The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-08-01
VIEWED BY A VISITOR.

THE LAND OF THE DoLLAR-By a. w. stee-
veins. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. For safe
Ia this City by A. NJ. Robertson, Post street
Price 81 %.
Three times during the past nine months
have we been called upon to notice a book q is.
cussing America and its people from the poia t
of view OF the outsider and the transient So
iourner. In the first of these forts, that of
the Rev. H. r. Haweis we we've treated to n
dissertation upon our manners and GUS
tomsi but the English cleric saw fit to
douse US with strongly saturated solution OF
Mr.. Haweis His too aggressive personality
loomed forth from every page and in every
chapter. "WHO AN IT. asked the author OF
Music and Morals" on the first page OF his
work, Travel and Talk" and the remaining
500 ana odd pages seemed to the impartial
reader TO be largely carefully executed an
swer to the question.
Then a few months later there was issued
from the press Of the Messrs. Scribner q work
entitled America and the Americans From
g French Point of View" The author OF this
clever production chose 10 remain anonymous
and at the time OF its pu blieation there were
not wanting critics who asserted that the
writer of the work was none other than an
American the editor of leading New York
paper, masquerading, for some reason best
known to himself, as e resident OF France.
His book was eagerly read and much COM
mented upon. 1t was bright, witty, caustie
and disclosed considerable acquaintance
with our institutions. {. 1897
The third and latest book, desig ned to let us
see ourselves as others see us, is written by G
w, Stevens, a member of the staff OF the Lon
don Daily Mail, who was sent by his paper to
this country during the recent Presidential
Campaign. His letters home have been incor-
porated;into a book of some 800 pages. with
the general caption of "The Land OF the Dol
lar" Under this head Mr.. Stevens has set
forth his Impressions of our country as they
revealed themselves to him during stay of
few months, during which time he travelled
from Maine to California. ~: .-
T.: Ina certain sense Mr.. Stevens work is Of
far more value than that OF. either OF his two
immediate .predee assors. In coming to this
country hewas not bound to fill professional
Engagements. He delivered no lectures
and occupied no. pulpits. No mounte-
bank. tactics stgnRlized his advent in
American cities, neither did he indulge
IN church quarrels. He: came simply as a
visitor TO see us in our everyday manner OF
living. The results of his trip in the volume
before US show that Mr.. Stevens is a man of
observation and gentle an of culture, hav-
ing none OF the attributes Of the egotist. Mr.
Stevens book possesses the further value OF
indicating the difference between the school
OF new journalism, of which he is member
in England, and our own variety. The differ
ence is striking, and not at all to the credit OF
the United States, &..- ..---.
It needs not the explanation of the English
newspaper man+to show that he has not
chosen 1.-THE Land of the Dollar as the title
of his book in any spiritef assumed superior
ity or of contempt for our com merclalism.
Mr.. Stevens processes vast admiration for
our business instincts and admits that our
men engage in the pursuit OF wealth for the
reason that in this, comparatively new conn
try, there is little else to pursue. He remarks
that America is a'unfinished' in that we are
always IN a hurry, and it was only in Phila-
delphia that he found q community at all
resem bling the people of Great Britain,
Like alltrsnsient visitors to this country, who
are here with the ultimate purpose OF writing
us UP, Mr. Stevens falls intoa curious habit
of generalization: Thus he speaks Of Denver
as town whose inhabitants "appear. to gain
a precarious livelihood by selling each other
railway tickets at reduced rates" Aud
again: avery American is at heart an
anarchist He hates constraint.: He: hates
regulation He hates law" And when, after
propounding some theory of his pwn relative
to the financial questions agitating this CON
=. tiuent, he adds: f'All this may be an ffn-
aginatfve libel bat it is a good story, so lei it
g. go"5e are constrained to believe thdt the
new journalism in London is in. one respect
T. stleast the twin brother of the same article
: here. - ..... 80.
:. The monetary problem is one that is han
died by Mr.. Stevens IN mastery manner.
He goes carefully into the question OF free
silver versus. the single gold standard and ex-
plains it in a manner that should be Tevela-
.-tion to some ofour campaign orators, mouth
Ing their shibholeths OF sixteen to one, '''unit
OF value, ":@free and.indepeuden coinage and
contracted currency The matter of argu-
ing finance wi tn starving opera lives, akin TO
the serfptural demand Tor bread aud receipt
= oil a stone; was We'll put to him BY q Ma tive Of
Lee dville: '.Mhars:the good OF talking sound
finance 10 a man when he's huugry2 Feed
him first then he'll listen. They haven't for.
gotten Homestead, and they're sore They
know that they. can't be worse Oh. than they
are, and they gofn for any Change. II IT'S not
free silver itll be something else. Ii it's not
this time it'll .;be next: And they're quite
right" :..
. During his visit to Philadelphia the writer
of 1.-THE Land of the Dollar" visited the cele-
brated Baldwin LOGON olive Works. The sight
inspired him with admiration and disgust
admiratien at American enterprise disgust at
the lack of the same exhibited BY the British
engineer. why" he walls, 30 British manu-
facturer, must Icome 5000 miles to Phi!adel.
phia to see railway engines supplied to BARGE;
Iona and. Jerusalem, Christianta ana Riga?
Answer me that, British; engineer"
We Americans are intensely democratic L
is one OF our most cherished traditions, and tht
fact is impressed upon us by every man who
visits the country, be it for only week. Here
is the way in which the wave struck Mr..
SteeveHsI ~ -:
There appeared on. the train at Pitisburg
or Whereabouts phenomenon offar more In
terest. This was Mr.. McKfnley's brother. /
will probably be news to most Britens thai
Mr.. Mckinley so much as has brother
Yet in the spectacle of that brother in
the smoking apartment American democrae5
was writ so large as few people have the luck
10 see It. He was not unlike the pictures OF
the candidate. He was stout and his trousers
we're tight: so very, obviously were his boots.
OF hts discourse It IS not needfnl to speak
it was shrewd. and -good-humored rather
than gramma tical. He. was not unminuful
ofthe sptttoon.: He taiked quite freely about
mis- celebrated brother, and he. talked to every
body who liked to talk with him., The
waters in the: dining:car 'ehaffed him.
and the conductor slapped him on the
back. This morning I:met him again in a
Canton newspaper Office. He was.dtverting his
mind with a little larking anieiig the report
ers. Now, do try 10 imagine Il: When you