Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1885-01-23
HAIL COLUMBIA!
The Gracious Compliments of an
English Actor.
Bigness of the Country and Push OF
the PeopIe-Surprisingly Large
Cities and Wonderful
bridges.

William Terriss in St Stephens Review. ]
You have asked me TO give my impressions
of the states, and, so far as / can, gladly
accede TO your request Naturally l re-
garIied the inhabitants through the actors
spectacles, and if my lens did not play me
false, ! consider that americans are as a
playgoin rare fonder, far fonder, of all
/. that pertains to the drama than We are over
here. They are quicker at catching points
There Is an earnest spontaneity about their
applause which spells REAL in big capitals,
and that actor must have sluggish liver in
| deed who is not stirred 10 something like re-
ciprocity when an American audience 'rises'
at him.
found the American race one of the most
/ hospitable and ree-hearted sections Of the
worlds teeming millions | have ever met,
and a. | have explored good many sections
| Of our planet during the las. twenty years.
! am able TO draw contrasts from experience.
! They are warli-hearted and impulsive, and
can conceive of no finer pleasure excursion
I for an actor-at least Juvenile actor-than
a short playing tour from New York TO San
! Francisco The broad, burly arms OF
Americas Bohemians are teld out, AMI
there are hani-griTs and pleasan;
| greetings from oily good, albeit
rough humans you have never met
iefore but who mean all they say. This
| large class OF society eagerly welcomes You,
makes much Of you, and what Is better than
| all else, you feel that it IS not the hcnizing
sentiment which is actuating your host, but
the wish to make a fellow feel AZ home three
( thousand odd miles away from his own
4 hea:thstcna Personally, / take this oppor-
I tunity. late IN the day though it be, Of ex-
| pressing my sense Of gratitude to the whole
/ American public fox the manner in which
| they received me, and hope / shall not lie
accused Of doing it in any other spirit than
| that Of sincerity.
As one travels through tho states the i'm
mensity Of The country i,uproSsss. In Great
| Britain, the run from Aberdeen to Eus;on
makes one begin t. feel that the right little
tight little island is bit of misnomer after
all, and that the little" is an affective that
could with safety he omitted, bat in the
states the distances are appalling or course
one knows tie actual linear measurement in
miles and furlorcs between New York ami
Chicago, but Try the journey, and the feel
ing OF space begins H. crow one until the
mind can occupy It'll: with LITTLE Gle.
Every man should love lii native land and
feel proud Of il, Tut the American does mere.
he revels in the vastness cf his; and 10 one
who has trayersed it can won,ier at the
bodstfuineSS which sometimes makes full
blooded Yankee believe tbG: the world he
gins at Manhattan and ends ut the port 81
Monterey. ] passi through a great many
large towns whose names are never CT seldom
heard Of over here, yet whose dimen-ions
from the railway sug sestsd places As large
as Bristol, Leicester or Nottingham; and
this is a point which | defy any average
Englishuhan to miss noting with surprise.
Again, the conf:d nee of the American in
himself and his country, but particularly in
himself. is a feature which is bound 10 AZ
tract the most unobseryant mind 4 slight
incident which / noticed repeatedly will
serve to illustrate my meaning. | saw lad
of about II or II complacently driving a
high-spirited animal along the public high
way at quite fourteen miles an hour, with
all the sangfroid of wagner Jogging
along a kei;lsh turnpike at three. In Eng
land such furious driving is confined TO
butcher boys in London and suburban
thoroachfareS when the policeman is con,
veniently absent In the states it seems
the rule The engineering fcatS, again,
are something astounding to witness
One Is absolutely lost in wondermellt when
contemplating the Brooklyn bridge, those
BlSstiltit S1TuttuTt> tnrDNH across the MiSslS-
sippi at ST. Louis, the truly marvellous
bridges across Niagara ard the monster
hotels everywhere which surpass the hugest
csraya'isarics of fairydom. We think
good deal IF Richmond and Windsor parks
at least debut after seeing several lovely
specimens Of Yankee parks lone of which
thought Of exploring and walking through,
until I found it was ninety-nve miles in cir
cumse, nIcel Windsor and Richmond suffer
considerably, though their trees and glades
have ,,t - be beaten out west
iIir g"-ahea1 characteristics of the nation
speak ont in every city, street and siiew> Tx.
Nothing i, old-all new, all fresh-deliSht-
fully trc-h-'ike spring Can | put the case
more forcibly: Everything they do is great;
their chief trait--a trait | admire, like all
people who possess but little OF it-energv.
Their Icr-rverauce is 4 national character
istic, one OF their strongest points. and they
are proud of il. The dosgei pertinacity that
one hundred years ago gained them their III
DEF endencc AMI which again two decades
since stamped out the blot OF their escutch-
con Of liberty AT the cost OF a warfare which
for duration and obstinacy recalls the Punic
campaigns of classic lore, is as rampant a
ever. Il Is that very perseverance whic h
will enc day make them one of the greatest,
ii not the greatest, power in the world. Il
really tAin, ] must have borrowed some Of
their perseverance 20 have written so length
lily ! may a'll that, finally, shall not rest
satisfied till have once again visited nv
fti-ss.l- fTt "a