Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-10-16
SOCIETY IN ENGLAND.

The Only Terms Upon which Americans
Can Enter it.
Mr.. Watterson, in q recent European
letter to the Louisville Courier Journal,
says: There is much in and about Lon
don for the American to see, which he
ought to see, and which will more than
repay him for going to see. The educa-
ton of no man is complete which does
not include some personal knowledge Of
England. This knowledge, however, to
be entirely satisfactory, must end with
the local scenery and the historic re-
mains. There is little in English society
and association but that which is repug-
nant to American sensibilities.
Being myself q member Of three Lon
don clubs, it does not, perhaps, lie in my
mouth to speak of q certain exclusiveness
and inhospitality, which no native Lon
doner will deny, marking the club life of
London, and in striking contrast with
the club life of New York, but il is fact
nevertheless. Nowhere is the English
man seen to such characteristic disadvan-
tage as in his club, where the pig in him
comes out strongest and is ever present
at the dinner table, at the card table
and in tho smoking room. As to the
great private houses, there is but one key
that opens their doors to the foreigner,
particularly to the American, and that is
the key which fits into the deomineer-
ing spirit, the admirable system Of self
enlargement, the complacency and the
vanity of the British aristocracy. "With-
out current American beauty" says
the Standard, 1.-THE fashionable world
would get on with difficulty Alack
the day; this is as much as to say that
without mercenary mother having a
daughter to sell the occupation of the
lewd young bucks of the peerage, not to
speak of the Prince of Wales, would be
very much circumscribed; for, in plain
English, that is just the size Of it.
"Social success for the American in
England means the acceptance with a
good grace of state of case abhorrent
to his love of his country and his respect
for himself, and the American whom the
Stan' ard describes is one who by cajole-
ry and servility has contrived to pene-
trate the inner circle of the nobility,
where he is received with q stretch of
tolerance and allowed to remain on q
ticket-of- leaye. He must speak low and
mind his eyes, or he will find himself
down the back stairs, being, indeed, but
little more distinguished than the SER
wants. As for the women, heaven help
them! They must be young and pretty,
and fetch their "dot" with them, or else
they must have some baser sacrifice to
lay at the feet of The ever-hungry, al
ways brutal social Moloch, If they look
for recognition. Nobody enters this
theater without an admission ticket daily
stamped and paid for. Upon it's outer
doorway is perpetually hung the fami-
liar legend. "The free list is sus-
pended" and, for the untitled American,
at least, "Standing room only"
I do not quarrel with this at all. It
is good thing for the British as long as
they can keep it up. It is pleasant, I
dare say, to receive tribute and to have
incense rut beneath the nose. Some
times it is profitable also. A millionaire
is not to be blamed for keeping out the
company of adventures and paupers,
nor lord for looking somewhat askance
at the unknown and unauointed herd.
But, as David says in the '.Rivsls," it is
poor rule that don't work both ways,
and it is no more than right that the
commontalty should stick to itself and
stand or fall together. Each to his peer,
say I, and in an aristocratic system Of
rank, based upon birth, the foreigner
who has no handle, to his name has no
place. The American who goes to Eng
land should carry this in his mind, and
be content with the outside Of the show,
which is well worth seeing. That he
should endesvor as far as may be to do
in Rome as the Romans do, preserving at
all times and in all places civil tongue,
goes without saying. Thus shall he have
his fill, paying for it out Of his pocket,
and not out of his conscience, and get
him back to his home, patriot undefiled.