The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-01-16
HALL GAME ON AMERICA.
He Tells Some of His Personal I'm
nreSSionS
Oondon Daily Telegraph

pressions.
Oondon Daily Telegraph.)
The general prosperity of America,
both in the eastern and western states,
must impress any traveller, but particu-
larly one who has lately seen the pow
erty of eastern Europe. 1 spent last
winter in Rome and saw the beginning
of the bread riots. The abject poverty
of the people was almost the most pitt
able spectacle 1 ever beheld.
Fresh from such scenes, the traveller in
America feels that he is in land of
great prosperity. No beggars in the
streets, no idlerS at the street corners,
and few tramps. Such, at least, is the
first impression. 1t is hard to imagine
anything more impressive than one Of
the great centers of American indus
try. To see Pittsburg at night, with
its hundreds of furnaces aglow, is to
look upon a spectacle more moving, be-
cause more human, than a volcanic is
land in eruption.
One thing which strikes the
most ignorant traveller in America is
the intelligent attitude of the Ameri
can workman toward automatic ma
chinery. So far from being afraid of
it, he welcomes it. The English work.
man. on the other hand, appears to dis
courage and suppress it. 1t would
seem 10 me that the American work
man is fighting with, while the English
workman is fighting against, a very
clear law of nature, and that Eloner or
later the trade of the world will be to
him who uses every help that nature
gives him.
1t does not, however require any
knowledge in economic problems to see
that in one important particular Amer
lea is master of the world already.
That amazing country absOrbs all the
races of the earth, and every race that
it absorbs it feeds and strengthens.
In short, it may be stated as
a sure, though astounding fact that no
civilized race whatever has yet been
known to decline or diminish on Amer
lean soil.
AS for the wickedness of the big
American cities. Chicago and New
York. it can only seem greater than
anything else in the world to those who
do not know the wickedness of their
own cities at home. Our appalling
stories of the ways of foreign cities
the most humdrum lives in London
The secret is very simple One-they
are explorers only when they are
abroad. OF London they know moth
ing, except the way by the underground
railway to a suburban villa. In Soho,
in Shoreditch, in Westminster, they
might find scenes of vice at least as
awful as anything that could be found
in the BoWery. l haze seen the dives"
of New York, and have witnessed the
rag dance" but I have also seen the
bogus clubs of Soho, and looked upon
the drunkenness of English shop girls
of Is. Residents of the BoWery appear
TO think their own attractions pale by
comparison with ours. The Bowery
l.
slums of Chinatown, had one leading
ambition-to come to London and see
de limit
If 1 were asked what is the worst
evil which comes to the American
thirst for prosperity, 1 should say the
pride of wealth. Up to a certain point
this is legitimate pride, including, as it
does, a pride in industry, in energy, in
knowledge in discernment and all the
other qualities of mind and character
which go to make men rich. But it
expresses itself in America too often,
if one may say So in mere love of pos
session. Instance the opera and the
display of diamonds. Once a year they
hold q horse show in New York, at
which nobody looks at the horses and
everybody looks at the audience. The
audience consists chiefly of beautiful
women, splendidly dressed. Naturally,
the visitor does not object. Every Eng
/ lishman is fond of horses, but when it
comes to a choice like that
| Nevertheless, the corroding effect of
! great wealth shows itself on American
! society in more ways than one. The
marriages of Englishmen to American
women may perhaps bring about the
Anglo-American alliance which Mr..
! Chamberlain so much desires, but
where the reasons for such unions are
merely wealth on the one side and
vanity on the ether without any other
| apparent motive. the loss win be to
| America in the lowering of the moral
! tone of that part of her people which
come within the atmosphere of such
| transactions.
1t is naturally. however, only a small,
and not very active or influential. sec
i ton of the American people that is
suffering under the worst effect of great
wealth The steadfast body of the
nation looks on at this saDping of the
vital moral principle untroubled and
undisturbed. The moral sense is, per
/ haps. keener in America than any
where else in the world, for the early
Puritan basis Of New England is under
everything. Neither in literature nor in
| life viii il tolerate the entertainments
which are constatly made upon it in
| other countries. and nowhere are the
| sins of the senses punished with such
prompt energy and relentless vigor
The most popular books in America are
not realistic romances, but biblical
stories; the most popular plays are moi
/ sensual eXtravaganzas but simple OF
wholesome pastoral dramas. like The
Old Homestead and shore Acres
| Andfif any proof were required that the
/ spirit OF Hawthorne's stern old Salem
forefathers still survives in the east
ern states, it could be found in an in
cident of last week in New York.
The quest of material prosperity BY
no means absorbs the energies of the
American people. 1t would be impossi-
BILE TO find among the nations of the
world more readers to the thousand 0!