The Portland daily press., 1882-11-10
Anglonania.
The Springfield Republican Gets It's Mad
Up.

Is there no remedy for it? If among the PEG,
pie of England should suddenly spread SER
vile imitation Of American speech, dress and
custome taking good and bad alike, and the
bad principally Englishmen would
be apt to speak of 1t as "beastly rot.' But al
though Americans speak English, it is not that
sort of English. So the present fashionable
anglomanla which has all but turned the brains
of would-be ladies of society, and their follow
ers, may be truthfully and in pure English
spoken of as a vulgar, silly and unpatriotio
| cIaze.
In certainly one respect the English nation
are worthy, to a considerable degree, of imita-
ton and that is, their intensely English feel
ing. Their pride to have been born in Eng
land, their severe and instant refutation, are
they by chance thought to be anything else
but English. And in Just that one especially
noble characteristic, they have not single fol-
lower among their American sycophants,-
which indeed goes without saying, since If
these people had proper pride as Americans
they would return the English scorn of us in
like manner. The English lion is always
showing his teeth and lasbing his sides with
his tail and telling what big fellow he is and
how England rules the seas, sir, and "the
sun never sets on her majesty's dominions'
land showing just how big he is
by never fighting anything that he
isn't sure beforehand he can thor
oughly whip, and by never running the ghost
Of a chance of letting that tail stink between
his legs,-and it's quite time that the Ameri-
can eagle should scream, if its voice is a trife
nasal and trifie high.
Let US extol and buy American carriages
that are light, easy and graceful, and adapted
| to our roads, our horses and our Climate, rath-
or than to import English carriages that are
heavy and ugly Why do people make them
| selves uncomfortable and ludicrous by churn.
| ing about in village carts? Can anything be
| more ridiculous than big man in village
cart on Fifth avenue? Yet it is seen every
day and many times day. If it had been an
American fashion, the people who use them
now would suffer anything short of martyr
dom equal to driving in one of these abomina-
| tons rather than to follow the fashion. Then,
after the manner of the English prize-fghter,
every lank youth, with arms like pipe-stems,
swaggers up the street with his elbows at right
angles to bis body,-except when he forgets
their natural position with sigh of relief.
Then because the 'haw haw' Englishman
says 'it's SO caddish you know" Americans
copy the vulgarity; when they would simplify
their speech and speak pure English by saying
''ill-bred" instead. Then too, because he talks
always of "the playh-we must never say, IT
have been to the theatre when one express
sion is quite as good English as the other
quite as expressive-and the one is customary
among us, the other not SO. Then because the
English natives are so stupid that they will
not have cheek system for baggage on their
railroads, and don't call the bits of brass
checks, but "brahses' they find plenty of
geese ready to follow their lead, when to the
uninitiated American mind "brahsses' would
mean pair of andirons and fender. Then
having me misfortune to live in an atmosphere
OF fog, they seldom have wholly good day,
and so when they come over here and see bright
days such as they never dreamed OF, thew re-
mark patronizingly, "It's not harf bard day.
and presume to laugh at us for saying, SIT is
lovely day. "Ah, there goes that American
lovely, you know" 1t isn't good form
what is good fornlp-in society to introduce
people in England and so true polteness is to
be pushed to the wall, and we are to meet with
cold frigidity and to be- thoroughly uncom-
Portable, and make every one about us equally
SO, because "it's English
Travellers abroad and the newspapers are
having notably bad influence in one especial
way,-and that is in trying to change nomen-
clature which belongs to us by right of birth to
one which is as foreign to us as French would
be- Forty years ago when steam came into
use in both nations, we were practically for
elgners to one another. On each side of the
ocean natural SET OF terms became incorpo-
rated into the language, and belong where thew
are, because the same terms convey no ideas II
lransplanted. In England railroads Gre rail-
ways, the rails are the metals" the switch is
"shunt, cars are coaches, engineers are
drivers, fremen are stokers, conductors are
guards, baggage is luggage-all equally good
terms and equally good Enalish-but our terms
are as foreign to them as theirs to us. What
would be thought in England if any English
born persons should use American terms?
They would be scoffed at. Then let American,
be scoffed at also when they attempt to change
o nomenclature which is all right as it stands.
and which would be all Greek to common peo-
pie II changed. Why confuse and embarrass
everybody, the great mass whose usage makes
the language and for whom the language is
made,-what we call the mother toneue-bv
this silly Introduction of foreign terms? Why
should Pullman car be called coach which
1t resembles no more than wheelbarrow?
Let us be proud to say, Eyes, am an Amer
lean and I'm proud to say SOL when travelling
abroad, instead of being ashamed of it, and
trying to sneak along under cover of English
bearishness and English slang,-as English
subjects instead of American sovereigns Eng
lish people perhaps feel obliged to be agrees
sively national because their country is such
very small one, and because America is such
very large one, and they may be swallowed M:
and it is the toughest thing in life to lose ones
individual grip. Let ms sympathize with them
and indulge them, and teach them better man
ners when they come to America,--to take off
snelr nats when they pass lady in hotel
corridor or meet her in an elevator, instead of
hat on head, and hands in British breaches
pockets to give her long stare as is their usu
al custom Let us teach them the first princi-
pies about America, that we do not all wear
blankets and wampum. That is no exaggera-
tlon A while ago an American girl at school
In England was asked by companion of her
own age,-hfteen years: "Ahl what kind of
dresses do yon wear in America" The Amer
lean girl replied, looking down at her own fash
ionably-made dress, "Why, this was made in
America-what did you suppose we woree"
The English girl could only stare in amaze
ment What American child is SO ignorant of
England? Let us teach them that "beastly"-
and "narsty"-are beastly and nasty words,
and let us feel proud OF the Cleveland girl who
to Oscar Wilde, when he said, "Oh don't Won
THINK nice, is narsty. word?" replied, ''Do
you think nasty is nice word?" That girl
was patriotic, and it would be very pleasant
change II few more people would follow her
example.
There is proper medium between the brag
ging, offensive and vulgar assertion of ones ma
tionaity ana the mean suppression Of it. Amer
leans should be plain, strais htforward Ameri-
cans, wherever they are,-modest but not dis
guised, tolerant of local preiudices, good-na-
turedly acquiescent in local customs and ways,
but always proud of their colors when asked to
show them aud ready to defend their country
with spirit and intelligence. One of our
townsmen, experienced in travel and now
abroad, has good rule in intercourse with
&nglishmen 81 always let them make the
attack, said he, land then 1 am ready for
them, and they always respect show of spir- |
it,"
Mavne Reid