The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-09-21
EUROPEAN DREAD OF u. S.
BY MAURICE M. MINToN.

Many, many years ago-to be chron-
ologically precise, in 1842-a great Eng
fish novelist, came to America on a visit.
His fame had preceded him, and the
appreciative. generous generation of that
day took him to their hearts and their
homes with a warmth of affection and
prodigality of hospitality that have had
but few parallels in the records of in
ternational friendship. While here, there
fell from his lips velvet phrases of af-
lection, admiration, gratitude, and when
the hour of his departure came the sin
cerest farewells from admiring millions of
American men and women followed him
across the seas. Home again, soon from
the pen of this petted guest came the
chapters of a book, every page of which
was blistered with venom and gall. Even
in the long vista of years since then this
wretched production stands out in litera-
ture as one of the most libellous at
tacks ever made on a people, one of the
basest returns for kindness preferred
and accepted, that was ever made. Well
did the author know the taste, tone and
temper of the nation to which he was
appealing. A work doing justice to Amer
lea would have gone back TO the paper
mills; work ridiculing it and its insti-
tullons meant increased fame popular
ity, handsome remuneration, if not for
tune. Satire. humor, irony, inveetive
poured out on all things American, prov
ed 10 be a gold mine. and so a second
book came to be written fully as venom
Gus as its predecessor. Later on, Charles
Dickens apologized for his literary brutal
ity and again, on a second visit, reap
ed another harvest of American dollars
by his readings which were only third
rate performances, and in themselves
not worth one-quarter the price it cost
to hear them. Dickens on the platform,
because of his eccentricities of dress and
mannerisus, was as funny as anyone of
his own creations so that his more criti-
cal patrons got perhaps adequate return
for their money.
Not alone in England, but all over Eu-
rope, among the governing classes,
hatred of America was then the domin-
ant sentiment. A spirit of revolution was
in the air, monarchical institutions were
being severely criticized. and the right
of one nation to govern another without
its consent was boldly challenged. Poland
and Hungary were FESTIVE in their serv-
itude. Prussia had not yet achieved the
mastery among the German grand
duchies. duchies and principalities. The
rotten thrones of the Bourbons every
where were beginning to show symptoms
of the crash that was ultimately to ov-
ertake them, and Ireland was seething
with an agitation which in the final
chapter threat ened rebellion. Among the
peoples everywhere, there was a demand
for wider and broader liberty. the aboli-
ton of old abuses the curtailment of
aristocratic privilege, the passage of
more humane laws, the emancipation of
the human mind from the bonds in
which it was fettered. The truth is that
the influence of our own republic was
beginning to be felt In the old world
Less than thirty years before we had met
England on the element where she was
supposed to be invincible and there con-
quered her. To be sure, the story was
an old one to us, but not so to the dark
ened old world. 1t was half a generation
before the full significance of that VIC
tory reached the minds of the European
masses. And, curious to say, the instru-
mentality which brought 1t all about,
was for the most part, neither the
newspaper the schoolbook nor the his
tory, but the flag itself, with its radiant
glittering stars. From the 'forties to
the sixties the Stars and Stripes float
ed over every sea and fiuttered in ev-
cry part of the world. No swifter nor
more beautiful sailing craft furrowed
the waves than were the old clipper