The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-06-28
TIE MODERN ENGLISH NAN

The London Spectator inquiries with
some signs of anxiety II the English
character is changing. 1t has witness
ed. since the Boer war began, recurring
outbursts of excitement among Lon
don crowds, a gallo sway of emotion
and an explosive anger when things
went wrong, all incompatible with old
Froissards idea that the English are
always sad and inert. 1t means, says
the Spectator, that the English are be-
coming more like the Americans, which
is to say more humanity natural and less
conventional and self-conscious.
The old rigidity of English character
harks back to several causes. Village
life gave it some of the attributes
which Froissard observed, just as viii
lage life does in all countries not DOM
mated by the Latin race. Public speak
ers who have gone among the village
populations of England and America
are unpleasantly familiar with the
solemnity with which their jokes are re-
ceived and the perfunctory fashion in
which their eloquence is welcomed. An
actual, spontaneous cheer we never
heard given by rural audience to
James G. Blaine, Roscoe Conkling or
Ulysses Grant. though the crowds were
filed with their admirers. There was
hand-clapping enough when the audi
ences were warmed up and some cheer
ing when local clacquer closed the ex-
ercises by getting on a barrel and
shouting Three cheers for So and So
Hip, Hipi" But one never finds a
tumultuous enthusiasm among rural
audiences which is the common thing in
the cities where people are not enough
afraid of their neighbors to keep still
in a crowd, where the theaters have
cultivated the habit of applause and
where throngs are big enough to make
enthusiasm contagious. When England
was nearly all village and London was
no larger than Los Angeles, the Eng
lish character was affected with a sto-
lidity that seemed to be a lasting de-
feet.
The Puritan movement also had its
influence-an influence which survives
in all parts of Great Britain and in
many portions of America. The Puri-
tan regarded sourness as a sign of god
illness; the lightsome heart as the index
to the unregenerate mood. During his
long reign the atmosphere was black
with sermons when it did not CLEAN
with the flames of the Pit The Puritan
walked in silence and heard with SOL
emnity. He disdained to smile; he dar-
ed not shout; kind of religious stoi-
Icism clasped him like a shroud. When
all this was added TO rural shyness and
Iself-consciousness we had an English
man who dreaded and Stunned the nat
ural expression OF human feeling
The British aristocrat cultivated re-
serve as a safeguard from intrusion and
as badge of superiority. AS the aris-
tocrat is always aped. the general run
of British society which had been un-
affected by country life and Puritanism
took up the fad and after awhile there
was no end of people in England whose
iistlessness and phlegm were their most
conspicuous traits. Only the cockney
and the Tommy" remained spontane-
Gus, but other people looked down upon
these underbred folks from the heights
of their glacial exclusiveness or at least
would have done so had they not feared
that the act of looking down might be
construed IS sign of worldly interest.
But this composite Englishman with
the unresponsive mien is passing away.
Fer long time past the Britisher has
been city bred he is less friendly to the
Puritan; his belief in his personal su-
periority has been shocked and iolted
sudden peril to the empire thawed his
heart. Hence the shouting, the tumult.
the banners and bonfires and cheers
when Mafeking was relieved and Pre-
torla taken. No wonder the Spectator
asks what 1T all means, though the an
swer is easy enough. 1t means that the
EnEiishman is human being who is
getting off his veneer and unlocking
his self-imposed letters and becoming
the simple, natural and manly fellow
that his Maker intended him to be.