The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-18
IN FOREIGN COLONIES
HI INsULARITY OF ALIEN GROUPS
In CITIES OF EUROPE.
They Do Not AssimiIate with the PeO-
pie of the but RETAIN
Native characteristics.
New York Evening Post.

Americans gathered in a foreign city with
whose real interests and life it has nothing
to do and from whose politics, public af-
fairs, and business activity it is necessarily
excluded. Thrown almost entirely upon
each others society for amusement and in
tercourse, the idiosyncrasies of the native
environment are adhered to, all the early
habits and modes of thinking are preserved
like flies in amber. When we have long
been absent from our native land, it is
easy to fancy that things have stood stIll
at home as we have abroad. Thus the
new medium and mode of life have en-
bedded the Yankee, the Cockney, the West
erner. the New England mar and woman
without essential change.
1t is a curious state Of arrested develop
ment. Where English influence is predomi-
nant the American who is an admirer of the
English accent and character may gradual
ly adopt the Englishman's rather inarticu-
late mode of speech and his phlegm. 1t is
Sometimes done with design and the result
is more ludicrous than edifying. These imi-
tators are delighted to be mistaken for
English people, but early influences revert
to the original type, and the native cachet
is revealed.
Our English cousins are more successful
than any other nation in resisting sur
rounding influence. They are impervious to
foreign ideas save to the most limited de-
gree. They can live and thrive in all parts
of the world, but they always carry a little
England along with their luggage. Wher-
ever they go they set up q miniature May
fair or a little P~edlington. 1t is curious
how few of the members of a foreign col
ony speak the language of the country in
which they may have resided for years
with any degree of elegance or precision.
There are examples of American sculptors
in the Italian cities who for a quarter of
a century have employed Italian Workmen,
lived among them daily in close relations,
and yet who speak italian most imperfect
ly, II at all. Women. too, Self-eX1led, have
lived one-half their lives in the sunny land,
been householderS maintaining complex re-
lations with the native housemaid, dress
maker, milliner. shoemaker and grocer, but
know only what is loosely called 'kitch-
en- Italian, a mode of speech employed
toward tradespeople and servants. To be
sure, the general custom of confiding the
marketing to the cook makes housekeeping
far easier for a foreigner in Italy than in
some other countries.
THEY BECOME NARROW.
This insular position of a colony stranded
among a foreign people of whom the mem
bers have limited knowledge, and few
tastes and svmpathies in common, renders
the tone of society petty and tiresome. The
exceptional few who have not had the adj
vantages of foreign travel picture to them
selves the charms of foreign life as a per-
petual feast of delights. A haze of ro-
nance covers the ennui, the fatigue, the
heart sickness of even voluntary exile.
Oftentimes art galleries, historical monu-
ments, grand cathedrals and old palaces
count for far more in the imagination of
the stay-at-homes than in the experience
of tourists. A few enthusiasts for art and
literature and archaeology are found here
and there, but they are isolated instances,
and often lead recluse lives apart from
their fellow-countryme1, whose society
they shun rather than court. In the colony
the news and gossip and tittle-tattle of the
Insulartty of position preserves types.
Some which are rather scarce at home
flourish in the foreign town. The bachelor
who lives on his little fortune does nothing
but ~criticise his country, nurse his all
mentS and attend afternoon teas is an
habitue of the watering place. The man
whose talents have, in his own estimation,
away to nurse a little harmless spite, to
sulk a bit. or pose as a great man misun-
movedness from the world of competition
and affairs he can nourish a sense of his
own consequence without so much danger
of having his tender corns trodden upon
by the busy. busting, careless world. In
some respects d Iofeigh colony IS nhe a
country village, where a local reputation
may be obtained on rather easy terms, and
the general belief that one is able to do
great things is almost as valuable as hav-
ing done them.
A great many people in the foreign col
ony dabble in art. They are unable to re-
sist the incubation by the natural process
of breathing an art atmosphere, though it
emanates mainly from the remains of the
dead rather than from the inspiration of
the living. The heritage of art casts It's
lengthening and dwindling ray far down
the ages, and those who SuDSist on its
body and bones are as numerous as those
who are healed by the relics of the saints.
Though such multitudes of art students
throng the European art c~enters, it is re-
markable how few ever attain to more
than amateuriSh excellence. The native
and foreign artists have little or nothing TO
do with, each other, save in Paris, or posi-
bly, in Germany and Belgium, IN the ltal-
mon, and occupy separate camps. sci
dom, if ever. visiting. each others studios
unless expressly. invited: TraXelinS stu
dents doubtless hau 1t the galleries and
copy in them, but, after the copying and
initiative age, the aid derived from the
great masters seems but slight. The seulp-
tor has the excuse of desiring to be nea1
fine marble quarries, and of having at hand
skilled orkmen to block out his statues
but one hardly knows why the painter
fingers after the student period, and sells
his birthright for a rather poor mess Of
foreign pottage.
UNHAPPY SHEPHERDS.
The clergy who are sent out to fill foreign
churches are a study of some interest. Some
of them are men who have failed TO win al
advantageous position at home, but arr
deemed good enough for a foreign colony
But the colony is nothing if not critical
1t demands Il frst-rate man in a second
rate position, and the joys of foreign If
are considered as a bonus and cornpensa
ton for small pay. Occasionally a man o
good parts, fervor, and spirituality fills on
of these positions, but he often comes OF
a vacation from harder work elsewhere, o
because of i'll health or some other dis
ability. Nor is his position altogether pleas
ant. The people demand a great deal o
their shepherd because he is naturally tn
center of a little society, singularly com
pounded and altogether anomalous, wher
gossip and animadversion are often rife
He is in the position of a missioner,
among a people who are far from consider
ing themselves in need of conversion. VIII
have seen all there is to see in both worlds
have known, at least specifically, all Their
is to know, and have the temper of til
Laodicean pretty deeply ingrained. Wha
wonder that some of these churches Eav
had a sad history of splits and ciiques an
of a house divided against itself?
) Some rather funny stories are told of
good but rather eccentric clergyman, VIII
thing, and manifested on many occasion
a plentiful lack of tact Once, While III
peopIe were all kneeling in church. wit
t heads bowed in prayer, he arose hastily an
said in a loud voice: You are all cor1iali
: invited to come to my house on Wednes
: day evening next, and don't forget IL" In
astonished congregation arose from thei
knees and walked out of the church. O
another occasion this excellent nut blum
dering parson was showing to a group c
ladies' a gem of some value. One of tn
number, a very dignifled and elegant pei
son. one of the most prominent and intiu
entail of his congregation. extended he
HAND to take the trinket in order 10 eS