The Irish standard., 1902-12-20
What Is an AnglQ.SaxQn?

English literature l;ls for IL long
time been the chief study of NJ. JUS
serand, the new French ambassador
to the United States. When he WAS
chancellor of the French embassy at
London he found time not only to
perfect himself in the English lam
guage, which he has thoroughly ac-
quired, but also to observe the society
the manners and genius of England.
both in life and in letters, says The
Figaro, of Paris.
For IL considerable time we have
had our ears tortured by common
saying which is travelling all over the
world. On the one hand anglo
Saxon" means the energy of Il strong
people, the bOldneSS of IL young race.
the endurance of robust societies.
etc." and on the other the term
"I.atins." if we are to believe certain
persons. means the neura stlelnia of
"lecadent'' races. the inertia of WORM
out mtionalities. the general paralysis
of the old nations and so on.
The inventors of this double-barrel-
ed balderdash have taken care char
itably to place the French people in
the second category, so that. accord
ing to the everlasting laws of evolu-
ton and the struggle for life, our task
is ended. our work is done.
Very well; thrice happy will we be
|if the condescension of the so-called
Anglo-S Saxon races moves them to re-
tire us with pension. But the height
Of this absurdity is reached by GER
tain number of French writer's who
jump at this strange fetish with low
cred heads and closed eyes. We, our
selves, are helping along this nom
sense.
The stuff has been innocently pick
ed up and magnified. Even custom or
fa shion has adopted the logomachy.
'Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-SaXons-Latins.
Latins." 1t is the tarte a Ia creme of
our doctors and doctresses of social
and economical sciences.
One cannot look at a newspaper or
a review without noticing this phc-
nomenon in ''psittacism;'' this mechan-
ical repetition of two words mex
plicable and consequently void of all
sense or meaning
How often do we read about the
"two civilizations" the "Anglo-SaXon
civilization" and the Latin civiliZa-
tion," as if the unity of European civ
ilization, of which America is a mag
nificent prolongation, was not a posi-
tive fact for all whose vision is not
blurred by vain phraseology!
If these "verbocinations'-to bor-
row from Rabelais-only grew in the
shade of colleges, the harm would not
be so great. But no; the two ridicul-
GUS words are travelling around the
world. They help our opponents who
rub their hands after totalling ND their
profits made out of the bad name Civ
en- to all products that do not bear the
trademark of the "Anglo-SaXon'' shop.
All the same. we would astonish our
Bretons, our Flenings, our Picards.
our Auvergnats. our Basques, our AL
satians. our Picts of POitou, our Helle-
mans, who, it should not be forgotten.
conquered England. if we told them
that we We're all simply Latins. Pre-
cisely under the same conditions q
citizen of the United States descended
from the French of Louisiana or from
the Dutch of New York has no right
to assume this strange title, "Anglo.
Saxon"
And now we come to the question.
What is an Anglo-Saxon? A distin-
guished Englishman. interrogated M
on the subject. answered in all SINGER
ity that he had never seen one, and
consequently he was completely ip-
norant of the anatomy of the animal