The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-15

The letters and essays which make I'D
this volume, by William Archer, appeared
originally in the Pail Mall Gazette and
Pail Mall Magazine. 1t follows that they
are well written and they represent the
views and impressions of an intelligent
Englishman concerning some features and
phases of American life. One must say
some phases, for Mr. Archer visited but
four cities-New York, Boston, Washing
ton and Chicago-and only skirted the
edges and scratched the surface of Ameri-
can life. Yet of what he saw he writes.
for the most part, intelligently and in a
friendly spirit. He does not pretend to
judge the whole country or people by what
he saw, but he describes and comments
well on what he did see. While he found
some things to criticise in our city life
and methods he also found a good deal
to admire and commend, and is frank
enough TO admit that we do a good many
things better than they do in England.
which, of course, is great concession
for an Englishman. New York he thinks
has been a much maligned city by Eng
lish tourists, it being much more attrac-
tive and with less to censure or criti-
else than they have generally represented
He likens Boston to Edinburgh, and found
Washington had more Of an air of new
ness and crudeness than either of the
other cities. He writes of the splendor
and squalor Of Chicago, and was impressed
by its enterprise and its lake front. His
observations on hospitality and club life
are interesting, while those on our uni
versity system and our domestic life are
necessarily rather superficial. Among his
criticisms Of minor institutions is that of
our barber shops. Americans who have WIS.,
fa6 hav
get decent shave there. This Englishman
thinks the same of American barber shops.
He says: Take, again. the harmless,
necessary operation of shaving. In a good
English BARRIERS shop it is a brief and
not unpleasant process; in an American
'tonsorial parlor' 1t is a lingering and cost
ly torture. One of the many reasons which
lead one TO regard the American as a
leisurely people rather than a nation of
'hustlers' is the patience with which they
submit to the long-drawn tyranny of the
barber. In England one grudges five min
uteS for shave and one pays from 4
pence to pence: in America one can hard
ly escape in twenty-five minutes, and one
pays, with the executioner's tip, from a
shilling to Is pence. The charge would
be by no means excessive If one wanted
or enjoyed all the endless processes to
which one is subjected, but for my part
i would willingly pay double to escape
them. The essential part of the business,
the actual shaving, is, as a rule. badly
performed, with heavy hand, and good
deal of needless paving about of the pa
tents head. But when the shave is over
the horrors are only beginning. First, your
whole face is cooked for several minutes
in relays of towels stepped in boiling
water. Then long series of essences is
rubbed into IL. generally with the tortur-
er's naked hand. The sequence of these
essences varies in different 'parlors.' but
one especially loathsome hell-brew, known
as 'witchhazel,' Is everywhere inevitable.
Then your wounds have to be deliberately
doctored with singing chemicals; your
hair, which has been hopelessly touzled in
the paving process. has to be drenched In
some sickly-smelling oil and brushed: your
mustache has to be fabricated and combed,
and at last you escape from the torment
or's clutches irritated, enervated, hopeless
ly late for an important appointment. and
so reeking with unholy odors thai you feel
as though all great Neptune's ocean would
scarcely wash you clean again." Making