The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-05-02
rRs AMERICAN TIPS.
lpavld sxisg, ia carssn.l

t@fANes S0t~8A A8 &~aAWaNAl
 Nov in the factory, begun with tho settlement of this consineAs, toned down and touched up ever sinee, and not yee perfected, is to be seen the work called the American. Coming aknr aM tAa many experiments in chAxacteT-making. this average cieiAen ot the western hami- sphere possessed rare advantage in his ability to adopt all modern improvements, and to discard old and imperfect eondi- tions and methods. Of course all men have been and arc human, and must pos sess essentially one personality, whether found in an early century or late 0ae, found in an arctic or tropical zone bat within this large circle ot unity there are many smaller circles of variety. tn this matter of variation, time and place work wonders. Mans mind and soul are pliant, taking form readily. like tke pot ter's clay, which yields to the gentlest touch of the finger.
 The American could not wiih any de- gree of composure initiate the Greek. He was settling upon new and vast conti- nent, and did not need statuary and poetry so much as common arts and common in- dustry; his long days tramp after the blow or after lumber took away all zeal over the foot race and wrestling match :; while the wild deer, the bear, the squir- rel, and an occasional confiict with the rcd man, turned his mind away from the archery of the Athenian youth and from the gladiatorial practice oi the Romans. The novelty of the situation invited and compelled the exile to swing away from the known forms of human toll, thought, and amusement and by slow modifica- tions the man of Europe became trans. ferred into the man of America.
 It must not be expected that our nation Is fashioning character that will make itself visible instantly in whatever cline this character may be met. Not 60 coarse are the differences between different branches of the European family. When men are educated and refined, the local h them Is not SO great as the human. Matthew Arnold was little more Eng. lish than Lord Coleridge, but Tom Hughes seems more local than either {; but education and society have made these Englishmen less conspicuousiy 90 than is any British cab driver or farmer. Thus while there is now being formed on
  man nature, 1t will not be ams z.ngly pe- culiar, for education and manners will intervene to prevent such bad result. Our nation is fabricaiing manhood and a womanhood that win differ from all personalities of the past; but that differ ence will not amaze or shock; It will rather delight those of the old world who may be intellectually able to measure any spiritual merit or dement,.
 Only merit can detect and appreciate merit and the true American will long attract 10 himself the ill-will of the lower type of the Englishman or Frenchman. When the Servia was starting out of Liv- erpool, not long since, two strangers found themselves in the same sta:eroom In few moments one said to the other, Where are we from, and whither going r When they had learned that one was from Manchester and one from Leam- ingson, one of them said: "What e re. lief for l was afraid my roommate would be a blarsted Yankee" Subse- quen. days on the seas revealed to the Yankees in state-rooms near by, that these two subjects of the queen had no knowl. edge of the English language, but were
 just high enough in money power to have minds full of prejudice, for prejudice Is a spontaneous weed, while appreciation is a cultivated flower.
 The American is active minded and full of inquiry. Having no substitute, DO king, no landlord, he mus, do his own thinking, and this soon enables him to do his own talking. The freedom, the independence, of our country has affected the inmost soul of the majority, and each young lady Of eighteen could talk by the hour with the prince of Wales, or with Proctor the astronomer, or with Tyudall the scientist. An English or French miss would wish her father, or uncle, or her grandfather. were present to conduct the conversation but the average Amer ican miss would say in her heart: Let me have the great man all to myself [ can talk to and listen to him."
 The absence of a governing class causes in the western mind an absence of all Awning, disagreeable obsequious. ness. When some Illinois gentlemen were travelling in Scotland few summers ago. they were for Q iew days with an English party moving as satellites around an English lord. The conduct of the common mortal: Q! the group vas quite different from that which stands approved in the United States. The titled man could not reach out for glass of water without causing t~o or three able-bodied men to spring foTwaTd and say: "Your lordship must not refuse us the honor of assisting" If he removed his ha. there were quite number of persons ready to hang Il up or hold it. These men were not paid servaAts. but men of the travel. ing company. ss-he Americans differed from these attendants in the quantity rather than in the quality of their polite ness. They would have seen some mo- ments in which to let the lord alone, and in which to plant in his heart some seeds of the American joy of helping one's self The average American knows when to permit m oftal to have some peaee To help one's self Is often a most delicate luxury.
 Liberty has made an open. hearted