The times., 1899-08-27
AN ACCEPTED CRITICISM.
New York Police Captain on Ger
tain British shortcomings.


nome again. Since his return he has given
his views of London TO a New York re-
porter. They amount TO an Indictment
and are we'll worth taking into considera-
tion. The first count in Captain Prices
charge Is that he found scarcity of ice.
You cannot get decent drink in London.
Everything is served too warm" Only
last week our Mr.. Dagonet was holding
forth on this theme, and was pointing TO
the grim complaceney with which. in hot
weather, our public caterers stick the
legend Ice" in their windows as II the
thing were necessarily rarity and won
der, and its supply a matter TO crow about.
In restaurants and in railway Tefreshment-
| rooms if you want the very simple luxury
you must make special demand for it,
and then take your chance of having your
request listened to. Probably we should
never have learned to complain about this
matter at all If it had not been for the
criticisms of our American visitors. and
each one of them who makes his grievance
public is benefactor. 1t is not a month
since there was cry about an ice famine.
and it was reported that one big firm of
restaurateurs had sent out a small fast
steamer to expedite the transit Of Part Of
a cargo which was en- route from Norway
We are in certain small respects-and this
is one Of them-a curiously stupid people
Spells of hot weather are frequent with US,
but each one finds US unprepued, as IL IL
were a novelty in nature and had taken
us absolutely by surprise.
The gallant captain should have our
thanks for his attack upon this one failing.
But when he comes to the charge that
there are nothing but bad cigars in Lon
don the cosmopolitan traveller who has
studied the tobaccos of many lands is
ready to break lance with him. Tobacco
is a habit. and the man who is born with
out palate, as most men are, likes that
best to which he is accustomed. But the
man who knows, knows thiS-there is only
one city in the world where tobacco in its
absolute perfection may be secured unfai :
ingly, and that city is London. You can
not get here the stinging green rubbish
you can buy in the United States, and our
condition in that respect is the more gra-
eious. The Aulk OF the tobacco OF COM
merce comes from America. but the pick
of it is from Havana. Manila, Cuga, Egypt
and Persia The American taste is
vitiated. and to offer the average American
cigar which is worth a connoisseur's )
smoking is like offering a really fine old
dry ana still champagne to FTenchman
which, as everybody knows. is equivalent
! to casting pearls before swine. On the
great ice question the Englishman viii
hail Capt. James X. Price as a benevolent
| helpful There We take him to the collec-
tive bosom; but when he assails us on tn :
question Of tobacco, he darkens counsel
with the words of ignorance
The tobacco feud between London and
New York is an old thing Mr. W. d.
Howells tells a story in The Rise of Silas
Lapham," il | remember rightly of an
Engiishman who boasted of the age IN his
cigars. IF he'd come off tobacco coun-
trr- =
ter n that" He might think differently
without knowing better The tobacco ques-
ticn can only be solved By an appeal to
educated custom the world over, and the
balance OF educated custom is against
Capt James K Price. hollow and far
away. l knew a man otherwise estimable
who preferred the ten-centime Tinchant
above all other cigars. He was the best
scholar | have ever known-a iinguist
classic. a student of all PHILOSOPHERS, and
the most enchanting talker in the world.
There was but one point on which | could
not respect his opinion. But his love for
the Belgian penny smoke" was like the
dead fly in Solomon's pot of ointment In
view of a thousand good qualities one par
doned single falling but it~was pathetic
that man otherwise so gifted and adorned
by nature should err so grossly in this
particular. If a school of taste were ever
to be established, the tobacco question
would have to be taken into grave con-
sideration. So much depends upon early
education. Evil communications corrupt
good manners, and the youth whose com
panions smoke Buttevant Twist is, but for
the possible saving influences OF travel and
experience, lost for life.
But if Capt. James X. Price is in the
bonds of darkness with respect to the quail
ity OF cigars purchasable in London, he
scores again on the shoeblack question.
The shoeblack of New York towers above
his humble English brother so far that ex-
cept for the fact that they both profess
to follow the same industry, you can
scarcely recognize them as being related
The American shoeblack is not merely an
artist in his craft he has an ateiier The
mere purchase of his s-ock-in- trade woGl1
beggar all the London shoeb,aeks from
CornhiIl 10 Charing Cross. The luxurious
arm chair to which he waves his client,
the brass bound footrests, the shelter
from the summer sun or winter wind, the
elaborate array of bottles and brushes and
sponges and flannel bands would have made
the boys of the brigade TO stare and gasp.
And even as the shoeb,ack CT New YORK is
higher than the shoeblack of London. so
is the barber of the one city higher than
the barber OF the other city. Here again
is Capt. James X. Price justified. In all
my travels l have found the perfect barber
twice | have found him in Turkey where
it is the custom of luxurious people 10 be
shaved daily at the bath from head to
foot, and l have found him in the United
States where if the operation is more
limited in scope it is no less delicately
performed. conversational fragment
fingers in my mind. A Boston barber and
a friend were trying TO identify a man
whose personality had lounged into their
talk, and the friend said, Clean shaved
man. amt he?" "Clean-s -shayed?' said tn
barber contemptuousiy. NO; shayes
himself" The American man OF the razo,
is a master of his craft To pass under his
hands is luxury. There was a barber
years ago in Sofia whom l reskoned fof
years to be the actual king of his trade.
the complete and absolute Shibli BagaIas
among BARRIERS. He shaved me every
morning as l lay in bed. and not infre-
quently did it without waking me. | pre-
tended 10 be asleep on one occasion when
he stole into my bedroom, and watched his
method. First, he very tenderly toIche1
my cheek TO assure himself Of its tempera-
ture Then, with his copper toEls o. hos
and cold wafer and his slab OF Castle soap
he tempered his fingers to the actual de
gree, and softly spread an inch CT two o.
saponaceous moisture ON the cheek. H.
shaved the moistened part with such, oh.
such a razor, noiseless and scarcely per-
ceptible to touch. So on. da eapo Until,
when he went out on slippered tip-tos. il
was a pleasure to set the finger-tps il ool-
tact with cheek and chin. l tho4gat him
matehIess until knew the American bar
her, but l am persuaded that in tn OniCsd
States l could find thousand rivals for
him. The Englishman who knows what it
is 10 have his hide flayed under the aver
age easy shave finds daily trial convertei