234 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[August 1, 1887. 



fields. English traditions, surviving the institutions they 

 typify in Church and State, like the chrysalis that lately 

 held the butterfly, though dead and soulless, have retained 

 tinsel, glitter, and shapeliness. English scholars, peers of 

 the Pagan masters, have given to modein times a literature 

 robust with Saxon heroism and sanctified by an inspiration 

 as pure as the whisperings of the muse in earlier days. 

 English philanthropy has exemplified the innate nobility of 

 the English heart, motheiing within the scope of its minis- 

 trations the lorn and the outcast of all nations and climes. 

 But with all this, clouds of selfishness have ever 

 obscured the British sun, and a vein of malevolence has 

 predominated in British national character. An oppressor 

 of the weak, her armies have been the butchei-s of countless 

 defenceless peoples, sacrificed upon the altar of her ambition 

 and avarice. Posing as a bulwai'k of Christianity, England 

 has despoiled the children of the faith. English hands have 

 for centuries dabbled in the blood of Christians. Them- 

 selves boastful of their liberties, for ages Englishmen have 

 heartlessly forged chains for their neighbours, and ruthlessly 

 slaughtered as recalcitrants and traitors such of their 

 countrymen as scorned to bend the knee to wanton power, 

 even tliough enforced by the sword and the gibbet. No 

 century of English history but has witnessed her armies 

 despoiling innocent communities, overturning inoffensive 

 principalities, and her people clamouring for the blood of 

 the nations despoiled by her cruelty. English tyranny has 

 lost no opportunity to lay the weight of its relentless hand 

 upon the weak and the defenceless. English cunning has 

 over-reached the designs of the strong and the resolute. In 

 peace a shopkeeper, with eyes intent for barter ; in war, 

 depending as much upon the power of her gold to corrupt 

 as upon the power of her armies to vanquish her foes. 

 Great Britain has more deeply graven her image upon the 

 tablet of modern civilisation than any other nation of 

 modern times. 



This, in brief, is an American's opinion of Great Britain 

 and the Englishman. It goes without saying that the 

 American never wearies of criticising English classes and 

 English customs. " Her Majesty," so rendered by the 

 English royalist, who looks upon kingly blood as akin to 

 divinity, we regard as a very fat and very benevolent old 

 lady, neither better nor worse than any intelligent house- 

 wife, and not nearly as useful. The princes and princesses 

 of the royal household we regard as so many appendages of 

 an obsolete system, a trifle expensive, and entirely super- 

 fluous in a civilisation peculiarly eclectic in its instincts and 

 methods. The lords and ladies we regard as a lower species 

 of the same genus — not quite as respectable, and, if possible, 

 more burdensome and useless to society. 



THE WILD WEST ; AND HOW ENGLISHMEN 

 VIEW AMERICA.* 



UST now the Hon. Wm. F. Cody, better 



known as Buffalo Bill, is edifying the 



Londoners by daily performances of his 



Wild West combination, and the English 



press is printing columns of notices of the 



Nebraskan and his show, i-eferring to it 



as a life-like reproduction of life in Western 



America. As one strong point of evidence 



this would lead to the belief that the Engli.sh do really know 



less of America than the most careless Americans do of 



England. 



* From the same Western paper. 



The fact is that every American who bothers his head 

 with the matter is glad that Buffalo Bill is having such a 

 success, and this satisfaction is inspired by American 

 admiration for anything that makes money quicklv. Not 

 that Americans care more for money than other civilised 

 people — indeed they care less — but the mere fact that one 

 of them makes a huge fortune by some big push is pleasing, 

 and we seem to care very little whether he does it by a real- 

 estate boom or a patent on a chestnut bell. 



Thus, while Americans are pleased with Buffalo Bill's 

 success, the smile is broadened in contemplation of John 

 Bull's gullibility, for the fact is that the Wild West show 

 no more represents America than the " Great Parisian 

 Circus " would I'epresent France, or than the play of 

 " Eomeo and Juliet " would present the phases of a modem 

 love scrape. 



The Wild West is as much a show to the people of 

 Chicago as it is to London, and would draw as big a crowd, 

 proportionately, in Cheyenne as it does anywhere else. The 

 Deadwood coach, and the scenes with which Buflalo Bill 

 surrounds it, are not prevalent in America, and only repre- 

 sent an incident in the history of the West, the same as if 

 an English panorama should come to America and give 

 among other pictures something presenting the plot of Guy 

 Fawkes as a part of the history of England. la short, the 

 Wild West does not represent America any more than 

 Wild Bill's dress and hair represent the costumes which 

 prevail in Missouri. 



Yet, without having seen this personified creation of one 

 or more of Ned Buntline's " yaller "-backed novels for 

 several years, it is amusing to Americans at this great dis- 

 tance to see Buffalo Bill coddled by the Queen, feted by the 

 titled, lionised by London, and written about in the English 

 press as the Hon. C'olonel Cody, a member of the American 

 Congress, and a high officer in the American army. And 

 we shall have a big laugh with Bill about it when he gets 

 back, for, in the democratic rank which prevails in this 

 country, history will repeat itself upon Cody's return. He 

 will be the Hon. Colonel William Cody until he strikes 

 our shores ; then he will be Colonel Cody perhaps as far 

 west as Chicago ; Buffalo Bill at Omaha ; and " Bill, old 

 boy," when he gets among his familiars at North Platte. 



But in it all, and with it all, he will be a handsome, 

 good-hearted, clear-sighted, and plain-mannered man of the 

 West, who obtained his nickname by killing buffalo on a 

 contract to furnish meat to the men who graded the Union 

 Pacific, his miUtary title as an honorary militia oflicer on 

 the staff of the Governor of Nebraska, and his Honourable 

 handle by once having been elected to the legislature of 

 Nebraska, and at a time when he could not afford to take 

 the seat, as he had other and more valuable business to 

 attend to. 



THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE OF AUGUST 19. 



Althougb, as indicated in " The Face of the Sky " on p. 238, but 

 little indeed of this phenomenon will be visible in this country ; 

 yet, as it will be observable in many parts of Russia fairly easy of 

 access, we give a few details of the path of the moon's shadow over 

 the earth. At Vitebslj, lat. 55° 11' N., loner. 30° 10' E., totality will 

 last for 2m. 23s. ; thence the centre of shadow will travel a little to 

 the north of Moscow; will pass through Jaroslav, lat. 47° 35' N., 

 long. 40° E., when totality continues about 2m. 30s. ; to the north of 

 Viatka (deviation of totality 2m. 50s.); acro.^s the Ural llountain.s, 

 and so into Russia in Asia ; traversing which it passes over the 

 Khirgan Mountains into Mongolia, and over Jlantchooria and Japan 

 into the Pacific to the north of Yedo. The maximum duration of 

 totality (3m. 50s.) happens to the south-east of Lalce Baikal. No 

 effective observation of this eclipse will be obtainable from any 

 point much to the west of St. Petersburg. Probably Vitebsk — which 

 may be reached by the railway from Riga— is as easy of access as 

 most stations. 



