New-York tribune., 1910-12-31
How One Returned American
Sees Us.

-rhera are several series of books IN tne
Geld of which the present one is a very
good all-arcund example we nave oui
Euronean Neiehhors,' the last volume el
which aupeared several years ago, d
-,.o,ee- series on & small scale: we have
.re series which is distinguished by such
..,,os as Switzerland of the Swiss" and
..r-s-,,any of the Germans" and the
..ryouoe Life" series to which this foiufhe
on ourselves has recently been adoeo-
These various undertakings attempt 10
IN Systematically what has long neen
done snoradically in such works as Nj.
Terownen-s French Traits" Mr- Storer
sreldrur,,'s Holland ard the Hollanders
end Professor Munsterberg's "AmeTl~
cane- TO name but three They serve to
make the members Of the family OF civil
ized nations better acquainted with each
othsr-and in many ways with them
selves-if they care to digest as well as
read. by supplying the picture OF daily
life lef. untouched between grave studies
Of pol;tjcal and social institutions, OF
economic status and progress on the one
hand and the average. necessarily super
1cfaI hook of travel on the other the
hooks of some of these series are written
by foreigners equipped for the TASK og
rrolonsed residence in the country al
Iotted 20 them In the present case the
work has been confided TO a native
American enthusiastically long resident in
England.
IT is the comparative point OF view
which is the standard maintained in
these pages with a laudable measure OF
detachment 1t weighs European criti-
s.,sm and comment, European conclu-
sions drawn from comparisons, only to
show the better the other side of the
shield, the conclusions that are arrived
ct by the American enabled by familiar
itv with both sides to present the real
facts that logically lead TO apparent in
ternational paradox American home
life has no superlatiye virtues and no
original sins" concludes our author; 1T
is only in the little things that it differs
from that Of other nations-but it is,
after ali, the little things Of life that
mean so much
They mean very much indeed as
grouped together in these pages The
author reaches no wide conclusions, at
times she herself is apparently confused
by the mass Of little things in a social
life that refuses to harden into strata,
but even where she finds it impossible
to generalize she at least succeeds in
jndicating plainly the causes of her fail
IRE. 1t is in a thousand little ohserva-
fions that her book, chiefly written, one
assumes. for British consumption, proves
Of constant service and revelation to our
selves while. furthermore, it offers here
and there clear glimpses of the fact
that, taken from top TO bottom, our
social organization is no more eccentric,
illogical and paradoxical than that of
older communities.
From the slums we travel to New
York's most aRcred inner circle, to New
port and 10 that greatest of all our
ouriosities. admittedly unique. Atlantic
City in its Summer glory We begin, of
course. with the American child, and
begin with il at birth, because
The young mother in America is pos
sessed Of a love madness for her tiny in
1ant TO an extent / never found in other
countries, and which, while it is very poet
ical and picturesque. is harmful in many
wants cannot be accepted as the cause of
shis ohsession Of the American mother
with the belief that in infancy her con-
stant and unreuitting effort for her child
Is necessary One cannot enter an
American home where a baby reigns with
cut wishing that there could he Jess heart
\ and more mind in the attitude of the
American mother toward her newborn.
Neither this danger nor the subsequent
one of early emancipation spoils the
American child. as the author points out
in her very sensible chapter on the sub
tect- which. while freely admitting that
there is room for further Improvement
IN our home training as in our educa-
iion, controverts with simple facts the
misconceDtion of the American child
still held abroad. The Young Person
comes next as a matter Of course, the
American miss VINO. faring less well
than her brothers, is according TO the
author. the victim as well as the product
of her parents alteration and self-efface-
raent. OF the American ideal of mans
cflivalry without recognition Of obliga-
fion On her part. of a treatment that
nav make her unconsciously selfish and
convinced Of her supreme importance
fs,,t why continue: Now for the other
side:
In her voluhle needless way the Arl1eri-
can Young girl loves her parents sincerely
and probably is not conscious or selhshness
or djsrespect towards them. Her wors
faults are on the surface. Beneath Is z
frank bright, shrewd, generally unaffected
personality beside w1or1 the French young
person with her pretty deference TO elders
and charm of manner, sometimes 100 1nucf
on the surface, IS colorless and mentally
s1en7fc The American young persoT
IS simply reHecting certain of our nauona
theories z clearly as mirror.
After all, we, in our experience OF
American life, know that her good
times" will be much restricted when she
leaves girlhood behind her. The author
must make il plain TO even the most
ure;udiced foreigner that the idle, luxu-
rious women he sees abroad are not rep
rsser1tatiye Of American womanhood IN
the average, but its very reverse. The
firm chin the earnest expression in
herited from her ancestors are preserved
IN the American woman at horAe by her
share Of the work and struggle Of the
national life. She, the educated. cultured
multitude of her. forms a curious COM
panion piece TO the toy and bea utiful
,yrant, man her willing slave as the
American woman is conceived abroad"
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