The Washington herald., 1921-05-22
Friendship Between America
And England Crows Gibbs
Visitors to Old Country Will Help to Build
Bridges Over Wide Waters, to Unite IS
Nations, He Declares.


years OF tragic history, Business
kinds. are taking look around
Europe to study the possibilities of
commercial recovery and to open
new markets.. and they find tha,
England Ii apt to keep them back
from other countries longer than
they expected because Of some queer
spell in It's way of life.
Some Of those. meet cannot ac-
count for this. They ind London
looking shabbier and dingier than
OF old at the. beginning Of summer,
because people here do not seem to
have money to spend repainting
their homes.
Owing to the labor troubles and
the ceaseless strikes, or threats Of
strike. they ind railway travelling
here uncomfortable and the hotels
restricted In their service OF baths,
hot water and fires ON chilly even
lngs. Yet many Of them iinger in
England. and in spite OF the criti-
oisms and petty annoyances. they
admit they are having a perfectly
good time.
One Thing UnchanEed.
One thing Is unaltered in this
country where much Is changing.
That Is the pageant of beauty Of
the English countryside, and as an
Englishman ] like TO hear Ameri-
cans say what is certainly true. that
never has u been more beautiful
than In these days of early summer.
when all the fields are strewn with
the gold and silver OF buttercups
and daisies. when the woods and the
lanes are esrpeted with primroses
and bluebells. when all the hedge
rows are white with Nav blossoms
and the orchards are desp under
snowy petals. and every cottage and
garden in the old English shires
Is ahame with the glory Of the
flowers that Shakespeare loved.
- One American ladv know fled
from London n week or two ago
because Of this beauty, which she
saw from a railway train. She
wanted to get into the heart Of old
England, to drink deep of this scent
of flowers. TO lie In those fairy
haunted woods. to pop her head into
those little old cottages with thatch
roofs and crooked chimneys.
"A motor tour" said her friends,
but she told them:
ct am walking all the way"
She was warned that her skirts
were not too short for the London
fashion. but they might he thought
scandalous in r"-ai En-land.
isk that she said. and -
hoisted a little bundle on her back
and startled Oxford undergraduates
by the call to the wild that was in
her eyes as she plodded down Hirh
Street and looked in at. -tha.- -coiiere.
bury Cross. where once a fair lady
rode on a white horse, and thence
to Woodstock. where Amy Robssrt
lived. and on to Warwick. where she
met the ghosts of Queen Elizabeth
and MY Lord Leicester. and after
many roadside adventures and meals
at village inns and day dreams in
the sun by singing brooks in SPAN
gied meadows. she came. as a pill
grim ought to come. to Stratford-
op-Avon. where none minded the
shortness of her skirt or the white
dust on her boots or the new love
Off. England in .her hesJt.
England has not changed. say
some Americans who go motorin q
through Kent and Sussex. or fur
ther afield from the south to the
north. thinking nothing of distances
which seem great to those who have
always lived on the little island
which has played SO big a part in
the world.
Nothing has altered. they say.
"As IL was in the beginning. Il is
now and ever shall be-" and they
take snapshots Of Norman churches
and Tudor houses and villages which
were old when the Stuarts were
new. and they keep them as proof
Of the unchan ging antiquity of Eng
land.
Beneath the Surface.
So they are convinced. those who
have no time to search beneath the
surface OF English life. that the
character of the people is unaltered
by the effects of the war. They are
still slow-going. reserved. unemo-
tional. conservative. insuiar.
The gentry of England still have
a touch Of arrogance in their man
ner until Americans ge beneath
their masks and find a queer shy
ness. They still think some OF
their visitors with old divisions OF
caste and. the old subservience ia
titles and traditions.
On the other hand. have had
talks with Americans now in Eng
land who knew us before the war
and who now study us with search-
ing eyes, and they find US strangely
altered. At home 1t is very inter-
esting to hear their views. although
perhaps 1t Is little painful now
and then. II was painful when one
American yesterday confessed his
belief that EnsIand was losing h+-
grip. He believes that the old
strength Of spirit has been mortally
wounded by exhaustion. from the
war. and that the governing classes
have weakened to the threats of la