The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-20
ARNOLD BENNETT IN BOSTON

Arnold Bennett. in Harper's Magazine for June.
 I had received more warnings and more advice about Boston than about all the other cities put together. And in particular, the greatest care had been taken to permeate my whole being with the idea that Boston was different.
 In some ways it proved so to be. one difference forced itself upon me inn mediately I left the station for the
 streets-the quaint original cdor of the taxis. When I got to the entirely ad- mirable hotel l found a book in prominent situation on the writing ta- ble in my room. In many hotels this book would have been the Bible. But here 1t was the catalogue of the hotel library; 1t ran to hundred and eighty two pages. On the vother hand. there
 was no bar in the hotel, and no smok- Ing room. I make no comments, l draw
 no conclusions; I state the facts. The warnings continued after my arrival l was informed by I don't
 know how many persons that Boston was a 'circular city," with topog- raphy calculated to puzzle the simple. This was true. I usually go about in |strange places with a map, but
 found the map of Boston even more
 complex than the city it sought to ex-
 plain. If I did not lose myself, it was
 because I never trusted myself alone;
 other people lost me.
 Within an hour or so I had been
 famliarized by Bostonians with
 whole series of apparently stock jokes
 concerning and against Boston, such as
 that one hinging on the phrase "cold
 roast in Boston,, and that other one
 about the best thing in Boston being
 the five-o'elock train to New York q
 do not vouch for the hour of depart
 ure). Even in Cambridge, less joc-
 ular place, a joke seemed to be inn
 manent, to the effect that though you
 could always tell Harvard man, you
 could not tell him much. Matters more
 serious awaited me. An old resident of
 Boston took me out for privacy onto
 the common and whispered in my ear:
 This is the most snobbish city in the whole world. There is no real democ- racy here The first thing people do when they get to know you Is to show you their family tree and prove that they came over in the Mayflower." And so he ran on, cursing Boston up hill and down dale Nevertheless, he was very proud of his Boston. Had l agreed with the condemnation, he might have thrown me into the artificial brook. An other great Bostonian expert after leading me on to admit that I had come
 in order to try to learn the real Boston, turned upon me with ferocious gaiety thus: You will not learn the real Bos- ton You cannot. The real Boston is
 the old Back Bay folk. who gravitate eternally between Beacon street and State street and the Somerset club, and never go beyond They confuse New England with the created universe, and it is impossible that you should learn them. Nobody could learn them in less than 20 years intense study and re- search" ift Cautioned, and even intimidated, 1 thought it would be safest just to take Boston as Boston came, respectfully but leausally And as the hospitality Of
 Boston was digious, splendid. unin- termitent, and most delightfully."- unaf- fected, l had no difficulty whatever in taking Boston as she came And my impressions began to emerge, one after another, from the rich and cloudy con fusion of novel sensations.
 What primarily dGerentiates Boston from all the other cities I saw is this: It Is tnished 1 mean complete. or the other cities. while admitting their actual lachievement, one would say, and their own citizens invariably do say They will he %" Boston Is.