The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1883-09-25
An American in England .

The following communication, which re-
Gently appeared in Vanity Fair, has produced
a great sensation:
To the Editor OF vanity Fair"
SIR--I cordially agree with your recent ap-
probation Of fashionable party where "there
were no Americans" for in truth London is
becoming utterly demoralized and deteriorated
by the autumnal plague Of wandering
Yankees. The nasal twaDg is heard in all
streets, and the keen, vulpine face stares from
every hotel window. Really an extradition
treaty ought to be put in force and these very
Objectionable visitors should be shipped back
: to their own land like the Irish paupers,
even though we paid the return
passage money. For, speaking calmly and
dispassionately, everyone must acknowledge
that the Americans as a race are simply I'M
endurable. Forward, obtrusive, inquisitive,
and imperlinently familiar, without the slight
est idea Of the reticence and SAVIOR faire that
mark the gentleman, yet with all his assump-
ton of brutal republican candor, the Ameri-
can has the soul Of a hunky and grovels be-
fore Lord. For the American mind is totally
deficient in dignity, reverence, and grace, and
the manners OF such people must be and must
remain Incidentally vulgar.
Active measures, therefore, should be taken
in time to repel this inroad Of migratory dry
goods men and Wall street spectators, or
they will soon exercise a degrading and per-
nicious influence on the tone of English social
life. An anti American league should be
formed; our houses should be closed against
the pilgrim fathers and the pilgrim mothers,
and any one found answering their questions
should be marked at once and doomed to
social extinction.
They came among US as an army Of spies,
without any idea of wit or cleverness beyond
an attempt to sneer down every one and
everything that stands above their common
place level And they permeate our homes
and take notes OF our doings and saying in
order to repay our hospitality by personalities
and defamation.
Culture has never gained anything from
America. Their third rate literature is made
up of piracy and bosh; their press lives upon
the rags and garbage Of society, and their
playful mirth is nothing but the hideous gro
tesque Of buffoons. America. in fact, is OF no
use TO civilization, and it was great mistake
of Europe to discover it. The red IHdian is
a far nobler specimen Of humanity than the
lean, loquacious Yankee; and herd OF buffs-
loes is incomparably OF greater value than a
horde Of American special correspondents lei
loose upon the world, like so many rattle
snakes, all jingle and poison.
1t is very sad to think how rapidly this
dreadful irepressible American race is increas-
ing. Carlyle in his day pronounced them
$50, ooo, 900 OF the greatest bores creation
ever produced" and now 10000, 900 Of the
vulgarest, shallovest, most unnteresting PEG
ole under the sun are ready and eager tc
swoop down on us and annihilate our ancient
and courtly civilization.
Let US, then, be wise in time, and repe
America from our shores with all her sprawl
ing magazines, her shoddy literature, and hei
shady aristocracy. do not mean to be hare
upon them, but the influence OF American:
is decidedly injurious to good taste, good feel
ing, and gentlemanlike manners.
Yours obediently,
BLANK