, 1888-02-01
TWO AMERICAN TRAITS.
Ne Are IA People of ~Runngates and Fro
liEntc SpcndthrIfts.

w "hS " N'Bl' vi NbihbahoN AhN ASf
liEntc SpcndthrIfts.
Two of our national characteristics are
going to preserve the equilibrium of these
blessed United States. In the first place
the American love of danger, in the sec
ond place the American Indifference to
home. Few Americans, who are the
most reckless of mortals, are only happy
when tempting fate or daring Providence
through some medium of mental excite
merit and personal danger. 1t will be
difficult to convince future historians of
US as a ace that we did not prefer rid
ing on "a n of dynamite to repo5ing on
m innocuOus down cushion. The love of
self preservation which is implanted in
man seems to be entirely subservient to
th" love of peril inthe average AmcIi.
can. \ rather nervous individual re.
Gently assured Inc that the trcmor which
GESaiiCd him when he first began to travel
on The elevated railroads in New York
always added n zest to his ride, andwhen
custom wore away that feeling he was
quite wretchcd.
What did you wish should happen to
your l asked, to humor what | believed
To be an afTcctation.
Just what did happen the other day"
he responded, with II slight shrug of his
shoulders. IL wanted to be in an acct
dent. l never rave been in an accident
and l nave done some pretty risky things.
1t ia probably the same feeling that inn
pels n boy to skate on thin ice, walk on
peaked fences and scoot across n railroad
track when the engines coming. My
theory is that half of the great inven-
tons are the results of innate reckless
ness. The inventor of electricity may
have beer a thinker. but he was a boy
first! And do you believe n timid woman
would ever have dreamed of building an
l. road? She likes it now she has got it,
for the gentlcr sex are proverbial for
rushing i'll where angels fear to tread,
and who among your acquaintance
would hesitate to cross the ocean in four
days if any means could be invented to
condcnse the voyage to these brief di-
mcngiOnsg'
The fact is, this person is thoroughly
American. We do like TO he scared. As
TO the second Characteristic, the indiffer-
nee to home, we shall never be anything
hut roamers. Perhaps as Americans be-
cutuc more and more imbucd with for
,ign customs they will cultivate the an
Ccstral hall" feeling and throw out those
roots which must cling to the hearth
STONE where their fathers have sat before
them. The American constitution, the
laws of this happy country, are not ex-
actly in accord with family roof trees,
however much they may be with the
genealogical specimens, but why as soon
49, a rich man has builded himself n palace
and filled it with treasures he wants to
get out and build another is unaccount-
able. ave that, being American, he can
not help himself.
1t is not merely the unrest Of posses
sion that seizes him. He is impclled by
a love of change, that natural iickleness
which makes him dissatisfied with that
particular side of the street or the archi-
tCCtural plan Of certain rooms, and so in
Il brace Of years the palace is to let fur
nisrCd or it is in the market, and MILFORD,
with his family, wandering in the four
quarters of the globc.-Boston Herald.