Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-02-18
AMERICAN AND BRITISH
QUEERNESS.

John Bull often laughs at some eccen-
trio use of the language, some uncouth
phrase or apparent slang, from his
cousin Jonathan, when, after all. it
turns out to be Yorkshire or a Shrop-
shire form of speech, which either has
been long latent in the transatlantic
branch, and comes ont at last like in
visible writing before Il fire, or is n
usage as old as the English settlement,
but which has been only recently traced
back again to the mother country
American women are thought to be
very queer in many ways, when tried
by the conventional standards of other
countries. Nothing could be queerer
than Daisy Miller to Mrs. General pre-
cisely pouring prunes and prisms from
her proper mouth. Nothing, also,
would seem to be queerer to the typical
respectable British matron than many
of the excellent American champions of
the rights of their own sex
But while that matron would look
aghast upon one of her own sex making
q stump-speech, and would doubtless
murmur, How painfully Americana
the Easy Chair recently pointed out
that nothing could seem to an American
lady more extraordinary than the
spectacle of the wife of candidate for
Congress driving with election flags and
ribbons from house to house soliciting
votes for her husband. Yet this was the
queer spectacle offered by the wife of
Lord Randolph Churchill in the early
summer, and the fact that she was an
American made no difference. She
would certainly not have done the same
thing here, and doubtless she shares the
feeling of repulsion with which SO many
American ladies regard the assertion of
the right of doing what she did. Lady
Churchill was stamping for her hus-
band. 1t was not queer in England,
and it shows that the brow of the respect
able British matron should not be lifted
at the female champion Of her SEX in
America, because she is plainly British
survival. like the local phrase or word
The same interesting fact is illustrated
in other ways. John Bull at his Lon
don club, like young Bull Calf at his
club iii New York, is shocked by the
vulgarity and ''blackguardism' of
American politics. 1t strikes him as
very undignified, and he signs to think
''it is so transatlantic Is ftp Is it
peculiarly Americana Not at all; it is
only u survival of the dear mother
country To one who recalls Hogarth,
and remembers Grants Random Recol-
lections Of The House Of Commons, and
Disraeli's and Bulwer's and Dickens's
stories, and who has dipped little into
English political and party history,
nothing is more queer than that John
Bull should think vulgarity and black
guardism and worse, in an electoral
campaign, to be so American and queer
The other evening, in an ordinary
election campaign, such as that which
is just ended in England, poor Lord
Lorne, the Queens son-in-law. was
assailed with such uproar, and even
with eggs, so furiously, that he escaped
from the platform, and ran, dripping,
through a heavy rain to the railroad
station, and shook the mud of the town
from Off his feet. Now as the conduct
of the wife of Lord Churchill, upon
which this Chair passes no Judgment,
however familiar and acceptable in
England, would have been thought
superlatively queer in the United States,
so the yituperatiye vigor Of English
political speaking is unparalleled here,
and as proceeding from a realm in
which election vulgarity is thought to
be so American, it Is undeniably queer.
The appearance of a high dignitary
OF the Episcopal Church upon the party
stump on this side of the water would
be an extraordinary and almost an I'M
precedenied event. But that, if he APP
peared, such an ccclcsiastc should
speak OF an opponent us the Venerable
Archdeacon George Anthony Denison,
of Taunton, in England, recently spoke
of Mr.. Gladstone. is incredible. The
reverend gentleman said: II have
known Mr. Gladstone forty-iiye years,
but / would not trust him with brass
farthing.' The Wings nightly before
sleeping express the hope that some
thing will happen to Mr.. Gladstone be-
fore morning" Can we figure Bishop
Littlejohn, or Bishop or Assistant Bishop
Potter, or Bishop Doane. or Bishop
Huntington, or Bishop Coke, all of them
New York ecclcsiastics, either speaking
upon the stump at all, or under any
conceivable circumstances talking in
that strain of any opponcnt2 It is GER
tainly very queer, and we sigh deeply TO
think how English it is,
Professor Tyndall also took part in
the late Parliamentary campaign, 50 far
as to write letter declining 10 stand
for seat. In the letter referring to
events in the Soudan, he too said of Mr..
Gladstone: IF there be day Of retri-
button for the misdeeds OF men, would
not willingly accompany to the judg-
ment-seat the unpurged spirits OF those
who were responsible for the bloodshed
in the Soudan. 1t was damning and
damnable business from beginning TO
end. Yet the man who is answerable
beyond all others for this waste of
blood, who sent Gordon to the wilds
and there abandoned him 10 death and
mutilation, now dares to talk to the
people of Midlothian as if no tieck
rested upon his workmanship" That
is as bitter as anything that has been
said upon the American stump for many
a year. Our personality and invective
and extravaganza at elections are only
a survival of queerness. Our fathers
brought them in the blood when they
left England. They are a common
heritage of the race. and not distinctive
" $50 American after all George
William Curtis, IN Ha1per's Magazine
for ,Ja9lgldy.l