, 1889-06-22

mere an innocent American who deserves
something like Immortality for his igno.
rance Of pitch-and toss and for the sweet
simplicity of his nature. The "childlike
and bland' Chinee had his sleeves stocked
with cards, but this youthful Marylander
had no defence against the wiles of the
two EngliShmen. According to his own
account he submitted like a lamb to be
feeced, and then told the plunderers that
it they gave him back half his money he
would let them go. Here, then. we have a
new type of the American Young man.
When the Alabama negotiations were set
on foot the cute Yankee Id~iplOmatistS
made astounding claims for indirect DANA
ges, ana won considerable credit by giving
them up when England refused to. plead
unless they were abandoned. Finally,
they obtained from the arbitrators a sum
so enormous that after ~reimburSlng every
possible sufferer from the Alabama and
other ships there was a large surplus. In
strict honesty this ought to have been
PAID back to us, but it remains in the
United States Treasury as a trophy of
England'S defeat in the arbitration. Then,
IN all the boundaries and fisheries disputes
we haVe always found our American kins-
men ready to make huge claims, and very
SLOW to grant adequate concessions. 1t
mas also been understood for generations
that an American boy can excel in smart.
ness an Englishman double his age. AS
10 American girls, the way in which
they Overrun this old, e%ffete, Monarchical
EUROPE, ana pick up the prizes in the
matrimonial market under the very eyes of
English, French, Italian, and Spanish
competitions it not recorded in Debrett
ana told III the records of the nobility of
the WeSt9 In journalism and light litera-
ture, III money making by speculation, in
the buying and selling OF goods, in start
ing and working new notions the Yam,
hee youth are supposed to be far ahead OF
us. They lay down new rails out West at
Il tremendous rate of increase; they extend
teiegraphS and use telephones while we are
thinking OF them they nave made cleo
'rlcIty thtlrSlave for all purposes; they beat
us EoIloW IN the great art Of public adver-
tiHeHlehI 1htlr cowboys make more money
IMAM our best actors; their hotels are the
wonder of the world. Yet from this land
OF Sm1artneSS, tins continent where the
competition OF life is 80 keen, there arrives
u young traveller who falls a foolish victim
10 the first two young Englishmen he en-
counters at Il Leicester square bar. What
can be the meaning of this phenomenon
Is the Caucasian played out 7 1t is said by
some students OF hered ity that genius is
apt TO exhaust itself in a generation, and
that brilliant fathers often have silly
sons. Has American astuteness run to
seedf Have the sons and grandSonS of
the keen New Workers and Phil adelphians
struck a seam OF innocence and stupiGityq
Has the vein of rOguery gone dry ? Are
there no more cute young Yankees left to
deceive the nations AMI play successful
~ the game of life May our young men
go to the States confident to find in the
Great Republic such cOnfding innocence
and simple trust as were exemplified on
Monday at the Marylebone Police-court3
The fact is that the stories told of Ameri-
can cunning convey at first a false i'm
preston. We hear of wonderful railway
directors across the Atlantic who can do
anything they like with shares, make
ducks and brakes of the property, and yet
by some dexterOuS hOcus pocus defy or de-
ceive the owners of the line. mall branches
of American enterprise it is the same; we
see revelations of amazing c~leverneSs, and
read biographies of men who have risen
from nothing to be millionaires, merely
through securing other peoples money.
All these tales are true, but they do not
merely reveal Yankee c~uteDess they also
testify to an enormous mass of dupes. We
judge of America by its remarkable rOgues,
its deceiving directors, its shrewd ~ras"als,
who die rich. Their careers, however, are
possible only because the bulk of the Anne.
rican neODle are Simnla honest men. who