Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1893-08-11
AN ENGLISH CRITIC.
A KIND THOUGH RATHER FRANK
OPINION or AMERICANS.

ID
----
Our Hospitality Is Charming, but Our Chill
dren and Young People Appear In a Bad
Light-A Word About Anglomaniacs.
Drawing Room Talk.
New York women will certainly not agree
with the fair foreign critic whose structures
on our ways are printed below, but they
will doubtless find in them something in
teresting. The writer is woman whose
experience Of society abroad has given her
admirable scope for comparison. While
presenting her frank statements as made,
| The Tribune bcgs leave to differ very de
| cidedly from her in several directions.
Like most visitors from Europe, landed
on your shores with strong prejudice
against America and Americans, preju-
dice which am now forced to admit was
| based on Ignorance and that has now en-.
tirely disappeared. attribute it's existence
to the fact that. whereas your people Of re-
| fnement 80 closely resemble well bred PEG
pie In the old world that they pass in
our midst practically unperceived, those OF
| your countrymen who attract attention to
themselves and to their nationality and
who render themselves disagreeably con-
| spicuous abroad are precisely the vulgar
and uneducated element of Americans
whose manners appear quite as offensive to
| you here as they do to us.
I'VE cannot help seeing them when they
| are In Europe, whereas we do not have our
attention called to those whose behavior is
simple and transformations, and the result
Is that Americans do not enjoy particu-
| larly good narle among untraveled Euro
peans. As have said before, this preju.
dice Is based on ignorance and. will disap-
pear by degrees in proportion as we get to
know you better.
1.-THE feature of American life that has
struck me more than anything else since
my arrival here is the charming character
Of your hospitality, which compares in
every respect most advantageousiy with
ours. There Is nothing stiff or stilted about
your welcome You have the exquisite tact
to give us always the fiattering impression
that in being entertained by you we are
comforting upon you pleasure and an OBJ
legation instead Of your comforting it upon
Us. Carriages are placed at our disposal
flowers, books, boxes at the theaters, invi-
tations to luncheon and dinner, are show
cred upon iis, and all this is done simply,
pleasantly and without any thought of os-
tentation, but just as If it were perfectly
natural thing to do.
THE kindness that have met with in
New York. Philadelphia and in Chicago
simply amazed me and gave me an uncom-
Portable feeling of conjunction. for certain
ly we do not act thus in Europe. To be re-
ceived in Our homes it is necessary to be-
long not only to our particular set, but to
be entitled in some decided manner to be
come the recipient of our comparatively
limited hospitality, and as far as putting
ourselves entirely and without reserve in
the hands OF our guests, as you Americans
do, that seems to be with US quite out of
the question.
"A feature of American life which is less
pleasing to the European eyes, at any
rate, is the absolute lack of Difference
shown by interiors to their superiors here
1t is true that the former do not pretend to
recognize any kind of superiority, except
ing where they themselves are concerned,
but 1t is very trying at first to find how
faint is the line of demarcation separating
the "nobodies'' from the 'somebodies'' in
this country. | know well that this is
merely want of form, and that all well
born Americans are fully as conscious of
their advantages as we ire of ours, but
then why not morally compel others to feel
so as well, just as we do in Europe' Serv-
ants and petty tradespeople are, without
any manner of doubt, the least attractive
features here, and their insufferable way of
imparting to you their convictions that
they are quite good as you is very of
fensive.
Another subject which arouses nv
amazement is the American children that
have seen and the way in which they are
brought up. To me they appear utterly I'M
disciplined, and they seem to get too much
of their own way in everything. They eat
at all hours and whatever they fancy, have
no regularity in anything and frequently
talk to their parents as were the latter not
worthy of the most trifling sentiment uf re-
spect and as if they were nothing bur play
fellows of their own. The result Of tais sys-
tenn, or rather lack of any system, is that
these children are fragile, delicate looking,
nervous and often very trying.
There is yet another remark which !
would like to make. and that is with re-
gard to the ever spreading anglomanis so
prevalent here Why should New Workers,
who have SO much reason to be proud of
their country and of their nationality, seek
to shame the one and annihilate the other
by paltry imitation of our very worst de
fects? Heaven knows that there are few
things more utterly inane and idiotic than
an English 'masher or, rather, as they are
now called, an English exquisite They
do not exist, | am happy to say, among the
higher classes of British society," but are
generally found in the middle classes, or
still more frequently in the great 'confrerie
of city men, such as brokers, bank clerks
etc, who fondly imagine that by assuming
these airs and graces they mislead the COM
mon herd to take them for thorough paced
aristocrats. Now, why should Americans
attempt to do likewisey
There is nothing more lovable than an
American who consents to remain what
God has made hin-namely, an honest,
kind hearted, gentlemanly, and, above all,
manly man. But how can one help
laughing at the poor creature one encoun-
tiers only too frequently in Fifth avenue
and also, ALAS in fashionable circles here,
who is physically only poor imitation of
a tailor's fashion engraving. and morally
an absolute uuuentity2
You will think me hardly compliment
tary and certainly very ungrateful after
what have said about the charming WAY
In which have been received here if
add that in fashionable drawing rooms the
topics Of conversation are worse than linn
tied. The people one meets at entertain
ments seem 10 have nothing to talk about
save trifies concerning their own restricted
set. This small talk involuntariiy reminds
me of the conversations heard in benighted
provincial towns in France or England and
are in no wise worthy Of the most elevated
grade of metropolitan society, New York