The herald., 1893-08-01
NOTALLARE LIKE HIM
THE BRITISH CAD ABROAD IS A DIS
AGREEABLE PERSON.

n fciioW COuntryman DescriDes tno Spe-
cies-A Creature That BIanifests His
Contempt OF Everything Foreign on Ev-
cry Possible Occasion.
There is nothing of which, as an Eng
Ishman who has spent much of his life
In foreign lands, am more heartily
ashamed than the British cad on his
travels; and l would like to take this op-
portunity to warn sltch readers as may
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
eumstances be regarded in the light of a
typical Briton.
Generally speaking, the travelling cad
belongs to the middle classes, although
am forced to admit that I 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 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 found such an
undisguised contempt for the foreigner
as in England. The people there are
firmly convinced that everything alien
is necessarily bad; that foreign opinion
is not worth considering, and that 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 we'll brsJ Englishman seeks by
every means in his power to get out Of
the way Of this greatest of all abomina-
tions, the tourist cad.
From the very moment that he leaves
England and sets foot on 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, Imay 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 dunvarnished 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 ridicuseD 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
a nasal twang, totally oblivious of his
own vulgar cockney accent, while to the
German he will expatiate on 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 hatwhen some re-
ligious or funeral procession passes
through the street of acontinental town,
he would scorn the idea. I have met tho
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 amiably 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 ''as-
founded by the lack of morality and pro-
priety" of the women of the Land Of the
Rising Sun.
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 his way home, and to
draw him. The mere record of the in
terview would furnish far more graphic
illustration ard 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 a jaundiced and preju-
diced manner, he goes back more con-
vinced than ever that everything 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 forcible manner.
Nor is he deferred therefrom by any
courtesies which he may have received
while on his travels, nor by any hospi-
tality of which he may have been the OBJ
ject. On the contrary, his entertainer,
no matter how genero6s or how kind,
will probably constitute theme of ridi-
cule and will be subjected not to por-
trayal, but to coarse and vulgar carica-
ture for the merriment Of the friends of
the British travelling cad.-New York
Trib11rle.