New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-04-30


the United States have
recently been summoned
10 plead in answer TO the charge OF bad manners.
And al once cloud of witnesses came forward to
bear testimony against US.
An anonymous Engishman, engaged in business
in New York declared that it painful to notice
the difference in the manners Of employees in British
ana American shops and Offices and an American
editor. recording this declaration, asserted that all
Americans notice this difference when they return
from abroad One of these homecoming travellers
voiced his opinion IN a letter TO a newspaper in
which he inquired Ilaintively: What ais the
manners Of Newly York" Then he ventured the
startling declaration that. when he came home to
The city of his birth after absence Of ten years
I'm Europe he found here a people compared 10
whom the Berserlers were Chesterfelds and the
Ia-tars q race Of Tallevranls'
This last Alternative sentence IS perhaps not so
completely annihatiug as its author intended when
Die polished II up, since The public morality and the
private morals of Tallcyrand and of Chesterfield do
not commend themselves AZ worthy models for
American imitation. whereas there was a hearty
-naulinees about the Bcrse~kers and the TaTtaTs
-uastcrul dircc1ness which healthy Americans cannot
fail TO appreciate. But however unfortunate the
phrase. there j. niStakiug the intention of the
writer and his desire to denouuce the social atrocities
of his native CITY And although the bulk of this
denunciation Is launched more specifically against
New York and the Newly Workers, there IS a willing
ness on the part of most of the denouncers TO enlarge
their target include the whole United States and
all The inhabitants thereof
In MANY cases the accusation insists that our
manners are much worse than they used to be, and
that we have fallen from the high standard
-nitted by the last generation, or by some gen
Grafton preceding that Now. here, if nowhere else
II Is easy To- make stand and repulse the groundess
charge. There is no basis whatever for any belief
that our manners have ever been any better than
they are now Or AT least there has never been a
time when our manners We're not being assailed,
and when the assertion not frequent that they
were steadily degcncratng. 1t Is with our manners
as II is with servants every age srilly expresses
its dissatisfaction with those il knows best When
Adam in As You Like It, proffered his savings
10 his Young master, Orlando looked back regret
fully 10 "A period when such conduct was not un-
common.
O good old man, how well IN thee appears
The constant service of the antique world,
When service sweat for duty, not for need!
Thou for the fashion OF these times
Where none VIII sweat but for promotion.
Shakespeare wrote these lines more than three
centuries ago and the sentiment expressed IN them
echoes to-day in many an essay on the servant
question. So It IS than half a century now
that Lowell put on paper the remark OF one OF the
older inhabitants Of CanbrIdge. who was something
OF jeremiah In his octogenarian vigor, 10 the effect
that MY children say Yes, sir and No, sir ';
ru,- grandchildren Yes and No D.. and | every