Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-12-12

not take much interest in any thing unless
there is a grab in it. That our practical
politics are not conducted with any special
idea of lettering the country, but that
s'patronage" IS the main feature of our
political system. 1t is useless to attempt to
give the Englishman whose longest rail
way journey has been from London to
Glasgow. a matter of eight or nine hours,
q conception of the immense resources of
country so broad that it takes six days to
cross it by rail.
On the other hand, the chances are that
the Englishman finds out that London has a
population equal to the entire State Of New
York, and he gauges his notion of the area
of the Empire State on that basis. We may
assure the Frenchman that if our State of
Texas was a lake and his beloved France an
island in the middle of it he would not be
able to see the main land from any point on
his shore. He would probably retort that
he had no desire to see land whose only
industries were the manufacture of patent
medicines, knickknacks and boosters.
And after all we can't blame the stay-at-
home foreigner for the estimate he forms
of us. We do not show at our best on the
other side of the water. That contingent of
American travellers who parade their Ameri-
canism is by no means creditable to US as a
nation. This very sense Of our apparent in
feriority impels the best of US to unseemly
Dragging. We tell the foreigner that the
finest hotels in the world are in Flagler's
famous group of palaces at st. Augustine,
in Florida; that there is not a business
building in all Europe which can compare
to those in New York, Chicago or even in
the smaller American cities. He looks at
the evidences before him and dra VS. his
own conclusions.
I do not think ever witnessed a
more painful sight than one day in
the train going from Nice to Monte Carlo.
There were an American and an English
man in the compartment with me and they
were discussing the Samoan question. The
American was explaining how we should
ssinsist'' upon Germany doing this, that
and the other. just then we passed the
harbor of Vile Franche, where the squad
ron of the Mediterranean is conferred.
There were about twenty men-of-war there
French. Italian, Spanish, Russian, En-
glish and German. They were all fine
ships, mounting great guns in iron turrets ;
the three German vessels were simply
floating fortresses of steel. never saw
any thing on the water which conveyed a
greater idea Of strength and possible de-
structive power. OF at one side was dis
sipated-looking old tub-the Enterprise,
think-fying the American flag. The En-
glishman just cast his eye over the group
and murmured .sinsista" The contrast was
too apparent and my fellow-countryman
collapsed like pricked balloon. sI did not
feel bit good when I saw the stars and
stripes,' he confided to me as we climbed
the terrace up FROM the railway station.
eff they will insist upon flying our flag in
foreign waters / wish to goodness they
put something under it so that we wouldn't
look like nation of darned FOOLS"
sBut to skip back from Europe to New
York. Tue tide of travel is setting home
wards, and1New York has broken out in an
eruption of English clothes. There IS little
difficulty in spotting an English suit OF
sight. As q rule, it is made of better ma
terials and does not fit so well as the homo
madSarticles. That 1t is cheaper gees with
out saying. mean the average suit. The
swell tailors in London and in New York
use the same goods. have the same fit and
charge about the same prices, but the great
majority Of men do not go to the swell
tailors, either in London or here. In New
York the average cost Of good suit, made
n by good tailor, is fifty dollars; In Londor
1t is twenty-iye-ora about one-half. Collars
cuffs and neckwear run in about the same
proportion, and, curiously enough, tn,
bowling atrocities of pattern and colo
which we see in the shops here marked
ssL4test English style.n we don't see u
London at all
The prevalent American idea of EnglisI
STYLES seems to be something calculated t.
knock tho eyes out OF the behoider. Tn
louder the suit the more English" it is con