The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-01-09
EXPRESSIONS OF AMERICA.

IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA
William Terriss, the English Actor, saya
This Il a Great Country and He Wants to
visitIt Again.
from the St Stephens Review.
You have asked me to give you my
Impressions of the States, and SO far o.
| can l gladly accede to your request.
Naturally 1 regarded the inhabitants
through the actors spectacles, and if
ny lens did not play mi false, [ con-
slider the Americans are as q play-going
race fonder, far fonder, of all that par
tains to the drama than VIC are ovel
here. They are quicker at catching act
ing points. There is an earnest spon.
taneity about their applause which
spells HEAL in big capitals; and hat
actor must have a sluggish liver indeed
who is not stirred to something like rec
iprocity when an American audience
rises" at him.
most hospitable and free-hesrted sec
tions of the worlds teeming millions I
have ever met, and as I have explored
a good many sections of Jul planet
during the last twenty years, I am able
to draw contrasts from experience.
They are warm-hearted and impulsive,
and I can conceive of no finer pleasure
excursion for an actor-at least q juv-
emile actor-than a short playing tour
from New York to San Francisco. The
broad, burly arms of Americas Bohem-
ians are held out, and there hand-grips
and pleasant greetings from jolly good,
albeit rough, humans" you have never
met before, but who mean all they say.
This large class of society eagerly well
comes you, makes much of you, and
what is better than all else, you feel
that it is not the lionizing sentiment
which is ~actuating your host, but the
wish to make a fellow feel at home 1000
odd miles away from his own hearth
stone. Personally 1 take this oppor-
tunity, late in the day though it be, of
expressing my gratitude to the whole
American public for the manne in
which they received me, and 1
hope I shall not be accused of doing
it in any other spirit than that of sin
certify.
And now q word as to the theaters
themselves. They are all around more
perfect playhouses, s%tructurally and
acoustically, then our English ones, and
the general air Of comfort about them
is, l take it, one strong reason why the
community of American play-goers is
so numerous.
AS one travels through the States the
immensely of the country impresses.
In Great Britain the run from Aber-
deem to Euston makes II begin to feel
that the right little. tight little island
is a bit of n misnomer after all, and
that the ~"little" is an adjective that
could with safety be omitted, but in
the States the distances are appalling.
OF course one knows the actual linear
measurement in miles and furlongs be-
tween New York and Chicago, but
try the journey, and the feeling of
space begins to grow on n until
the mind can occupy itself with lit
tie else. Every man should love
his native land and feel proud of it,
but the American does more, he revels
in the vastness of his; and no one who
has traversed it can wonder at the
boastfulness which sometimes makes q
full-blooded Yankee believe that the
world begins ut Manhattan and ends at
the port of Monterey. l passed through
a great many large towns whose names
are never or seldom heard of w here.
yet whose dimensions from the railway
suggested places as large as Bristol,
Leicester, or Nottingham; and this is o
point which l defy any average Eng
lishman to miss noting with surprise.
Again the confidence of the American
in himself and his country but particu-
larly in himself, is a feature which is
bound to attract the most observant
mind. A slight incident which I no.
ticed repeatedly will serve to illustrate
my meaning. I saw a lad of about IL or
IA complacently driving a high-spirited
animal along the public highway at
quite fourteen miles an hour with all the
sang-froid of a WAGNER jogging along q
Kentish turnpike at three. In England
such furious driving is confined to
butcher boys in London and suburban
thoroughfares, when the policeman is
conveniently absent. In the States it
seems the rule. The engineering feats,
again, are something astounding to wit
ness. One is absolutely lost in wonder
ment when contemplating the Brooklyn
bridge, those gigantic structures thrown
across the Mississippi at st Louis,
the truly marvellous bridges across Nj
agara, and the monster hotels every
where, which surpass the hugest cara
v~ansaries of fairydom. We think q
good deal of Richmond and Windsor
Parks-at least 1 debut after seeing
several lovely specimens of Yankee
parks Zone of which Thought of explor-
ing and walking through, until I found
it was n~inety-five miles in circnmfer.
ence). Windsor and Richmond suffer
considerably, though their trees and
glades have yet to be beaten out West.
The go.ahead characteristics of the
nation speak out in every city, street,
and sidewalk. Nothing is old-all new,
all fresh-delightfully fresh-like
spring. Can I put the case more forci.
bly,? Everything they do is great:
their chief tralt-a trait admire, like
people who possess but little of its
energy. Their perseverance is a Ma
tional characteristic, one of their
straightest points, and they are proud
of it. The logged p~ertinacity that loo
years ago gained them their independ.
ence, and which again two decades since
stamped out the blot on their cscutch.
con of liberty at the cost Of q warfare
which for duration and obstinancy re-
calls the Punic campaigns of classic lore
is as rampant as ever. 1t is that very
perseverance which will n day make
them one of the greatest, if not the