Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-02-07

from smaller towns. my uneasy flight
north included short stays III Leeds,
Liverpool and Manchester Observe.
when / speak of these cities how care
fully alphabetical is my manner l know
the pitfall awaiting the writer who dares
To put the provincial cities in any order
suggesting precedence. Everyone knows
the horrid faux pas man may achieve
by trying to say which stands first in
Observation-Disclosures or Manchester: in
Horkshire-Bradford or Leeds; in the
| lsowlands of Scotland-Glasgow or Edn-
burgh, 1t Is so easy To say the wrong
thing in the right place when passing
opinions on tue relative Importance of
provincial cities. | once classified Liver
pool as city second to Manchester and
have never quite recovered the conf
dence of the friends who heard my reck-
lessly stated opinion. | ana courageous
man, butt would not say the same
thing again
What may be safely said of a visit to
several provincial cities is that each one
preserves its intense individuality What
ever the Importance of the city may be
in yotr eyes-a question largely deter
mined by the locality of Your birth-at
least the city is itself There is some
thing in the atmosphere of Leeds which
suggests robust, active prosperity.
Here men have big jowls and appetites
and strong constitutions. They work
hard and play with "A virility that makes
any game amusing. Together the men
Of Leeds 90 to make a crowd consciously
proud of the prosperity Of the busting
city, In Liverpool YOU find a people liv-
ing aud working by river which opens
out Ia all the world. One leaves Liver
pool for ireland. America or Canada or
for strange tours 10 obscure ports in the
East or West Liverpool is in touch with
all the world, and as consequence its
public are cosmopolitan in thought and
manner. The Liverpool man can tell YOU
which collar is being worn in Ficcadilly
and What New York or Chicago is think
ing at noon. The Liverpool man is proud
of his city because it is Il place To which
everyone gets sooner or later In Man
chester there is another difference. Some
rash and simple minded politician.per-
haps ii was Gladstone. Golden or Bright
once said, many years ago, that what
Manchester thinks today England thinks
tomorrow J have never looked up the
Genesis of this well-used phrase. which
hulks most largely ut a general election.
The truth isl dare not Ii might hayel
been said by one Of my political heroes.
and | have fixed idea the phrase does
not represent the whole truth True or
not the fact remains-the public lie OF
Manchester is one endless expression of
the desire tn live up to its reputation as
thought leader. The besetting sin of
Manchester is desire to think for itself
n.
all the other enlightened cities of the !
country If the opinion of the other en- |
lightened cities does not square with cur
rent thought in Manchester. then the
said enlightened cities are unenlightened. |
aud there is no health in them 50 tar
as Manchester is concerned. This out
look is at once Manehester's strength and
weakness. It makes for local indieid |
uality which is purposeful and just a lit |
lie arrogant; self-reliant and just a tritie |
self sufficient.
| know Londoner who, after 10 years. |
has never been in Westminster Abbes |
! passed st. paufs Cathedral daily for |
three Years before | saw the inside of ii !. |
/ once had a servant who. though born
in Chelsea, had never been TO eharing |
Cross or Picadilly- circus. ] admit. OF |
course, my erstwhile servant may have
shown great wisdom in her ignorance. !
The point is-these things could not hap.
Pen in Leeds, Liverpool or Manchester |
The provincial father walks his growing |
children round the sights of the locality /
as an amusement and the boy is a cata-
logue of the towns, attractions before he |
is aged 10. We in London are just men !
going about from point 10 point in big.
place, and the living personality of n ]
great city which ILLS the spaces between I
the points is gap In a journey and n |
blank in our consciousness. The city wei
live in is the place we know lehst about |
If a man in London develops the intensei
which comes from pride 81 |
locality. If he betrays his association
with London through his dialect, actions,
or interests. we call him Cockney ard /
him TO be either quaint or gro
tesaue. We go about London as separate |
units, taking all ii has to give in pros
perity, happiness or pleasure, but when
our thoughts are local they leave the |
suburban eenters in which we live ana |
turn to memories of far-away towns
In the strict sense there Is no Londoner |
lie is in it, about il, but not of ii. His
tory, personality of local WORTHLESS, topog-i
raphy. tradition and. better still, COM
munal impulse-these are the abiding
things in the hearts of the people bornl
in Leeds. Liverpool or Manchester
Abroad, they speak of themselves as men
from Leeds, Liverpool or Manchester
with a ring of pride. To the Londoner
London is an office, a restaurant, al
promenade, a place for shops, a land of
amusement setting for smaller domesti-I
cities or battle-ground for ambition
We whirl in and out round about Lon!
DON and when we go home at night and
shut the door We symbolic our attitude
to the community of which we are a |
part. We shut London OUT and in our
domesticities resume our Scotch, Irish,
Welsh, or other local habits of life We
do not attempt to understand the octo-
pus always trying, to Knit us together as
a civic whole-and always failing. We do !
not want to understand, for in the end .