New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-04-01
BASIL HALL.
AMERICAN MANNERS HALF A CENTURY AGO.

QUEER REPUBLICAN SIMPLICITY.
When Basil Hall visited this country In 1927
what time he did not devote to fond attendance
upon Mrs. Hall and their robust baby was given to
collecting statistics and growing at the Americans.
The book in which he aired his criticisms is now
forgotten, and even his name is hardly
known to the present generation of Americans
whose forefathers he so reused to wrath.
Captain Basil was Jolly Tory of the deepest color
with profound faith In all the distinctions OF
rank, and democracy was OF course a stencil unto
his nostiils Our government, our institutions, our
ideas were all offensive to him. ana he could not
but say so;---why Americans should have wasted
so much Indignation over opinions so natural and
inevitable is hard in these days to understand.
There is something almost grotesque in EdwardEver-
etts long wnded, and to tell the truth, rather
whining, depreciation of the Scotchman's criticisms.
1t will.' said the orator, grandloquentlv, put
word in tho mouths of those who Willy because
they hate and hate because they FEAR u.s.; -
wherein Mr.. Everett showed something of the rest
less American vanity with which Captain Hall was
eernally finding fault.
That vanity apparently roso up before his loyal
face everywhere throughout America, and instead
of welco ming it as o quality distinctly inherited
from our self-satisied Puritan ancestors the
traveller invariably permitted it to enrage him.
The least whisper of it acted a red rag upon this
ssurdiest of John Bulls. 1t overturned his most
deliberately but-up desire to be far and LED him. as
he himself confesses into more warmth of disputa-
ton than wellbred visitor should show. He has
the manliness to acknowledge, however. that he
never knew his hosts to exhibit temper, no matter
how provoking were his criticisms. He complains
that the most striking circumstance in the Amer
lean character their constant habit of prasing
~. +.atr
either in downright terms or by some would-De in
direct illusions which were still more tormenting."
He found the natives always on the defensive sus-
piclous of design to pick flaws, and curious be-
yond everything to know what the stranger thought
about them. One man was unwilling that he
should visit certain State Legislature because it
was an unfavorable specimen OF the flour then
in existence; another wished him in travelling to
take one route instead of another because the one
he had decided upon would not give him properly
hi gh idea of American scenery and divers sage
Bostonians were grlevousy uneasy because the
wea her during his visit was not such as to inspire
him with the desired reverence for the American
climate. He watched with amusement what he
calls the vigilant adrotness' with which Amer
leans awaited themselves of every little circum-
stance to give effect to their selfaudatory practice
Happening one day to mention to a lady the clever
ness with which the stage-drIvers managed their
horses more by word of mouth than by
touch of the whip, she answered: oh
YES. sir the circumstance you relate is
very interesting, as it shows both intelligence
in the men and sagacity in the animals" Captain
Basil tickled by this amlabe interchange Of human
wisdom and brute sagacity smiled cynically; his
fair interlocutors suspicious took fire and she OK
claimed "Nay. sir, do you not think the people
In " Ii
gcnt7"
The traveller asserts that he met this
spirit of nervous suspicion always aud every
where. The least word in praise of Eng
land aroused idget to counterbalance it
by something equally as good or much better said
about America ITO such an extent" SAYS the
traveller, was this jealous fever carried that
hardly recollect above half a dozen occasions
during the " hole journey when England was men,
toned that the slightest interest of an agreeable
kind was manifested on the part of the audience;
or that q brisk sire was not instantly opened
on all hands, to deprecate what had been said or,
which was still more frequent, to bUild up some-
thing finer or taller, larger in America to over
match it," His hosts were uneasy until they had ex-
tracted the Captains opinions and still mole uneasy
when they discovered that those opinions were I'M
favorable; and if he left one factory unexamned,
tn0ugn lie nau seeH nIly slinllaI oucs III Tue
town. they held that he had seen nothing nj all and
had no material for Judgment. When taken to an
evening party the agreeable Captain who had
lively tongue and loved to talk hiInself-could
hardly find a chance to slip a word in edgewise
amid the flood of self-prasein which tho Americans
INDUCED. 81 DON'T you think this IS wonderful
country ~ 80 ran the invariable round of ques-
tions. /" Don't you allow that we deserve great
credit for what we arc doing? DO not we resemble
the old country much more than You expected
Had you any idea of finding so far advanced
Are not tie western parts of our State improving
very rapidly Is not our canal the finest work in
the world Don't you admit that we are becoming
a great nationG What do you think of us upon the
whole ~ When it was discovered that the visitor
did not think absolutely perfect then there was
a chorus of excuses--he had been accidentally or
wilfuly misled by designing people or he had
unfortunately gone to such and such town at u
wrong moment.
The Wanted intelligence aud high-minde dness Of
the Americans the Captain declares that he could in
no wise discover; and while lie found pervadng and
vehement passion for reading light literature, he
saw no indication of the smallest taste for collect
in; books. In spite of bitter and grudging
feeling toward England which ho illustrates
by mentioning grave proposal to rellnquish
the practice OF calling the e"mn0ntongue the Eng
lsh language--all our literature such it was was
brought from the mother country. 1t had not
only the chaI;A of iEterestwe got 1t for nothing!
"Why," said the CAPTAIN to an American friend,
a." I hear everywhere il America and read every
" here declarations of your bigh-mindedness and
intellgenoe-not an hour passes that don't hear of
your improvements upon u.s. and of the immense
distance YOU have shot ahead of Europe in kno~l-
edge power v ealtb. and SO forth but when /
come to closer quarters with the claimants OF these
advantages said to have been gained over the old
world, and show my ressors for declining to con-
cede ali they ask for. they turn about upon me and
say Why. sir, you make no allowances for our
stuation-we are young country-we want onIy
tme-we are really getting on very fast-do not
you think sol Thus without any actual shit of
wind they put about on the other tack and soon
as their sails are trimmed aIesh seek to gain thvso