Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1884-10-23

winch Enable Us to See ourselves ~
Some Others see Us.

wnioh Enable Va TO See Ourselves as
soms Others Sec Us.
SIR Lepel Griain's book on ''The
Great Republic is severely criticised
by American papers. 1t is not datter-
ing TO our nat:onal pride TO have a
political hfe denounced by an English
q Here are a few extracts showing
the style Of his work; The most no
tceable defect Of the towns is the infer
Tor character of the roadway. Paving
in America seems IN unknown art the
principles Of Maeadam have not crossed
the ocean and the paving generally
would be considered disgraceiul in an
English village. Washington Is in this,
as in almost every branah Of civic adj
ministrstion, tie honorable exception,
and the reason is found in the fact,
which is as significant IS any in Ameri-
a political life, that ths District of
Columbia, which is virtually no more
than the city of Washington itself, is
not delivered, like other Ameriosn
towns, to the tender mercies of an inef-
ficient end corrupt municipality.
Republican institutions have had a
trial for a hundred YEARS and so far as
outsiders can Judge their failure is COM
plete. France under arepublic has be-
come a by-word in Europe for weakness
and turbulence abroad and financial
imbecility aud corruption at home,
'Ehile America, which boasts Of equsiity
and freedom, does not understand that
with the single exception Of Russia.
there is no country where private right
and public interests are more systema-
tically outraged than in the United
States. The ideal ~agistocracy, or gov
ernment Of the best, has in America
been degraded into an actual goverp-
ment of the worst, in (which the educated,
the cultured, the honest and even the
wealthy weigh as nothingi il the balance
against the scum of Europe which the
Atlantic has washed up on the shores CT
the New World.
Nothing is more striking than the
patience with which the free American
citizen bears the insolence Of office, the
rudeness Of ticket collectors, the un-
necessary violence of thepohce, and the
general contempt " every petty employee
OF the government, OF priyate coinpa
MES, who, one and all, seem to consid-
er the public they serve as a beast Of
burden, to be beaten or driven at their
pleasure. We are accustomed to this
official aggressiyeness aud petty iuso-
lence in France or Italy, but it seems
strangely out of place in m Anglo-Sax-
on republic. For this temper IL alto
gether foreign TO the people. There
is no more kindly and considerate person
in the world than the unofficial Amer
lean. Hospitable, generous and warm
hearted, he will take infinite trouble to
assist q stranger aud, if you ask him to
direct you in the public street, will
probably walk far out OF his way to
point out your destination. But poll
tics have so demoralized Office that
with its possession his whole temper
seems changed. The old wine OF author
ity is too strong for republican bottles
aud, next to being an off aial Yourself,
there is hardly q greater misfortune
than to have to conduct dealings with
one.
Nothing is more pleasant in America,
or places the civilization of the country
in a brighter or more honorable
light than the universal respect
publicly paid 10 women by m.n Of
all degrees. That tEeir is in tins some
thing of ex~aggeration, and Shat some
woncn alsase their exceptional privil-
eyes, demanding discourteousiy what
men are ready voluntarily to olar, does
not materially affect the question. An
American gentleman Who resigns his
seat TO a lady in a steamboat or IRAN
car, or who wearies himself ~ looking
after her luggage and wrestling on her
account with railway porters, does not
ask even the thanks which politeness
should be eager to profIer. His action
has been disinterested, instructive and
to satisfy his sown sense Of propriety.
The difference, in this respect, between
the French and American Republics IS
curious indeed. A Frenchman wiz
ruthlessly turn a lady into the mud OF
the street rather than step off tue pave
ment himself, or will bride the railway
guard TO induce delicate women TO leave
their pre-engaged carriage in order tlrt
he may not sit with his back to the en-
CINE. He will hardly assist a woman
in distress unless she be attractive.
The French, below the thinnest veneer,
are the most impolite of civilized races.
Americans, on the other hand, though
without superficial polish, are worm
hearted and chivalrous in the highest
degree. The position in which they
have placed their women in the best
guarantee that the nation viii outgrow
the blemishes which now disfigure it
and will in the future attain a higher
civilization than has been enjoyed by
any people who have regarded the r
intellectual and political life as the
undivided dominion OF man.