The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1883-01-04
National COnceit.

The surface fault of North Germans,
like that of most Yorkshiremen, in
manner, is a kind of brutal directness
of speech, arising half from simplicity
and half from the universal military
training; and our friend, who knows
German, Germany, and Germans a
good deal better than our correspond
ents imagine, brought this TO the
front, with his laughable talk of
"Woss ?" just as the Frenchman would
have brought an Englishman's stolid
and impaSsive self-approval, or Ger
man would have brought what seems
to him the Italians hungry servility.
OF course, the German denies the
charge of boorishneSs, and from his
point of view quite truly; but then,
so does the Frenchman deny that of
frivolity, often more truly still; and
the Italian that of severity; while
the Englishman remarks, in the
stolidest way, that he cannot
understand how anybody can
couple stolidity and him together.
Yet the English stolidity and wood
enness so impress foreigners that we
have heard a German lady of marked
intellectual attachments say that on
her arrival they impressed her with a
certain horror, and. that when happen
| ing to drop coin in full omnibus,
| she saw eleven men stoop instructive
| ly to catch it for her, she was as as
toniShed as if so many statutes had
done it. We do not doubt that if Chi
namen were aware that Englishmen
take their prominent characters yic to
be immobility, while Americans al
ways satiriZe them as falsely child
like, they would set down both de.
scriptions as new illustrations of the
intellectual crassitude natural to bar
barians. There is truth of kind
however, in all the hits, as there
is truth in the uglineSs re-
vealed in every photograph, and this
not the less because the humorist, like
the sun, exaggerates all patent de
fects. That the subjects should fail tx
see the accuracy of sketches avowedly
caricatures is natural-we should
never recognize our own noses, il
Cruikshank drew them, though oul
friends wouldn't what puzzles us
and has puzzled us for years, is why
such sketches excite so much resent
ment, or, at all events, why the resent
ment should be so great, and so I'm
|
were wroth with its caricaturists W,
could understand it. We have Away
supposed that nations with unfortu
nate histories would resent satire
most; and that is true of the Irish
who get savagely angry will
Punch, and were as wroth will
Thackeray as ever Lord Beacons
field was; and it is true O
the Jews, who grow vindictiv
under the bitter testing, which ono
meant mockery, though it is nov
much more like a;result of fear. Blu
the Spaniards. who consider them
selves the most in-used of nations, ar
not sensitive to caricature; while tn
Americans, the most fortunate o
earthly peoples, hardly know how t.
put up with it, and before their civi
war were ready to make a joke ma
tional offense. The French, although
defeated, would not care if they wer
caricatured all the world over-unles
the drawing was bad; while the GeI
mans are quite insulted if anybod,
hints that with their masses suavit'
of manner Is not a distinguishing fea
ture. What on earth can that signif
if one has the qualities which lead +
the top of the world ?-The Spectator