Matthew Arnold, Civilization in the United States: First and Last Impressions of America.

“ [180] 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 called on him, and we conversed amicably together. Some time afterwards, when I had gone back to England, a New York paper published a criticism of Chicago and its people, purporting to have been contributed by me to the Pall Mall Gazette over here. It was a poor hoax, but many people were taken in and were excusably angry. Mr. Medill of the Chicago Tribune amongst the number. A friend telegraphed to me to know if I had written the criticism. I, of course, instantly telegraphed back that I had not written a syllable of it. Then a Chicago paper is sent to me; and what I have the pleasure of reading, as the result of my contradiction, is this: “Arnold denies; Mr. Medill [my old friend] refuses to accept Arnold's disclaimer; says Arnold is a cur.”

I once declared that in England the born lover of ideas and of light could not but feel