The Irish standard., 1906-08-25

him. as of old, through the summer
night and the lark begin with the day
its flight to heaven; as of old, he can
watch the hedges grow wni,e and the
moors unroll their purple mantle; the
friends he loves, immortal. though their
haunts and homes fast vanish, will
walks in London. But if he comes hop
ing that the Anglo-Saxon alliance has
worked the miracle of unity, that the
old difference has been stilled by the
new entente cordiale, he will count on
what he should be glad to remember
is the impossible. Though one does
not always like to know the truth for
the truth when that truth is unpleas-
ant, he at all events has no need to
shirk it. For it is the difference be-
tween us that makes John Bull more
interesting, or amusing. in our Ameri
can eyes, and ourselves the more
thankful that we were born Americans.
The Englishman never went so far as
that. and it was only common sense
that he should not Sympathy was no
more in his line in the past than it is
now. nor did he ever have special in
ducement to dwell tenderly on his as
sociations with us. Had it occurred
to him that anybody could be worth
loving besides himself, ne probably
would have been willing with Dr. john
son to love all mankind except the
American. He has never been given
to lavishing his affection on all or any
part of mankind outside the British
Isles. but if he had been he would stin
have drawn the line at us, and, polite-
ness being as little his strong point as
DR.. Johnson's. he has not neglected
to let us know it. When the English
man visited America tand he seldom
did if he could help himself) it was
in the "illiberal spirit of ridicule" that
SO ranked with our grandfathers; tho
St'AAaS s'AesS AAisAoS AsAASs AAo1ISPC uC.
nounce us as people simply because,
l gather from her book, she could not
in an American boarding house drink
her tea in her own room as in English
lodgings: the spirit that Kept Dickens
(until he wanted to fill his lecture hall
and his pockeD, from finding anything
to interest him except our prisons. our
reformatories. and our bad table man.
ners. When the American visited Eng
land, as Hawthorne was quick to note,
1t was not long before he was conscious
of the unfriendly feeling of the Eng
lish toward his country, whatever class
he mingled with. England itself. from
his first vision of it's mist -shroudei
shores. might turn out as beautiful and
wonderful as his hopes. but not in the
Mother Country" fashion he had fam
cied for it. 1t was q hostile land rath-
er. and prejudices shut him out from
the natives as the green hedges shut
in their fields and meadows. At every
step his enthusiasm was chilled.
They say we don't speak Eng
lish." Lowell wrote once to Godkin in
Il moment of evaporation with British
prejudice-"they say we don't speak
my heart we didnt-that we might
comprehend one another
The truth is. we never have UNDER
stood one another since our corefathers
left England because they could endure
the country no longer; we never shall
understand one another while America
remains America and England is the
England we know. And because the
American. who came bringing with him
the old associations and memories he
loved, putting all others away for the
time, thought to find himself at home,
because in the bitterness OF his disap-
pointment he was more acutely con-
scious of his blunder, he, like Steven
sons Scotsman, never again, no mat
ter where he might go, got so vivid
an impression of foreign travel, of be-
ing in a strange land with strange peo-
pie. as on his arrival in England. But
If, in those old days. the Gisappoint-
ment was bitter. we were not asked to
pretend that it was anything else If
we did not pose as philosophers with
Emerson, we candidly admitted to our
selves. and to any one VINO cared to
know. that we had expected too much.
Nor did John Bull attempt to conceal
the fact that, in his eyes. we were
aliens. and what was more, undesir-
able aliens. Therefore. the first shock
over. we could settle down to COM
Portable understanding of the differ
ences that will make us go on misun-
derstanding one another forever Our
mutual dislike and mistrust had the
virtue of honesty.
But that is precisely wilae John Bull
does not want it to have any longer.
Conditions are changing and his hon.
esty never outlives his convenience
Things for him, were not going so well
few years ago; he was not prosper
ing in the old fashion; he began to suf-
fer in his most sensitive spot-his
purse. In bis isolation he nnened the