Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1884-04-28
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ENGLISH SARCASM.
Alleged American Fondness for Lectures
Richard Grant Whites Discovery.


According to paragraph, which
may or may not be correctly inspired,
Mr. Arnold has compiled huge body
of notes on the curious social distinc-
tons in the United States. 1t would
be an undignified but not an unlucra-
tive enterprise for Mr. Arnold to go
round England lecturing on the queer
social distinctions in America Nat
arally the Strayed Rcvcler is not SO
famous and popularity attractive as the
author of-well, of whatever MIR. Oscar
Wilde has written Mr.. Wilde's anec
dotic 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 successful entertainment.
Mr.. Arnold could not hope of course
to cope with impression" like the
other poets, but if he did choose to
lecture on what he saw i'm America he
would be listened to eagerly. Perhaps,
however, he will not think that good
taste permits him, either i'm lecture or
printed book, to make fun of his recent
hosts. 1t is difficult To say what is the
true rule of international etiquette i'm
this matter. Our kinsmen are GER
tainly very curious about us and about
Europe, and their curiosity is not al
ways according to knowledge. For
example, Mr.. Charles Dudley Warner
has just published n record OF his wan
derings in Syracuse, where, "HerOdo-
t0us in hand" he studied the Athen-
ian maneuvcrs about Epipoln. AS He
rodotous was not the author, any more
than Ezekiel, of the account of the ST.
Gillian expedition, it is guessed that Mr..
Warner has rather the semblance than
the subPtancc of scholarship. Per-
haps similar want of knowledge on
modern matters, coupled with a plen-
tiful lack of the humOr that is abun-
dant in Mr.. Warner, has darkcned the
views of Mr.. Richard Grant White.
He is, we think, the adventurous eX-
| plorcr who discovered to his dismay
that Englishmcn dress for dinner.
Embittercd by this, Mr. White gives
n somewhat gloomy and scornful ac-
count of us, but we do not seem to
mind much. American correspond
ents in London, too, send amazing lit
erary and social gossip across the
ocean, and still we do not vex our
selves in England. But it does not
follow that poet and II 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 Eng
land and America, Mr.. Arnold will
doubtless be struck by the comparative
neglect of lectures in England In
America, the "'lecturc business" is
large, lucrative, important business.
-.
I to operas and theaters, and take in
culture in that way, without the
trouble of reading There is something
democratic and personal in lectures.
The audience is brought into living
contact with the men whom they have
heard of, and whose books, though eX-
) pensive in England, can be purchased
in the States for a few cents. In Eng
land, perhaps, we prefer not to see
z our authors too much; we like better
to take them for granted, rs Words
l worth took YarrOw unvisited' In
+ America there is more curiosity about
the great beings height, fighting
weight, eyes, hair, boots, voice, and
2 other properties. 1t is not that the
$ Americans do not read they are great
t readers they also delight in look
a ing and listening. In England this curl
c osity see much more slaggish Peo-
= pie paid TO see Thackera and Dickens,
5 and 10 hear them read, but Would any
+ living novelist find that it paid to give
t lectures? Would any American au-
+ thor find his lectures crowded if he
1 came over hereP Probably not unles,
i he were comic writer, like Marx
5 Twain. In England lecturing is dread