The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1904-10-15


u.s. is at times a notifying expert
ence, and if all Cinnamon see us like
the unknown author of LAS a China
man Saw U.s. the Chinese exclusion
act would win fresh friends in this
city, and every leading city on the
continent. None escape the sneers
and gibes and mOckeries of this very
bitter Celestial critic, who seems to
have seen little that was good and
much that was evil in America, and
whose pen, dipped in corrosive sub
Innate, has written 'snobbery, bonn
bast, immodesty and brag" in glazing
letters across the whole United
States. His bitterest sarcasm is
poured out on American women, their
talk, their dress and their manners.
The author is supposed to have
spent some years in an American uni
versity, presumably Harvard, as there
are frequent references to people and
places in or around Boston. So
ciety folk at -the-Sea
have their foibles and follies laughed
at by the heather Chinese in such
excellent English and with such
mastery of the slang, the weaknesses
and folly of society, the suspicion
crops up quite often that Henry Pear
son Grattan, the missionary editor of
the letters, knows more than he tells
about the author.
He begins this remarkable series of
letters by numbering among the prin-
cipal characteristics of the American,
his "self-glorious, egostistical, super
cilious, ignorant, superstitious, vain
and bonn bastic" traits. He likens him
to the Chinese evil spirit, who when
asked to indicate his possessions
tucked the earth under one arm,
dropped the sun and moon into his
pockets and the stars into the folds
of his garments, claiming everything
in sight.
America has been from 1892 to the
present time, the dumping ground of
the world" writes this candid critic.
ut is, perhaps, due to the climate, per-
haps the water or the air, but the
product of these people born on the
soil is described by no other word
than American. 1t may be Irish
American, very offensive; Dutch
American, very strenuous; jewish
American, very commercial: Italian
American, very dirty and reeking
with garlic; but it is American, total
ly unlike it's progenitor, a something
into which is blown tremendous en-
ergy, that is very wearisome, bonn
bast WHICH is the sum of that of all
nations, and conceit like that pos
sessed by alone. You see it
is insurable, also offensive-at least
to the oriental mind. Yet grant you
the American is great; I have it from
him and her; it must be SO.
'The American pretends to be DEM
ocratic; SCOTS at England and other
lands, but at heart he is an aristocrat.
His tastes are only limited by his
means, and not always then. The
distinctions in society are so singular
that it is almost impossible for a for
eigner to understand them. In a gen.
eral sense a retail merchant, a man
who sold shoes or clothes, tailor,
would under no circumstances find a
place in the first social circles; yet
if these same tradesmen should
change to wholesalers and give
up selling one articlessat a time,
they would become eligible to the best
society. The vice-president is in So
ciety (the best); the President is
not. Where else could this hold? No
where but in America.
with us gentleman is born; with
Americans it is possible to- create
one, though rarely. An American
gentleman is. described as product
Of two generations of college men who
have always had associations with
gentlemen and the advantages of fam
lily standing. Political elevation can
not affect a mans status as a gentle
man. I heard lady of unquestioned
position say that she admired Presi-
dent Mckinley but regretted that he
was not gentleman. She meant that.
he was not an, aristocrat and did not
possess the, SAVIOR faire, or the fam
ily association that completely round
out the American or English gentle.
mnn. asked this lady to indicate
the gentlemen Presidents Of the coun-.
try. There were very few that ! re
'call. There were Washington, Harri-=
son. Adams and Arthur. Doubtless