Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-01-02
IMPRESSIONS OF. AMERICA
William Terr1ss, the English Actor, Saya
+ This Is q Great Country and He Wants ia
; Visit It Adain.s =, 8, &5s ss3'"stE ~

ImE2ESS4ONS OEs* Ale 6ELAC!A.
rhis & : Great Country and 10 wants "a
Visit It Again. VI 2''S'
From thest Stephens Review.
Il You have asked me to give you my
Impressions of the States, and SO far q:
{ can I gladly accsde to your request.
Naturally I regarded the inhabitants
through the actors spectacles, and if
ny lens did not play me false, I con-
slider the Americans are as play going
race fonder, far fonder, of all that par
tains to the drama than we are owe,
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 that
actor must have sluggish liver indeed
who is not stirred to something like rec
iprooity when an American audience
"rises" at him.
/ found the American race one of the
most hospitable and free-hearted sec
tions of the worlds teeming millions I
have ever met, and as have explored
q good many sections of our planet
during the last twenty years, / am able
to draw contrasts from experience.
They are warm hearted and impulsive,
and can conceive of no finer pleasure
excursion for an actor-at least juv-
emile actor-than 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 fellow feel at home 3 900
odd miles away from ?aia own hearth
stone. Personally l;4ka this oppor-
tunity, late in the day though it be, Of
expressing my gratitude to the whole
American public for the manner in
which they received me, and !
hope I shall not be accused of doing
IT in any other spirit than that Of sin
cerity.
And now a word as to the theaters
themselves. They are all around more
perfect playhouses, structurally and
acoustically, then our English ones, and
the general air Of comfort about them
is, 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 inlpresses.
In Great Britain the run from Aber~
deem to Euston makes one begin to feel
that the right little, tight little island
is bit of a misnorner 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 !inear
measurement in miles aid furlongs be-
tween New York and Chicago, but
try tile journey, and the feeling Of
space begins to grow on one 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 straversed it can wonder at the
boastfulness which sometimes makes
full-blooGed Yankee believe that the
world begins at Manhattan and ends at
thu port OF Monterey. I passed through
great many large towns whose names
are never or seldom heard of over here,
yet whose dimensions from the railway
suggested places rs large as Bristol,
Leicester. or Nottingham; and this is a
point which I 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 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 q lad of about IL or
IA complacentlv driving high spirited
animal along the public highway at
quite fourteen miles an hour with all the
sang froid OF a WAGNER Jogging along
Kentish turn pike at three. In England
such furious driving is confined to
butcher boys in London and suburban
thoroughfares, when the policeman is
converien, v absent. In tho States it
seem. the :, !e. 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
vansaries Of fairydom. We think
good deal of Richmond end Windsor
Parks-at least I debut after seeing
several lovely specimens Of Yankee
parks Zone Of which Thought OF explor-
ing and walking through, until I found
it was ninety.fve miles in circumfer~
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 l admire, like
people who possess but little Of it's
energy. Their perseverance is o Ma
tional characteristic, one Of their
straightest points, and they are proud
Of it. The logged pertinacity that 100
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 warfare
which for duration and obstinancy re-
calls the Punic campaigns of classic lore:
is as rampant as ever. Tt is that very
perseverance which will one day make
them one of the greatest, if not the
greatest power in the world. q really
think, I must have borrowed some OF
their perseverance, to have written SC