ENGLISH CHARACTERISTICS AS SEEN BY AN AMERICAN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2356, 20 April 1899, Page 60

ENGLISH CHARACTERISTICS AS SEEN BY AN AMERICAN.

♦ (Julian Ralph, in Harper's Magazine.) To Americans who have lived in England the most striking and peculiar characteristics of the English people are their affection for their Sovereign, their unwavering regpect foi caste and all monarchical institutions, their love of nature, animals, and flowers, their regard for individual liberty, the precision with which they choose their words in speaking, and their rock-ribbed conservatism and confidence in whatever is English, which is surely dropping them behind in the commercial competition which has sprung up between them and the Germans, the Americans, and the Japanese. If I add to these the pride and comfort they take in their homes, and their excessive fondness for outdoor sports and for water, except as a beverage, it seems to me I have summed up theii main traits as they appear to a stranger who studies them long enough to understand them.

I shall say nothing of them which I have not said at them in print and without contradiction from any quarter. To begin an analysis of their mental make-up, I have said "that they always put their worst foot forward. The best homes in London — those thao are most palatial within — have the dullest exteriors, and reach away in blocks of plain, box-shaped, soot-grimed, factory-like Buildings. Englishmen nearly always make the worst impression when they are adding to their acquaintances, and the kindest of them seem rude when they are addressed by Strangers, or when either then- rights, their liberties, or then comfort are in the slightest degree encroached upon. They go about doing themselves injustice. This proceeds either from awkwardness, shyness, or confidence in themselves. They leave it to you and me and the whole world to find out for ourselves their virtues, their attractions, and all the nicer attributes which they hide .within the shell of their reserve.

It is not true that they lack a sense of humour oi a love of fun. I have heard as funny stories and as good jokes there as here. True, they are not so much given to joking. Then, again, their jokes arc of'a different sort. Their wit is not as quick and as dependent on unexpected situations and distorted views of things as is ours. They are elower-minded than we ; slower in every ,way — more deliberate, more patient, more given to reflection, to procrastination, and to taking their ease. An American's first month in London is a sore trial of his nerves. Every succeeding month is more and more a rest. As long as you expect to do anything, get anything, or reach anyin a hurry, you are on the rack of despair. Once yon realise the folly of trying to reform 38,000,000 of easy-going, deliberate people, you begin to feel grateful for the calm and peace and restfulness they carry about with them like an atmosphere. To illustrate their deliberateness, let me tell of a hat which blew off a mechanic's ihead on the top of a 'bus crossing Albert bridge only a few days ago. A stiff breeze blew up the Thames, and the hat was blown against the side of the bridge, and then >vent spinning dowr the footway in the opposite direction from that which the 'bus pursued. " I say," said the mechanic, reachang over and touching the driver on the shoulder, "me 'at's blowed off." The driver fidgetted a moment at this sudden interruption, then took a tighter grasp of the reins, land clucked to the horses to quicken their pace. The hat and the vehicle spun along m opposite ways. " I say, driver, ' said the mechanic, "me 'at's blowed off." The driver 'rfidgetted again, but now liis mind grasped the situation, though most unwillingly. " It 'as, 'as it? " he said, turning to the man. ." Well, then, that'll teach you to buy 'ats to fit youi 'cad. I ad a 'ole lot of 'ats blow off before I made up me mind to get 'em to fit ins 'cad. After that I 'ad no more trouble."

The hat was still bowling along, and was now at the farther end of the bridge. The mechanic looked at it dully. I was in a fever of gratuitous impatience for the 'bus to stop, or for the man to climb down. The driver turned back to his work and clucked to his licrses, who quickened their gait. Just then a vagrant stopped the flight of the hat, »nd ran and caught the 'bus, and got a penny for his pains. So everyone was happy, even I. I say a vagrant caught it. Perhaps by catching it he was promoted, and cea&ed to be a vagrant. No one who does anything for gain in England is a vagrant in the eyes of the law, its executors, or the people at large. One beggar who knew this peculiarity of his nation said, when arrested in midsummer, that he was no beggar. " I shovel snow off the pavements for a living," taid he. There is not snow enough to snovel once in five years, but anyone could see that that was not his fault. If a man, a woman, or a child sings or dances, plays a penny flute, sweeps a crossing, or turns nandsprings beside the coaches or boats that run to Hampton Court, ho or she cannot be railed a beggar. . . . All summer Hyde Park, St. James's, and Green Park are almost rendered eyesores by the figures of Bleeping men ; and in certain parks the men and boys bathe in the ornamental watei's up to a fixed hour of the morning. Out of this regard for the liberty of the individual frow3 the shameful night parade in Piccailly, wherein vice flaunts itself and evil women pre-empt the best street in London, •while good ones must keep indoors or shut themselves in cabs. . . . Tlie enervating climate accounts for the drinking habits of the people. For three months after my arrival in London I could not get warm. I knew that the people put on heavy clothes, and took a great deal of exercise is. lieu of heating their nouses as we do ; but the thickest, clothes did not suffice, and only a few Americans know how to -work at athletics and business at the same time, so that i shivered by night and by day, and was made almost ill with the cold. I said io to my banker — the soberest, most orderly nf men. "How much whisky do you drink?" be asked. I had not been drinking any. " Good heavens, man ! " he exclaimed. ' Come with me." He tool me to the nearest pubJichouse and ordered a glass of Scotch jvhisky for me. "There," he said, "never let the middle of an afternoon pass without

your having had a glass of spirits. Take anothez before you go to bed. Others may prescribe a greater quantity, and you must be the judge of your own requirements ; but, mark me, -you take two drinks a day as I have advised, or you'll be ill. Indeed, I shouldn't wonder if you died. It is impossible to live in this climate without stimulants."

The drunkenness that results from the strain of the debilitating climate is worse than shocking to a stranger. The crowds in the gin-palaces, the preponderance of poor women in the mass of drinkers, the drunkenness of women, and the fact that liquor, which renders men sodden, seems to make women crazy- — these, with the bedlam in the streets at the closing time of the taverns each night are all as noteworthy, though not as nice, as the eating 'habits of the people. _____