The Washington herald., 1921-03-27
by G, X. CHEsTERToN.

(Edifoy's Note: This article is
the first of series in 1piieh Mr..
Chcstcrtor 1ptH uritc about First
Impressions of Ameried.")
1t Is often asked what should be
the first thing that a man sees when
he lands in a foreign country; but
think it should be the vision of his
own country. At least when / came
into New York harbor. a sort of
gray and green cloud came between
me and the towers with multitude
nous windows, white in the winter
sunlight; and 1 saw an old brown
house standing back among the
beech trees at home, the house of
only one among many friends and
but one somehow SO
sunken in the very heart of England
as to be unconscious of her imperial
or International position. and out OF
the sound of her perilous seas.
Sees Reporters.
But what made most clear the
vision that revisited me was some
thing else. Before we touched land
the men of my own guild. the jour
nalists and reporters, had already
boarded the ship like pirates. And
one of them spoke to me in an ac-
cent that l knew; and thanked me
for all had done for Ireland. And
. - k1at
most vividly that what / wanted
was to do something for England.
Then, as 1t CHANGED. 4 looked
across at the Statue of Liberty. and
saw that the great bronze was
cleaning green in the morning
light. l had made all the obvious
jokes about the Statue OF Liberty
1 found 1t had a soothing effect on
earnest prohibitionists on the boat
to urge, as a point of dignity and
delicacy, that 1t ought to be given
back to the French, a vicious race
abandoned. to the culture of the
vine. proposed that the last liquors
on board should be poured out in a
pagan libation before 1t.
Haze of Green.
And then 1 suddenly remembered
that this liberty was still in some
sense enlightening the world, or
cne part of the world; was a lamp
for one sort of wanderer, a star of
one sort OF seafarer. To one per-
secuted people at least this land
had really been an asylum; even
IL recent legislation had made them
think it a lunatic asylum. They
had made it so much their home
that the very color of the country
seemed to change with the infu-
sion; as the bronze Of the great
statue took on q semblance of, the
wearing of the green.
1t is a commonplace that the Eng
lishman has been stupid In his re-
lations with the Americans on the
subject of the Irish. His propa-
aganda has been worse than his
practice; and his defense more ILL
considered than the most indefen-
sibie things that II was intended
to defend. There is in this matter
a curious tangle of cross-purposes,
which only a parallel example can
make at all clear. Well take an
ina aginary instance from another
controversy, in order to show how
lue can NC "NAoC the
action. The best We can say for
ourselves is worse than the worst
that we can do.
Case of Jews.
There was a time when English
poets and other publicists could al
ways be inspired with instantaneous
Indignation about the prosecuted
Jews in Russia. We have heard
less about them. since we heard
more about the prosecuting Jews
In Russia. fear there are a great
many middle-class Englishmen al
ready who wish that Trotsky had
been prosecuted q little more, But
even in those days Englishmen d.
vided their minds in a curious fash
ion; and unconsciously distinguish
ed between the Jews, whom they
had never seen. In Warsaw. and the
Jew whom they had often seen in
II seemed Nto be as
sumed that, by curious coincidence
Russia possessed not only the very
worst anti-Semitic but the very best
Semites. A money-lender In Lon
don might be like Judas Iscariot,
but n money-lender In Moscow must