The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1883-12-13

The cooking class lasts two hours, and &C tho
end the children carry home whatever they
choose to purchase Of the food that has been
cooked, the price of materials being usually
covered by the childrens' penny purchases.
shall long remember the untidy little girl who
forgot to bring tin, and so carried home her
hot green peas in a newspaper on the after
noon in June when | had the good luck 20
visit cooking center with the chairw0man Of
the cooking committee. It is needless to say
that there are women on the London school
board.
In fact, the whole English position with ref
erenee TO education is wekl worth eur study,
while the day Is certainly long gone By when
we could point TO oar educational institutions
as worthy of the emulation Of European aa-
tons. The English government sustains she
value Of university degrees, and requires efu-
eational tests for holding government Office
Il makes heavy appropriations for supplement-
ing local school taxes, and distributes is sup
Elementary funds with the direct aim Of stin-
ulating local hberslity. Under the library
local option la@ the schools are coming TO have
most admirable supplementary means at hand
for encouraging study among young people
who have out-grewn the reach CT the eompuI-
sorry law. / have already dwelt as length upon
the facilities which Oxford and Cambridge
confer upon women, Owens College and the
London University give them fall privileges.
and the new University OF South Wales IS
pledged TO do likewise. The efforts which tho
English government IS making 10 foster ars
can hardly overstated-I have already re-
ferred to thea more than once. MOreover, in
the work Of fostering the love Of ART, the Eng
lish government Is now receiving eEeetGal help
I from certain of the municipal governments. II
/ the law courts IN London are the most beautiful
example of what might be called Official archI-
4 lecture in modern Europe, their position is
closely contested by the superb Iewn Hal! Of
4 Manchester, which IS a perennial reminder TO
/ the people OF the taste as well a. the excellence
4 of the local administrators whom they them
\ selves elect.
+ These, however, are only a small part Of the
I phases of national life which the two eoun-
! tries have in common. The labor. the edaca-
/ ton and the suffrage questions are, after all,
only three OF the elements Of national life,
! however ali-perYading and absorbing. And
/ there are other questions which England has
/ met or must meet. ia which her action may %
most helpful for Us. Her civil service systeua,
/ if not yet ideal, IS far IN advance Of ours; her
settlement Of the land question viii be. in al
I probability, a thing OF the past, before the
land question becomes Z burning one in Amer
lea. The question of free trade can be hon
estly studied only by a minute and lab0EiOHs
comparison OF the state Of commerce and labor
IN the two countries, which have followed the
two opposite policies Of free trzde aud pr0lec-
ton.
ENGLAND PAINFULLY INDUSTRIAL
These are some of the aspects in which Eng
land presents herself as disappointingly ike
America Her atmosphere is painfully indus
trial. IN trying to make herself the workshop
of the world England has let the mercantile
spirit, the advertising. moaey-getting lie,
crowd out much Of what WAS best and most
attractive when Hawthorne and Washington
S.a
restful England. Some of the pictaresgueness
is gone forever. Steam trains have suppiarfed
and destroyed the coaching travel which fur
nished Scott and Dickens with SO many pietur-
esque situations. IL IS diiieult 70 find quies
inn of the old-fashiond sort. Shakespeare
house and SIlakespeare's tomb are yulgarized
Oy the presence of crowds OF hurried tourists,
of whom some, at least, know little more Of
the poet than his name and the quotations
which come into our daily speech, many Of rs
know not whence. Miles Of indeseFibabiy hid
eous hoases mar the outskirts Of almost every
English town, and rose clad cottages in Kent
prove, on close inspection, 70 have one side
covered with advertisements of luminous
paints or infallible horse medicines.
At times il IS difficult to call up, On English
soil the Old. ideal England whose image formed
itself in the mind through reading English
history and English literature, and the de-
seriptionS of England sent home By earlier
ideal England is an American possession may
be clearly seen IN the good-natureG jests Of the
English press at the expenseof the OlaEiseieRs
American :" our friend from over the sen,
who Vanishes for a fortnight, and, returning
before we had thoroughly missed him, relates
more history, of which he has visited the scenes
IN his brief absence, than any Englishnan
reads after leaving school The Iiaes sng-
} gests, among many other reasons for preserving
the parish registers, that the -aFist0eTaey Of
New York, Philadelphia and Boston delights
70 trace old geHealogies on the spot in the
parish church" But no one IS sueh fair game
for English jests as the American who, turning
! his back upon his country IN her urgent need
for works Of art, gives monuments or windows
to English churches and English heroes The
| barren ugliness of too many of our American
| cities, our neglect OF our own heroes. ctr de-
stTuctiOn of our historic landmarks would be
hard to excuse in the eyes of foreign travellers
| if we spent no insincere enthusiasm over EH-
5 ropean relies. But when, as q Nation, We are
open to the accusation OF enduring ugliHess
and destruction at home without discomfort,
the absHr6ity Of our contributing 10 the deco
ration Of English relics is too glaring to escape
, hearty laughter. + K.