The Portland daily press., 1882-12-06

Sensitiveness to National Satire.

SSuSlUlV0aGSS TO IN NdUlOQdl SaGlre.
vi course the German denies the charge of
boorishness, and from his point of view quite
truly; but then, so does the Frenehman denv
that OF frivolty, often more truly still; and the
Italian that of servility; While the Epglshman
remarks in the stolidest way that he cannot un-
derstand how anybody can couple stolidity and
him together. Yet the English stolidity and
woodenness so impress foreigners that we have
heard German lady of marked intellectual
attainments say that on her arrival they i'm
pressed her with a certain horror, and that
when, happening to drop coin in full omni-
bus, she saw eleven men stoop instinctvely to
catch 1t for her, she was as astonished as if SO
many statues had done it, We do not doubt
that if Cinnamon were aware that Englshmen
take their prominent characteristic to be i'm
mobility, while Americans always satirize them
as falsely childlike, they would set down both
descriptions as illustrations of the crassitude
natural to barbarians. There is truth of
kind, however, in all the hits. as ther is truth
in the ugliness revealed in every photograph.
aud this not the less because the humorist, like
the sun, exaggerates all patent defects. That
the subjects should fail to see the accuracy of
sketches avowedly caricatures is naJural-Ws
should never recognize our own noses, if Cruik-
shank drew them, though our friends would
but what puzzles us, and has puzzled us for
years, is why such sketches excite SO much re-
sentiment, or at all events why the resentment
should be so great, and so unequally distrjbut-
ed. LII every nation we're wroth with its Carl
caturists, we could understand it. We have
always supposed that nations with unfortunate
histories would resent satire most; and that is
true of the Irish, who get savagey angry with
Punch, and were as wroth with Thackeray as
ever Lord Beaconsfield was; and it is true of
the Jews, who grow vindictive under the Bit
ter Jesting, which once meant mockerv.
though 1t is now much more like a result of
fear. But the Spaniards, who consider them
selves the most ll-used of nations, are not SEN
sitive to carlcature; while the Americans, the
most fortunate of earthly peoples, hardly know
now to put up wlthsiJ and before their Civil
War were ready to make of joke national
offence. The French, although defeated would
not care If they were caricatured all the world
over-unless the drawing was bad; while the
Germans are quite insulted if body hints
that their masses suavity of manner is NOT
their distinguishing feature. What on earth
can that signify, if one has the qualities which
leads to the top Of the world? The German
dictates to Europe, he fills the world with his
philosophy, he is rapidly acquiring everywhere
wealth, distinction, and appreciation; but he is
not content because Democritus W i'll tell him
that there are men more polished than his ma
ton, on the average, is. Why is he SO discon-
solate? The Englishman is not more success
full than the German, he is almost as Teutonic,
and he is constantly quite as boorish, especially
outside London, though his boorishness is stol-
i'd, while the Germans is grumpy; but if he is
told OF ii ten times a day, as he is by French
and American novelsts, he does not care one
whit, any more than he cares because all Paris
ian caricaturiss depict him with long teeth.
He does not even inquire whether long teeth
exceptionally common in Enpl4nd-we
have fancy they are-but goes on chuekling
at the caricatures, as quite proper attempts at
fun, but hopelessly badly done. If those teeth
were attributed to Germans, a dozen savants
would collect all the dental statistics of all the
schools, and call upon Cham" to explain why
he made such an ill-natured eharge. Yet the
Germans are probably quite as humorous as
the English, though they enjoy their numor
more as our forefathers did in Shakespeares
time than as we do now.