Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-01-07
AN UNGRACIOUS AGE
BY
MADAME SARAH GRAND
(Author of The Heavenly Twins etc.,

No one with the most ordinary faculty
for observation, can have Travelled much
without having been struck by the TACT
that we English are the best hated people
abroad. The reason for this when we mo
most acceptable is naturally the one which
is most gratifying to our national vanity
we fiatter ourselves that continental ma
lions hate us because they fear us. Fear,
however. would not account for that atti-
tude when individual English people are
brought into contact with individual Tor
eigners A foreign nation may hate us as
a nation-hate us in the abstract That Is
to say; but at short distances national Of
lenses are lost and forgotten in the per-
sonality of the native, and Monsieur Duval,
who. in his heart, despises perfide Albion
with quite passionate intensity, quotes his
client Mr.. John Brown with enthusiasm,
as a typical example of the truth OF the
saying that an Englishman's word is his
bond. Fear of US has certainly nothing to
do with the attitude of the foreigner with
whom we come in contact abroad; he prob
ably has never realized the power OF our
might as a nation what he does reallZe,
with a shock, Is our bad manners, the I'M
graciousness of our habitual demeanor.
Growth Of Bad Manners.
In the matter of bad manners the English
on the continent useu " Ha'c ZIG iuohopo-
ly; but of late years other nations have
come into competition with us. There are
many influences at work which have lower
ed the standard of manners all over the
world The kaiser's men-machines take the
hest part OF the pavement from any one
whom they may safely elbow of. Always,
when physical force is in the ascendant,
women are accorded but scant respect and
in German towns they are hustled into the
kennel by military men as matter Of
| course.
| France had the highest reputation for
charm of manner up to the middle of the
| nineteenth century, but. since the Franco
| German war, there has been a lamentable
| falling off. The polteness with which one
| was met by the French everywhere twenty
| five years ago was the outcome of a genial
| become an article of commerce, for which
| one must pay. This is because the French
| have sacrificed their ideals; they have
| ceased to look up. The parents have less
| and less respect for relgion, ana the chill
| dren have less and less respect for their
parents 1t does not seem to matter what
| II is that we reverence. whether an abb
stract principle or something superior In an
| individual; the important thing Is to rever-
| ence something. A great American divine
once told me that he had been much struck
| nv the almost invariable deterioration of
manners In English trades people after they
| had become subject to American influences
A butler and lady's maid, for instance. who
| had married and gone out to settle, would
| AT first DE distinguished among the native
| Americans of the same class for certain
grace and refinement OF demeanor, which
| he had found peculiarly charming. He at
| tfibuted IL to the example set them at home
| by the gentlefolk with whom they had lived,
ard to whom they had been In the habit
OF paying respect. In America they had