The Washington herald., 1922-03-26

Is there an organized trade in
American impressions" carried on
by British lecturers and literary
men at our expense? Stephen Lea
cock, the humorist, says there is.
and in the April Harper's Maga-
zine declares that the exporting of
Impressions has now been going on
so long that the balance of trade
has been seriously disturbed.
Mr.. Leacock advocates reprisals,
and in order that the Englishmen
shall not have it all their own way.
he has come out with an article
entitled My Discovery of England"
written in the best manner of the
Britisher discovering" America.
For some years past" he says.
"a rising tide of lecturers and lit
erary men from England has
washed upon the shores of this con-
tinent. They come over to. us
travelling In great simplicity. and
they return in the ducal suite Of
with them their impressions of
America. and when they reach Eng
land they sell them.
Compose In Curtained Taxi.
This irregular and one-sided
traffic has now assumed such great
proportions that we are compelled
to ask whether 1t is right to allow
these people to carry away from
US Impressions of the very highest
commercial value without giving us
any pecuniary compensation what
ever. English lecturers have been
known to Land in. New. York, pass
the customs. drive uptown in a
closed taxi, and then forward to
England from the closed taxi itself
ten dollars worth OF impressions
of American national character. ]
have. myself seen an English liter
airy mantle biggest, l believe; he
had at least the appearance of it
sitting in the corridor of a fashion
able New York hotel and looking
gloomily into his hat, and then
from his very hat produce an esti-
mate of the genius of America at
twenty cents word. The nice
question as to whose twenty cents
that was never. seems to have oc-
CURED to him."
After assuring us that he is not
animated in the faintest degree by
jealousy, and that he Is prepared
to admit the extraordinary ability
of our visitors to absorb impress
sions, the writer submits that these
impressions are Inadequate and fail
to depict US as we. really are. BY
way of illustration he cites some
impressions gathered from various
visitors discoveries of America and
reproduced, he says, not, perhaps,
word for word, but as closely as he
can remember them.
New York writes one, nest
ling at the foot of the Hudson. gave
me an impression of coziness, of
tiny graciousness; in short. OF Wee
ness But compare this: New
York according to another dis
coverer of America, gave me an
impression of size, of vastness; there
seemed to me a bigness about IL
not found in smaller places A
third visitor writes, New York
struck me as hard, cruel, almost
inhuman.' This, I think. was be-
cause his taxi driver had charged
him. three dollars. ,t.
stealing Pittsburgh's Atmosphere.
"T took from Pittsburgh says
an English visitor, an impression
of something that 1 could hardly
define-an atmosphere rather than
an idea
'AlI very well. - But, after all,
had he the right, to take it? Granted
that Pittsburgh has an atmosphere
rather than an idea, the attempt
to carry away this atmosphere
surely borders on rapacity.
New Orleans. writes another
visitor. opened her arms to me and
bestowed upon me the soft and