The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-09-21

The Retiring English Way.
In the garden next door there IL
beautiful, retiring English boy of
the same age as our young American.
Sometimes his ball flies over the an
cient. sun tanned brick that separates
us. The small boy says nothing. Does
nothing. He will wait hours rather
than try and get 1t. And when
throw II over to him, a ghost whisper
that might have come out of the CEN
turtles says shyly: THANK YOU"
The English way and the American.
And yet those two boys, representa-
tves Of the two branches of the
Anglo-Saxon race. will one day grow
up apd win have to try and under
stand each other. They must do It.
But how7
Miss America comes along in the
Sunday sunlight. her yellow dress
clingtng as though she were sheathed
In light, her figure 1.-the and vital az
Is the way with Miss America The
afternoon sunlight takes a higher tinge
as she comes down our London street.
She walks right through the house
without waiting to take her hat of,
tiptoes and looks over into the Old
World garden. oblivious to the white
haired Englishman. his white haired
wife and their gray haired son, grayed
In the war, sitting drinking tea in
utter quietness upon three basket
chairs on the green lawn.
'Geel Amt 1t SWELL" she says.
She had not seen them in her young
eagerness, and she is blissfully uncon-
scious that TO look over the wall into
your neighbours garden Is In England
the sin unforgivable.
And she has to understand that
young man-perhaps to marry him.
How is she to do it?
The problem of the bridging of the
psychological gulf sometimes comes to
me like a thunderclap. Can it be
done?
My friend the war correspondent
goes into a West End bar where he
meets an English officer-a good fell
low, with that naivete Of the English
man which sometimes makes him 50
lovable. The officer-it Is after the
war, remember-breaks the unwritten
| law about addressing strangers by
speaking to the young American-and
| who wouldn't7 His remaining eye
| would draw anybody's tongue and
friendliness. The Englishman is puz-
Fled to death-remember, he is trying
| to understand this new American
which the war has thrust upon his
consciousness-wants to know If
| America Is really going dry: whether
| it isn't, well, American exaggeration?
| Red blooded Americans, not teetotal-
| lers, have even told him they were
| willing to sacrifice their private tastes
for the common veal by taking to
soft drinks" weren't they pulling
his leg?"
| Our young giant, swallowing some
thing libelled as Cocktail" draws
closer, takes the Englishman by the
sleeve and whispers the dreadful tale
of the dark fact behind American dry
ness" at is a conspiracy" he says.
"A conspiracy against the British En-
pire-" and the one eye looks round
apprehensively. America is out to
scoop the trade of the world and put
John Bull into the workhouse. To do
that means efficiency. To get 1t, she
IN prepared to sacrifice everything
Including her palate. So she goes dry
A dirty piece OF work" He swallows
a stiff brandy and soda to emphasize
his point
He's Bound He'll Laugh.
Officer stares at him, astonished.
Promises faithfully not to break Am
erica's confidence. swallows the last
of his whiskey ruminatively and goes
out, still chewing the cud upon the
devious mysteries Of the American
mind.
| American humor to the English
man Is a closed book, but he is study
ing It He is determined to laugh.
I remember that English officer telling
me on my first trip to the States as we
quartered the deck: II have lived six
months in America Excellent fellows.
Awfully hospitable. don't you know.
and all that sort of thing-do you
well but" and here he whispered
because we were surrounded by a
bevy Of American officers who were
roaring at some secret joke, "he has
positively no sense of humor!" Well,
what are you going to do about it?
Humor is the thing that separates
nations just as 1t separates individuals.
You may tell a man that his religion
Is unthinkable or his habits impossi-
BILE and he may not turn a hair. but
when you ten him that you cannot I'M
derstand his humor he will poison you.
When tell my English friends that
American humor is a hunor that has
something of all the best humor Of the
world-with something Of its own
American" added, they hope I am
right When I tell them that scarcely
ever met a boastful American In
America they look at me with con-
tempt and rather suspect me Of lying
When try to convey that the
strength Of statement of the American
abroad is more a protest against ira
dition than anything else. coming from
temperament. they pity my innocence
When diffidently put forward that
what they call ''self-assertion" and
"boastfulness" is only the Americana
certainty, which he shares with the
Irishman, of his godship-of his power
over his environment-they wonder
what the devil am driving at. When
tell them that the Engllshman's way
of saying when he is asked to dc
something which he knows he can dc
) better than anybody else-asked t.
. | NAV centre forward at football for in.