"WHY I LIVE IN ENGLAND."

Dunstan Times, Issue 2627, 25 March 1912, Page 2

"WHY I LIVE IN ENGLAND."

\X \MERTCAN LADY'S CONFESSIONS.

"Why I Live in England" is the subjec« of an interview with Mrs Leeds, a wealthy American lady, which is causing much heart-burning among American newspaper writers. Mrs Leeds frankly explains that "the only reason I visit American shores is to see my parents. 1 never expect to live in America again. America Ls a wonderful country, and 1 am not :>n Anglomanias, hut in England I get more out of life and pav less dearlv for it than in the United' States." Mrs Leeds has the same strictures to make against life in America as Miss Anne Warner Krench, the novelist. She savs: "For work there is no place like New York, but it is impossible to live here in peace and quiet. There is always friction and more friction. The servant question is really a frightful thing. In England servants are ideal, and English homes are run so easily that one wonders when and how the necessary things are done, as nothing ever seems to be ruffled or disturbed. Here a woman with a big hausa is for ever annoyed by trifles that remain uppermost in her mind. There is no calm in the life or in the people." The explanation which Mrs Leeds gives of this is the limited interests and narrow points of view of people in American society. American women, she avers, instead of talking of politics, art, new operas, or interesting things in letters and the national life, waste their time in stupid small talk and gossip and petty dissensions, which are unspeakably tiresome and quite useless. "After a week's visit among one's friends here," she adds. "one knows all about the latest scandals, divorces, babies, and domestic troubles, but one. has not heard a single word about the big things which big Americans may have done for the country. As for politics, no one ever discusses them because no one cares or knows about them." Mrs Leeds has another reason for staying in England. She does not admire the way the sons of American millionaires are trained. "They are not a credit to society. They do not work, most of them drink, and hostesses here often have to apologise for the condi<ion of young men guests, whereas in England no man would ever appear twice in an intoxicated state in any houso, because he would never get a second invitation. Moreover evgii if they do not work, the sons of the rich English do not drink like the Americans, but grow up healthy, strong, normal, and devoted to outdoor sports. Therefore I shall educate my son in England." An interviewer asked if Mrs Leeds preferred adult Englishmen also to Americans. She replied: "I confess I think all women like the masterful type which I find among Englishmen. I sometimes think it is because American men lack this quality and are too good to their wives that the latter tire of them and divorce results."