Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-17
TOO MODEST BY HALF.
The American Bird Of Freedom
Doesn't Scream Much Nowadays.
SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN OVERAWED.
Uncle Sans People Are Paying Too Much
Attention to Critics.
SN0BBERY is 4 NATIONAL DANGER

SN0BBERY is 4 NATIONAL DANGER
WRITTEN FOR rHK DrsPArcH.i
What has become of the American eagle?
He used to'be such proud bird; he had so
much to say for hi mself; he cooked his tail
and tapped his wings in such lordly
fashion that he was really delightful fowl
to have around in spite of some little foolish
ness which afl licted him. But now he is
silent and unobtrusive. Something appears
to have gone wrong with him. Instead Of
shadowing the zenith with his exalted flight
ne seems to have gone permanently to roost.
Let US hope he is only moulting. We need
him back again in full feather as soon aswe
can get him.
Undoubtedly season of moulting will be
good for him. His second plumage, little
sooerer than the first, will give him greater
dignity and respectability. He will be older
when he wears it, and that will be good
thing. He was young bird when he took
the screaming flights which made the world
stare. His foolishness was the foolishness
OF extreme youth. We can do without that
perfectly well, but we want most of his
other attributes just as they were. When
ne hrst tumbled out of the nest and found
that he could fly, he naturally concluded
that he was the only creature in the world
that could do that. and therefore no other
creature in the world was Of very much
account.
Mnde Him Bashful.
But he had more sense than conceit-
which is saying good deal for his sense
and he found that he had made a mistake
about the other creatures. if not about him.
self. The result of that enlightenment is a
reaction severe and deep. In finding out
that he is not quite so prodigious a fellow
as he thought, he has almost made up his
mind that he is no fellow at all, worth con-
sideriug. This mood will be of less durs-
ton than the other; at least it is to be hoped
so. It will not last beyond the moultiug
time. With his new feathers on, our bird
will come forth from his retirement Then
We may expect him to fly away straight in
the eye of the sun. And this time, if he
has gained as much wisdom as he ought, he
will pay less heed to the birds and beasts
of other nations than be has done hereto
fore. He will not scream defiance and con-
tempt at them, as at first; and be will not
curb his flight or waver in it, as seems his
present disposition, because those other
birds and beasts have q somewhat different
movement.
The time is about ripe for another decla-
ration Of American independence. This
one need not be formulated in preamble and
resolution, nor engrossed on parchment, nor
be voted on by Congress. There should not
be in it word of defiance addressed to any
potentate or power in the world. There
should be in it no touch of unfriendliness
Or discourtesy. It should embody simply
the sentiment and practice of absolute manly
and womanly Observation-Disclosures in
dependence.
Some Past Mistakes.
There ID greater need Of this than many Of
Is think. There is necessity that we begin
% apply the Monroe doctrine to our national
manners and to the ordering of our daily |
rational life. In the kindest and frIendli- |
st tones possible we must begin to say to |
utside people: Hands of, if you please.
10 Intervention It is commonly charged
hat we Americans are a very bunptious
ok. Perhaps we are in a certain way
But certainly that does not keep US from
,eing more sensitive to criticism than
my other nation on earth. We always were
10. although at different times our sensitive ]
less has had different ways of manifesting I
tself In the days of Mrs. Trollope and of |
Dickens their criticisms (is they were oriti-
'isms) put Us in a rage
But we are of sort that don't stay in a
age very long. After little we began to
dnrit to 10 -, xI.k
he things those foreigners said were partly
rue. There were men on this side of the
cean who did sit with their feet on the
able or the mantelpiece; there were also
men who did make of themselves islands
urrounded by tobacco juice; there were
men, and women, too, who were so far gone
n barbarism that they ate with their knives.
These things being true, it seemed to follow
hat anybody from abroad, no matter what
lis own standard of breeding might be, WAS
It perfect liberty to come within our friendly
'ates, accept our most hospitable welcome,
nd then repay US for it with contemptuous
buse or patronizing advice. And the proper
hing for us to do was to keep quiet under
he inaiction. Indeed, we could hardly do
therwise without being as ill-mannered as
ur critics. So in marvellous meekness of
pirit we accepted the tongue-lashings ad-
nAAASssASA1 eAo uASu w HShu VuA
<t* =
Must Study Our Critics.
Now to be tolerant of criticism, even of
mpertinent criticism, is one thing; and to
70 subservient to criticism, even courteous
riticlsm, is quite another thing. In this,
s in other matters, liberation indicates
Irength, and subservience indicates weak
ess. just now we are at the su5servient
tage. We are still sheepishly ashamed of
he knife-swallowlngp part of our career, and
re prone to think that anything about US
'hich other people object to must necessa-
lily be wrong. The sooner we get out of
nat way of thinking the better it will be
n us. 1t is well enough to be told of our
Iults. It is still better to tell ourselves of
hem, and pretty sharply, too. But we
lust reserve to ourselves the final judg-
ent. We must get into an Independent
anne of mind respecting our critics and
hat they have to say.
We must decide for ourselves whether our
ays are wrong ways or not. Perhaps they
re-, but the mere fact that somebody with
ferent ways says so don't make them so.
they are wrong, of course, We ought to ]
pent OF them. Whether our duty lies in
penting or in not repenting is point we
ould inquire into. 1t is exactly the point
e don't inquire into now. We answer the
ii to repentance without question. We ]
e told by one visitor that our general de-
'rtment is at fault; by another that our
amer of eating is but little removed ,
om barbarian; by another that our forms !
speech are atrocious; by another that our ,
cial customs are absurd; by another that 7
nat we call our culture is ludicrously ,
ude.
A Foreign Standard.
Then the critics of our own household