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Jacksonville, Ill. (Illinois, United States) (search for this): chapter 4
ical Protestantism still added. Ours is the elect nation, preaches this reformer of American faults--ours is the elect nation for the age to come. We are the chosen people. Already, says he, we are taller and heavier than other men, longer lived than other men, richer and more energetic than other men, above all, of finer nervous organization than other men. Yes, this people, who endure to have the American newspaper for their daily reading, and to have their habitation in Briggsville, Jacksonville, and Marcellus — this people is of finer, more delicate nervous organization than other nations! It is Colonel Higginson's drop more of nervous fluid, over again. This drop plays a stupendous part in the American rhapsody of self-praise. Undoubtedly the Americans are highly nervous, both the men and the women. A great Paris physician says that he notes a distinct new form of nervous disease, produced in American women by worry about servants. But this nervousness, developed in the ra
Edinburgh (United Kingdom) (search for this): chapter 4
ny one wants a good antidote to the unpleasant effect left by Mr. Froude's Life of Carlyle, let him read those letters. Not only of Carlyle will those letters make him think kindly, but they will also fill him with admiring esteem for the qualities, character, and family life, as there delineated, of the Scottish peasant. Well, the Carlyle family were numerous, poor, and struggling. Thomas Carlyle, the eldest son, a young man in wretched health and worse spirits, was fighting his way in Edinburgh. One of his younger brothers talked of emigrating. The very best thing he could do! we should all say. Carlyle dissuades him. You shall never, he writes, you shall never seriously meditate crossing the great Salt Pool to plant yourself in the Yankee-land. That is a miserable fate for any one, at best; never dream of it. Could you banish yourself from all that is interesting to your mind, forget the history, the glorious institutions, the noble principles of old Scotland — that you migh
London (United Kingdom) (search for this): chapter 4
IV: civilization in the United States. Two or three years ago I spoke in this Review The Nineteenth Century, London. on the subject of America; and after considering the institutions and the social condition of the people of the United States, I said that what, in the jargon of the present day, is called the political and s compared to peaches grown under glass. Do not believe that the American Newtown pippins appear in the New York and Boston fruit-shops as they appear in those of London and Liverpool ; or that the Americans have any pear to give you like the Marie Louise. But what laborer, or artisan, or small clerk, ever gets hot-house peaches,d has an extremely small sale. In general, the daily papers are such that when one returns home one is moved to admiration and thankfulness not only at the great London papers, like the Times or the Standard, but quite as much at the great provincial newspapers, too,--papers like the Leeds Mercury and the York-shire Post in the n
Liverpool (United Kingdom) (search for this): chapter 4
within a laboring man's easy reach. I have mentioned ice; I will mention fruit also. The abundance and cheapness of fruit is a great boon to people of small incomes in America. Do not believe the Americans when they extol their peaches as equal to any in the world, or better than any in the world; they are not to be compared to peaches grown under glass. Do not believe that the American Newtown pippins appear in the New York and Boston fruit-shops as they appear in those of London and Liverpool ; or that the Americans have any pear to give you like the Marie Louise. But what laborer, or artisan, or small clerk, ever gets hot-house peaches, or Newtown pippins, or Marie Louise pears? Not such good pears, apples, and peaches as those, but pears, apples, and peaches by no means to be despised, such people and their families do in America get in plenty. Well, now, what would a philosopher or a philanthropist say in this case? which would he say was the more civilized condition —
Alleghany Mountains (United States) (search for this): chapter 4
to be satisfied with it — we demand, however much else it may give us, that it shall give us, too, the interesting. Now, the great sources of the interesting are distinction and beauty: that which is elevated, and that which is beautiful. Let us take the beautiful first, and consider how far it is present in American civilization. Evidently, this is that civilization's weak side. There is little to nourish and delight the sense of beauty there. In the long-settled states east of the Alleghanies the landscape in general is not interesting, the climate harsh and in extremes. The Americans are restless, eager to better themselves and to make fortunes; the inhabitant does not strike his roots lovingly down into the soil, as in rural England. In the valley of the Connecticut you will find farm after farm which the Yankee settler has abandoned in order to go West, leaving the farm to some new Irish immigrant. The charm of beauty which comes from ancientness and permanence of rura
California (California, United States) (search for this): chapter 4
