Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-08-09
ENGLISH VISITING CABS.
They Usually Get a Very Cool Reception
in Boston-Their bad Breaks,

merry upon the subject of American
imitation of English ways SO that
their jests begin to have at least the
merit of antiquity, but the truth is
that the anglomaniac fever-if the
idiocy is properly SO to be designated
has never extended very widely or
taken hold very deeply in Boston. In
the first place, it is difficult to induce
the true Bostonian to initiate anything
except himself, and this alone would
have rendered it well nigh hopeless
for the anglomaniacs to attempt a
crusade here.
The gilded youth of Boston, like the
dome of our state house, is gilded at
home, and after home models.
Moreover, it is especially hard to
make anything go here that has been
first taken up in New York. There have
been instances where it was necessary
to receive something at second hand
from that city, but as rule the at
tempt is hopeless. The imitation of
Englishmen was taken up SO strongly
III New York that it was felt in Boston
that to follow in that track would be
simply to acknowledge that Gotham
ties know a good thing when they see
it, and sooner than come to that the
Boston dude would abandon his dude
hood and descend to the level of ordi-
nary mortals. There have been few
marriages made between Boston girls
and British subjects, but they have
not been SO numerous as in New York
and in any case they have not intro
duced the fashion of being English
1t is also possible that Bostonians
are less able to endure the clumsy ar
rogance of a certain class of English
men than are New Workers. 1t is with
less indulgence that we receive the
pranks and oddities of people who SO
evidently feel that in coming to Amer
lea they have come to a barbarous
land where it is no longer necessary
to observe the properties of life; a
fashion which begets grave suspi-
cion that respectable manners must be
at all times upcommonly irksome to
the average Englishman since he so
gladly lays them aside on the slightest
possible excuse The idea of being
polite out of consideration for himself
is apparently one which has never
penetrated into the head of an Eng
lishman, or if it has he has been kept
carefully at home, that foreign ma
tons should not see him and discover
the weakness of the land
One of the well known Britishers
who have been here on lecturing
tours during the last few years was
invited with his wife to stay at the
house OF people to whom he had
brought letters of introduction. The
people were of old Boston families,
and of an exquisite courtesy such as
England might well envy were there
any ground for surprising that she
could appreciate it. a dinner was
made TO honor the English guests.
and to it were hidden people of repu-
tations which stand on both sides of
the water When the guests came
into the drawing room after dinner,
the distinguished lecturer, who was a
minute man, looked contemptuously
about, and then cast himself at full
length on the hearth rug, remarking
in tone of much Indignation;
These Americans are SO beastly
big, and they never think to get
chair any ordinary mortal can sit I'M"
The feelings of the host may be i'm
agined.
On another occasion this same gen
tleman was at breakfast at the house
of lady here, when he took occasion
to say in his most blatant manner:
"Oh, you know there amt any com
parison between English manners and
yours over here We don't expect
you to know any of the refinements
of life"
But we learn a little from visiting
Englishmen," smoothly and sweetly
observed the daughter of the house, a
girl just out of school.
Again a cockney who would in
England never have been received at
all into the houses of what he was
pleased to speak of as he"gentry, " save
for the fact that he had done some
heavy historical work, looked about
him in the parlor of "a gentleman
whose name even his countrymen
know enough to honor, and observed
superciliously;
Its SO interesting to mingle with
the lower classes. l never do at home,
you know"
He must be deucedly lonely, then,
was the comment aside by one who
overheard him, but was too polite to
say it aloud.
On another OCCASION however, when
this same cad made similar speech
he did get an answer according to his
folly.
Il should think it would give you
people queer feeling to go to Eng
land and meet your social superiors,"
he observed to "A couple of ladies who
were infinitely above him in every
way.
1t must be a strange sensation,
one of them replied, with the serene
air OF one who comments upon the
weather. Don't you find it sot'
And it has never been known
whether the cockney saw the point or
not The cbancaS ara that he did NOT