Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1883-08-17
WlLDE'S IDEA OF AMERICA


WlLDE'S IDEA OF AMERICA.
Views OF the lEsthets ON his Wander
1ngs in the United states.
From q Lecture Reported in London News.
Stating that he had very little useful
information to give, Mr.. Wilde described
his first experience of the interviewer,
"the literary pirate of the States" who
sprang on board in the midst of a storm
off New York, and asked his opinion of
America. Not ha wing seen it, he found
it easy to give an unbiased opinion,
which Was very favorable as far as it
went. Now it was more difficult. The
first thing that struck him on landing
was the prosperity of the people and
the absence of rags. He saw millions of
chimneypot hats in all their dreadful
proportions, but, no rags. The second
thing was that every one seemed to be
in hurry, and this made him think it
could not be country O great romance,
for romance was difficult where it was q
vital necessity to catch train. The
beautiful he found where the Americans
had least striven for it, in their great
bridges and their perfectly beautiful use
Of the electric light.
s'The travelling when one got into q
Pullman car was the perfection Of lux
ury, but had no more privacy than if one
sat in an arm chair at the Hamilton
street corner of Piccadilly. Boys ran up
and down selling literature, good and
bad, and everything one could eat and
not eat, but what narrowed his feelings
most acutely was to see pirated copy
of HE own poems selling for ten cents.
He explained to the boy that he got no
profit out of this edition Of his work, but
the boy said he got some, and seemed
to think that settled the question. He
had never been called "stranger," but
had received the title Of ''captain" and
''colonel," the latter in Texas, but he
had been very much distressed by being
called professor" Niagara, like the
Atlantic ocean, was extremely disap-
pointing, principally, he believed, be-
tremely unfair. In order to appreciate
its splendor and strength it was neces-
sary to 90 under the fall itself in suit
of yellow sealskin 50 ugly that he never
should have consented to wear it but
t at he was informed that similar
dress had been worn by the great artist,
Nine. Sa ~ah Bernhardt uaughter.)
|Of America itself the most beautiful
part was the west, and California most
of all; and the most depr essing the aka
Ii plains through which the trains tray
eled for days, stopping occasionally at
small stations, where what, by some Gu
rious process of reasoning, was called 8
n,ea! was served. Here he met the In.
dams, who were very picturesque and
charming as long as they wore their own
clothes, and very ugly when they put
on European dress. Their Language
struck him as resembling German meta
physics-very fine as long as it was not
understood. Uaughter.) When it was
interpreted he generally found it to con-
vey request for half a sdollar or some
tobacco. One of the great features Of
America was the advertiser: who de-
faced the most beautiful parts Of the
Rocky mountains with his advertise
ments, generally of some horrible medi-
cine. The names Of American towns,
where they were French or Spanish,
were often beautiful, but the English
names were very often ugly. he was
asked to lecture on art at Griggsville, but
he refused unless they consented to
change the name of the town, which
they declined to do. How dreadful it
would have been if he had founded
Griggsville school of art!
American children did not seem to
be numerous, and not as healthy or as
Joyous as in England, but very precoc-
ious. They grow up, some Of them, in
to girls who are the prettiest despots in
the world. Each American girl seemed
to be an oasis of picturesque unreason-
ableness in desert of common sense,
able to talk on every SUBJECT, whether
she knew anything of it or not, with
lovely hands and feet, and the prettlest
boots in the world. There were no idle
men. Every man had something to do,
and very few tookany interest in politics.
One career they went into extensively
VISA journalism, for the first thing a baby
read and write was to start newspa-
per. 1t seemed strange to English peo-
pie, their intrusion into private life. He
was asked by an interviewer at Chicago
for some details of his private life, but
he told him he had not got one--It was
stopped at the Custom House in New
York. Their humor was, be thought, a
sort of philosophy, and one thing be ad-
nired about the American journalist was
that he could write about the price of
wool without referring to Jason and the
Golden Fleece. The lecturer also re-
lerred to the distinguished actors Of
America, and concluded with some re"
marks on American art
The Speed of Yachts.
'*There is something beyond calcula'
r.. L. \ ~