The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-02-19
TYPICAL.
These Two English
Periodicals.
CRITICISM WE VALUE
American Policy of Spec
tator and Saturday Review.

Americans, as people, are becoming
every day less sensitive to the opinion
OF foreigners concerning them 1t is
astonishing to look back over our lit
erature for a period of seventy-five
years and re-read the evidence of a,
feeling that resembles agony and that
was called forth during the first half
of the present century by the criticisms
made upon US by sundry foreign Wis
itors, says the New York Evening
Post. From the time of Mr.. Fearon
and Mr.. Hawkes. and Capt Basil Hall,
down through the period when Mrs.
Trollope wrote, and later when Dickens
published his American Notes, until
the end of the civil war, no foreign Wis
itor could indite a single line about
this country that savored at all of dis
approval without calling forth from
the entire American people a chorus of
frantic yells Indicative of national and
even personal anguish under criticism.
Neither Mr.. Fearon nor Mr. Hawkes.
nor Capt. Basil Hall, nor even Mrs.
Irollope, a woman, would have been
safe from insult, and, in some parts of
the country, from bodily injury had
any of them ventured to return here
Immediately after the publication of
their books about America. Dickens
himself, after more than twenty-five
years had elapsed, had very serious
doubts whether it would be safe for
him to visit the United States in 1866,
and he hesitated some time before de-
Gliding to come and give his readings;
for he had received so many threaten
ing letters in earlier years as to make
him feel that if he came he would be
taking his very life in his hands. Of
course, in 1865 the conditions had
greatly changed. We had outgrown
the day of small things, and our ma
tional humor had thoroughly conquered
the pettier manifestations of our ma
tional esteem. Yet, none the
less, down to the close of the civil
war, there is no doubt that, as a peo-
pie, we always expected, in the Ian
guage of one of the characters in Mar
tin Chuzzlewtt, to be .cracked up"
OF late years the reverse is thorough
ly the case. If at the present time a
distinguished foreigner in writing any
thing about us cracks us up" we are
not sufficiently interested to buy his
book. If he is mildly disappearing, this
also is inadequate to attract attention.
Even if he fairly bludgeons us as did
Sir Lepel Griffin several years ago, We
are very little stirred. The only form
of abuse or criticism that will attract
our serious attention is that which calls
into its service the WEAPONS of wit and
railery and mordant truth such as
were exhibited by the ananymous au
thor of the book entitled America and
the Americans which = appeared two
years ago. prolfessedly from the pen of
a clever Frenchman. But when we read
these things and talk of them, we do it
now entirely because of our enjoyment
of their literary form; and we should
read them Just as readily if they dealt
with any other people than ourselves.
The fact is, that by this time we have
become sufficiently mature to criticize
ourselves and to know our own good
points and our own weak points far bet
ter than any one else can know them;
and we have also acquired a certain
pOise which comes to nations, as it
comes to men, with time and with eX-
Derience.
Naturally enough, we value English
criticism more than any other This is
a feeling in the first place that we in
herit, this habit of looking to England
as to an older member of the family
whose experience may be very valuable
to us and whose point of view is much
the same as ours. In the days of our
extreme sentitiveness any Englishman
whatever could stir us up. for then we
had not yet cut loose from the tradi-
lions and from the state of Intellectual
tutelase tnat Iilaue us IN an uhlhSs
coVet EhSIlsh appreciation. Loday' OF
course we nave uradltlonS OF our own
when nave peeIl siadualiy eNolVeu' ana
IN Une thousand ana one salah matters
OF IRE ana social usage ana economies
ana even III literature we are llVlng Tor
ourselves ana according to standards
tpat are now American ana no longer
BRUSH. Yet, none the less, IN larger
sense we cannot but De Interested in
studying the drltt or English sentiment
regarding us; ana the events OF the past
few years nave given new Importance
TO uhlS SUBJECT
In England there have really always
been two definite currents OF opinion
with regard TO the United states and
TO its people There has been the rath-
er limited but very influential one
which flows through the minds Of the
aristocratic classes Of Great Britain
the landed gentry, the tory. magnates,
the general run of university men.
There has been the much more widely
dlGused but OFTEN less artlculate feel
Ing which prevails throughout the rest
Of the English people, The first-named
current Of opinion has been, on the
whole, unfavorable and colored with a
good deal of dislike. The last-named
feeling has been always really friendly.
No Englishman, to be sure ever thor
oughly understands the American
character. TIe is always laundering in
what he thinks about Americans: he is
always unintentionally tactless in the
way in which he treats them; but at
one time he is laundering because he
does not care to know, and at another