Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1883-11-10
ATrHEw ARNOLD.
THE London T1mes'' Remarks on the
Cr!tIC'n NInIt to- AmrrIca

llSt arrived III New York ON the Scrvla,
The London Times of Oct II says:
sooner Ur later every dstin. uished
Englishman seems bound to visit the
United States. Lord Coerid2o has
been there, and the eminent people
who have been exploring The north
west and we now have TO wish
prosperous voyage to Mr.. Irving.
Next Saturday another of our country
meu will leave our shores, To- whose
visit many persons on both s.dcs Of the
ocean arc looking forward with
interest. Mr.. Matthew Arnold, like
DiC.cu and Thackcray before him,
aud like many others since their day,
is to make q lecture tour through some
OF the great cities OF the union He
goes in answer TO very general
invitation, and we have no doubt he
will meet with every success. His
going Is the latest example of that
reel procity which, as far rs concerns
authors, though not unfortunately rs
far as concerns their rights in their
own looks, seems to bo getting more
and more established between the two
countries. There is no one whom
Americans welcome more readily than
the EngliShman wbe has something TO
say to them; there is no one whom we
are more willing to read or hear than
Americans. They read and, alas!
pirate our noveliots. We read, but DO
not pirate Mr Howclls and Mr.. Henry
James. They welcome Prof. Huxley
as they welcomed Dean Stanley. We
are keenly interested in the utterances
IN( II. III s. 4
Irving and Mrs. Langtry. Miss
Anderson and Mr. Booth draw the
public of Loudon.
In sending our foremost critic to
America we are sending one who is no
stranger TO the American public, for
! there are few Englishmen who are
more read in the United States, or
about whose personality more curiosity
is felt. The subjects of his lectures
have not been made known, but It may
be assumed that they will be drawn
from those departments of literature
and life with which Mr.. Arnold has
Unidentified his name. Something, let
Us hope there will be about poetry,
something is pretty sure to be about
education, ana the forms it should take
in . young democratic society, some
! thing about the strength and weakness
OF Such society. its boundless promise,
and the dangers, intellectual aud
moral, that surround il; England, as
America should see it; America, rs it
strikes an Englishman-On something
Of this sort, we trust Mr.. Arnold to
speak, and to speak with the freshness,
the es.iveness, the happy mixture
of audacjty and urbanity, to which he
has long been accustomed. lie will
find sympathetic audience. In the
small towns of Illinois and OniO, these
bleak and far-ot' towns, of whose life
the author of ''Democracy" has drawn
so cruel picture, there is an interes
in books and reading, SO general and
so real, that to us in EngIand it seem:
- astonishing as any other OF thC
wonders of America No village il
without its book club; shop boys ant
shop girls will spend their leisure, tn,
leisure of the cold winter evenings, il
reading the very best books they cal
obtain.
The Americans like lectures, too
more generally than we, and they ar
better served in this way. The pOpu
lar American lecturer is more aliv
than his English counterpart. Wha
he says is more racy, more amusing
more animatiny. 1t is said, indeed
: that the passion for lectures is not s
, keen as it used to be, and that it ha
been killed by safety. This, however
J is not likely TO prove true in MI
t Arnold's case. An American audienc
= desires to be stimulated, and he vii
; stimulate taem; TO be taught, and h
z will teach them. 1t likes to be toll