The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-02-02
cARIcATURED AMERICANS.

lRobt. Laird Collier, in Chicago Tribune.
 Last week went to the Haymarket to see Mir. Pinero's new comedy, with the misleading and unfortunate title of " Lords and Commons" and here again encountered this same unconventional, ill-bred, vulgar, nasal ltoned, loud-,alk- ing, diamond-bestudded albeit good- hearted American girl. The play itself is as nearly perfect as anything have seen on the boards for many day. It is clean and sweet, and the dialogue holds attention and interest from first to last. Moreover, it is perfectly done, as all plays are at the Haymarket under the management of MT. and Mrs. Bancroft. flt is not delicious for Mir. Bancroft to associate his clever wife's name so con spicuously with his own ? Mrs. Stirling as Countess of Caryl was simply perfect bless the dear old simple aristocrat. l wanted to hug her every minute she was on the stage: mind, she impersonated lady of at least sixty Indeed, the acting was so consummate it Jeff no place for the legitimate function of criticism. always like Mir. Forbes Robertson, for he is always equal to his work, and then he is so handsome and so gentlemaniy, both off and on the boards. Mir. Bancroft as Tom Jervoise and Mrs. Brancroft as Miss Mapleback were what they always are most intelligent, conscientious. and fAs- cinating artists. But Mrs. Bancroft inn personated this wholly disagreeable, loud, flashy, vulgar-talking American creature. who again was meant as type, tun fntfh ha American girl of the period.
 Whenever an American Is put into an English story or into an English play he or she is of this ill-bred class. If man. he IS angular. lank and unkempt: his hair and beard are very long and his clothes very outre and uniting per haps he is made to attend to his teeth and his hnger-nails in public it may be in the drawing room. If woman. she is sallow, loud-talking, slangy, covered with tinery, and has struck ile. or her :. governor has, for she has .'heaps O money l am always more than an- noyed when in books or in plays see such caricatures of my fellow-country- men. Still. 1t is no use to deny the fact that this IS not only the English idea of
 
 pean estimate. And whyis this! When am in America l meet few of this sort of folk. All My American friends are ladies and gentlemen in every conven- tlonal way as we'll as in every real sense of these words. have nowhere seen and mingled with more social refinement on the face of this earth-and know some what of life in England and most of the continental countries-than l have seen and mingled with in Chicago and Boston. Indeed. there is type of social life in America which hold as inestimably higher than that of any othe, land. tis as quiet. as self-respecting, as well-bred as any. and. added to these, it IS more genuine. more human. more loyal in friendship. less at the bidding of Mrs. Grundy, than any social life know.
 We must admit. however. that there is always some basis in reality-in actual life for the scope and fancy of the oh ,rivari and. although am more than annoyed at these por:raitures of my fell low-eoun,rymen, l know where the cari- caturst catches the idea" It cannot be denied that American newspapers deal largely, and at times unwarrautably. with personal affairs and social life as the press of no other country does. This leads to congregation and perhaps the making of occasions. occurrences and interviews out of whole cloth. After one has been in the habit of reading the London dailies, or even the leading pro- vinoial papers of England. one is instant ly struck ai the enormous enterprise and newsiness of American journals, but per haps even more so with the unserious and in instances trivial way in which all affairs of state. society and individuals arc discussed and canvassed by the less important metropolitan papers and by almost all country newspapers. Thus the less responsible journals ot America and those of least influence at home so portray and really misrepresent Amer ican social life that when they find their way abroad these caricatures are accepted as trustworthy.
 Indianapolis girls find It impossible to