The San Francisco call., 1897-04-25
Is SNOBBISHNESS AMERICAN?

Is snobbishness an American vice in
digenous to the soil OF the United States
| and peculiar 10 its people? Until now
verybody who has had the advantage Of
reading Thackeray has labored under the
impression that it had both its origin and
its home in Great Britain; but If one is to
believe an article printed in the current
number of Cassell's Magazine on "The
American Girl fn London" this Is not the
case. 1t has been imported into England
from across the Atlantic. just in the same
manner as the potato and the tobacco
pipe.
"Snobbishness," declares the article In
question, first sprang TO life in repuDil-
can country. Where princely pageantry
ana ducal estate are q matter of course
they can never make anything like the
same impression as where they are seen
and their influence felt for the first time"
1t Is the existence Of this snobbishness in
the United States, so the writer goes on
10 intimate. that causes the daughters of
Uncle Sam to crave for some other pre-
nx 10 their names than that of mere
MIS-, even though It be followed by so
well known patronymic as that of Van
derbiit or Astor," and which impels them
to hock to Europe in search of titled hus-
bands-English noblemen being preferred.
Inc article in question has been so ex-
senslvely copied and quoted by the daily
and weekly press of Great Britain that it
should not be permitted TO pass unno-
ticed, and possibly the following remarks
may derive additional weight from the
fact that they are written by an English
man who as boy used to sit ON the knee
OF Thackeray, the unrivaed delineator of
the snob and of the snobbishness of his
country men.
To begin with. there has been far
greater eagerness manifested by the Old
World aristocracy for alliances with
American heiresses than any anxiety on
the part OF the latter TO secure titled hus-
bands. With few isolated exceptions
the matrimonial Stalking" has been
done not by the daughter of Uncle Sam
but by the European nobleman, and The
latter in the case of most of the so-called
international matches has been com pelled
10 come over to this country i'll order to
proifer his suit, instead OF being hunted
down IN his lair on yonder side of the
ocean by the American DIANA as the au-
thor OF the article of CasselI;s Magazine
would have the reader believe. The two
dukes OF Marlborough, the late Duke of
Manchester, the COmte de Casteliane and
many others too numerous to record here
were all obliged to traverse the ocean in
order TO see their American brides, and
far from their being run after" as al
legged, their offers of marriage were only
accepted after some hesitation alliances
OF this kind being subjected to much criti-
clsm not only by the brides relatives and
friends but likewise by the American peo-
PIE at large and by the press.
With regard to the alleged snobbi,hness
OF the American. girl, it is Just because
she is not snob that she is SO much
sought after by tie Impoverished noble
man. The daughters of Uncle Sam are
by no means the ouly heiresses in the
matrimonial market. There is many a
merchant prince in London, Liverpool,
Manchester, Leeds, etc. who can give
his girl quite as handsome a dover as
any American father, and who would be
glad TO pay heavily in order TO secure the
admission OF his child into an illustrious
family. But the trouble is that she does
not mt into the latter. She cannot adapt
herself readily to her surroundings, and
the snobbery which Is innate in the up
per and lower middle classes of England
exudes, so to speak, from her every pore,
jarrng terribly upon the nerves and re-
finement o. her blue. blooded husband, of
his relatives and acquintances. Her head
is turned by her social elevation and her
one aim is to conceal the fact that she is
not to the manner born. Her behavior is
invariably affected, unnatural and ex-
treme. She is either abnormally stiff.
and even arrogant, or else subservient and
familiar. Above all she is lamentably
lacking in that self-respect which imparts
dignity even to the Scotch and Spanish
peasant, and in one word repels by her in.
nate and ineradicable vulgarity.
That is why an English nobIeman who.
by reason of the charges upon his heavily
incumbered ancestral estates, cannot
afford to marry any but very rich
woman, such as is not to be found among
the members of his own caste in Great
Britain, prefers to come to this country
for bride. The American girl, no mat
ter to what class of the social system in
the United States her parents may have
belonged, somehow or other adapts her
self at once and without any effort to
whatever circle she may be introd uced into
by her husband. Thorough bly, i'm bued with
that supreme respect of self which in a
woman Is jewel almost as priceless as
chastity, she does not err on the side
either of undue assertion or of too great
subserviency. Her innate refinement
somehow or other inspires her just what to
do and what to say, and sweeping though
the statement may appear 1 nave never
in all my acquaintance with "the Ameri.
can girl in London" in Paris and in other
great cities of the universe known her to
be guilty OF any selecism of speech or be.
navior that could be described as either
vulgar or snobbish. Take a girl from the
English middle classes, q maiden from
among the French bourgeoiss or young
fraulien from the Burgerschaft of Ger
many and transfer them suddenly to some
more exalted sphere OF society-bring
them, for instance, into social contact
with royalty-in nine cases out of ten they
will render themselves supremely ridicu-
lous and will talk and behave in a manner
calculated TO embarrass not only them
selves, but also those around them.
But with the American girl it is
quite different. She has the faculty of
at once assimilating herself TO her sur
roundings. no m after how new or strange,
to such an extent that no one would dream
that she had not been born and bred
thereto were it not for the fact that she
rarely makes any secret about her parent
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