Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-07-24
ENGLISH SOCIETY.

Letter TO the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Letter TO the Louisville Courier-Journal.
The average Engl!shman Is a snob. From the
duke to the coster-monger, each order in this
vast series of social strata ticks the foot OF the
order above it. The English woman Is a slave.
The warp and wool OF English society is q sham.
Thackeray saw it cut Of the clearest kind of
cosmopolitan eyes, and even Dickens was not
wholly dead to it. But, whilst the purse holds
out. it is resplendent indeed. The bully in the
men makes good soldiers. The power Of Eng.
land is undeniabIe. The slave in the woman
when she does not elope, makes excellent
housewifery The domestic fabric Of England
is respectable and orderly. But the church, the
dal system depend Ipon the poise and balance
of classes in the relation which now exists and
which, wi h trihing incidents not seriously dis.
turb1ng the personal life OF England, has existed
since Magma Chdrf6.
As an American have no right, and certain
ly no wish, TO complain OF this, or to criticse it.
II l do not like it, as do not, l can lump it.
England was made Tor Englishmen That with
W which, s, as an American, | have some concern.
ners upon America, and Americans, and the
position and conduct OF certain Americans who
come over here and appear in English society.
Touching the latter. nothing could be more
ridiculous and offensive. The more l see Of
England and the English the more am per-
suaded of the irreconciiiable difference between
us and Them and TIC more odious seem to me
the atfectation and inita ton OF AnglictSm by
the American, who. having got q glimpse of the
mobility, would stralghtWay get himself coat
Oi-arlnS.
Few sights in art or nature can be more mel.
tnchOly than that OF the American woman who
Ris married, or who seeks to marry. q titled
Englishman If there be, it is the American
mother VINO comes abroad and maneuvers for
a titled husband tor her daughters. l would
have such mother whipped at the carts
tail. Yet, all through English society you en-
counter them, the miserable AuglO-Amercan
wife, the Viiia1nous matchmaking American
mother, bowling and cringing to nobility, no
matter how corrupt and vulgar it may be, and
do assure You thai the basest and coarsest
specimens of humanity I ever met in decent
any means intend To imply in saying this that
there are not as good people among the nobility
as among any other class, though, relatively,
there are fewer, because inherited rank and
wealth are oVer-Sslven to selt-indulgence
ana Over-apt to seek unfair advantage,
setting laws unto themselves beyond and
above the laws of God and mau. At best
foreign marriage is a dangerous adveu-
ture. The American woman was not born to be
the doll OF "A dan d lord, to herd with the
poor wall flowers that decorate the great houses
much as the irescoed angels which appear upon
the ceilings thereof She may have been made
To cook and to wash, for She may step from the
Kitchen to the drawing room, and has often
risen from the Wasutub to the Executive man.
sion. But she is peer and not u vassal, aud
always "a Woman which she is not, never has
been, and never can be In England, or, indeed,
In any land where feudalisin holds its bale
m, brutal and despotc sway over the
minds of men and the institutions
which men ordained. would rather follow the
see her laid tenderly away in the little old
churchyard at home, than to follow her down
the aisle Oh ST. Geo. ge chapel to see her crowned
With tue richest coronet in England.