Arizona weekly citizen., 1885-02-21
JONATHAN AS HE IS.

TIE tune wEs when Americans took .sssIys--e criticisms Of visiting English men af letters very seriously to heart, b1t tha. time has passed. When the r--ll-h ablse us and say things aOout -.taat are not true, or that they do not understand. We simply pass it by with a 7s-y sight curl of the lip. and unless .-aathar Is a man If great note, as rss tlc case with Charles Dickens we r,y bat little attention to what he may .,ra ahout us. unless he tells the trlth ig such a !, rcible way that we cannot t5ls it. When Herbert Spencer was og-r here a few years ago. We were all vs-y e.al to see him and honor him for r5s great intellect. We were also. y--v a-x.. us to have him say s1ue;li-g aboUt Us, but we had Ls-i t.lue to get him at II. But finally ve id get him cornerei just before having 1T Eng aud, and Tn a short sr-tca, winch was not altogether com r.m-ut4ry of cur way and system, but f1V rt living truth. he told us more shlut .urselyes than We knew of, be- cans, we Lad not stopped to think, s-i more than all the Englishmen who Lai visited us during the last quarter o ctl,urv had told us. Spencer sift- ei the clafT from the wheat a-i presented us with clean grains. Vs c9u.G not help but recognize ten and thank him for it. Ev- ery season cf late years, some En- cislM.u Ur other VI ho has visited thls country during the summer season has 'e.t Lims -lt called upon to write a book giving ms impressions of our country a1i our people. Many of these travel CTS jii not come as far west as the Mis- pl river and some of them dId not -s; beyond the Middle States. Yet they seemed ta thIuk they knew all about t-is country, our system of government, C1- wages, took our present size and ruIhe-lei what we and our country volli come h in the future. Americans lks to read what others have to gay at5G. them, but if it Is not well said, rot trUe, or, Tn other words, if the chafl has rot been sifted out by the author or elrur fl hls book, ii will perhaps go for Es l'ile .n this country as any other. America has passed the age when for esr ,l,.cism stings her pride or excites ,ae- Ire. + II IS good we accept 1t, and
 dr !. bal We simply cast 1t to one side.
 A-euc4 las grown to be n great nation;
 pe-L-.s .4e greatest this world ever knew. .li # she IS not such a nation nor. s-e Jn will be, and even ouI Co->i. .c-oss the water begin to reallze '. ve can stand whatever comes, lEU ie for or against us. But with aI t-s adverse writings of the class oi mn above referred 10 during the pas isF years, 1t IS rather pleasant to read iLs following paragraph from the pen q Matthew Arnold, the smartest in En- gland, uotwItLstar ding he Is coming here next year 10 lecture to us for u5l-..
 In his last word about America, in tle N -eseenth Century, Matthew Ar lod Hlicales Sir Lep l Gri.iin's account Of us: says he never before saw people thoroughly suited to their institutions. He thinks we have solved b tl tae political and the social problem H. believes that English society eau only be reformed by abolish iue tle aristocraey, and describes him. s-N. in conclusion. as bound to America b. the memory of great, untiring, and m)st attaching kindness"