Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-04
ITO. WH|RR AND BUZZ"
*
Britisher Says in America There
is No "HustIe."
LAND OF LEISURE, NOT RUSH
AIraigns Railways, Postal System,
Business and Journalism.
MAKING A NOISE IN THE WORLD
Americans Slow to Get at the Heart
Of Things"-A Land Of
Red Tape.
LAND OF LEISURE, NOT RUSH
MAKING A NOISE IN THE WORLD
Special Correspondence of The Star.

| Special Correspondence Of The Star.
| = LONDON, April %. 1907.
| Don't we really know how to hustle, In
| America? The impression appears to be
| getting abroad that We don't. that We make
| an immense ito do about whatever we
undertake. but that we really are not so
| speedy after all.
| The latest to contribute to this belief is
! one H. w. Horwill. who publishes an artl-
/ Gle on 'Leisurely America" in the current
Monthly Review. Mr.. Horwill. whose Views
| are being widely quoted and commented on
here. says that he has lived in New York
| for four years, and in Chicago for six
months. AS the result of this experience, he
denies the quality of expeditiousness not
only to American business methods. but
| practically to every other branch Of Amerf
can life. including American legal pro.
cedure. American railways. the American
! postal system and. amazing as 1t sounds,
| American journalism too!
| Americas real distinction among the
| nations is as a land of leisure" Is the as
| sertion of this writer. who quotes the re-
| ported observation OF DIR. L,orenz, the
Vienna specialist, to the effect that nothing
| would convinces him that Americans really
believed time to be money. while they
thought it necessary to be present person.
| ally whenever their shoes were being
| blacked.
| IAN unprecedented observation of life In
| their great cities" the Monthly Review es-
| sayist declares. tsoon leads to the conclu-
! sion that Americans have more spare time
| to play with than, any other people.
| Throughout the morning the chairs in the
! entrance halls Of the hotels are filled with
| gossiping dawdlers. In New York itself
business is not so pressing but that the
| streets can be thronged and traffic .sus-
| pended at IL am, on account of a process
| sion of the Order OF Eagles, or some other
| fantastic society. To attend the annual
conventions of such orders. and of various
| patriotic or religious associations, tens of
| thousands OF persons travel long journeys
| and are absent from their homes for several
| days at time. Sporting and athletic
| events make at least as great inroads upon
business hours as in the country whose de-
votion to the muddied oaf has been SO often
bewailed. All this, In addition to the public
| NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. day Memorial day,
| Thanksgiving. day. Labor day, Washing
| federate eauivalenD, as well as New Year
| day and Christmas day.. And in his working
| days the American endures such ilchings
| from his time by-incompetenee and bad
| management as no Englshman would toler-
| ate. The New Yorker gulps his food, yet
| his lunch takes at least as long the
| Londoner's, owing to the delay in the serv-
| ing Of his order. And though he pays his
| HalT-CuIteT Ok DdIDeT at d TuluOuS scale,
| the charge is not after all. extravagant, if
1t is computed not by the piece but by the
| hour. cs-,,-ts - a,s---= -.
i. Is Not Concentrated.
''But surely, it will be said. the American
| is on. the whole pattern Of activity and
speed when he is actually occupying him.
| self with his business. That is by no means
my own judgment after spending four years
| in New York and six months in Chicago.
| The average Office on the other side en-
ploys a larger stan than with us, but 1t
| shows by no means as satisfactory an out
put Of work by the end of the day. The
| art of concentrating ones attention on The
matter in hand has been very imperfectly
| learned. The manager Of an important
| firm Is seldom indisposed for a chat of half
an hour or so over cigar. Shopping in
| the big city stores-those stores which are
commonly supposed to be marvellous de-
| velopment of business sagacity-is a most
painful trial of-patienee owing to the I'M
| considerable time consumed in waiting for
| change and for the packing up of ones
purchase. The arrangement of these houses
appear to be designed on purpose to dis
| courage cash payments, for the delay Is
obviously much less in the case of custom
ers who run credit account Often, too,
! the enterprise of business house appears
| to exhaust itself in lavish advertisement
| In the belief that II only the name Of an
eyes Of the public the actual sale of 1t
| will take care of itself. An English friend
| who was paying me a short visit was
| struck one day by the advertisements, In
/ the street cars and on the boardings all
| over New York. of a novel kind Of station
| cry, and expressed a wish to see what 1t
| was like. wrote at once asking for speci-
mems and prices. A week later, when my
friend had already sailed for home a rep
| resentative of the firm called. bringing
| samples of the articles with him: He ex-
planned its merits deliberately and enthusi-
| astically, but was not even then able to
| quote prices for all grades. In England
my inquiry would, of course, have been
answered by return Of post. The slow
| movement OF the American business man
| was again illustrated when I was rash
| enough to order through leading book
| seller book recently published In London.
| received it three weeks later than IL l
| had written for 1T, direct, although l paid
| the importer 25 per cent on its value for
| his trouble. Needing a new ferrule at the
| end of my walking stick. applied to the
| repairing department of one of the big
sest stores was told that the job would
| cost 60 cents and that 1t would be done
| in ten days. Ordinarily this great achieve
| the approach of Christmas would make it
| necessary to allow three days more.
Electric Cars Slow.
| I'm walking down Broadway from Aston
place during business hours continues the
| foreign critic. IT have sometimes compared
| my own progress with that of an electric
| tram car starting abreast of me, and
| have reached Canal street-nearly q mile
| before 1t quite left me behind. But an
American in a hurry will unhesitatingly
take car for two three blocks rather
| than cover the same distance more quickly
| by walking, just as he will walt two or
| three minutes for an elevator to take him
down a flight of ten steps. or will bring the
resources of his typewriter to bear upon a
post card which could be more speedily
written by hand. After forty years New
York has at last come round to the London
opinion that an underground railway is
the best means of rapid communication In
| a large city. In using electricity as the
motive power for such a railway 1t has
| followed the example set by the city and
South London in 1890. date considerably
earlier than that of the first electric rail-
ways In America.
LAS to the American railway system prop
er. an entirely erroneous impression is
gained by those who interpret as normal