mother were, it is said, requested to leave the hotel, which they did, coming at once to New York They are now at the New York Hotel. Burslem claims to have served in the Zulu war, and to have been with the Prince Imperial when the latter died. He says he is Captain in the English army, and is thirty-three years of age The English Army Register shows only one officer of that name, VI hO was commissioned in 1S50 and who is retired and now lives in India. Burs- lem, it is said, has engaged himself to a handsome and rich girl at West Point.
 We are ashamed of the gentlemen who stood around and witnessed the in- suit, and then allowed the lady to take her own means of redress. Americans have always been noted for their chival- rous treatment of ladies, and on this oc- casion the British puffy should have re- ceived luis merited punishment at the hands of some American of the male persuasion. We hope the time will never come when the well bred American gen tleman v1ll, in imitation Of our foreign neighboIs, lose their high respect for the far, the beautiful and the good, or abate one jot or title in that courtesy towards ladies for which they have become pro- verhiaL