Andrew Lang's Typical American.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 32, 7 February 1891, Page 4 (Supplement)

Andrew Lang's Typical American.

But, if try wc> must, here goes for the typical American of the educated classes. He is not very like an Englishman; he is rather more like a Frenchman, but still more like an American. You cannot say where he differs iq appearance trom a Briton; ib may be in his necktie, his boots, or the way in which he brushes his hair. He seldom looks as if he lived much in the open air or was fond of field sports. He is much more vivacious than an Englishman, more original in manner, more fertile in ideas, more modern in every way. He is almost too good company; too effervescent for some natives of a slow, foggy climate. He is enviably detached from our internal politics and social confusions. These are all pretty indifferent to the natives of a country which has elbow room, a militia which shoots and practically no neighbours. He is usually fond of the Irish and their cause, but he never goes to Ireland. He does not mind explaining to you fche niceties of baseball, but I have known an elderly Frenchman take more interest than he does in cricket. Ho seems to me to know a greab deal about cookery, and delicacies of strange names American and French, bub he has, perhaps, no very high opinion of our poor culinary efforts." He is not curious, however, in strange mixed juleps and cocktails and so forth, like ' the repesentative American of the stage. He very seldom talks with an English accent, and even when he does his idioms betray him. He takes a Platonic interest in poker, but is no gambler. He is much too familiar with English life to be very keenly curious about it, and be never dreams of going to see the lions. He is rather fond of the play, knowing and carinavery much more about our authors, pieces and so forth than I do, for one. He is kind, courteous, obliging, ingenious, a good fellow, and welcome because he is infinitely more alive than most of us. To bring him into a room full of dejected Britons is like pouring fresh water among the fish in a pail. He is patriotic, but no Chauvinist, and is aware that Bunker Hill was but a British defeat. He does nob talk aboub the war and Abraham Lincoln. We are sorry when he goes away and glad when he comes back again with a new budget of good stories, for, if he has a national trait, ib is the swopping of anecdotes. He is not a man that anybody would think of trying to impose upon, bub he is not demonstratively acute. Never have I seen a robustious American, nor an American who" preached, nor an American who told pointless stories. — Andrew Lang, in « North Amsrican Review.'