The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1907-10-31
SOME IDEAS
OF AMERICA
AS Held Among Many People
in Europe
IDEAS ARE VERY VAGUE
To Great Many Peasant People Of the
Continent, United States Is New
York and Suburbs-vermont
unheard OF.
IDEAS ARE VERY VAGUt

biggest and the only country. Il may be.
on the face Of the globe, would be shock
ed 20 come in contact with the opinion
Of their country held 10 the foreign lands
across the seas. They would drst be
surprised, ,acn indignant, and finally in.
credulous that such a conception Of tic
land OF the free should exist any.
where. whether II be Ia kamchAtka Or
the Fiji Islands, II hitsiYAnkec vanity
hard blow for instance 70 be askedi
Where II American
after one has responded 70 the ques.
ton, "Whcfe do you livef" by saying
that he lives In America Yet that very
question was asked Of an American Of
the writer's acquaintance by a German.
peasant Of the average intelligence. II
would strike the American as an exceed.
ingly stupid question and displaying an
impcnetrable Ignorance. but Il only ox-
presses In maenihcd form the idea. or
rather lack Of idea. which some of our
foreign friends have OF Us, IN spite OF
our boosted prominence In the world.
This, mind you, applies not 80 much to
thu educated people Of the countries but
tANnNI W muse u Tue toMtf NihA#ta oA
training.
II was another German, likewise
peasant. who with desire for general
understanding Of our possessions IN the
United States asked II we have the same
moon which they have IN Germany. Be
ing told that 70 the best Of our knowl.
edge It was one and the same moon,
he expressed his appreciation Of the in
formation gained and fell to Eliminating
over It.
A popularity OF the impression Of the
United States in Framed il the belief
that the United States is New York,
or that New York Is the United States,
The writer found among some people
the prevalent idea that the United
States consisted of the large city of New
York. and that the remainder Of tho
country was made up Of suburbs Of the
metropolis. The American generally
does not need to tell that he u from
America; the Frenchman has detected
that at the first glance. But il one falls
into conversation with the Frenehman
and the talk drifts into personalities,
the Freedman invariably asks; Are
you from New York; II not from New
York, then you must come from the
suburbs.
II you we're TO say that you come from
Boston or from a place two hundred
miles north Of Boston, the average
Frenehman even of the middle class
would look perplexed and finally decide
that Boston must be one OF the many
suburbs Of New York. Our cultured Bos-
ton, With all its priced history, is like
blank to large majority. Tell il not
in Boston, however.
Likewise does one find it in Great
Britain, although the memories of GER
! tain Tea Party not so very long ago have
served TO rather wildly ix the town Of
Boston in the minds Of those who are
concerned at all in history. But for a
fact the writer discovered people Of the
middle classes who had no recollection
that there was a Boston, Y. 5. A., on
the map,
Imagine then the difficulties Of a Yer
monter in fixing his place Of residence in
! the mind OF the European. We have
already seen that ii does little or no
good to say that Vermont hes north or
| Boston. So what should Vermontsr
say when approached with the question
as to his place Of abodeF Better say
New York; and it all amounts TO the
same thing in the average Europeans
mind.
Up in the northern part Of Scotland,
in Aberdeen, the writer had d conversa
ton Of considerable length with a bust.
ness man, with Vermont occupying q
! fair proportion of the discussion. Yer.
mont got as much gloriHcation as abso-
lutte truth would warrant, and the bust
ness man appeared to be somewhat in
terested when he suddenly presented q
staggerer with the question:
Pardon me, but what Is Vermont
| rs ii an islandfe
Recovering from the shock we then
| told him that Vermont was great
sovereign state Of something like $4,000
odd people and hoping TO become bigger
some day. But the size of the Green
Mountain state couldn't have made d
very strong impression on the Aber-
DOMAIN, as the total population of Yer
mont is only about double the size Of
1 Aberdeen, and Aberdeen is d little city
at that.
The writer fell into a similar difficulty
trying to locate Vermont for q Catholic
priest whose home was in Ireland but
who was enjoying a visit on the oonti-
nent. The priest was far from being an
unedueated man, too, He had Travelled
! quite bit and was Of course learned
/ in books Yet he hadn't the least idea
on what part Of the United States map
1.-THE state Of Vermont was located, and
| even at that he confessed to having been
\ on the Hudson river once.
i For guess, he placed Vermont next
/ to the state Of Washington. If he had
4 only realized the vast country that
stretches between these two states!
4 Wen, we hope that he viii come over
here some day, for we would like to
Il entertain him, It was great delight
to run across him, an English-speaking
man. in vast Sahara Of Germans not
able to speak word Of English. AS
we ratified our English gibhsrish back
and forth, the Germans who were within
\ hearing started in wonderment at the
strange words.
4 But these few illustrations point out
to Americans that America, big, brave
and hrainy to us conveys not the same
impression to a great many people across
the water Nevertheless. Americans cant
get the idea out Of their heads that
America is the best, no matter what
they can show up over there. And It
Eisnat all egotism, either.