Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1893-12-27
AMERICAN ADMIRATION FOR rupo,.
A Writer Asks Why 1t Is Reprebon.,,,
to Respect Foreign Opinion.

A Writer Asks Why 1t Is Repre,o
to Respect Foreign Opinions
We have long deferred to Eurono :.
many ways, and our satirists and cr;.; ~
have scourged mercilessly what tI
branded as our servility. SIS the Hrdl icy
not broadly magnificent enough, O re-
ant American, that you must prattla {,
the Rhine? Is the-the- the-canito, =.
Albany or at Washington so insipnifcaa.
that you cannot forget a crumbinp CT
iseum or ruined Parthenon2 Are ~.
&, 0O0, 900 for street cleaning in New VI
enough, that the streets of Berlin or C1a1
gov must be thrown in our faces, IN
Campagna, the Vale of Emma. Olvur,,'
Hymettus, what are they to the prairias =,
Illinois and the farther west, to the vail
of Wyoming, to the Rocky mountainss; -,
So frowns indignant patriotism. sneak;n.
with firm set lips, and SO the nightinga1s
of the boards reproves us for scorning on.
own children whom Europe has NOT yat
crowned with laurel
But may not something be said 70,
Europe? Although it be country No
longer young, is it so hopelessly senils
that it's approval is worthless? Becanss
we are the child of the morning. with
boundless estate of the future, do we know
everything SO much more fully and wisely
that we justly laugh at an older wisdom,
Is it weakness that stirs desire in the heart
of the young painter of the prairie to see
miracles of Raphael, of Titan, of Correo
gio? Is it servility that draws the Ameri-
can sculptor to study the marbles of An
gelo and Phidias? Is it mistrust of his own
land and its genius that sends the architect
to the schools of Paris, the physician tn
Germany, the artificer to the countries that
sent wonders of delicate art to the Pbila.
delphia exhibition?
| Is it is the shallow love of an echo that
will not let the scholar rest until he comes
face to face with the great masters of
human lore, and treads the great libraries.
their worshopsS Is it slavishness or low
atty of the soul which makes the land Of
Chaucer and Shakespeare, of Burns and
Scott, enchanted ground to the native of
continent which only because it is of re-
cent civilization is not yet stepped in the
soft air of glorious tradition?
Would not our melodious monitor agree
that it is because other and smaller coun-
tries are so sincerely devoted to the main
tenance of lyric art. so versed in it, so edu-
Gated by taste and long training and ex-
perience, that their opinion is the opinion
of knowledge, and therefore that their
praise signifies what the verdict of less ex-
perience and training does not signify,
Would not and should not the word Of
Linneus command for botanist conf
dence which the diploma of many an ex-
cellent American college could not secures
When the audiences that made the fame
of Thalberg, of Chopin, of List, of Rubin
stein salute Paderewski, may we not listen
with just prepossession? 1t is a familiar
phrase of Cicero, laudari a laudato. Ap-
probation from Sir Hubert Stanley is praise
indeed, says our later version.
Is the case fully stated when it is said
that we applaud because Europe applaudss
Is it not rather because we find that Europe
justly applauded? Its applause properly
bespeaks our attention; but, in fact, our
applause does not follow ex ofiicio, like
Diggory's laugh the squire's familiar jest;
it follows our own perception of desert
"a perception undoubtedly and properly
quickened and guided by larger experience.
George William Curtis in Harper's.