the chief characteristic of america is an immense patriotism, and out of that patriotism spring a thousand minor characteristics, which, taken by themselves, may be considered blemishes by the critical foreigner,—such troublesome little characteristics as national pride and thin-skinnedness, national bluster and cocksureness. but personal annoyance should not blind the critic or appreciator to the fundamental fact of the american's belief in america. this belief is not a narrow partizanship, though it may seem unpleasantly like that to those who listen to the clamour of excited americans at the olympic games and other competitions of an international interest. it is not merely the commercial instinct ever on the watch for opportunities for self-advertisement. it is a real, hearty patriotic fervour, the deepest thing in an american. it is something that cannot be shaken.
"it is a sacrament to walk the streets as an american citizen," says a presbyterian circular. "being an american is a sacred mission. our whole life must be enthralled by a holy passion."
[pg 210]
you could never hear it said, except in an imperial way, that being a briton, or being a german, or being a russian was a sacred mission. in britain it would be bad form, in germany absurd, in russia quite untrue. it is part of the greatness of america that she can come forward unashamed and call herself the handmaiden of the lord.
now there is a fine healthy spirit abroad in the land counteracting the more sentimental and sanctimonious self-honour of the americans. something more in deeds than in words, a pulse that beats for america, a greater purpose that breathes through myriads of personal acts, done for personal ends. outside, beyond the degrading commercialism of the nation, there is a feeling that building for a man is building also for america; that buying and selling in the store is buying and selling for the great nation; that writing or singing or painting, though done in self-conceited cities and before limited numbers, is really all consecrated to the idea of the new america.
in several schools of america the children take the following pledge:
i am a citizen of america and an heir to all her greatness and renown. the health and happiness of my own body depend upon each muscle and nerve and drop of blood doing its work in its place. so the health and happiness of my country depend upon each citizen doing his work in his place.
[pg 211]
i will not fill any post or pursue any business where i can live upon my fellow-citizens without doing them useful service in return; for i plainly see that this must bring suffering and want to some of them. i will do nothing to desecrate the soil of america, or pollute her air or degrade her children, my brothers and sisters.
i will try to make her cities beautiful, and her citizens healthy and happy, so that she may be a desired home for myself now, and for her children in days to come.
teachers are recommended to explain to children that patriotism means love of your own country and not hate of other countries; and that the best mode of patriotism is love and care for the ideals of the fatherland.
the most obvious fields of activity are the school, the building, the yard or playgrounds, and the surrounding streets. whatsoever is offensive and unsightly, detrimental to health, or in violation of law, is a proper field for action. the litter of papers and refuse; marks on side walks, buildings, and fences; mutilation, vandalism, and damage of any kind to property; cleanliness of the school building and the surrounding streets, door-yards, and pavements; observance of the ordinances for the disposal of garbage by the scavenger and people in the community; protection and care of shade trees; improper advertisements, illegal signs and bill-boards; unnecessary noises in the streets around the school, including cries of street-vendors and barking of dogs and blowing of horns; the display of objectionable pictures and postcards in the windows of stores—all supply opportunities to the teachers to train pupils for good citizenship.
[pg 212]
circulars like the following are scattered broadcast to citizens, and they breathe the patriotism of the american:
do you approve of your home city?
i mean, do you like her looks, her streets, her schools, her public buildings, her stores, factories, parks, railways, trolleys and all that makes her what she is? do you approve of these things as they are? do you think they could be better? do you think you know how they can be made better?
if you do you are unusual. few take the trouble to approve or disapprove. many may think they care about the city; but few, very few, act as if they did!
when you see something you think can be improved you go straight and find out who is the man who has that something in charge; whatever it is, factories, smoke, stores, saloons, parks, paving, playgrounds, lawns, back-yards, ash-cans, overhead signs, newspapers, bill-boards, side-walks, street cars, street lighting, motor traffic, freight yards, or what not, you find out who is the man who has in charge that thing you dislike; then you talk to him, or write to him, and tell him what you disapprove of, and ask him if he can and will make it better, or tell you why he can't. he wants to make it better. he will if he can. almost invariably he wants to do his work of looking after that thing better than it was ever done before. he will welcome your complaint; he will explain his handicaps; he will ask your help. then you give the help.
j. c. d.
ingenious photographs of american types
ingenious photographs of american types.
