Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-08-07

Good American?-Let Us Follow Our
Own Methods and Mako Our Own
| Manners.
| A matter that will constantly excite the
wrath Of good Americans is the perpetual
iteration of the way in which the people OF
England do this, or say that. or think the
other, in contradistinction to the way in
which we upon this side Of the globe do, say
and think, as if in English methods only
were to be found the highest seat of judg-
ment and last court of appeal This defer
ence to English ideas has developed among
us an emasculated class of minds that does
not even think its own thoughts, achieves
only pale reflection and imitation of the
original article, and in endeavoring to be-
come pure English succeeds in becoming
poor American This is apparent in dress,
In manner, in style and action and speech;
and it creates the liability of returning Us to
our old colonial estate, In which We shall
cease to be people of new development of
mental, as we have been and as we are OF
material life
Our country could hardly have been de-
signed as q perpetual colony of Great
Britain Its geographical situation, its
isolation from the Old World, its immense
extent, its possession of all climates, all soils,
all woods, all metals, all common and all
precious things, mark it out as for place of
its own, while generations have impaired to
the descendants of its first settlers q charac-
ter of their own, and it is given to the de-
scendants Of later settlers here to intermarry
and associate with those of longer date, and
make themselves a homogeneous people.
There is no more reason why this peoples
civilization, then, should be on an English
than on a French, an Italian or a German
model. 1t should be on none of them 1t
should he American. In the course of time
IL should be one great American people,
varying only with the necessities of its par
allels, the customs of its tropics, the life OF
its hills and plains and seashore, as it may
be, but all on one broad scale and scheme of
q new and loftier civilization possibly than
has appeared in the world before.
1t would seem that it would be wise to let
the manners and speech and habits of such
people develop according to their own needs,
and not to attempt to enforce upon them an
arbitrary system of another and totally diff
ferent country, climate and institution Of
caste What odds is it to the woodsmen Of
the northern peninsulas, TO the cowboys of
the Rocky mountains and the Sierras, to the
planters of the Mississippi levels, how English
lords and ladies and scholars address their
visiting cards, enter their carriages, dip their
spoonsl And why should the girl graduate
of Vassar or Wellesley trouble herself with
the fancy that because she does not use the
rising infection Of voice at the close of all
her sentences as the GTton graduate does,
bz,- IN loRc Il
resources hmitedi
It is matter Of question whether the
English domestic life, pure it is, il Of
purer quality than the German; whether the
English mental life is of finer strain than the
French; whether the Swede and Norwegian
are not Us manly, as genial, as true, as the
English; If the italian and the Spanlard are
not Of more poetical sort; whether, in
short, there is any peculiar reason why the
English behavior and thought should be
made our standard rather than that Of any
other people We may be told that sorne
reason lies in the fact that we speak the
same language; but when we come 70 con-
sider tho matter Of language, the question be-
comes q still more open OLE. There is not u
whole county in ali England where the Ian
guage Is generally spoken in anything ap-
preaching purity; there Is bu. one where It Is
pretended that it Is 50 spoken; there is no
region Of a hundred square miles in the three
kingdoms where it Is spoken with the purity /
and perfection that is used, for instance, in
the state Of Massachusetts,, In our own 1
counfry; and there rs neither rhyme nOy /
reason In the effort 70 impose upon us /
foreign vsrnscular, especially those portions /
OF it which havo become the slang Of the /
upper classes using that vernhcular, In which /
"nonsense" is called TOT" bad weather IL /
called "beastly," cur own euphonious twill" /
Is called "hog wash" unssenly conduct IL
called ''nasty,H and peculiar people are
called rum oneA'
1t seems % us that perhaps II would be t1st
as well 20 follow our own methods and make
our own manners, sure that manners which
are gentle, cleanly and pure and which hurt
20 ones feelings and hinder no one's atvaa-
tagsS, can oily be night manners; TIM. the
language Of Shakespeare and tie Bible, which
b spoken more nenr.y here than anywhere
rise In the world. Is good enough language
Nd form al sp-sch for rs. ans ssring al pS1r-
poses II htera-ur- add daily life, and that
eventually the Enyiszh, i. their irzais1 Cur
cea. ever allows them, may wake 70 tho fac. |
tha: The hess thing they can do IL 20 fellow
Dur example In . few thinez, II TO- 70 al,
Nd setting aside written syeech, which In a /
fixed quantity, correct their ora sp.Skea
rpsech tJ one thai more closely TOUCHES to
s.Andart Of precision than Is q. rs-s~a.
reached by their own vxrscaiAr.
Bazaar.