The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-26
who Cares

leas iervld, a. 70 whether Bishop PoTTER
was right or wrong in asserting that
Enslishmen do not really like Americans,
and some Of our " correspondents
have evinced considerable heat because,
they say, u English visitors do not
a~ppredlate and admire things American
az they ought TO do. We are told, for
instance, that one British tourist could
End nothing to say about New York ex-
cept that IL reminded him Of liverpool,
Wen, what Of 81 IL 1t New FORKS fault
q his2 AL this perturbation and anxiety
concerning what Englishmen or Ger
mans or Brenchmen OF any other for
egnersmay chance to say or think about
us 10 out Of date. Ono might as well
DO worried with the misgiving that for
the last eight years we have not stood
particularly high In Spanish esteem
Some seventy or sixty years ago IL
was natural that the citizens Of half
6sdged republic aoutely conscious Of
their deficiencies, should turn o wistfll
eye abroad and humbly hope that Eu-
ropean, and especially British onlookers
might treat them with some forbearance,
not to say encouragement, and refrain
from a meroiless exposure Of their juve-
nile shortcomings. Pathetic was the
fervor Of their gratitude when a great
French noble like the Duke Of ROCHE
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. or an eminent
Frenchman Of letters like DE ToooUE-
VILE was good enough to describe as
restful and refreshing their Arcadian
simplicity. 1t was with a blend Of surprise
and ecstacy hat they heard the rumor
that WASHINGTON IRVING actually found
readers in England at the very time when
his countrymen were smarting under
SYDNEY SMITHS scathing query, 4Who
reads an American book?' Touching,
too, was the ardor Of the welcome
which they gave to British visitors Of
more or less literary distinction, like
CHARLES DICKENS and Mrs. TRoLLoPE,
with the aim of bunting the edge Of their
contempt and eliciting, if possible, the
dole of a good natured liberation. Heart
breaking were the ruthless responsive
revelations. How cruel it seemed of
the foreign note takers to describe Amer
leans as people who ate with their knives,
who picked their teeth in public, who
mopped their foreheads at meal times
with their napkins, and whose wild
scuf1e for food when a tavern or steam
boat bell rang for dinner suggested
the scramble Of hogs at a trough. 1t
was, of course, the ranking conscious
ness that there was much truth in the
picture which drove the iron into the soul
of self-respecting and refined Ameri-
cans. There were not quite enough Of
these in those days to leaven the breeding
of the body polite, and it should prob
ably be acknowledged that the table
manners" Of the average American citi-
Eel in the '3os and '40s left much to be
desired.
That was the period of our homage,
when little things had power to gall us;
when, in spite of some superficial spread
eagleism and bravado, we had no
genuine self-assurance and but little
acknowledge. We hal not yet found
ourselves, 80 to speak. We were not
ever sure that we constituted a veritable
nation and that the bond of our so-called
Union was not a mere wisp Of straw.
Our national self-consciousness and
self-respect was born amid the throes
of a Titanic co~nvulsion, which dwarfed
by comparison the tremendous civil
wars that bled to death the Roman com
monwealth. To the full stature of a
stern and mighty manhood we grew in
that terrible hour, and we have since
neither craved nor needed any foreign
Endorsement to certify our title to a lofty
place among the denizens of earth.
To those able to forecast the conse-
quences of diverting to fields of peace
the in~exhaustible energies demonstrated
in intestine war there car have been
nothing unexpected in the unparalleled
development of the United States during
the last four decades. Before the nine
teenth century was over MtLHALL, the
English statisticlan, frankly acknowl-
edged that our national wealth surpassed
that Of the British Empire, and for six
years the process of expaneion has gone
on at an accelerated pace. On the in
tellectual side our progress has been
equally phenomenal. We have more
high class universities than the whole
of Europe combined. and from a scien-
tiic viewpoint the instruction obtainable
at the best Of them is superior to that
which can be gained at either Oxford or
Cambridge. The day is probably not
distant when aspiring European youth
will deem their education incomplete
unless they have studied for a time
in one of our higher seats of learning,
Just as from all parts Of the Continent
enlightened young men flocked to Leyden
when as yet its university was not a
century old. To announce these facts
is not to boast. They are known and
acknowledged by all fair minded men.
The time has gone by when either on
material or intellectual grounds we had
any ~ to envy any other people on
the globe.
So far, indeed, as material our
are concerned, the day is probably close
ct hand when the wealth Of the United
States, flung into the international scale,
will nrOya nc lariciua nc tho pu,ord IF