New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-08-19
AMERICANS IN LONDON.
WHY THEY ARE MORE NUMEROUS THAN
UsUAL-wHAT THEIR RECEPTION HAS
BEEN-THE AMERICAN GIRL ONCE
MORE AND HER PRESENT
RELATIONS TO LONDON
SOCIETY.

RELATIONS TO LONDON
SOCIETY
London, August 7.
A competent American told me the other day
that never in any former year had so many
Americans come to Europe. The reason he gave
was that they could not afford to stay at home
To those Of modest means that may seem
paradox, but he explained his hard saying as
having reference chiefly 10 those who were
neither in very moderate circumstances nor yet
millionaires many times over AT Newport
Lenox. Bar Harbor and other resorts OF that
kind the scale Of living is very high. Luxury
Is the law To go to such place and live
quietly; to take smaller house to lay up your
yacht to put down half your stable. to abstain
from dinner giving and b1ll-giving. to retrench
hospitalites-this Is 10 confess that times are
hard and to economic In the face Of an inexora-
bic public opinion which pronounces poverty
disgrace-so says my friend-and condemns the
man who Is frank enough and honest enough to
own that he is hard up
Whereas a trip to Europe Is not an avowal OF
q reduced income It was once thought to imply
and to require lavish expenditure. 1t may STILL
II YOU are bent on getting rid Of the greatest
amount Of money In the shortest possible time.
An ambition OF that kind may be gratified al
Jealous American eye is not so easily fixed on
the proceedings Of those who come abroad Fru-
gality may be practised in secret and nobody In
America be much the wiser when the traveller
returns In the autumn. How IL Newport to know
whether the absent owner Of cottage lives In
the most expensive rooms Of the most expensive
hotel in the most expensive quarter OF the cost
Hest capital or dearest watering place OF Europe!
Thrift is quite possible Of a kind which attracts
no attention. and. thrift or no thrift II mas 10 De
said that the cost Of travelling In Europe is
really less than at home; as Is the cost or
hotel life and Of summer quarters. and OF all the
items or nearly all. which compose the total OF
q journeys bill.
II Is remarked also.-and this by the Eng
lish themselves-that more Americans spend
some time In London, whether for amusement or
for business or for the behoof OF taiors ana
dressmakers, or for business Of other kinds An
English newspaper said lately that it was Ameri-
can custom which. at this season. kept the West
End shops Of London from putting up their
shutters. The English client has departed, and
he was perhaps not a very good customer while
he remained Complaints Of a bad season are
common The English newspaper exagger-
ated as Is the habit Of English newspapers.
though never Of an American
STILL the arrival Of the American contingent Is
always welcome to the English tradesman. and
this year more than ever. II he does not come
often he improves his time while he Is here, ana
the banking account Of the shopkeeper whom ne
honors with his patronage. as they say here.
He gives his orders In q free-handed way winch
delights him to whom they are given / know
Of one citizen Of the great Republic who meaning
to make but q short stay in London. cabled his
orders to his London tailor before leaving New
York. For aught know. It may be done fire.
quently. I never happened to hear o, II before,
and I asked the friend who told me Of his per-
Torrance what the result OF tailoring by tele-
graph was "well." he answered, a little reluc-
family, II haven't got the clothes yet" My guess
Is that the tailor waited till his too impatient
customer appeared on the scene in person. The
hotel the tailor and the Embassy. those are the
three headquarters Of the American man passing
through the British capital The pilgrim from
the far West who conceives OF the American
Embassy as a general agency for the benefit
Of sons Of freedom abroad is not yet extinct
Whether ne thinks that the Ambassador gets a
commission from the tailor / never quite made
out.
Commercial and social London are. however.
two very different worlds. The foreigner who. In
attempting to enter the second. has only his
money to recommend him. is very likely to find
that there are things which money will not buy.
It Is so delicate a subject that dare not enter
into particulars. shall refer. directly or indi
rectly, to any individual. Let us keep TO gem
eralites-they quite instructive enough. There
are those who understand them and those who
do not. Probably the American woman learns
more quickly than any one else: still, she has to
learn. The American women who have taken a
high position in London society and kept 1t
h1o 20 otpfc 70 no
II they choose to. or II the newcomers cared to
have them.
Sometimes they think they can do very we'll
without In times past they often have now. 1t
Is less easy. Times have changed and people
with them. The London Of to-day Is not the Lon
don of ten years ago. Some very dubious expert
ments have been made in the interval not always
successful. Perhaps American successes have
been too much talked about: both by some OF the
Americans who achieved them and by some Of
those over whom, or at whose expense they were
achieved. Where there have been failures. 1t Is
because the conditions. the essential conditions,
Of success have not been studied. There has been
an idea that with plenty OF money and good intro
auctions, or with good management. anything
might be done. 1t is a wrong idea. as the peo
ple who have found 1t out by sad experience could
tell you II they would; but they will not.
It has been known to answer at first. A dinner
has been given to which the right people came;
q party or ball thronged for one night by per-
sons Of real social distinction: then long pefiod
of eclipse None could say why the right people
came once and refused to come twice. and they
themselves omitted to explain. They simply
stayed away. Nor VIII social distinction at home
serve In all cases as talisman In London.
have heard 1t said score Of times by English
people that nobody here knows or cares about
social distinction position or the want OF
them in New-York. That is stating 1t very
strongly but you will see. II you reflect little,
what they really They mean that the
stranger will here be Judged on his or her merits