The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-27
sPAT upoN AMERICANS.
A Pretty Girl From the states Mis-
taken for an English Woman and
IusuIted.

taken for an English Woman and
InsuIted.
New York, May 2S.-"French polteness
is a tradition warmed over from the last
century, or it is an accomplishment left
out of the education of the lower classes,
remarked an American girl just back
from the other side. IF it were not for the
exposition and the necessity of making
it pay out of the pockets of foreigners,
| don't doubt that Paris would soon be-
come too warm to hold many English
speaking individuals who have a natural
objection to being held up on the street
and catechised as to their nationality and
sympathies in the South African affair.
That is common, everyday occur
renee in the city famous for good man
ners when ninety-nine out of every hum
bred citizens detest England. Of course,
there is a goodly number out of any nine
ty-nine who are too busy and too polite
to stop and conspuer' every limb of the
Anglo-SaXon race they meet, but down
among the little shopkeepers and in the
humber quarters of Paris there is a de-
gree of i'll feeling toward the English dis
played too frankly and too frequently TO
be overlooked.
Naturally enough, the American girl is
insults offered by psuedo Boer sympa-
thizers who read the Partisan yellow jour
mails, who regard all English speaking per-
sons as British subjects or who don t
mind sassing an American anyway, be-
cause of such bygones as the Spanish war
and the feeling in the United States for
Dreyfus.
Then the American girl takes the risk
of these contretemps by her fondness for
running about in couples or sole alone,
proving into out of the way shops and
restaurants and indulging her appetite for
the picturesque by haunting the quaint
and narrow streets of ancient Paris.
There is where she is daily and some
times hourly challenged by lazy, hot-head-
ed loafers, whose favorite diversion is to
spring suddenly In her way and insolently
demand:
"Vous etes Anglaise?" or dramatically
hiss, "A 'bas les Anglaise.
LAS a rule he repeats these phrase
for few steps and then slouches off or
goes back to his glass of absinthe, but
sometimes he is not discouraged by frigid
contempt, and it is hardly a comfort al Bile
sensation 10 be logged a quarter of a
mile through some street where cabs
rarely penetrate, and Anglo-Saxon chival-
ry is unknown, by an unshaven, fiery
eyed creature, who shakes his fist at you
while he INDUCES in language of which
you happily don't know the translation.
"It is useless to stop and explain that
you are not English, and euphumisucal-
ly suggest that he mind his own business,
because that is so much oil on the flame,
and crowd gathers, and If the women
of his class arrive they will resort to that
feaHome weapon of the Partisan virago
splitting.
"a charming girl from home, stopping
in our pension, was caught in one of these
ture of a distinctly English type of good
looks and walking in one of the parks
with a girl fliend she passed a working
woman hanging on the arm of a mascu-
line escort. They eyed her severely as
she passed and loudly made some sweep
ingly uncomplimentary remark about all
things English. Then, a moment later,
the woman came hurrying back along
the path, spat fairly and squarely in the
pretty Americans face and whisked away
through the shrubbery.
For my own part, what annoyed me
most was the rarely falling query in the
big shops: rs madame English or Ameri-
cam? and What does madame think
about the cruel war; Such questions
were certainly irrelevant to the business
and conversation about spring hats and
pink paras5ls, but / could not help motto
ing an increase Of good will in the sales
mans or woman's manner so soon as /
announced my nationality. 1t is Off the
beaten track of foreign shoppers that
these questions must be answered dis
creetly.
When an old woman on a little street
off the Avenue de Suffrln asked which
way my sympathies were given and /
recklessly said thought the British were
right, l was bundled out of her dusty den
In short order and told there was nothing
there for me to buy.
"Of course, France could not and would
not go to war with England, but for all
that any visitor to Paris can see sufficient
ly violent feeling displayed by the lower
classes to require all the common sense
of the upper to keep Il under control Just
for curiosity, l would occasionally buy a
copy of La Patrie, the little yellow even
ing sheet, sold broadcast among the poor-
er and working folk. / bought ii chiefly
to read Francois Coppee's editorials. Mind
you, he Is representative of all that is best
in modern French literature and cult
walton, and his powerful argument runs
that all who fail to sympathize with the
Beers are friends of England; all friendly
to England necessarily believe In Dreyfus
and all supporters of Dreyfus are arch en-
emies of France.
from so high a source, that work like
madness in the brains OF Parisians who
are so excitab.e and so pitifully ignorant
that one woman assured me the United
States lay right next the Transvaai. This
is what renders II unpleasant for Amerl-
cans and English In Paris, while as for
native Parisians IL is distinctly dangerous
TO profess but one way OF feeling"