New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-01-27
N. ORELDS CREDULITY.
HIS VENERABLE AND FOOLISH STORIES

JONATHAN AND HIS CONTINENT Ramble,s;
through American Society," by MAY, Max o Ps,lI
Blouet 12mo, PIP. 313. Cassell &c Co.
If Mr.. Max O'Rell. as he is pleased to call him
self, had set down simply the impressions made
upon his own mind by what he saw during his
hasty visit to this country the resulting book
would no doubt have been bright, shrewd, null
of quaint observation and friendly satire and
criticism We all know the kind Of book he
would have written under such conditions. 1t
would not have had any permanent value, but
would have been eminently readable. But in his
desire to avoid the suspicion of a presumptuously
ambitious purpose he has gone to the opposite ex-
IRENE, distrusted his own fresh observation per-
mitted himself to be made the vehicle of every
imaginable kind of stale jest and worn-out social
satire, ard, consequently, produced volume the
principal characteristic of which is it's extrava-
CANT exhibition of hoary anecdotes and ante
diluvian Jokes. There is indeed positively pre-
Trollopy flavor about many Of our genial friends
stories. They carry us back to q period long
anterior to the American Notes" of Dickens, and
make us rub our eyes and almost doubt whether,
notwithstanding the weight of the evidence in his
favor, the author could really have been in the
United States at all Where, for instance, did
he obtain that wonderful statement about the
omnipresence of spittoons and the prevalence of
expectoration? How many years is 1t since there
was any truth in such representation Be
fore the war. and in the West and Southwest, as
also in parts of the South, the nasty habit Of spit
ting went with the nasty habit Of chewing. Away
from the great Western cities the cid practice still
fingers in places. but in no centre Of population
North, South West can it be observed to-day.
Again, where did our author get his amazing
hbels upon the entire body of railroad employees
He gravely asserts that Ineivility and even de-
liberate insolence 10 the public is the rule with
these people. Surely he must have had Pc
culiarly unfortunate personal experience while
travelling in this country. or he has suffered him
self TO be hoaxed dreadfully But indeed inaccn-
racy peryades his book. That il should be super
jal is not surprising, for even with the most con-
scientious and continuous observation the time
at his disposal permitted no careful study Of peo
pie, customs or institutions. But inasmuch as
three out Of every four of It's statements mis-
statements the criticisms which rest on this basis
Of fiction are far more absurd. speaking generally
than they need have been: and though there is
plenty Of friendly feeling and no malice in the
book it is curiously disappointing even when re-
garded merely as the lightest of light reading
In Europe no doubt the case is different In
its French dress Jonathan and His Continent
will be eagerly perused by Parisians. TO whose
unsophisticated minds its old Joes7 will appear
as the freshest and drollest Of American humor,
while its Munchausenisms will be credited with a
childllSe confidence worthy OF better cause It
is difficult TO imagine what part in this odd pro
duction belongs to Jack Allyn" Max ORell
thinks that as his collaboration is an American
citizen, some at least, of the statements here set
down regarding Jonathan ought TO have weight
and authority" Is it possible that his collab-
orator. also was in the plot to humbug the author
as his impressario certainly must have been If
some Of the statements attributable TO him arc
! genuine? The chapter which treats OF the
American domestic servant is less exaggerated
than most Of its predecessors, the behavior OF
the duchesses.7 as Max O'Rell calls them. in a
| good many of the second and third class hotels
being often cruelty naughty and whitening, as
many crushed travellers can testify But even
where the criticism is fundamentally sound, the
illustrations employed are usually so ancient and
ishlilm as to destroy the readers enjoyment.
There is nothing to make an American angry in
short, between the covers of Max 0Rell's book,
but there is much to make him tired: and IL Is
better for the success of a book that 1t should
| irritate than that it should fatigue.