Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-04-03

It is so rarely that an Englishman writes
of America and Americans with anything
like fairness and appreciation, that the
observations of Sir Richard Temple, pub
lished in the New York Tribune of Mon
day, are particularly pleasant reading,
inspired as their are, throughout with
sympathy and a discernment which few
English writers manifest when treating
this theme. The titled tourist has eviden-
tly spent II longer time than most OF his
countrymen in doing" America. He
writes, not only with kindlness and sympa-
thy, bur with an intelligence and familiarity
with American life and institutions which
give force ana value to everything ne says.
Sir kichari Temple is a man of acknOw
lodged culture and attainment, and his
opinion is worth more than bakers dOz-
en- of the impressions of conceited En-
glish snObS, who come over here with the
express purpose Of derding our 'provin-
cial" life and institutions, after hasty
collection OF all the uufayorable material
they can lay hands ON.
The first thing which strikes the Amer
lean rea ley in glancing over Sir Richard
Temples letter is the fact that it seems to
be written more from an American than
an English standpoint Sir Richard
writes while his transatlantic experiences
and impressions are still fresh in his mind.
He notes the fact that he did not find that
extraordinary and erratic exhibition of
personal peculiartles among Americans,
which might have been expected from the
shallow and stereotyped observations of
most English travellers. On the contrary,
he found our national and social charac
teristics, on the whole, very much like
those of the people of Great Britain. He
! is more struck with the resemblances be-
tween the people of the two nations than
/ with their differences. He sees in some
of our most prominent national charac
teristics-our energy, self-reliance, adapt
ability to circumstances, faculty for self
government and Enthusiastically in
considerations of traits possessed in com
mon by the whole Anglo-Saxon race.
So also with our social characteristics,
he does not find that disparity be-
tween Englishmen and Americans
which is commonly taken for granted by
our foreign critics. He thinks that we are
distinguished from our transatlantic
cousins, principally, by our absence of in
ternatonal jealousy and fear, our cardi-
nal belief in progress, our national humor,
our striking development of the inventive
faculty. our desire to take "short cuts"
and the general diffusion among us of
'huent impromptu eloquence." In all of
these respects Sir Richard with what care
and coseness he has studied our national
life, he might have alluded to our indie
pendence of personal views and action, but
this has so often been caricatured that
apparently, he did not care to venture
upon a point in which he might be misun-
derstood.
Our dangers and our possibilities, as Il
nation. our illustrious critic, thinks, lie
in the composite nature of our population
But he looks upon the bright side
of Americas national life here also ut
will be, he says, "a matter of the live
lest curiosity to British people to see
whether America produces within her
limits a form of civilization unattaped or
unattainabie elsewhere. 1t will be "A
source of pride to them if she continues to
; move along lines or in grooves similar to
those of the mother land"
Such kindly criticism as Sir Richard
Temples will certainly contribute not a
, little to the feeling that "the mother land
is not the step-mother Americans have
sometimes thought her to be, and will tend
, tokeep the two'great English speaking PEG
t Piles in sympathy of thought and action.
1t is a prevalent but very erroneous i'm
, preston that the snow fall is much heavi-
er in the northwest than in other parts OF
: the country, and that the railroads OF
+ Minnesota and Dakota are more liable &c
delays from snow blockades than the
1 lines of other states This impression is
entirely incorrect. The railroad lines of
north Minnesota and Dakota are really
( less subject to snow blockades in winter
4 than lines lying geographically several
l hundred miles to the south,