Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-26
OVER THE CHANNEL.
Reciprocal Feelings of Contempt in
France and England.
MORAL BALANCE OF THE NATION.
Brains Count for More in Paris Than Lon
don Social Circles.
JOURNALISTS IN FRENCH POLITICS
lcoRRrsroNpENcE OF THE nrsrArcH.I 1

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DIsPATCH.I
NEW YORK, January 25.-Coming across
the Atlantic L read book recently pub
lished in London in which certain manners,
customs and habits of two great nations are
compared with the spirit of justice that is
unusual in these days when the English are
given to talking of the immortality OF their
French neighbors, and the French are dis
posed to ridicule everything that John Bull
indulges in. Mr.. Hamerton, the author,
seems to have had as his aim the showing to
both nations that in spite of appearances
they have many points of resemblance, and
after reading his inquiry into the intellec-
tual and intelligent condition of the two
people, their ideas, their ways of thinking,
ofloVing and of lying, their manner OF making
themselves more or less disagreeable to their
neighbors, and of Misunderstanding virtue
outside their own country, 1 am bound to
confess that 1 think he has made out a very
fair case, and the book is worth reading on
that account. He deals with the religious
question fairly, and admits that it is a COM
mon habit for English people to consider
France on the high road to perdition, be-
cause her people do not keep the Sabbath as
it is kept in the United Kingdom, and in
stating this he says an Englishman reads his
Bible, sings hymns and psalms, and though
the quiet OF Sundayis is fenced in with vigor-
Gus and subtle rules, manages to get drunk
and be abusive more frequently than is the
case in any other land.
According to the way 1 look at things, the
beautiful edifice of piety that has been con-
structed in the "old country" is all facade,
for the wind or current of unbelief that has
| got such hold on the continent has not
spared Great Britain. There are many En-
glish people who pray only with their lips,
who have worse books than those of Zola,
and who have come to think with Matthew
Arnold that the dogma of the Trinity might
well be described as ga fairy tale of three
| supernatural persons" In politics both
countries are passing through revolution
| ary period, and the anthor is bit sarcastic
when he says that the French reactionaries
are in the habit of considering England as
model of stability in all things. He does
not, however, admit that as to the matter of
morals, England is rather hard on France,
for can say without pretending to be
angels, the people of this latter country are
men, not monsters. The moral balance be-
tween the two countries is pretty equal, and
there is certainly great deal less of hy-
pocrisy in France than there is in England.
| The French are frank and open in their ex-
pressions, while the English try to dis
semble, and call themselves virtuous,
though really vicious. Which is the better
way is question of taste, race or latitude.
PATRIOTIC 70 HATE EACH OTHER.
1t is strange how deeply the national
spirit of England is imbued with contempt
| for the manners and customs of the French.
a contempt which the dwellers on the Con-
| tinental side of ssthe channel reciprocate in
| a most hearty way. Each nation has long
considered that in hating the other it is
doing a meritorious and patriotic act. I
know Parisians who believe that beef is al
ways eaten raw in London, and that En-
glish lords and gentlemen pass most of their
time in getting drunk and boxing. But the
English are quite as stupid in their ideas of
| my friends, tine French people, A French
marquis or a Paris cook is always repre-
sented on the English stage by the thinnest
member of the company, and invariably
furnishes the comic or the criminal element
of the piece, while four out of five Johnny
Bulls firmly believe that vegetable soup and
fried frogR are the staple articles of food
with the whole French nation.
For a long while the better thinkers of
both countries have been trying to eradicate
these ideas, and it is, perhaps, true that
these two neighboring nations are beginning
to look on each other with more friendship
and are finding out that there is something
worthy of imitation on either side OF the
channel. English dandyism seems to have
taken a pretty good hold on the younger
generation of Frenchmen, and the Paris
fashions, like Paris actors, cross the channel
with frequent and prompt regularity. The
hereditary hostility is changing, and while
warm friendship may not grow up, it will
be necessary soon to descend to the lower
ranks of society to find any dregs of the old
hatred once so very bitter.
MANY POINTS OF DIFFERENCE.
But though the two nations may no
longer be hating each other, they are still
far from resembling each other, and may
say without e1aggeration that in nearly
everything they are exact opposite The
besetting sin of the English is money, that
of the French is vanity. In France a riot
is spontaneous affair, in England the
anger OF the masses can be purchased with
gold. In the most tumultuous elections of
Great Britain there is much of the farcial,
and those who shout the loudest to-day for
the Liberal candidate, will, tomorrow,
shout just as loudly for the Conservative
candidate if the agent of the latter opens
his purse strings more freely. An English |
man will never consent to incur great dan
ger for small reward, and riots in London |
never pass beyond certain limits fixed in |
advance. A London rabble content them
selves with piIlag ing, the rabble of French |
city slaughter without pity. In France the |
amour propre of the populace burst forth in |
1889 and led to duel to the death between |
the people and the aristocracy.
The original sin of a French gentleman is |
afectation, that of an English noDleman is |
haughtiness. The one wishes to appear |
kind, the other powerful. An EDglishman |
wants to be supposed rich, and the French
man hopes he will be considered witty. In
France respectable man is a man who has |
a right to be respected; in London a re-
spectacle man is a man who has made for
tune. When wealth becomes the standard |
of merit, it is easy to fix mans rank, and
that is why social position is so much more
vague in France than it is in England.
LIBERTY AND EQUALITY.
Both nations have had their revolutions,
but the fruit OF the English revolution was
liberty and that of the French revolution
equality. In England fashion is pompous;
in France it is frivolous. In one country it
is a matter OF etiquette, in the other of
amusement. Fashionable life is made up in
England of anxious pride, low vanity and
useless prodigality. 1t Is a constant ex-
change of notifications received and re-
turned, and its arrogance and its pedantry
render English society exceedingly dis
agreeable to strangers when they first make
It's acquaintance To form a good opinion
of the English, it is necessary to have lived
in their country some time and to have
penetrated into the family lite of the nation.
Genius and wit do not arouse any enthusi-
asm among the English people They pre-
fer, to poet or an author, savage or Hot
tentot. Buffalo Bill had more success as a
lion in London salons than ever NJ. Pasteur
could, but not more than Barnum.
In France Hume, Gibbon, franklin
achieved the highest social success in their