Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-10-24
Edwin Arnold on America

Frank Leslie Illustrated Newspaper of
a recent date has an article from Sir Ed
win Arnold giving his first impressions of
America He says:
My chief impression has been the alb
solute practical identity of manner. mind
and national life between our two coun-
tries. | find myself everywhere In trans
atlantic England. | do not say this In any
foolish idea that to be quite English is a
point OF perfection. You may just as well
remark that We resemble you; but there the
fact Is that bygone writers must have ex-
aggerated most absUrdly the supposed dis
tlnctive American traits, or else that YOU
have ceased to exhibit them. for have
asked myself a hundred times. wandering
IN your streets and journeying on your
railways. Am | really In the new world or
dreaming of it In the old one?' Half an
American as | am, by marriage and by
sympathles. | must confess that it has been
wholly delightful to observe this unmis-
taxable and minute Identification of the
races, and 1t fills me with hope that. what
ever other nations may quarrel and come
into armed conflict. America and England
-valnly divided by the ocean-will by and
by establish an international tribunal COM
posed of the worthiest and best-trusted men
on either side and viii refer to their iudg-
ment under the laws of right and reason
without appeal-every question which
threatens to disturb the natural alliance
that, In my opinion, furnishes the very
best hope of mankind.
"A feeling of gladness and confidence
about the earthly part of mans develop
ment beyond all expression has possessed
me IN perceiving how strong and sound
your national vitality is; how little you are
really spoiled in courtesy of manners. in
civic kindness, in social grace, and In rev
erence for law by your large liberties An
Englishman no doubt notices here an alb
sence of Difference and of formal attention:
but he also notices the presence of a near
ly universal and most manly and frank
comradeship- blossom, perhaps, of
wider and healthier air. | am far from
saying this to fatter America. Your ma
ton of $4,000, 900 stands well beyond the
reach Of compliments.
'"To speak of the countless delightful
persons whom | have had the happiness to
meet is obviously forbidden; suffice it to
say that your countrymen oblige the Eng
lishmen to quit each of their towns and
cities with regret, so that
He drags at each move q frightening chain
ana Unen, now beautiful America IS! |
certainly did not know the wales of the Sus-
quehanna and of the Delaware were so fair,
or the guardens of Washington so gra-
cious or spacious, or your homesteads gen
orally so pretty.
81 should not be an Englishman, how
ever, if I did not grumble, and you must
allow me to denounce and execrate the
cobble-stones of your New York streets,
that rob the Briton of sleep by night and
rack his bones by day; the snake-fences,
which waste alike land and lumber, and
torture the eye of an artist; the lack of
| official luggage porters at your railway sta
tions, and those monstrous, ugly, unpaint-
ed telegra oh poles, with which you mar
the vistas of your finest streets. But your
public buildings often astonish and en-
chant me; your colleges, libraries, muse
ums, and observatories leave positively no
excuse to American youth. They must
henceforth create and not import poets,
authors, artists, sculptors, scientific genius
es, and astronomers. You really owe US,
with all your glorious chances, galaxy Of
great names