The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-03
AMERICANS IN LONDON.
THEY ARE WELCOME GUESTS md
LIKE
1t So Much That Their Numbers In
crease.

crease.
"Why is it," said an American lady
in London the other day, that most Of
you English people will persist in TAX
ing the noisy young woman of eighteen
or twenty, who stays alone at an hotel,
and is her own protector and chaperon,
as the typical American girl?" Proba-
bly, the easiest reply would have been
to say that the real Americans are so
quiet and ladylike that they attract no
attention. and that the pushful hotel
young lady was taken as the real rep
resentative of her countrywomen. 1t
would not have been, however, a fitting
answer. There is no such thing as
commonplace American women. Their
cleverness, wit and bright womanly
qualities make them conspicuous.
They aim at being real, helpful COM
panions to their husbands and brothers.
Perhaps that is why they have the best
time of any women ON earth. They
have earned the position they enjoy in
the estimation of their men folk, which
made Max O'Reil declare that if he
had any future reincarnation to under
go he would beg the Great Ruler of the
Universe to make him an American wo-
man.
However, passing from that, there is
really no excuse why the old tradition
should linger so obstinately in this
country. There are now hundreds of
American women permanently resident
in our metropolis, and they are supple
mented by thousands of their sisters,
whose brilliant intellectually every
summer adds something to the charm
and brightness of existence on this side
of the western ocean. The prominent
selfprotective American girl exists, but
she is not type. AS a real American
lady said, Most of us are neither
freaks nor frumps, we're just normal"
But that normalty is, compared with
most of our own womenkind, abnormal,
and it is our insular tendency to accept
as the type of our neighbors that which
differs most widely from ourselves. At
ter all, there is little difference between
our national characteristics. What the
d ifferenceis was very wittily expressed
by the lady quoted above. She declared
that both peoples were almost alike.
Americans she said, "are self-con-
scious'-at which some of her hearers
seemed inclined to smile, but she went
on-'and self-confident; the English |
are self conscious and shy. There's the |
whole thing in a nutshell
Whatever may be the points of con- |
trast between us, there is no doubt that |
Americans in ever-increasing numbers |
are settling in England. 1t is remark |
able how many have made permanent |
homes in London. They like to live |
here. When an American has made
fortune he finds it almost impossible to
live quietly in his own country. There
is something in the very atmosphere Of |
the United States that makes people T
wish to burn the candle at both ends
over here they may subdue the mean
descence to the veriest glimmer. But
chief among the attractions that this /
country has for Americans is that they
can escape the newspapers. Here
wealthy persons can spend their money
as freely as they wish, and they still
remain private persons. In New York
or Chicago or any other of the great
cities of the United States an expendi-
ture a little beyond the ordinary at
tracts notice, and the paper the terri
BILE, all-pervading American newspaper,
gets hold of it, and then farewell to all
privacy. These are some of the reasons
why the American colony in the British
metropolis grows every year. But
there is a more subtle reason. Amer-
cans love to come here The writer has
talked to very many Americans, and
almost all of them admit that in COM
To INC thpu orc pnO1ipp IN q | :
place for which they have a great re-
spect and love; where they expect to
find everything finished and orderly
and quiet.
"Why, yes said one of them, 'the
feeling it gives you is just like that on {
going on visit to your grandmothers {
home. Everything is dignfied and pro-
per, and nice, and you feel a great
pride in it, t
At all events, so many of our trans t
atlantic cousins have come on a per- /
manent visit to their grandmothers I
that the ladies among them have felt c
the necessity for establishing q club of {
their own. The Society of American I
Women in London is a social club has i
for its primary aim the establishment I
of a center for American women in this {
by means of which they may I
do more than they could do Individual |
ly to widen and strengthen feelings of q
between England and the +
United States to promote amity be- t
tween the two countries, and freer So t
cal intercourse between the society of a
both countries The new club, Of which
Hrs Hugh Ried Griffin is the first pres d
ldent, is modelled after the famous So O
rosis club of New York and it is hoped d
that in time it may develop, like that v
great institution, into a feminine CEN a
er of art, literature music and high So Q
,ial distinction. Meanwhile, however +
t will help to bring English and Amer t.
can people together In recent years f
more frequent travel, intermarriages S
Ind letters of Introduction have done II
great deal to make American society T.
better known In London but even now A
rery many prominent Americans come Z
lere, stay at one of the great hotels for W
term, and go away again without "
eally seeing or knowing anything but o
he very fringe of English society. c.
The Society of American Women in q
ends to do something to remedy that, II
ind the social tact and energy of
a.