This notion of English degeneracy in "America" has, however, been
rapidly dying out in Europe, and even in England during the last ten or
fifteen years. The change has been brought about partly by the events
of our civil war; for the blindest prejudice saw that that war was not
fought by a physically degenerate people; and partly by the increase of
knowledge obtained, not from carping travellers writing books to please
a carping public, but from personal observation. This I know, not by
inference, but from Englishmen and others who have been here, and who
have not written books. The belief, formerly prevalent, that "American"
women had in their youth pretty doll faces, but at no period of life
womanly beauty of figure, is passing away before a knowledge of the
truth, and I have heard it scouted here by Englishmen, who, pointing to
the charming evidence to the contrary before their eyes, have expressed
surprise that the travelling book-writers, who had given them their
previous notions on the subject, could have so misrepresented the
truth. A colonel in the British army, who had been all over the world,
and with whom I was in New England during the war, at a time when a
large number of our volunteers were home on furlough, expressed
constantly his surprise at the "fine men" he saw going about in
uniform, the equals of whom he said that he had never seen as a whole
in any army; although he did not hesitate to express his dislike of
their uniform, or his disgust at the slouchy, slovenly way in which
they carried themselves. I was ready to believe what he said; for I had
then just seen the Coldstreams in Montreal; and I had before seen the
Spanish regular troops in Cuba, who, even the regiment of the Queen,
were so small that they looked to me like toy soldiers to be kept in a
box; and a very bad box they soon got into. During my recent visit to
England, after I had been in London a week or two, having previously
visited other places, a London friend who had twice visited "the
States," said to me, "Well, I suppose you've been looking at the people
here and comparing them with those you've left at home?" "Yes, of
course." "Do you find much difference in them really?" "No; very
little; almost none." "You're right--quite right. There may be a little
more fulness of figure and a little more ruddiness; but it's been
greatly exaggerated--greatly." One reason for this exaggeration I
learned from the remarks of two English friends