Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-04-14
NGLISH SARCASM.

Alleged American Fondness for Lee
tureg-Richard Grant Whites Dis
cOvTy.
According to paragraph, which may
or nay not be correctly inspired, says the
Lndon Nelrs, Mr.. Arnold has compiled
a''huge body of notes on the curious So
dal distinctions" in the United States.
Ut would be an undignified but not an un-
/ lucrative enterprise for Mr.. Arnold to 90
round England lecturing on the queer So
cial distinctions in America. Naturally
the Strayed Reveler is not sn famous and
popularity attractive as the author Of
well, Of whatever Mr.. Oscar Wilde has
written. Mr.. Wilde's anecdOtic lecture
on the Leadville miners and their pianist,
and on the man who said the moonlight
was nothing to what it had been before
the war, seems to have been a sue
cessful entertainment. Mr.. Ar1Old could
not hope, of course, to cope with "impres-
sions" like the other poets, but ii he did
choose to lecture on what he saw in
America he would be listened to eagerly.
Perhaps, however, he Will not think that
good taste permits him, either in lecture
or printed book, to make fun of his recent
hosts. 1t Is difficult to say what is the
| true rule of international etiquette in this
matter. Our kinsmen are certainly very
| curious about US and about Europe, and
their curiosity is not always according to
knowledge. For example, Mr.. Charles
Dudley Warner has just published rec
ord of his wanderings in Syracuse. where,
''Herodotus in hand" he studied the
Athenian maneuvres about Epipole.
! AS HerOdOtus was not the au-
| EyalyiaI of
| the account of the Sicilian expedition, it
is guessed that Mr.. Warner has rather
| the semblance than the substance OF
scholarship. Perhaps a similar want of
knowledge on modern matters, coupled
with plentiful lack of the humor that is
abundant in Mr.. Warner, has darkened
the views Of Mr.. Richard Grant White.
He is, we think, the adventurous explorer
| who discovered to his dlsmay that Eng
| lishmen dress for dinner. Embittered by
this, Mr.. White gives a somewhat gloomy
| and scOrnful account of us, but we do not
seem to mind much. American CORE
| spondents IN London, too, send amazing
| literary and social gossip across the
ocean, and still we do not YeX ourselves
in England. But it does not follow that
a poet and a critic like Mr.. Arnold should
make sport for us about Americans,
though sport, no doubt, he could make if
he chose.
Among the differences between England
and America, Mr.. Arnold will doubtless
be struck by the comparative neglect of
lectures in England. In America the
''lecture business" is a large, lucrative,
| important business. The citizens 20 to
lectures as we 90 to operas and theatres,
and take in culture in that way, without
the trouble of reading. There is some
thing democratic and personal in lectures.
The audience is brought into living con-
tact with the men whom they have heard
of, and whose books, though expensive in
England, can be purchased in the States
for few cents. In England, perhaps, we
| prefer not to see our authors too much /;
we like better to take them for granted,
as Wordsworth took Yarrow unyisited.
In America there is more curiosity
about the great beings height, fight
ing-weight, eyes, hair, boots, voice,
and other properties. 1t is not that the
Americans do not read-they are great
readers-but they also delight in looking
and listening. In England this curiosity
seems much more sluggish. People paid
to see Thackeray and Dickens, and to hear
them read, but would any living novelist
find that it paid to give lectures? Would
any American author find his lectures
1 crowded if he came over here? Probably
not, unless he were a comic writer, like
Mark Twain. In England lecturing Is
| dreadfully ill-paid, as a lecturer not han
/ dicapped with shyness once told an audi
ence at the Royal institution. Only re-
| ligiOus and scientific lectures or lectures
| on a mans own adventures succeed here
as rule. The literary lecture flOurishes
| best in America; sits bright home is in the
| setting sum-