Morning journal and courier., 1885-01-29

sticking out of the carriage window, OF that
New Workers pick their teeth with bowie
| knives. But mistakes of a somewhat less
| obvious kind are still current, and, indeed,
| are fostered as often not by the kind of
travellers we have mentioned. We shall here
| point out some of those which, if an Eng
| lishman starts with them fixed ideas, are
| most likely to get him into trouble. They
| are easily corrected, in our opinion, by using
| ones own eyes even for short time with
moderate attention and without prejudice.
| Yet we cannot but fear that the truth will
| appear paradoxical. Much Of what we shall
say is equally applicable to English Canadi-
an society. As for the French civilization
and manners of Lower Canada, they
| world by themselves.
| 1. That Americans are always in hurry.
This is capital error and source of others.
| Americans may be much occupied, but their
| speech and action in detail are, on the whole,
| more deliberate than an Englishman's; their
/ speech remarkably so. There is far less rep
etition and Interruption in Anglo American
| than in British talk. With US there is SO
| much careless speaking and careless hear
ing that the first answer OF remark when
people meet is apt to be little more than
| signal to call attention On the west side
/ of the Atlantic a says thing
| ing to say it once for all, and does not
pect to have to repeat it. Again, it is true
| that Americans object to unpunctuality
| more than Englishmen; as, in country of
/
| its consequences may be graver. But this
| has nothing to do with being in a hurry.
| On the contrary, the American habit is to
! allow greater margin of time for appoint
ments than we do here And, in truth,
| the fatal facilities of English dwellers in
| cities for running things fine do not exist
| in America. The '|gondola of London"
will redeem at q pinch many delays, with
| speed neither practised nor practicable il
I thoroughfares engrossed by horse-cars. The
| conditions of American life make it need
| ful to prefer labor-saving to time-aaving in
most things of common use. IN short, the
| practical Englishman;5 method is to begin
| with allotting sixty-three minutes work to
| the first hour, and then to scramble pant
| ing after the odd three minutes during all
the hours that follow: The American al
lows time enough, but not more than
/ enough; and he allows IL only once.
2. That Americans are melancholy. This
| IS widely spread mistake, founded on
wrong inferences rather than long observa-
5iGn: the fact being that the American
travelling public, as seen i'll hotels and 9th |
er public places, is OF . bearing sober and
decorous even to duilness. But this is not
evidence of unhappiness or moroseness. 1t
is nothing but al outward habit lag;ti- |
inately akin to the air OF self-centered re-
serve which has long been attached by ira
dition and repute to the public appearances |
of well-to do English people. stranger |
from almost any part of Europe would prob |
ably form the same of-hend Judgment if he |
were set down in the morning-room OF al |
most any English club with the same kind |
of plausibility and with the same injustice. !
Americans attach, if possible, even greater |
weight than we do to the virtue of Ininding
ones own business. The present writer met |
near John Browns home in the Adirondacks |
q who had known John Brown well. |
That Brown had been ''regular abolition
st was to this old neighbor mere acci- |
dent. He remembered Brown as a good
steady going sort of man who minded his
own BUSINESS" such was his version of the |
Horatian justum ct tenacem propositi. Thus |
it is point Of dignity not to thrust ones self
directly or indirectly on ones neighbor for |
the time being. Not that Americans repel |
advances English people sometimes do. |
But they do not, as rule, invite them. We
are not concerned to deny that garruious |
and curious people may be found out West
But if they were ever commonly to bs met
with in the eastern States, they are not SO |
aow. On the other hand, these staia and
silent people, if you address yourself to
them with patience and courtesy for any rea- |
sonable purpose, will take quite as much
trouble to help you average English
man. They may look less interested in you
and your affairs than the Englishinan would,
and much less than Frenchman "a French |
man. that is, who answers you at ALL; but
they will do no less than the EngIishman and |
a good deal more than the Frenchman. 1t is
true that on tho surface of American man |
ners ther3 IS certain dIyness and unexpan- |
sivaness, in itself a pure though one-sided |
Development of wellknoWn English pecu- |
iiarities. There is almost always SAVIOR Of |
this in American hu1.or. But let man
once establish, whether by private introduce
tion, by proof of q serious common interest
in any branch OF learning or by other force |
Of circumstances, relation beyond the mere !
common right of ciyiiity between strangers, |
and he shall speedily find how completely On
the surface is this astringent quality. A lit
tie knowledge of Continental manners would |
often save misapprehension on this ground, |
fer in some of these things america goes |
with Continental Europe rather than with |
England. There is yet greater and more |
dangerous fallacy in the way of the English |
man admitted to American society, namely:
3. That Americans are unceremonious. | .
American manners allow greater freedom to | t
certain persons and in certain conditions |
than we are accustomed to (though neither +,
so broadly as we apt to think, with c
out degrees and distinctions in local USAGE; |
whence a rash observer may conclude that i'll I ,
American society there is no etiquette ut all | ;
Anyone who acts on that conclusion will do | -
50 to his own great discontinue. There is
ess etiquette, certainly, in America than |
lere. For one thing, there are no fixed rules
If precedence, and We believe that Ameri- | .
:ans have some difficulty III realizing their
existence in this country. But some eti-
1uettS there is, and what there is OF ii is |
more strictly observed than with us; so THAI | Z
t is, for example, almost worse breach Of :
good manners in Boston or New York than | 4
II Lon ION to dispense with evening dress | 8
without express request or license from ones | .
lost. Absence OF Sh3-ness and aWkwardness | 1
s quite different thing from lawlessness: | q
me cause Of them, in fact, is the iaxity of
ooial rules which i'll England often makes it |
lifdcult for a well-meaning person to know l {
whether he is doing the right thing or not. |
The best American manners have an indefn-
~ yTri,i ici, foot
rankness are compounded with certain fla
OF of old-world politeness. Little traits of
piece with this are the frequent use of |
Sir and of one or two formulas of greet |
ng which sound at fist rather stiff1y to an
English ear having been faithfully preserved
n the new country after they have been
Mostly dropped in the old. For our own
,art, we half or more than half regret the
chnsonian fashion.
4. That rowdiness is mark of American | S,
One is really ashamed to set
own this a current belief; but many
Inglishmen speak and write if they be-
eyed it. We shall only say that any such
Inglishman can easily undeceive himself by
DING to the Central Park of New Y ork on
sunday afternoon. He will there see a mui-
itude of people which it would be difficult | =,
0 st,rpass anywhere else in scale, taking | II
lumber and density together (for New York | /
as only one park, and everybody seems to
o there), and impossible to surpass in good |
onaV1OfS. 1nen bn6 EnSllSu OIL
ipline flourishes and abounds at every turn.
t is shown even in such matters political
which are imposing, not by any
pecial merit of artistic composition de-
all (things which Germans or Italians would
rrange much better with the same opportu-
ities), but by good order and good march
lg. We have said nothing of the influence
f democracy on American manners, believ
lg it much less for good or for i'll than is
supposed. In any case American
emoeracy has strongly conservative side,
has lately been well shown.
Finally, there is every simple point on
hich we shall not dwell, because it is apt to
g forgotten not only in America, but in
lost quarters of the world by travellers of
lost nations. Still it is to be noted that in
,rences drawn indiscriminately from the
eople one sees in the street and the hotel to
1e people one does not see IN their own
ouses are not always or necessarily correct. j.
gHH - HH