making the city beautiful and fostering a love for the home-city, however dingy and dreary that city may at present be, is one of the most potent and[pg 213] attractive expressions of american patriotism, and it is well to note the characteristic. it has great promise for the america of the future, the america which the sons and daughters of the immigrants will inherit. the america of the future is to be one of artistically imagined cities and proud, responsible citizens. even now, despite the unlovely state of new york and chicago and the reputation for devastating ugliness which america has in europe, there are clear signs of the commencement of an era of grace and order. already the parks of the american cities are the finest in the world, and are worth much study in themselves. american townsmen have loved nature enough to plant trees so that every decent town on the western continent has become a cluster of shady avenues. some cities favour limes, some maples; new haven is known as "the city of elms"; in washington alone it is said that there are 78,000 street trees; cleveland has been called "the city of the forest." wherever i tramped in america i found the most delicious shade in the town streets—excepting, of course, the streets of the coaling infernos of pennsylvania. no idea of the expense of land deters the american from getting space and greenery into the midst of his wilderness of brick and mortar. it is said that the value of the parks in such a city as newark, for instance, is over two and a quarter millions of pounds (nine million dollars). "our aim," says a newark[pg 214] circular, "is the city beautiful, and it requires the aid of everyday patriots to make it so. pericles said, 'make athens beautiful, for beauty is now the most victorious power in the world.'"
america has become the place of continuous crusades—against dirt, against municipal corruption, immorality, noise. it would surprise many europeans to know the fight which is being made against bell-advertisement, steam whistles, organ-grinders' music, shouts of street hawkers, and the exuberance of holiday-makers.
"don't be ashamed to fight for your city to get it clean and beautiful, to rid it of its sweat-shops and hells," i read in a chicago paper. "some folk call our disease chicagoitis, but that is a thousand times better than chicagophobia. those suffering from chicagophobia are as dangerous to society as those who have hydrophobia."
then, most potent expression of all in american patriotism is the american's belief in the future of its democracy, the faith which is not shattered by the seeming bad habits of the common people, the flocking to music halls and cinema shows, the reading of the yellow press.
it has been noted in the last few years that there is a distinct falling off in the acceleration of reading at the public libraries. this is attributed to the extraordinary amount of time spent by men and women[pg 215] at the "movies," when they would otherwise be reading. such a fact would breed pessimism in great britain or europe were it established. but america has such trust in the hearts and hopes of the common people that it approves of the picture show. "if readers of books go back to the cinema, let them go," says the american; "it is like a child in the third class voluntarily going back to the first class, because the work being done there is more suited to his state of mind." the cinema show is doing the absolutely elementary work among the vast number of immigrants, who are almost illiterate. it is not a be-all and an end-all, but stimulates the mind and sets it moving, thinking, striving. the picture show will bring good readers to the libraries in time. it is the first step in the cultural ladder of the democracy.
then people of good taste in europe decry the reading of newspapers; a leader of thought and politics like a. j. balfour can boast that he never reads the papers. but america says, "you have the newspaper habit. this habit is one of the most beneficial and entertaining habits you have. few people read too many newspapers. most people do not read enough." this, of american papers of all papers in the world. but let me go on quoting the most significant words of america's great librarian, j. cotton dana:
readers of newspapers are the best critics of them. the more they are read the wiser the readers; the wiser the readers[pg 216] the more criticisms, and the more the newspapers are criticised the better they become.
do you say this does not apply to the yellow journal? i would reply that it does. the yellow journal caters all the time to the beginners in reading, who are also the beginners in newspaper reading. a new crop of these beginners in reading is born every year. this new crop likes its reading simply printed, in large letters, and with plenty of pictures. the more of this new crop of readers there are the more the yellow journals flourish; and the more the yellow journals flourish the sooner this new crop is educated by the yellow journals, by the mere process of reading them, and the sooner they get into the habit of reading journals that are not yellow and contain a larger quantity of more reliable information, until at last the yellow journals are overpassed by the readers they have themselves trained.
