Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



555 



THINGS AMERICAN. 



NEW YORK UNDER THE 

 MICROSCOPE. 



If Mr. Wells uses a telescope, then Mr. 

 Arnold Bennett is master of the microscope, and 

 in Harper's he places New York under the lens. 

 Mr. Bennett's attempt to portray the United 

 States with anything like his usual accuracy 

 would necessitate his writing a novel every 

 twenty-four hours for the next twenty years, 

 and we must be satisfied with the present 

 glimpse as we look out upon New York from 

 " the Elevated " :— 



What sharpened and stimulated the vision more than 

 anything else was the innumerable flashing glimpses of 

 immense torn clouds of clean linen, or linen almost 

 clean, fluttering and shaking in withdrawn courtyards 

 between rows and rows of humanised windows. This 

 domestic detail, repugnant possibly to some, was par- 

 ticularly impressive to me ; it was the visible index of 

 what life really is on a costly rock ruled in all material 

 essentials by trusts, corporations, and the grand principle 

 of tipping. 



I would have liked to live this life, for a space, in 

 any one of half a million restricted flats, with not quite 

 enough space, not quite enough air, not quite enough 

 dollars, and a vast deal too much continual strain on the 

 nerves. I would have liked to come to close quarters 

 with it, and get its subtle and sinister toxin incurably 

 into my system. Could I have done so, could I have 

 participated in the least of the unaccountable daily 

 dramas of which the externals are exposed to the gaze 

 of any starer in an Elevated, I should have known what 

 New York truly meant to New-Yorkers, and what was 

 the real immediate effect of average education reacting 

 on average character in average circumstances; and the 

 knowledge would have been precious and exciting beyond 

 all knowledge of the staggering " wonders " of the 

 capital. But of course I could not approach so close to 

 reality ; the visiting stranger seldom can ; he must be 

 content with h's imaginative visions. 



Mr. Bennett may have his visions, but he 

 remembers the limitations of his readers, and 

 accordingly gives them facts rather than mere 

 impressions. Of the east side of New York he 

 says : — 



The supreme sensation of the East Side is the sensa- 

 tion of its astounding populousness. The most populous 

 street in the world — Rivington Street — is a sight not to 

 be forgotten. Compared to this, an uptown thoroughfare 

 of crowded middle-class flats in the open country — is 

 an uninhabited desert ! The architecture seemed to sweat 

 humanity at every window and door. The roadways 

 were often impassable. The thought of the hidden in- 

 teriors was terrifying. Indeed, the hidden interiors 

 would not bear thinking about. The fancy shunned 

 them — a problem not to be settled by sudden municipal 

 edicts, but only by the efflux of generations. Confronted 

 by this spectacle of sickly-faced immortal creatures, who 

 lie closer than any other wild animals would lie; who 

 live picturesque, feverish, and appalling existences; who 

 amuse themselves, enrich themselves, who very often lift 

 themselves out of the swarming warren and leave it for 

 ever, but whose daily experience in the warren is merely 

 and simply horrible — confronted by this incomparable 

 and overwhelming phantasmagoria (for such it seems), 



one is foolishly apt to protest, to inveigh, to accuse. 

 The answer to futile animadversions was in my par- 

 ticular friend's query: "Well, what are you going to 

 do about it? " 



At the conclusion of this, the first instalment, 

 Mr. Bennett takes refuge in a sweeping dis- 

 claimer : — 



As for these brief articles, I hereby announce that I 

 am not prepared ultimately to stand by any single view 

 which they put forward. There is naught in them which 

 is not liable to be recanted. 



Mr. Bennett's public will never Insist on such 

 a self-denying ordinance. 



ENGLISH AND AMERICAN 

 CONTRASTS. 



In the North American Revieiv Mr. R. S. 

 Scott-James gives his first impressions of the 

 United States under the title of " The Astonish- 

 ing Nation." 



BUSINESS England's shame, America's pride. 



He draws a very shrewd contrast between 

 the English and American view of business : — 



England, which is as much a nation of shopkeepers 

 as ever it was, has never ceased to be slightly ashamed 

 of the fact. It is part of our English tradition to main- 

 tain a large leisured class which, though deprived of 

 the honourable duties of government and patronage and 

 now largely plebeian in its origin, has not ceased to be 

 decorative and is still the zenith of social ambition. 

 This social ambition penetrates English life. None but 

 the class of manual labourers has escaped it. Each 

 class emulates the class socially above it. Each circle 

 seeks to protect its social prestige by a jealous exclusive- 

 ness, and each aspires to an ideal of dignified leisure. 

 The new democratic spirit is only beginning to break 

 down these ring fences so austerely preserved amid the 

 debris of the Victorian era. No wonder English visitors 

 are impressed by the "business" pride of New York, 

 coming, as they do, from a country where a man's 

 ambition is to do nothing to a country where a man's 

 ambition is to have too much to do. 



Here we strike a real differe*nce, a difference in 

 illusions. I do not suppose that the average American 

 gets through more work than the average Englishman, 

 though most of my American critics will tell me that he 

 does. The difference is that an American seems to respect 

 primarily the business by which he makes his money, 

 whereas the Englishman seems to respect the hobby 

 by which he loses it. Both of them, of course, are alike 

 in wanting to have as much money as they can possibly 

 get; but while the American respects the process of 

 getting it, the Englishman has been taught to be 

 ashamed of it. The tiresome vain-glory of the one 

 contrasts with the conventional hypocrisy of the other. 



Mr. Scott-James also remarks of the Ameri- 

 cans : — 



They have never had a feudal system in the States, 

 and they have therefore no effete survival of feudalism. 

 There is no such thing among them as an hereditary 

 right to be insolent. Patronage or a patronising manner 

 toward the " lower classes " is not tolerated, for there 

 are no upper and lower classes. 



