The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-08


brightly, freshly and intelligently. But
the English women who can do so are
Few and far between, and even these are
looked upon either as blue-stockings, as
Tor instance, the Duchess of Sutherland,
the Duchess Of Bedford and Lady Henry
Somerset or else as dangerously fast and
Periously flight, such as the Countess of
warwick. The latter save for her beauty,
Is the British counterpart of Princess
faulihe Metternich, but her brilliancy has
led to her being assailed with such ami
mostly in society, and even at court, as
TO render her position in the London great
world exceedingly difficult-that too, de-
spite her rank and wealth.
II Is probable that these remarks will
not meet with universal approval on yon-
der side of the Atlantic, although they are
undeniable. "A short time ago in these
columns comparison was instituted be-
tween the American girl and her English
sister with regard to the general knowl-
edge which they possessed, and the fact
was pointed out that whereas the average
American girl could, without a moments
hesitation, rattle off the names of the va
rious rulers OF Europe, it would be diff
cult to find one gentieWoman in a hun
dred in England who is acquainted with
the identity of the President of the Uni
ted States. vanity Fair" which is edi-
ted by the Earl of Desart, assisted by
staff comprising members of parliament,
peers and peeresses of the realm, and is
perhaps the most extensively recognized
organ of English society, found nothing
better to respond thereto than the follow
ing extraordinary remarks:
Surely, you could not compare ignor-
ance as to the occupant of the throne of
Russia, for example, with a non-knowl-
edge as to whether the estimable middle
class gentleman who has by means of gil
gantic bribery in dollars and promises, or
fUn iY1r NJ
elected a tawdry kind of glorified boss, to
be shaken hands with at win in the white
house for four years, happens to be called
Elhu B. Nloggs or Washington Lafayette
Smoker"
This absence of snobblshness in the
American woman is likewise conspicuous
in the American man, no matter what po-
sition he occupies in the social organiza-
ton of the United States He starts out
with the conviction, not that he is better
than anybody else, but that he is just as
good-that he is every mans equal. That
imparts to his bearing a certain uncon-
scious dignity which precludes the notion
of obsequiOusness and enables him to
meet princes kings and emperors as man
to man in such a manner as to compel
regard and respect. An Engishman of
the upper or lower middle class ushered
for the first time into the presence of roy
atty, will begin by erring on the side of
transformed into offensive familiarity If
he Is treated by the illustrious parsonage
with a sufficient amount of geniality and
condescension. But in the case of an
American the prince, as a general rule,
does not have to fear this. Nor does he
feel disposed to display any degree of con-
descension, which would mark the differ
ence in rank, and therefore might be re-
scented. On the contrary, he talks to the
American as on his own level, and the
consequence is that the conversation is
to the prince vastly more entertaining and
interesting than that of nine-tenths of his
own countrymen.
When, in addition to this absence of
snobbishness, this self-respect and senti-
ment of independence, the American man
happens to possess refinement and breed
Inequalities with which he manages to
endow himself in an astonishingly short
time if they are not innate-he becomes
most delightful and much-sought-after
friend and associate of the great people
in the Old World. Nobody dreams of in
quiring about his parentage. The fact that
he acts, speaks and behaves like gen
tleman is amply sufficient, and doors are
opened wide to him which are kept rigor-
ously barred to Europeans of infinitely
higher social standing than that to which
he belonged before leaving the United
States. An American gentleman is well
come everywhere, even in the most ex-
elusive society, and no questions are ever
asked concerning his birth, his origin, or
even his own antecedents. All that is
necessary is that he should bear himself
as a gentleman. Providing he does this,
he enjoys an altogether exceptional posi-
ton in Europe, and it is a peculiar fact
that almost every monarch of the Old
World has one or more American intimate
friends with whom he is able occasionally
to talk as one man to another, instead of
having the feeling that he is speaking
from the top of a lofty altitude to the
people down below. Only those who have
lived for any length of time at the courts
of royalty, and who have noted the man
ner in which the "anointed of the Lord
are addressed, the servile absence of all
contradiction to which they are accustom-
ed and the atmosphere of obseuuiousness
with which they are environed, will be
able to understand how warmly these au-
gust personages appreciate being occa-
sionally treated, not as a prince of the
blood, but as a mere gentleman-as a man
of the world.
Americans thus distinguished by the
friendship and regard of old world royal
ty as a rule show that they are worthy
thereof by abstaining from boasting about
It. Thanks to this discretion, il is not
generally known that it was an American
who acted as best man to the Grandduke
Michael of Russia when he married Coun-
tess SOpnle MenrenDefS IN QeHance or the
late czar's orders. There are several
Americans, members of the very smart
Marlborough Club in London, who have
been proposed and put through by the
Prince of Wales, and still others for whom
he himself obtained the privileges of the
club during their stay in London. The
most intimate friend and most trusted
confidant Of the secretive Emperor Napo-
leon III was a Bostonian. Young EN-
peror william, as every one knows, de-
lights in the companlonshp of his former
American fellow-student at the University
OF Bonn who can boast of being the one
man on earth with whom the kaiser is
unaffected, natural and free from pose. In
deed, there is not a crowned head In Eu-
rope or a prince of the blood OF any i'm
portance who does not have one or more
American cronies with whom he can I'M
bend without any danger OF their becoming
unduly familiar or Of their endeavoring 20
take advantage of the royal friendship to
serve selfish personal interests, and, above
ALL who do not offend him by snobblsh-
ness.
The soil OF the United States is distinctly
unfavorable 70 the cultivation OF snobbish-