New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-06-29
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN MIME

The entertaining volume in which Mr.. Richard
Grant White has recently discussed English
and American manners, is like the reopening or
an old sore. The cstimable author resents the
criticisms which our cousins are 40 fond OF
passing upon our behavior, rescnts them With
fervor of which he is probably not altogether
conscious. "The average reader"-a person
addicted ~ we all know, to haSty and incom-
plete understandngs-wil be likely to sum
Marie Mr.. Whites arguments under two prIn-
cipal heads first, that the rude people i'll this
country are not real Americans, but impertectly
assimilated foreigners; and secondly, that the
English are the rudest people under the sun.
70 be sure, Mr.. White does not say exactly
these things but what he does say is susceptible
of these Neutrality-suspicious.. Now the first
statement. which is not so much distorted from
Mr.. Grant White but that We can recognize the
original, is worth little attention, because even
if true it is of no consequence. If ignorance,
vulgarity, and sclfshness are the characteristics
of high society in this country, it makes no
difference whether the men and women who
give tone to that society trace their ancestry to
English immigrants of the time of the May
flower and of Captain John Smith, or to Irish
and German immigrants of the day before yes
which prevail among the people inhabltnS
America, whoever those people are. 1t is futile
and unreasonable to ask the rest of mankind to
Judge Us only by the demeanOr of high-class
Yankees unless show that we follow the
high-class Yankee model ourselves. Mr.
Whites book seems to be a confession that we
that is the general American mixture-do not.
The question OF the manners OF Englishmcn,
particularly of the travelling Englishman, is
more interesting. Mr.W hite adds some eXtraOr-
binary incidents TO the chapters which have
recently been written on this subject occasion
ally mentioning the names OF conspicuous
offenders, or indicating them with sufficient
plainness to be understood by great many of
his readers The scandals which followed the
Northern Pacific and Yellowstone excursions
are still fresh in the public mind and we could
add some astonishing facts to those already
notorious if it were proper to make an unneces-
sary parade of priv ate inciviltics. 1t has often
been remarked that English'men and women, of
recognized position in society, are inclined to
spare themselves the trouble Of being polite
when they go abroad Everybody who has
travelled knows that they are the most disagree
able of companions on journey, prompt to find
troublesome, supelciliOus, and unpleasant ut
table but their rudeness goes still further than
this, for they are rude in private houses. We
may well ask ourselves whether manners which
are put on to-day and thrown off tomorrow
can ever be called good manners. To say that
a weli-bred man does not exhibit his breeding en-
diskabHe in the presence of strangers any mora
than in the company of his acquaintance is
only to say that a gentleman is a gentleman at
all times, and not merely now and then. If Eng
lshmen think that 1t is necessary to be polite
in England, but not at all necessary to be polite
anywhere else, this Is only cOrOllary of their
familiar postulate that England is the centre of
the Cosmos, and that whatever is not English,
having received inferior consideration from the
Almighty. is entitled to no great respect from
the Almighty's chctS-dGurre.
The moral of all this is that we are paying
much more attention to English opinion than it
deserves. Mr.. White for example, by way of
defending Us from the criticisms of English
travellers, shows that English travellers them
selves commit offences of the same kind that
they charge against us. The argument is
legitimate enough but We feel more disposed
to reason that since the manners of English
people of education so bad, it is evident that
they are no judges of the article, and We need
not trouble ourselves to answer them. SO far as
it is addressed to our English censors, Mr.
Whites book therefore seems to Us superiluous
pains. 1t is an appeal to an authority which 1t
would be absurd for us to recognize. If a man
does not know how to behave himself surely we
need not be rufed because he does not like our
behavior. And most Americans who have had