the yellow press is the second rung on the cultural ladder of democracy. america is glad of it, glad also of the princess novelette, the pirate story, glad of hall caine and marie corelli; all these are, as it were, divining-rods for better things. the american says "yes" to the novels of florence barclay, as indeed most sensible britons would also. the rosary was a most helpful book—so much more helpful to the unformed intellect and young intelligence of the mass of the people than, for instance, tolstoy's dangerously overpraised resurrection or wells's new machiavelli. america recognises the truth that the ugly has power to make those who look at it ugly like itself; but that the crude and elementary stuff, [pg 217]however poor it may be artistically, is nevertheless most useful to democracy if it speaks in language and sentiment which is common knowledge to the reader. how useful to america is such a book as churchill's inside of the cup.
it is a very true dictum that "reading makes more reading"; and in a young, hopeful nation, striving to divine its own destiny and to visualise its future, "more reading" always means better reading.
perhaps the cultured ladder of democracy may be seen allegorically as the ladder of jacob's dream. religion, which may be thought to have flown from the churches, is in evidence at the libraries. it is a librarian who is able to say in the inside of the cup that we are on the threshold of a greater religious era than the world has ever seen.
in america to-day we are confronted with two parties,—one the great multifarious, unformed mass of the people, and the other the strong, emancipated, cultured american nation, which is at work shaping the democracy. the aspect of the "rabble," the commercial heathen, and horde of unknowing, unknown immigrants, gives you the first but not the final impression of america. you remark first of all the slouching, blank-eyed, broad-browed immigrant, who indulges still his european vices and craves his european pleasures, flocking into saloons, [pg 218]debauching his body, or at best looking dirty and out of hand, a reproach to the american flag. you see the jews leaping over one another's backs in the orgy of mean trade. you see the fat american, clever enough to bluff even the jew—the strange emerging bourgeois type of what i call the "white nigger," low-browed, heavy-cheeked, thick-lipped, huge-bodied, but white; men who seem made of rubber so elastic they are; men who seem to get their thoughts from below upward. i've often watched one of these "white negroes" reflecting; he seems to sense his thoughts in his body first of all—you can watch his idea rise up to him from the earth, pass along his body and flicker at last in a true american smile across his lips—a transition type of man i should say. one wonders where these men, who are originally jews or anglo-saxons or dutch or germans, got their negro souls. it would almost tempt one to think that there were negro souls floating about, and that they found homes in white babies.
beside the fat american is the more familiar lean, hatchet-faced type, which is thought to correspond to the red indian in physiognomy. perhaps too much importance is attached to the darwinian idea that the climate of america is breeding a race of men with physique and types similar to the aborigines. the american is still a long way from the red-skin. meanwhile, however, one may note with a smile the [pg 219]extraordinary passion of americans for collecting autographs, curios, snippets of the clothes of famous men, italian art, british castles,—which seems to be scalp-hunting in disguise. the americans are great scalp-hunters.
on the whole, the dry, lean americans are the most trustworthy and honourable among the masses of the people. in england we trust fat men, men "who sleep o' nights," but in america one prefers the lean man. shakespeare would not have written of cassius as he did if he had been an american of to-day. of course too much stress might easily be laid on the unpleasantness of the "white-nigger" type. there are plenty of them who are true gentlemen.
the american populace has also its bad habits. there are those who chew "honest scrap," and those who chew "spearmint." it is astonishing to witness the service of the cuspidor in a hotel, the seven or eight obese, cow-like american men, all sitting round a cuspidor and chewing tobacco; almost equally astonishing to sit in a tramcar full of american girls, and see that every jaw is moving up and down in the mastication of sweet gum.
america suffers terribly from its own success, its vastness, its great resources, its commercial scoops, its wealth, vested en masse and so vulgarly in the person of lucky or astute business men. this has[pg 220] bred a tendency to chronic exaggeration in the language of the common people, it has brought on the jaunty airs and tall talk of the man who, however ignorant he may be, thinks that he knows all. but success has also brought kindness and an easy-going temperament. there are no people in the world less disposed to personal ill-temper than the americans. they are very generous, and in friendship rampageously exuberant. they are not mean, and are disinclined to incur or to collect small debts. they would rather toss who pays for the drinks of a party than pay each his own score. they have even invented little gambling machines in cigar stores and saloons where you can put a nickel over a wheel and run a chance between having five cigars for five cents, or paying twenty-five cents for no cigars at all.
so stands on the one hand the "many-headed," sprung from every country in europe, an uncouth nation doing what they ought not to do, and leaving undone what they ought to do, but at least having in their hearts, every one of them, the idea that america is a fine thing, a large thing, a wonderful promise. opposite them stands what may be called the american intelligence, ministering as best it can to the wants of young america, and helping to fashion the great desideratum,—a homogeneous nation for the new world.
