Year: 1879

struck out, and two leather medals, all OF
which he can receive when he applies for
them.


American Life Abroad-Our Colony in


the Pyrenees.


Those of our readers who take an interest
in the wandering tribes Of our American
Israel will be gratifed with the account we
print in another column of winter life in
Pau. The other day we published a
letter from the same correspondent,
referring especially to General Grants
visit to Pau and the efforts of the
colony to entertain him. The dinner
given to the General by Mr. w. Z. Douglas,
of New York, seems to have been con-
spicuous in the grace and splendor of its
hospitality, even in tour marked by such
entertainments as no American of the age
has received. The pleasant feature Of the
dinner Of Mr.. Douglas, as referred to SO
gracefully in his speech, was the entertain
ment of an American President by an
American gentleman SO tar away from
home. Whatever contributes to the dis
semination of a true patriotic feeling men
honoring men for what they are or have
been, without regard to politics or Office,
will be an advantage to the American name
and the American character. We can very
we'll understand how General Grant felt
that he was among friends, and how CRATE
full it was, coming from the towns OF Spain
and Portugal, to be among his countrymen
again.


It is pleasant also to know that our coll
onists in Pau are having good time Why
the American should seek for sunshine at
the foot of the Pyrenees when we have SUM-
shine in our own country and noun
tains compared with which the Pyrenees
are mere foot hills, is question
that cynical observers who have never
been abroad, and who believe in
keeping all of our money at home, may
often ask. But we should not look at this
from selfish point of view. We miss our
brethren and wish them we'll home from
their wanderings, and there is none so poor
and unlucky that he may not expect
the fatted calf on his return. But
they 60 abroad as pioneers and mis-
sionarics. They so among an ancient
and refined civilization--a civilization
whose splendor illumined the world at
time when America was given over to Aztecs
and the mound builders. This little Pau,
for instance, that nestles SO prettily under
the Pyreneean hills, goes back to Roman
days, and it's streets and towers are the
mementoes of many glorious and memor-
III r. &c To hot Ao
Longfellow tells us, we cannot buy with
gold the old associations. We must cross
the sea to find them. Moreover, rs
has been remarked, you cross the ocean to
see how much greater America is than you
imagine, and how much smaller. One is
better American, prouder of the nation,
clearer sighted as to its past and future,
when he studies it from the Dover cliffs
than when seen from the Brooklyn Heights.
The small features Of American life
our scandals, our quarrels, our tremen-
dous election battles, our squabbles in
Congress, Kearneyism and Tammany Hall
and the other phases Of social malaria-sink
away, and We have only the Repub-
lie, beautiful, clear-defned, rich in
majesty and strength 1t is worth crossing
the Atlantic to look mt America as it ap-
pears away from the din and fever of our
active society. Then our wanderers bring
us back thoughts and ideas, conceptions of
the older masters, whose achievements are
the heritage of the world. If Europe grows
richer because of the money which our wan
dering brethren spend abroad America is
richer because of the trophies that are
brought home-trophies in science, art and
taste, whose influence is felt more and
more in the artistic development of the
country.


Therefore we should not be envious O
the wandering tribes of our American
Israel. Every one will be glad to know
they are having good time. 1t illustrates
the enterprising side of their character
that they should enter into hunting, for
instance, so earnestly. We have not done
as we'll in hunting at home as we hope to
do. The tendency Of the American foxes
to turn on the hounds and make game of
them, as happened in New Jersey
on famous occasion, rather deadened
an honorable and rising ambition. We
have good fox hunting in the South. es-
pecially in Virginia and the Carolinas, in
the early fall. In time we shall have meets
nearer home. In addition to the accom-
plished horsemen we have in America, and
we presume none are better than those who
hunt the antelope and the buffalo on the
Plains, we shall have the experience of our
colonists in Pau and elsewhere. Hunting,
once that it takes root in America, will be-
come national amusement, and there is
none more noble and graceful. We are
glad that our fellow citizens at Pau enter
so much into the spirit OF it. We condole
with them because the frost prevented
our wandering Ulysses from taking
h,o rIaca behin1 tha bouuda and