Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-07-03
Savage survivals in Three Lands.

Why loeS every civilized nation
cherish It's pet relics of barbarisn. and
shrink with such fine sco,n from the
relics of its neighbcrs" Why does it
recognize its neighbors' relics as relics.
and remain so artlessly unaware of its
own surviving savagefy? The French
| man strolls through Paris us secure
| from street cleaners IS from boa con-
strictors. That rising cloud Of dust
with which the American pedestrian is
so well acquainted, and which, s..i.fhlly
manipulated. envelops and chokes him
like a sandstone, is Ill unknown to the
Gaul. His streets are swept VI, the
hours when he is not walking on them.
He would be astonshed and indignant
If battalion Of men with broums
sweetened their labors by be-sratter-
ing him with mud. Yet when vocif-
erCus and semi-intoXicated cabmen run
him down, shouting with glee over the
sport. he offers nc protest. he breathes
no malediction. This is an outrage to
which he has been accustomed from
infancy. He would rather miss the ex-
element it affords. The american
tourist flying fer his life, doiging
among horses hoofs. deafened by the
cracking of whips. and experiencing all
the emotions of the fox when hunts
men, horns and hounds proclaim it's
deadly peril, is wont TO feel that the
happy hunting ground of the Indians
would be On the whole 4 safer and
more tranquil residence than Paris. He
has faced his street cleaners for years
with a humble mien, and has content
eddy scrubbed off at home the tokens
of contact. but he is not prepared to be
butchered to make a claimants holiday.
He will put up with his own barbar-
ism. he is Mortified by the barbarism
of his neighbor
The E.nglishman links himself with
his past at mealtime. Those strange
Boeotian feastS. those mountains of
roasted meat, those scanty roofs turned
out with virginia. simplicity from the
boiling pot, and as innocent Of season.
ing as were Ewes primitive messes-all
point to successful survival of saw
agery. When Talleyrand sighed his
immortal vitticissn anent Englanc's %
religions and one sauce. he illustrated
that natural irrpatience of his own race
at the peculiar incapacity of another.
The lsnglishman likes his half cooked
food. Anything delicately served or
seasoned he is apt to pronounce n kick
shaw. The projections of Paris cafe
rouse no enthusiasm in his breast-or
stomach. But he expresses his wrath
forcibly when he wanders a half mile
seeking for a tabac in which to post
his letters. the absolute indifference
of the Frenchman to his mail, and his
serene content with a postal service
which would be archaic in Asia Minor,
exasperate the foreigner in France. III
a nation be really civilized, he says,
why does it not possess the necessary
adjuncts of civilization
Why, indeed? Yet there may still be
seen in the United States, from the At
lantic Ocean to toe Pacific. a thing of
horror known as the sleeping car. In
it men and women lie packed in alter
nate layers like some nideous species
of dry goods. Airless, stiflingly hot.
ill-smelling. unsanitary and indecent.
the sleeper is the most triumphant relic
of barbaiism which the twentieth CEN
fury has to show. But ii is our relic,
and we tolerate it, as the Frenchman
tolerates his cab-drivers, and the Eng
lishman his boiled potatoes. Each ma
ton cherishes it's own..-Life.