The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-08
BRITIsHER AND YANKEE.
How They Compare in Life and Bust
ness Methods.
Allen sangree, in Ainslee's Magazine.

Allen Sangree, in Ainslee's Magazine.
In the first place. an enterprising Yankee
In London does not, as cOmman fable re-
ports. dash around distraught. helter-skel-
ter, now leaping from a bus, again gallOp-
ing IN a hanson UP the Strand, running.
one might point him out and say, There is
an American; see him hustle"
Not at all Business Americans in Lon
don are rather a type Of cool reserve, con-
tent TO open the argument, display goods
and then calmly await developments until
they can reach out and get what they are
AFTER. Any day In the hotel Hobbies one
may notice a clean-shaven, substantial
men, who appear TO have no other object
In life than TO smoke slowly long. black
cigars. ,Reposeful in co~untenance. DELHI
crate In movement, noncommittal in
speech, you might judge them idlers or
mere students of human nature: you would
scarcely take them for the cleverest promo
ters that ever came out Of America. That
is what they are.
The American is versatile. He can wait
or rush as occasion demands. For six
months Charles T. Yerkes hardly moved
from his comfortable chair in the Hotel
Cecil, waiting hour by hour, week by week.
TO get control OF London's underground
He went to London from Chi
cago with four or five million dollars for
that particular purpose, and used all the
wiles of a modern financier to accom-
plish 1t.
Slowly, but indefatigably he worked.
proving he alleged, never losing
heart when the task seemed hardest. New
obstacles confronted him each day. He
had TO fight statute, precedent and compe-
tition. Finally, at the moment when vic
tory appeared certain, the English en-
gineers who had gone to Buda-Pesth to
examine a Hungarian electrical system. re-
ported in its favor as opposed to the
American system. London believed Yerkes
at last defeated. But Yerkes, unruffled,
kept up the silent fight, and won. He
homes soon IN control one hundred miles Of
underground railway built and equipped by
Americans.
I'm order to win English patronage an
American is ready TO fOregO comfort and
temper and nationality. He speedily makes
for himself a motto Fight an Englishman
with his own weapons and he learns the
value of a frOck coat. One of his first i'm
pulses therefore is to hunt up a tailor, and
the baneful garment that, at home, was as
ISOLATED only with weddings and funerals
soon becomes his daily habit. Sometimes
also he struggles with the broad a pathe-
tically. But do not conclude from this that
the American loses his individuality. Far
from it, The coat and the accent are only
part Of his working capital. Neither inter
feres with his method of enterprise. The
contrast 'twixt Britain and Yankee is al
ways apparent.
THE Briton rises late: the Yankee be-
times. The Englishman dresses leisurely,
breakfasts plentifully, reads his paper care
fully and reaches the office by 10 o'clock:
the American jumps into his clothes, dis
RO9t1 OL a GAA6hN AANdAF bhIo a paper VII llC
way TO the station, reads it on the train,
walks briskly to his office and plunges into
correspondence. Typewriters start click
ing. letters are dictated, cables answered,
and when the hour arrives for the English
man TO begin work the American has
cleared his desk and is ready to go out and
interview customers.
While the one. SNUG and stolid, is sip
ping Scotch whisky I'm a rare old public
house that reeks of tradition. the other.
sEarp-faced and dapper, is lodging about
subscribing shares; when the Englishman
is engaged in the relish of a MONDAY chop
the American is walking in Hyde Park
talking automobiles TO a prospective buyer.
AT 4 D. m, when the Englishman is or
his way to golf links. tennis or the river,
the American, d~ust-covered and sOiled. Is
still busy building electric trains i'm Ken
singtOn, placing elevators in Buckingham
palace and erecting hotels on Piccadilly.
when the Englishman. flushed with
healthy exercise, returns to make a careful
change of dress for dinner. the American
is giving hurry orders at his hotel for a
party with whom he hopes to do business
and when the Englishman is looking on al
the play his AnglO-Saxon cousin is revolv.
ing the days work and tanning for the
morrow. The Englishman works to live
the American lives 10 work.