The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1910-08-07

Tolstoy which Prof. Matthews makes the
text Of his paper on American character
has denounced us because We care chiefly
for making money. No doubt Americans
do strive to anaas wealth. but this IL
largely du. 10 the fart that MONEY maxi
ing is the outward and visible sign Of sue
GEES. Napoleon told part 81 the truth
when he said the English were a nation
Of shopkeep@rs: but he should have added
that they were a nation of ahopkeepers
who could fight We are a trading com
munity.- Prof. Matthews admits, hut ~s
arr a trading community Just as Athens
Mas and Venice and FLORENCE Neither
those ancient communities. however.
nor any existing nation under the sun ever
squAlled thIs land in the lavish devotion
Of private wealth to public uHes. " il
more difficult 10 accept unr-eervedly
the authors assertion that in no country
Of the Old World 10 the prestige Of wealth
leaa powerful than il IN here. In saying
this he disting JIishes between the men
actually engaged in the great money max
ing enterprises. who are highly respected
IL they are 30 per cent honest. and the
msrp po-sesaors Of fortunes which others
have gathered together.
The Columbia professor emphasizes in
his essay On the Americans and the Brit
ish q point that In invariably overlooked
by the hands across tho sea school In
comparative criticism Of the two nation
alities. Notwithstanding the prevA lence
Of Anglomania in some social strata
Americans are not at all British in motive
or feeling and have no desire tn he British
OF 90 be considered British To illustrate
the ignorance Of America which formerly
prevailed in England Prof. Matthews
relates that at a dinner in London the
wife Of Hamilton Fish was asked by the
wife Of a British Cabinet Minister what
the great lakes ~ America were. She
said she knew Wenham Lake whence
y used To- be exported 70 England). but
wanted To know the names of the others!
And yet Ontario and Erie and Huron and
Superior are as important 60 the British
Empire as they are to the great American
republic. When such ignorance this
existed up To the outbreak OF the civil
war it is mo- wonder that a sympathetic
understa ndling between the two peoples
was long delayed. IL ~ only since the
Spanish American war that We have
really felt in America that blood 10
thicker than water
Perhaps the most original Of the essays
IN this volume is that in which the author
attempts dis;inctiv"ly to define American
humor. 1t - generally genial. he tells
ur. even II IT - sonnet ines grim; il il often
ironic, and it tends toward imaginative
eSagseration The humor of other pep
pies may reveal now and then one or
another Of th's. characteristics. but We
seem To uold the pat.nt ON thu ,utnhlna-
ton The most distinctive ~ these ele-
ments ~ imaginative eNagR.ration. and
this he illustrates by the story 81 Mark
Twain when h. was stlvIng AT Onteora.
where the rooms were divided from one
another 10y walls Of burlap Mark Twain
complained that the part tons were 80 thin
that he could hear the young Lady IN the
next room change her mind In "A sim
liar vein - the description 81 a negro
which James Russell Lowell attributed
TO a rural Yankee. He - So black that
charcoal would make chalk mark on
HIM