FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114  
>>  
and Halifax in June, 1919, the officer expressed satisfaction to be getting home again. He had gone over, he said, to "clean up the mess the British had made." To a company of Americans who had never heard it before, was told the well-known exploit of an American girl in Europe. In an ancient church she was shown the tomb of a soldier who had been killed in battle three centuries ago. In his honor and memory, because he lost his life bravely in a great cause, his family had kept a little glimmering lamp alight ever since. It hung there, beside the tomb. "And that's never gone out in all this time?" asked the American girl. "Never," she was told. "Well, it's out now, anyway," and she blew it out. All the Americans who heard this were shocked all but one, who said: "Well, I think she was right." There you are! There you have us at our very worst! And with this plump specimen of the American in Europe at his very worst, I turn back to the English: only, pray do not fail to give those other Americans who were shocked by the outrage of the lamp their due. How wide of the mark would you be if you judged us all by the one who approved of that horrible vandal girl's act! It cannot be too often repeated that we must never condemn a whole people for what some of the people do. In the two-and-a-half anecdotes which follow, you must watch out for something which lies beneath their very obvious surface. An American sat at lunch with a great English lady in her country-house. Although she had seen him but once before, she began a conversation like this: Did the American know the van Squibbers? He did not. Well, the van Squibbers, his hostess explained, were Americans who lived in London and went everywhere. One certainly did see them everywhere. They were almost too extraordinary. Now the American knew quite all about these van Squibbers. He knew also that in New York, and Boston, and Philadelphia, and in many other places where existed a society with still some ragged remnants of decency and decorum left, one would not meet this highly star-spangled family "everywhere." The hostess kept it up. Did the American know the Butteredbuns? No? Well, one met the Butteredbuns everywhere too. They were rather more extraordinary than the van Squibbers. And then there were the Cakewalks, and the Smith-Trapezes' Mrs. Smith-Trapeze wasn't as extraordinary as her daughter--the one that put the live frog in Lord Meld
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114  
>>  



Top keywords:

American

 

Americans

 

Squibbers

 
extraordinary
 
English
 

hostess

 
people
 

shocked

 

Butteredbuns

 

Europe


family
 

daughter

 

conversation

 

officer

 

London

 
Trapeze
 

explained

 

surface

 

beneath

 
obvious

Although

 
country
 

places

 

existed

 

Boston

 

Philadelphia

 

spangled

 
society
 

decorum

 

highly


decency

 

remnants

 

ragged

 

Halifax

 

Cakewalks

 

Trapezes

 

alight

 

glimmering

 

bravely

 

ancient


church

 

company

 

exploit

 

soldier

 

British

 

memory

 
centuries
 

killed

 

battle

 

horrible