St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-01-18
TWO AMERICAN TRAITS.
We Are a People of Runagates
: and PrOfiigate Spendthrifts.


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 second place the American in
difference to home. For Americans,
who are the most reckless of mOrtals,
are only happy when tempting fate OF
daring Providence through some me-
dunn of mental excitement and personal
danger, says the Boston Herald. 1t
will be difficult to convince future his
tOrians OF us as race that we did
not prefer riding on can of
dynamite to repOsing on an inOc-
uous down cushion. The love of
self preservation which is inn
planted in man seems to be entirely sub
servient to the love of peril in the aver
age American. A rather nervous indi-
vidual recently assured me that the
tremOr which aSSailed him when he first
began to travel on the elevated rail-
roads in New York always added Zest
tOhiS ride, and when custom wore away
that feeling he was quite wretched.
t"What did you wish should happen to
yCN|' l asked, to humOr what l be-
| lieved to be an affectatiOn.
| 'JuSt what did happen the other
| day." he responded, with a slight Shrug
| of his shoulders. II wanted to be in an
accident. never have been in an acct
dent, and have done some pretty risky
things. 1t is probably the same feeling
that impels boy to skate on thin Ice,
walk on peaked fences and scoOt across
a railroad track when the engines
coming. My theory is that half of
the great inventions are the results of
innate recklessnesS. The inventor of
electricity may have been thinker, but
he was boy first! And do you believe
timid woman would ever have dreamed
of building an l. road? She likes it now
she has got it, for the, gentler sex are
prOverbial for rushing in where angels
fear to tread, and who among your ac-
quaintances would hesitate to cross the
ocean in four days if any means could
be invented to cOndenSe the voyage to
these brief dimensions"
The fact is this person is thoroughly
American. We do like to be scared. AS
to the second characteristic, the indif-
ference to home, we shall never be any
thing but rOamerS. Perhaps as Amer
leans become more and more imbued
with foreign customs they will cultivate
the ancestral half feeling and throw
out those roots which must cling to the
hearthstone where their fathers
have sat before them. The American
COllSllUuGlOll, tllc ldWS VI ILLS HAPPY
country, are not exactly in accord with
family roof trees, however much they
may be with the genealogical speci-
mems, but why as soon as a rich man
has builded himself palace and filled
it with treasures he wants to get out
and build another is unaccountable,
save that, being American, he cannot
help himself.
1t is not merely the unrest of possess
sion that seizes him. He is impelled by
love of change. that natural tickleneSs
which makes him dissatisfied with that
particular side of the street or the arch
itectural plan of certain rooms, and SO
in a brace of years the palace is to let
furnished or it is in the market, and
Milford, with his family, wander
ing in the four quarters of the globe.
There is no special virture in loving old
associations, but, while Americans care
so little about ancEoring in their abiding
places, the Knights of Labor, socialists
and other folks need not worry about
accumulations of capital. The dissipa-
i ton of property is constant, while these
4 two natural characteristics hold fast.