The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1918-02-28

~ GOD Americans, when they
die, go to Paris, so IT is al
legged. While they are alive
many of them are content to
spend considerable part of their time
in London. They cannot help ii, for,
according to Emerson, the English
have made London "such a city that
almost every active man, in any ma
ton, finds himself, at one time or an
other, forced to visit it," In normal
times a census of the strangers within
our gates would disclose a large pro-
portion from the other side Of the At
lantic, says Herbert w. Horwill in
Country Life. The West End shop
keeper knows this well, as a scrutiny
of his windows will show. He. has
even gone so far in catering to the
taste of the American visitor as to es-
tablish in our midst that un-English
institution, the soda fountain. TailOrs,
tobacconists, dry goods" merchants
all combine to confirm the verdict that
London is "the best and cheapest
shopping-place in the world"
No doubt, most of the Americans
who find their way to this city are
'transients," but some who arrive with
the intention of making only a brief
sOjourn remain here for the rest of
their days. One remembers, for in
stance, the Chicago millionaire who
took up his permanent abode in Lon
don club and whose decease gave Sir
William Harcourt's Death Duties so
magnificent a send-off.
What do these Americans come out
for to see? The answer is obvious
what they have no chance of seeing at
home. To the citizens of a country
where every church over 100 years old
is regarded as an antiquity, and where
the Washington sightseer, on his trip
to George WashingtOns home, is told
that he is NOW approaching the an
cient city of Alexandria" dating from
A. d. 174S), the treasury of historic
material provided by London is of al
most inexhaustlble interest. In the old
err parts of the city nearly every step
brings them into touch with some build
ing whose associations recall period
anterior to the Declaration of indie
pendence. To say nothing of the re-
mains of the Roman wall, there are the
Tower of London-that "sweet BOOM"
as Artemus Ward described it-West-
minister Abbey and Hall, the Temple,
st. Paul's, and old churches and houses
innumerable.
His Literary Pilgrimaees.
A conspicuous characteristic of the
American visitor is his enthusiasm for
literary pilgrimages. The average
Engllshman, Londoner or provincial,
exhibits nothing like the same zeal in
tracking the footprints of our great
writers. st. Giles, Cripplegate, the
burial place of John Milton, is probably
visited by ten Americans for every one
Englishman. How many Englishmen
could tell you where Oliver Goldsmith
was buried? Thousands of American
visitors have stood reverently beside
the grave. Memories of Doctor John
son are another powerful magnet.
In this connection a good story Is
told of how the American enthusiast
is sometimes victimized by his fellow
countrymen. Mr.. George AIDE was one
day sitting In the cheshire Cheese"
over a beefsteak pudding and a mug
of ale, when there entered a Chicago
woman, Boswell in hand. She had
been told that the great mans auto
graph could still be seen penciled on
one of the walls. The walters declared
they had never seen 1t, but with her
dauntless Chicago spirit she began a
long search upstairs and down. While
she was upstairs a warm glow of ben
evidence rose in AIDES heart, and, TAX
Ing pencil from his pocket, he wrote
with quaint eighteenth century -four
ishes on the wall behind him "Sam
Johnson."s On her return from up
stairs the visitor promptly spotted the
autograph and was overjoyed.
as 1t not amazing" remarked Mr..
AIDE In telling the story, ''how much
happiness we can give to others by
these little acts of kindnessT To the
tourist from overseas even the great
figures of the Victorian era wear q
halo of sancity. Carlyie's house is a
constant center of attraction Some