Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-09-04
NOTALLARE LIKEHIM
THE BRITISH CAD ABROAD is A DIS
+ AGREEABLE PERSON.

There is nothing of which, as an Eng
| lishman who has spent much of his life
In foreign lands, 1 am more heartily
ashamed than the British cad on his
| travels, and would like to take this on
portunity to warn such readers as NAV
| not have had occasion to visit Europe
| that my countrymen are not all built on
the same lines as our travelling cad, and
that the latter must not under any cir
cumstances be regarded in the light of a
typical Briton.
Generally speaking, the travelling cad
belongs to the middle classes, although I
am forced to admit that l have met quite
a number of his kind who bore names
that figure in the pages of Burke. The
| manifestations of his caddishness are
prompted in a great measure by patriot
ism of AN aggressive and offensive type
which involves contempt for everything
that does not happen to be English.
In no other country of the world, save
perhaps in China, have l found such an
undisguised contempt for the foreigner
as in England. The people there are
firmly convinced that every thing alien
is necessarily bad that foreign opinion
is not worth considering, and t.lat when
dealing with foreigners they are under
no obligation to observe the convention
al rules of life which govern their inter
course with their fellow countrymen.
The result of all this is that no people
are more justly abhorred abroad than
the ordinary Briton on his travels, and
even the well bred Englishman seeks by
every means in his power to get out of
the way of this greatest of all abomina-
lions, the tourist cad.
From the very moment that he leaves
England and sets foot ON a foreign
shore the cad apparently casts to the
winds all sense of decency and consid-
Grafton for the feelings of those with
whom he is brought in contact. Eng
lishmen, and, may add, English women.
of the cad species do not seem to have
the slightest consideration for their sur
roundings when abroad in the matter of
dress; their one delight would appear to be
to endeavor to offend the susceptibilities
of the foreigners with whom they are
brought in contact either by the made
quacy or else by the exaggerated and
equally inappropriate magnifcence of
their attire.
Another form of caddishness on the
part of the travelling BritOn is the bru-
tality and unvarnished character of his
criticism of everything and everybody
that he sees after leaving home. Indeed
one is often tempted to ask why he
should have quilted his native shores,
seeing that he is so determined to find
everything bad and abhorrent that is
foreign. He ridicules the language, he
ridicules the accent, the appearance, the
manners and the dress Of all those whom
he encounters abroad not quietly and
unobtrusively, but in the most offensive
and public way, without the slightest
idea of cOncealment. If he. meets an
American, he is quite as ready as not to
inform him that he speaks English with
nasal twang, totally oblivious of his
own vulgar cockney accent, while to the
German he viii eXpat.ate or the alleged
lack of cleanliness of the Teutonic race.
To the Frenchman he will address what
he considers to be delicate banter on the
traditional fondness of the Gallo race
for frogs and snails.
As for removing his hat when some re-
Hgious or funeral procession passes
through the street of acontinental town,
he would scorn the idea. l have met the
British cad travelling in India, where he
distinguishes himself by refusing to con-
form with the local prejudices and Gus
toms of the highly civilized natives,
whom he amiabfy refers to, even to their
faces, as ''niggers," and in japan, where
he does not hesitate to tramp with his.
muddy boots over the dainty mats on
which the natives both sleep and eat, /
have known one of them to cheerfully
volunteer to high bred and courteous
japanese noblemau who in an i'll advised
moment had been induced to. entertain
him the information that he was 'sas-
founded by the lack of morality and pro-
priety" of the women of the Land of the
Rising Sun. 'a
There is nothing that I should like SO
much as for some clever New York re-
porter to get hold of one of these travel
ing British cads on hi way home, and to
draw him. The mere record of the in
terview would furnish d ar more graphic
illustration and portrayal of the creature
than anything that | could write. The
worst of the matter is that travel does
not seem to in any way improve the
creature He starts out from home with
the preconceived determination of find
ing everything foreign 'beastly''-I use
his own favorite expression. Looking
at everything in d jaundiced and preiu-
diced manner, he goes back more con-
WINGED than ever chat ev rything that he
has seen out of England is ''beastly," an
opinion which he does not hesitate to
express everywhere and on every occa-
sion in the most fercible manner.
Nor is he deferred therefrou by any
courtesies which he may have received
while on his travels, nor by any hospi-
tally of which he may have been the OBJ
ject. On the contrary, his entertainer,
no matter how generous or how Kind,
will probably constitute themea5e ridi-
cule and will be subjected-n to por-
10 4