it seems perhaps a shame to question the significance of any of the phenomena of american life of to-day,[pg 221] to tie what may be likened to a tin can to the end of this chapter; but i feel that this is the most fitting place to put a few notes which i have made of tendencies which are apt to give trouble to the mind of europeans otherwise very sympathetic to america and america's ideal. they are quite explicable phenomena, and in realising and understanding them for himself the reader will be enabled to get a truer idea of the atmosphere of america.
on my way into cleveland i read in the pittsburg post the following statistics of life at princeton college, of the students at the college:
184 men smoke.
76 began after entering college, but 51 students have stopped smoking since entering college.
91 students wear glasses, and 57 began to wear them since entering.
15 students chew tobacco.
19 students consider dancing immoral.
16 students consider card-playing immoral.
206 students correspond with a total of 579 girls.
203 students claim to have kissed girls in their time.
24 students have proposed and been rejected.
another day i read in the new york american the story of the adventures of watts's "love and life" in america:
the peripatetic painting, "love and life," the beautiful allegorical work, by george frederick watts, once more [pg 222]reposes in an honoured niche in the white house. the varied career of this painting in regard to white house residence extends over seventeen years.
this picture, painted in 1884, was presented to the national government by watts as a tribute of his esteem and respect for the united states, and was accepted by virtue of a special act of congress. this was during the second administration of president cleveland, and he ordered it hung in his study on the second floor of the white house. two replicas were made by watts of the painting, and one was placed by the national art gallery, london, and the other in the louvre, paris.
the two figures of "love and life" are entirely nude, and the publication of reproductions awoke the protests of purists who circulated petitions to which they secured hundreds of names to have it removed to an art gallery. finally, the clevelands yielded to the force of public opinion, and sent the offending masterpiece to the corcoran art gallery.
when theodore roosevelt became president he brought the art exile back to the white house. the hue and cry arose again, and he sent it back to the gallery, only to bring it back again toward the close of his administration to hang in the white house once more.
the tafts, failing to see the artistic side of the painting, had it carried back to the gallery.
there it seemed destined to stay. the other day mrs. woodrow wilson, accompanied by her daughter eleanor, both artists of merit, toured the corcoran art gallery. they were shown "love and life," and told the tragic story of its wanderings.
mrs. wilson thereupon requested the painting to be returned to the white house. there once more it hangs and tells its immortal lesson of how love can help life up the steepest hills.
[pg 223]
whilst in new york i visited the charming fabians, who were the hosts of maxim gorky before the american press took upon itself the r?le of doing the honours of the house to a guest of genius. the story of gorky need not be repeated. but it is in itself a question-mark raised against the american civilisation.
tramping through sandusky i came upon a suburban house all scrawled over with chalk inscriptions:
"hurrah for the newly-weds."
"oh, you beautiful doll!"
"well! then what?"
"we should worry."
"home, sweet home."
"may your troubles be little ones! ha, he!"
"you thought we wouldn't guess, but we caught you."
as the house seemed to be empty, i inquired at the nearest store what was the reason for this outburst. the storekeeper told me it was done by the neighbours as a welcome to a newly-married couple coming home from their honeymoon on the morrow. it was a custom to do it, but this was nothing to the way they "tied them up" sometimes.
"won't they be distressed?"
"oh no, they'll like it."
[pg 224]
"are the neighbours envious, or what is it?" i asked. the storekeeper began to sing, "snookeyookums."
"all night long the neighbours shout
(to the newly-married couple whose kisses they hear)
"'cut it out, cut it out, cut it out.'"
on independence day i saw a crowd of roughs assailing a russian girl who had gone into the water to bathe, dressed in what we in britain would call "full regulation costume." the crowd cried shame on her because she was not wearing stockings and a skirt in addition to knickers and vest.
in many districts men bathing naked have been arrested as a sort of breach of the peace. naked statues in public have been clothed or locked away. in several towns women wearing the slashed skirt have had to conform to municipal regulations concerning underwear.
i have noted everywhere mockery on the heels of seriousness.
no doubt these question-marks will be followed by satisfactory answers in the minds of most readers, especially in the light of the statement that "it is a sacrament to walk the streets as an american citizen. being an american is a sacred mission."
