The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-04-24
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In the years which followed the close of
the war, it seemed as If colonialism had been
utterly extinguished. Unfortunately, this
was not the case. The multiplication of
great fortunes, the growth of class rich by
inheritance, and the Improvement in meth
DDS of travel and communication all tended
to carry great numbers of Americans to Eu-
rope. The luxurious fancies which were
born of increased wealth, and the intelleetu-
al tastes which were developed by The adj
vance of the higher education, aud TO which
an old civilization oilers peculiar advantages
and attractions, combined TO breed IN nafe,.s.
persons a love of faresg- neS Gnu iotciSh
hlaslu1ae. rnese tendencies and opportuni-
ties have revived the dying spirit OF colonial
ism. We see II most strongly In the leisure
class, which is gradually increasing in this
country. During the miserable aseendancy
of the Second Empire, band of these per-
sons formed what was known as the "Amer-
lean colony in Paris. Perhaps they still
exist; If so, their existence Is now less fla
grant aud more decent. When they were
notorious they presented the melancholy
spectacle of Americans admiring and
aping the manners, habits, and vices
of another nation, when that nation
was bent and corrupted by the
tenn of the third Napoleon. They
furnished very offensive example of pecu-
liarly mean colonialism. This particular
phase has departed, but the same sort of
Americans are, unfortunately, still common
in Europe. | do not mean, of course, those
persons who 60 abroad to buy social consid
| Grafton, nor the women who trade on their
beauty or wits to gain brief and dishonor-
ing notoriety. These last are merely adven-
tnrers and adyenturesses, who sre common
TO all nations. The people referred TO here
| form that large class, comprising many ex-
| celent men and women, no doubt, who pass
their lives in Europe, mourning over the in
| feriority OF their own county, and . no be-
! come thoroughly denationalized. They do
| not change into Frenehmen or Englishmen,
but are simply disfgured and deformed
! Americans.
We find the same wretched habit OF
thought in certain groups among the rich
and idle people Of our great Eastern cities,
especially in New York, because II is the
metropolis. These groups are for the most
part made up of young men, who des-
pise everything American and admire
everything English. They talk and dress
and walk and ride in certain ways because
the English do these things In those ways.
They hold their own country In contempt,
and lament the hard fate of their birth.
They try TO think that they form an aristoc-
raey, and boone at once ludicrous and des
pieable. The virtues which have made the
upper classes in England what they are, and
which take them into public affairs, into lit
erature and politics, are forgotten. Anglo
Americans initiate the vices or the foliies Of
their models, and stop there. If all this
were merely passing fashion, an attack Of
Anglo-mania or Of Gallo-mania, Of which
there have been instances enough every-
where, it would be of no consequence. But
it is a recurrence Of the old and deep-seated
malady of coloniaIism. II is lineal de-
scendant of the old colonial family. The
features are somewhat dim now, and the
vitality is low, but there Is no mistaking The
hereditary qualities. The people who thus
despise their own land, and ape English
manners, fatter themselves with being cos
m0politans, when in truth they are genuine
colonists, petty and provincial TO the last de-
gree