The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-16
AMERICAN IMPRESSIONS
IAN MACLAREN" SAYS PLEASANT
THINGS ABOUT THIS COUNTRY.
During His Visit He Found Much to-
Admire in People and fnstitu-
tions-TactIess EngIishmen.
The Outlook.

tween, say, Matthew Arnold and 'Punch's'
AIRY. and / would like to make a plea some
day for the simple and unfinished Amerl-
can; but let one Englishman at least re-
cord his honest opinion that an educated
American is the most courteous person he
has met on his travels. One may have a
pardonable pride in the good form of an
English gentleman-an instructive sense of
what is -becoming-and yet desire the cor
diality which is very taking in an Ameri-
can; one may admit that in what may be
called the decorated style of manners a
Frenchman is a past master, ana stlll miss
that note of simplicity which is found in
an American. There is, indeed, as appears
to a dull male person, a certain analogy be-
tween the superiority of an American man
in manners and an American women in
dress Cher manners it goes without saying,
are charming. vivacious, sympathetic, tas-
cinating), for she has added to the severe
good taste of IN Englishwoman a certain
grace, and redeemed the cleverness of the
Partisan from the suspicion of trickery.
Blood and climate have united to produce
this felicitous result, where the gravity and
dignity of the Anglo-Saxon have been re-
lieved by a certain brightness of spirit and
lightness OF touch which would be out of
place and might be even offensive in rain
and fog.
The typical American editor is not per-
emptory, autocratic, nor frank unto the
point of brutality in dealing with his con-
tributors-who are the only worms who
have not formed unions and do not turn in
the present millennium of independence.
He is warmly appreciative of what ne ac-
cepts, and he takes the trouble to refuse
what he cannot accept in such a way as to
confer a favor. In my hands have l held
for a brief space a letter from the editor of
a largely circulated and quite delightful
American monthly to a young lad who had
sent an account of life at an English uni
versity, explaining why it could not be ac-
cepted, but bestowing discriminating
praise. One fears that his character for We
racity cannot survive the strain of such a
statement, but one takes the risk in order
to pay his tribute to the courtesy Of the
editor, and a ~fortiori of all men of letters
across the Atlantic. They have as a profess
sion a quite marked graciousness of man
ners, but he, the most dominant (and, per-
haps, also, chastened) of his order, is an
example unto the whole world. His patience
this is the final test-with an ~unpunctual
contributor is sufficient to melt a heart not
utterly ~depraved, and to qualify him for a
very high place in the order of Christianity
OUR MANNERS.
The young university man of Yale or Har-
ward is neither gawky nor cheeky, but has
an easy and agreeable bearing, with just
the proper flavor of Difference to his SUI
periors. Whatever a native-born clergyman
may say or do in ecclesiastical courts,
where the atmosphere, the world over,
from Rome downwards, is so close and
charged with gas that no one breathing it
ought to be held responsible, he is invari-
ably conciliatory and reasonable in private,
never allowing himself to wrangle about
theology or to assume arrogant air to lay
folk. One is never 1rritated by religious cant
or priestly insolence, nor is one afraid of
being browbeaten or taken by guile. Club
men are everywhere very much the same,
having a certain freemasonry which. consti-
tutes them a class by themselves; bat the
American is entitled TO this praise, that his
manners are not spoiled by affectation, nor
frozen into icy humanity. he does not
wear a single eyeglass for ornamental pur-
poses, nor assume an expression OF COunte-
nance from which all interest in anything
has been studiously eliminated. Nor does he
labor to reduce the crisp, sinewy English
speech to the sound of jargon, nor is he ac-
customed to regard the outside world as
Philistines. An absolutely well-bred man
in speech and deed, he allows you to know
that he has a heart; he can shake hands
like a man, he is perfectly affable, and
does not speak a patois in which an sep
arates each word from its %neighbor, and
don't you know fills up the frequent In
t~ersticeS of ought.
The first point of good manners is chlV-
airy, and the test of chivalry is a mans
bearing to women. The reason one is sus-
picious of French breeding is that, though
a Parisian-who is a frenchman raised TO
the highest degree-may lift his hat on en-
tering a shop, he would show the shop-girl
no Difference on the street, while French
fiction is a standing insult to Womank1nd.
From end to end of America a woman is
respected, protected, served, honored. IL she
enters an elevator, every man uncoVerS; IN
a street car she is never allowed 10 stand
if a man can give her a seat; on the rail-
ways, conductors, porters and every other
kind of official hasten to wait on her; any
man daring to annoy a woman would come
to grief. The poorest woman can travel
with security and comfort in the States,
which, to a European, seems most admir-
able. Her richer sister has a maid ana foot
in Europe; she has a nation in attend
ance. In society she holds a court. with ev-
cry man listening to her, defer1ng TO her,
rejecting her. Perhaps the American Wom-
an may be unconsciously eXacting at times
it is the penalty of absolute monarchy;
perhaps the men exceed in difference when
they allow the women to read Tor them
and think for them, in everything except
politics-this is the drawback OF hereditary
loyalty. The American queen might COM
plete an almost perfection by grantln her
subjects an occasional experience OF equal
ity, upon which they would never think OF
trading. Perhaps the AIleTlCdI IOydllSl
might do his ruler true service and safe
guard her from SeItishncsS by an occasional
and quite limited assertion of the rights of
man. 1t remains. however, that 1t must be
pOOd for a strong and restless people to be
possessed with noble ideas OF woman, and
from the poorest to the highest man TO be
engaged and sworn unto her service. The
woman cult in the States is in itself a CIV
ilization, and next door to a religion.
AMERICAN HOSPITALITY.
Hospitality is also the essence of cour-
tesy, and every visitor to the States agrees
with his neighbor-however he may differ
about other things-that the American has
revived the ancient Eastern idea and ac-
climatized it in the West. After a journey
in the new world, one returns home con-
vinced tina we do not know how hospitality
spells in Europe, and smitten to the heart
with repentance. When a stranger comes
to us with a letter, we receive him with
calm civility, hope that he has had a good
passage, inquire what he wishes to see in
our country, map out his route for him, ask
him to a meal, and let him go with a mod
est disclaimer that he has given us any
trouble. If one of us goes over to America,
not knowing half a dozen people in the
whole continent, letters of hospitality arrive
before you start; they are brought on board
your steamer with the pilot, they are de-
livered on the landing stage, they are lying
on the table at your rooms, ana they all
come to the same ~hing-that you Will stay
your belongings-it is hopeo two boys may
be with you as well as your wife-must at
once come to the writer's house. If you
nave an iron will and a profound conviction