AMERICANS AND OTHERS
BY
AGNES REPPLIER, L
ITT.
D
.
BOSTON AND NEW YORKHOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANYThe Riverside Press CambridgeCOPYRIGHT, 1912, BY AGNES REPPLIERALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published October 1912
The Riverside PressCAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTSPRINTED IN THE U.S.A.NoteFive of the essays in this volume appear in print for the first time. Others have been published in the
Atlantic Monthly
, the
Century Magazine
,
Harper's Bazar
, and the
Catholic World
.AMERICANS AND OTHERS1
Contents
A Question of PolitenessThe Mission of HumourGoodness and GayetyThe Nervous StrainThe Girl GraduateThe Estranging SeaTravellers' TalesThe Chill of EnthusiasmThe Temptation of Eve"The Greatest of These is Charity"The Customary CorrespondentThe BenefactorThe Condescension of BorrowersThe Grocer's Cat
AMERICANS AND OTHERS
The Project Gutenberg e-Book of Ameicans and Others, by Agnes Repplier, Litt.DContents2
A Question of Politeness
"La politesse de l'esprit consiste à penser des choses honnêtes et délicates."A great deal has been said and written during the past few years on the subject of American manners, and theconsensus of opinion is, on the whole, unfavourable. We have been told, more in sorrow than in anger, that weare not a polite people; and our critics have cast about them for causes which may be held responsible for sucha universal and lamentable result. Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, for example, is by way of thinking that the faultlies in the sudden expansion of wealth, in the intrusion into the social world of people who fail to understandits requirements, and in the universal "spoiling" of American children. He contrasts the South of hischildhood, that wonderful "South before the war," which looms vaguely, but very grandly, through ahalf-century's haze, with the New York of to-day, which, alas! has nothing to soften its outlines. A morecensorious critic in the "Atlantic Monthly" has also stated explicitly that for true consideration and courtlinesswe must hark back to certain old gentlewomen of ante-bellum days. "None of us born since the Civil Warapproach them in respect to some fine, nameless quality that gives them charm and atmosphere." It wouldseem, then, that the war, with its great emotions and its sustained heroism, imbued us with national life at theexpense of our national manners.I wonder if this kind of criticism does not err by comparing the many with the few, the general with theexceptional. I wonder if the deficiencies of an imperfect civilization can be accounted for along such obviouslines. The self-absorption of youth which Mrs. Comer deprecates, the self-absorption of a crowd whichoffends Mr. Page, are human, not American. The nature of youth and the nature of crowds have not changedessentially since the Civil War, nor since the Punic Wars. Granted that the tired and hungry citizens of NewYork, jostling one another in their efforts to board a homeward train, present an unlovely spectacle; but dothey, as Mr. Page affirms, reveal "such sheer and primal brutality as can be found nowhere else in the worldwhere men and women are together?" Crowds will jostle, and have always jostled, since men first clustered incommunities. Read Theocritus. The hurrying Syracusans—third century B.C."rushed like a herd of swine,"and rent in twain Praxinoë's muslin veil. Look at Hogarth. The whole fun of an eighteenth-century Englishcrowd consisted in snatching off some unfortunate's wig, or toppling him over into the gutter. The truth is wesin against civilization when we consent to flatten ourselves against our neighbours. The experience of theworld has shown conclusively that a few inches more or less of breathing space make all the differencebetween a self-respecting citizen and a savage.As for youth,ah, who shall be brave enough, who has ever been brave enough, to defend the risinggeneration? Who has ever looked with content upon the young, save only Plato, and he lived in an age of symmetry and order which we can hardly hope to reproduce. The shortcomings of youth are so pitilessly, soglaringly apparent. Not a rag to cover them from the discerning eye. And what a veil has fallen between usand the years of
our
offending. There is no illusion so permanent as that which enables us to look backwardwith complacency; there is no mental process so deceptive as the comparing of recollections with realities.How loud and shrill the voice of the girl at our elbow. How soft the voice which from the far past breathes itsgentle echo in our ears. How bouncing the vigorous young creatures who surround us, treading us under footin the certainty of their self-assurance. How sweet and reasonable the pale shadows who smilewe thinkappealinglyfrom some dim corner of our memories. There is a passage in the diary of Louisa Gurney, acarefully reared little Quaker girl of good family and estate, which is dated 1796, and which runs thus:"I was in a very playing mood to-day, and thoroughly enjoyed being foolish, and tried to be as rude toeverybody as I could. We went on the highroad for the purpose of being rude to the folks that passed. I dothink being rude is most pleasant sometimes."The Project Gutenberg e-Book of Ameicans and Others, by Agnes Repplier, Litt.DA Question of Politeness3
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