Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-02-21
say l do not, for, though

careful, and why FLORENCE ST. JOHN.
can't say that love my home bestgn
Now isn't this too bad
Then the interviewer asked her: "What
predominant American characteristics do
you noticef'
Whereupon she said something which, if it
didn't make the American woman's ears burn,
they must be made of fire brick:
"Oh, curiosity and hurry more than any
thing else. Why, they are regular Paul Prys,
all of them. l arm introduced to q lady, and
she looks me all over from my feet up, and
when she has finished she knows just how old
am, and what have on, and how much is
cost, and all that. The other day stood for
a moment looking at some pictures of Mrs
Kendall In a window, and lady recognize |
NE, went back to tell her two friends behind
her, and then they all three stood and dis
cussed my costume in a sufficiently loud tone
for me to hearn
And this about their dress:
They told me American women we're such
good dressers, but have failed as vet to see
the well dressed American lady, for directly
they are handsomely dressed they are simply
French women. There seems to be no Amer
lean style Of dress; everything comes from
Paris You could quickly detect an English
woman in Paris, but an American would
scarcely be distinguished from the French
women They are so dreadfully frightened
OF unbending, and they live so much on what
other people may think of them, that they
freeze up such q Bohemian as am until |
am not myself
"The other day / was introduced to one,
and she took me all in with that sweeping
glance of hers-my eyes, my teeth, my hair,
my very soul-and after long time she said
she would like to know my thoughts, and |
almost laughed in her face
Perhaps the lady to whom she refers may
take little comfort in knowing those
thoughts if she happens to peruse this article.
There's just one thing more notice, and
that is the little slow drawl in speech. Now
they call mo Saint John. What's the use
in being all the morning in saying a name
Run it all together and call me '.Sinjin' and
be done with it and ready for something
else Why, when they ask me question I've
got it all answered in my mind, and have
forgotten what it was before they finish it"
The American naturally wonders how
Engiishmen pronounce ST John the Eyangs-
list and st. John the Baptist. Do they call
them Sinjin the Evangelist and Sinjin the
Baptisti
But here is a novelty, indeed The pro-
verbal stupidity of an Englishman in catch
ing the meaning OF q joke seems to exist
everywhere except in England What must
be Brother Jonathan's dullness If he is behind
his cousin In this respects
You are very much slower to catch Joke
than the English, and laugh much less heart
lily. can always count one, two, three after
joke before any one laughs, and If the fun
Is a little broad the ladies look all around to
see If any one Is going to smile, and by that
time the men are laughing, 50, under cover Of
II, they litter little. The play on words and
Puns do not seem to amuse them at all, and I
have to wait 80 long for the laugh after /
sing, Don't follow me where live; that Is a
thing l can't forgive that wish for ham
mers to pound 1t into their heads with Then
the applause Is SO much less spontaneous
and hearty that don't know an encore when
get one, and have to be sent ON by some one
else. l fancy the Americans consider us as
sort OF interlopers, and don't like US very well
anyway. feel their lack Of sympathy very
much"
Miss Sinjin, you are giving your English
sisters away. 1t seems that they laugh openly
with the men at the broad parts That
isn't nice of them at all. It's very naughty
Miss st. Johns imputations upon the
American youth are, principally, that he
crowds and stares at her "They seem to
have cheek enough for anything, )" she says
Our johnnies aren't quite so awfully
proper in dress as your dudes Occasionally
you will see one with his overcoat on his
shoulder and looking as if he were alive. We
call 'em Dresden china tissue paper when
they get 50 very fine and look as If they'd
blow over II any one breathed; but, poor
things, their heads are just the same-empty.
l sing a little sweet bit of Gounods music,
and they glover at me and try to swallow
the knobs of their sticks, and then they say:
oh, come, now, Sinjin, sing something jolly
something like "Wiu you be my Holly
hockf' Oh, their poor brains, their poor
braipsl"
'Did you bring your little boy with youg"
asked The Suns bright young man Tor maybe
it was one Of The Suns bright Young
women.
No; he wouldn't come He is in London
with his grandmother / don't see what the
nursery has to do with Faust Up to Date.
Here want to pose as young and innocent
damsel, and they keep dragging the poor
baby in, and worst Of all say he is months
old, which is rather embarrassing, as
haven't lived with my husband for eighteen
months, and the child is years old"
Who can wonder that the poor woman pre-
fers her English home, where the Dresden
China" young men call her Sinjin, though
they do glover and try to swallow the knobs
Of their sticks, and call for "Win You Be
Mine, My Holiyhock, /" to a land where they
are so indeiicate as to impute 4-months-old
child to a woman who has lived single for
eighteen months. ''Oh, come now, Sinjin, y
give Us something jolly.