ENGLISH CHARACTERISTICS. 199 



[But I notice with pleasure that English travelers 

 are beginning to find more to admire than to con- 

 dem'n in this country, and that they accredit us with 

 some virtues they do not find at home in the same 

 measure. They are charmed with the independence, 

 the self-respect, the good-nature and the obliging 

 dispositions, shown by the mass of our people ; while 

 American travelers seem to he more and more ready 

 to acknowledge the charm and the substantial qual- 

 ities of the mother country. It is a good omen. 

 One principal source of the pleasure which each 

 takes in the other is no doubt to be found in the nov- 

 elty of the impressions. It is like a change of cook- 

 ery. The flavor of the dish is fresh and uncloying 

 to each. The English probably tire of their own snob- 

 bishness and flunkeyism, and we of our own smart- 

 ness and puppyism. After the American has got 

 done bragging about his independence, and his " free 

 and equal " prerogatives, he begins to see how these 

 things run into impertinence and forwardness ; and 

 the Englishman, in visiting us, escapes from his social 

 bonds and prejudices, to see for a moment how ab- 

 surd they all are.] 



A London crowd I thought the most normal and 

 unsophisticated I had ever seen, with the least ad- 

 mixture of rowdyism and ruffianism. No doubt it is 

 ihere, but this scum is not upon the surface, as with 

 as. I went about very freely in the hundred and one 

 places of amusement where the average working 

 -jasses assemble, with their wives an^ daughters and 



