The record-union., 1898-09-01


American, about as efficient character
as the world presents to our view.
He can fight or he can bargain, ne
can build or he can diplomatize and,
when doing any of these things, he gen.
orally contrives to come out at top,
with perhaps a glance around to see
that the high place out Of which he
emerges with unmoved countenarce has
been noticed by the world around. We
should add, for it is characteristic,
though perhaps it is Of little import
| ance, that the manner of a we'll bred
American is usually, and allowing for
| individual idiosyncrasies, almost ex-
| actIy that of well bred Anglo-Irish-
! man-courteous and kindly, with
touch of intended grace and with
certain patience as of one accustomed
to other mems folly-which is not Eng
| lish at all. The Englishman's patience
| offends-that is the testimony of all
mankind, to the Englishman's great
perplexity-but the Americans patience
and that of the Anglo Irishman leave
sensation, not always fully justified, OF
friendliness. There are 100 Lord Duff
| FERNS in America.
The American has, however, as we
tiate him from all mankind We should
not call him happy man, exactly, but
| he is an incurably cheerful one. The
weight of the dozen mospheres which
press down the Englishman is off the
Americans spirit. He does not expect
| to find anywhere persons superior to
himself; he thinks he can make instead
of obeying, etiquettes; he sees no rea-
mi ind hn ic oy,1i dot
for his municipality or for Congress,
for processing to be anything but what
he is. He is quite contented as to his
past, and quite satisfied that the future
will go his way. He lives mainly in the
present but as the past was good and
future will be better, the present will
do very we'll for the time being. If no
one has affronted him he has no quar-
rel with any one, but is disposed to look
| on all men with an appreciative smile,
as being all equally creatures of Allah,
poor creatures some of them, no doubt
but still creatures. He takes life as it
comes, in fact, with little concern whe-
| ther anybody takes it differently, and
| with a complete admission, not only
| from the lips but from the heart, that
| it takes a good many sorts of men to
| make up a world. The conviction of
| equality with all men has taken the
| social fidget out of him, and given him
an inner sense of ease and tranuuillitv
never quite absent even when his ex-
ternal manner seems awkward or con-
! strained
1t follows that he is always ready to
| try anything, and that the English
Idea of living in a groove seems to him
confined and small a wacta of tho 70
ulties that God has given. And it fol-
! lows, also, that being inwardiy content
with himself, and having a whole con-
tinent to work in, he is seldom as
thorough as an Englishman. is salts
lied with knowing many things less
completely than an Englishman knows
one, and has for intellectual tempta-
| tions always provided that the task
| before him is not machine making a
certain shallOWneSS. The kind of man
| VINO is least like an American is the
kind of man about the British Museum
who knows upon some one subject all
there is to know, and can tell you al
most to a foot where all that remains
TO be known Will ultimately be found.
We doubt IL the American is fuller OF
resource than the Englishnan, who
generally has his plan at last; but he
! is much quicker in bringing his wits
to bear, and much less disposed to let
any habitude of mind stand a moment
in his way. In fact though the Amer
lean, like every other of the sons of
Eve, is clothed in habits he wears them
with singular Eghtness, and if his
sense Of propriety would admit, would
on the smallest provocation cast them
away. There are only two exceptions
to that with an American, his religion
and the Constitution of the United
States The two are not habits at
all in the Carlylean sense, but outer |
and inner skins.
There remains the strongest and |
strangest popularity of all, which al |
ready diferentiates the American COM |
pletely from the Englishman, and a !
hundred years hence will make him an |
entirely separate being. The Ameri- !
can is a nervous man in the sense in |
which doctors who study constitution
use the word He is not neurotic no
man less so, and probably as brave as
any man alive, but his nerves respond
more quickly to his brain than those !
of any other human being He feels
strongly and he feels everything. We
are inclined to suspect that the condi-
lloIl VI 50 many aileTlcdIlS resembles
the condition OF overtrained men and
horses, and that activity Of brain con-
tinued for generations is injurious in
a dry climate to bodily health. Be
the cause what it may, the American
is liable to be excited and his ex-
element, which shows itself in bursts
of tremendous energy, sometimes in
fits of gayety and sometimes in almost
incurabe melancholia, constantly wears
him out. 1t is the greatest distinction
between him and the more Stolid En-
glishman, or rather, between him and
tinued forg enerations is injurious in