The morning times., 1896-04-26
w JHAT an exquisite inconsistency there
lhI is in our rejection OF national criti-
cism. Inconsistency is often pic

w HAT an exquisite inconsistency there
IA Is in our re lection of national criti-
ss cism. Inconsistency is often pic
tnresque e-'concordia diScors,' as
it were. This phase is, however,
tediously prosaic. with its foundations in
paIpable weakness. We stand as chill
dren resentful of every qualification. pout-
ing and stamping and whining, even, when
neishbors look into our lot and remark the
paint is off the toy express wagon, or the
doll is bald. or the drum head broken. Yet
we know It's SO, and presently run, crying
for new wagon and another drum. be-
cause these are-such wretched, poor things.
IL is so patiently childish.
No foreigner who finds even q hair
breadtt's deviation is permitted the tolera-
ton Of his criticism. While he ca joles and
llatters he is authentic. This sensitive
pride, though it may not be picturesque, is
at least humorous. For note that no end
of cynicism. burlesque, ridicue, and exc
Grafton is resented from one OF our own.
Not, as Captain Cutie said, does it de
pend in the application on" but in who
makes the application.
Charles Dickens wrote a couple OF volumes
OF notes on America, largely true but they
were resented with intense bitterness.
Sometimes he elaborated and caricatured.
the license of the novelist, and brought he
mirror so close to our fathers noses that the
In the forties there was no end OF crudities
amenable TO criticism. Such hopeless,
malarlous lands as Eden" did exist al the
Western river bottoms. Our vile tobacco
splitting habit exists today. How many Gen.
Cyrus Chokes, ''one of the most remarkable
men In the country remain with US;
Mrs. Honllny is still being intruduced-you
recognize her every where as ''one of our
choicest spirits, and belongs toe one OF our
oldest fanilieS;'' the description of Major
Pawkins fits thousand a t this moment: "a
politician, bold speCulator Tor swindler),
an oratoranda man ofthe people, aud gen.
eral loafer." Other characters which
have passed out of our national life have left
confederation for Dickens sketches This
is all pushed aside with a sweep and a
contemptuous sneer, because il is foreign
Criticism. When Dickens lampoons his own
people we laugh III unholy glee, and are first
TO cry bravo and insist fidelity, though
the subjects are never so unknow to us.
On the other hand, were such impossible
carlCdtures ever fosted on humanity as
some home bodies less artful have woven
on the national loom? If English papers
teemed with the cartoons that eDliven our
comic papers ii would be made an interna-
uonal issue. The diatribes that tread on
each other heels in our journals make
perpetual discourse on the weakness of
our neighbors. the degenerateness of our
INSTITUTIONS. the corruption or our morals,
the lncompetency OF our executives. In
dramatic literature our own playwrights
and actors ridicule the Yankee the EOoS-
ler. the poor white trash of the South, the
vulgar nouveau riches, the Caddish ariSto-
crat. the dishonest plutocrat. Riley has
witten the truthful iargon of the Indiana
peasantry. Charles Egbert Craddock has
cmbalmed the bad English of the Tennes-
see mountaineers. Mark Twain reproduces
of ha To.
send has aired the uncOuth Bowery type
No one rises To a contradictions the facts
are admitted. When a foreign penis dpped
in our characters and our social and po-
litical life is measured a thousand Amer
lean pens plunge into the ink pots and
scratch screed ofresentment. It's child
ish and humorous inconsistency, isn't it?