The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1896-08-19
IMPRESSIONS or AMERICA.
Conan Doyle Gives His Views Upon tho
National Spirit Of Our Citizens.


Conan Doyle Gives His Views Upon the
National Spirit Of Our Citizens.
An Englishman who travels in the
United States comes back, according to
my experience, with two impressions,
which are so strong that they over
shadow all others. One is of the excess
sive kindness which is shown to individ-
ual Englishmen. The other is of the
bitter feeling which appears to exist
both in the press and among the public
against his own country. The present
ebullititon is only one Of those recur-
rent crises which have marked the
whole history of the two nations. The
feeling is always smoldering, and the
least breath of discussion sets it in a
blaze. believe, and have long believed
that the greatest danger which can
threaten our empire is the existence Of
this spirit of hostility in a nation which
is already great and powerful, but which
is destined to be far more SO in the fu-
ture. Our statesmen have stood too
long with their faces toward the east.
To discern our best hopes as well as our
gravest dangers they must turn the 9TH
er way.
AS to the cause of this feeling, it is not
SC unreasonable as Englishmen usually
contend. 1t is the fashion among us to
apportion the blame between the Irish
American and the politician who is in
search of his vote. But no such super
fetal explanation as this can cover the
fact that the governors OF 30 American
states should unhesitatingly indorse a
presidential message which obviously
leads straight to war. A dislike SO wide
ly spread and so fierce in it's expression
cannot be explained by the imported
luminosity of the Celtic Irishman.
Few Englishmen could be found now
to contend that we were justified in
those views of taxation which brought
on the first American war, or in the
question of searching neutral vessels
which were the main cause of the Sec
ond. This war of 1912 would possibly
only occupy two pages out of the 500 in
an English history, bur it bulks very
large in an American one, and has left
many bitter memories behind it. Then
there was the surly attitude which Eng
land adopted toward the states after
they had won their independence, the
repeated frictions during the Napoleon
epoch, and the attack upon an American
frigate by British 50-gun ship in time
of peace. After the war there was the
Florida dispute in the time of Andrew
jackson, the question Of the Oregon
line, the settlement the Maine and New
Brunswick line, and finally, the hostile
attitude of most of our press at the time
of the civil war. Since then we have
had two burning questions, that of the
Alabama claims and that of the Behring
sea fisheries, eliminating in this Of
Venezuela. The history Of his country,
then, as it presents itself to an Ameri-
can is simply long succession of quar-
rels with ourselves, and how can it be
wondered at if he has now reached that
chronic state of sensitiveness and sus-
picion which we have not outgrown in
the case of the French?
If we are to blame as a community
for some at least of these unfortunate
historical incidents, we are even more
to blame as individuals for the wide
spread bitterness which is felt against
us. We have never had a warm, un-
grudging word of heartfelt praise for
the great things which our kinsmen
have done, for their unwearying indus
try, their virtues in peace. their logged
ness in war, their unparalleled Glenn
ency when war was over. We have al
ways fastened upon The small, rude de-
tails and overlooked the great facts be-
hind. In our shocked contemplation of
an expectoration upon the floor we have
lost sight of the universal suffrage and
equal education.
Our travellers, from Mrs. Trollope and
Dickens onward, have been surprised
that the versatile, hard working men
who often combine ten trades in one to
adapt themselves to the varying needs
of a 1aw-growing community had not
the manners of Oxford or the repose of
Sussex. They could not understand
that this rough vitality and overbearing
energy which carried them through
their task implied those complimentary
defects which must go with universal
virtues. Of all English travellers to the
states there was hardly one who did not
make mischief with his "reminiscences
until, in our own days, Mr.. Bryce did
something to rectify the balance. And
our want of charity and true insight
are the most inexcusable, since no one
has written more charmingly of Eng
land than Washington Irving, Emerson.
and Holmes. Our journals and public
men are in the habit now, as rule, of
abiding to America and Americans in