in; and, other things being equal, the finest nervous organization will produce the highest civilization. Now, the finest nervous organization is ours. The new West promises to beat in the game of brag even the stout champions I have been quoting. Those belong to the old Eastern States; and the other day there was sent to me a Californian newspaper which calls all the Easterners the unhappy denizens of a forbidding clime, and adds: The time will surely come when all roads will lead to California. Here will be the home of art, science, literature, and profound knowledge. Common-sense criticism, I repeat, of all this hollow stuff there is in America next to none. There are plenty of cultivated, judicious, delightful individuals there. They are our hope and America's hope; it is through their means that improvement must come. They know perfectly well how false and hollow the boastful stuff talked is; but they let the storm of self-laudation rage, and say nothing. For politica
Cambria (United Kingdom) (search for this): chapter 4
ngs. By tickings we are to understand news conveyed through the tickings of the telegraph. The first ticking was: Matthew Arnold is sixty-two years old --an age, I must just say in passing, which I had not then reached. The second ticking was: Wales says, Mary is a darling ; the meaning being that the Prince of Wales expressed great admiration for Miss Mary Anderson. This was at Boston, the American Athens. I proceeded to Chicago. An evening paper was given me soon after I arrived; I openWales expressed great admiration for Miss Mary Anderson. This was at Boston, the American Athens. I proceeded to Chicago. An evening paper was given me soon after I arrived; I opened it, and found under a large-type heading, We have seen him arrive, the following picture of myself: He has harsh features, supercilious manners, parts his hair down the middle, wears a single eyeglass and ill-fitting clothes. Notwithstanding this rather unfavorable introduction, I was most kindly and hospitably received at Chicago. It happened that I had a letter for Mr. Medill, an elderly gentleman of Scotch descent, the editor of the chief newspaper in those parts, the Chicago Tribune. I
America (Illinois, United States) (search for this): chapter 4
cing Sir Lepel Griffin's feelings when he said that America is one of the last countries in which one would likere material progress, and did not enough set forth America's deficiencies and dangers. And a friendly clergymhe grand remedy for the deficiencies and dangers of America. On this I offer no criticism; what struck me, and self-deception as I have been mentioning is one of America's dangers, or even that it is self-deception at allism, I repeat, of all this hollow stuff there is in America next to none. There are plenty of cultivated, judielightful individuals there. They are our hope and America's hope; it is through their means that improvement r political opponents and their doings there are in America hard words to be heard in abundance; for the real fud to his countrymen and to his newspapers, that in America they do not solve the human problem successfully, a step of such men should be to insist on having for America, and to create if need be, better newspapers. To
Europe (search for this): chapter 4
ey are cheap, and they are better furnished and in winter are warmer than third-class carriages in England. Luxuries are, as I have said, very dear — above all, European luxuries; but a working-man's clothing is nearly as cheap as in England, and plain food is on the whole cheaper. Even luxuries of a certain kind are within a later, whom I found painting and prospering in America, how he liked the country. How can an artist like it? was his answer. The American artists live chiefly in Europe; all Americans of cultivation and wealth visit Europe more and more constantly. The mere nomenclature of the country acts upon a cultivated person like the incesEurope more and more constantly. The mere nomenclature of the country acts upon a cultivated person like the incessant pricking of pins. What people in whom the sense for beauty and fitness was quick could have invented, or could tolerate, the hideous names ending in ville, the Briggsvilles, Higginsvilles, Jacksonvilles, rife from Maine to Florida; the jumble of unnatural and inappropriate names everywhere? On the line from Albany to Buffal
Maine (Maine, United States) (search for this): chapter 4
ow he liked the country. How can an artist like it? was his answer. The American artists live chiefly in Europe; all Americans of cultivation and wealth visit Europe more and more constantly. The mere nomenclature of the country acts upon a cultivated person like the incessant pricking of pins. What people in whom the sense for beauty and fitness was quick could have invented, or could tolerate, the hideous names ending in ville, the Briggsvilles, Higginsvilles, Jacksonvilles, rife from Maine to Florida; the jumble of unnatural and inappropriate names everywhere? On the line from Albany to Buffalo you have, in one part, half the names in the classical dictionary to designate the stations; it is said that the folly is due to a surveyor who, when the country was laid out, happened to possess a classical dictionary; but a people with any artist-sense would have put down that surveyor. The Americans meekly retain his names; and, indeed, his strange Marcellus or Syracuse is perhaps
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