George A. Birmingham

“ The delightful openness of the American suburbs is due, I think, to the natural sociability of the people. They do not want to shut others out of their lives.
Inside, the houses have no doors between the rooms, or, if there are doors, they slide into the walls unobtrusively. Here is sociability again. On the other side of the Atlantic the first impulse of any one who enters a room is to shut the door, his object being to keep other people, even his own family, out. Children are trained from their earliest years to shut doors. ”

“ The arrival of that American consul’s letter confirmed our earliest impression of the country. The Americans have been grossly slandered in Europe. I am not at all sure that they have not, with a curious perversity, slandered themselves. It is a common belief in Europe that America generally, and New York in particular, is a place of tumultuous rush; that every moment of time is immensely valuable and that everything is done in a hurry. ”

“ With them, apparently, a stranger is actually a friend until he proves himself something else. I have never experienced, I could scarcely have imagined, the boundless width of American hospitality.
And I think the Americans must be as friendly with each other as they are with strangers. Their domestic architecture is the best I have ever seen. “Herself,” who is an expert in these matters, assures me that American houses, the private houses of the suburbs of great cities, are astonishingly perfect from the point of view of any responsible for the management of a home. ”

“ Lancashire, with all its crowd of sooty towns, jostling each other against railway lines, with its human habitations cowering under the shadow of cotton mills, will hereafter recall to me a vision of broad, flat lands, dotted over with huts like penthouses, of miles and miles of black earth bare of all verdure but covered with low, scrubby bushes with the white cotton hanging from them; of crowds of negroes gay in all the primary colors, dragging sacks after them as they pick the precious stuff which is to clothe hall mankind. ”

“ He does not want the passer-by to see even a chimney-top. In the suburbs of Naples, where many people live in houses which may be nice, the stranger goes for miles between the high walls that guard the privacy of the householders. He is thankful there to be allowed to see a patch of sky.
The Americans have, I take it, no objection to being seen. Their houses stand unsheltered by walls and have broad, attractive verandas which are really sitting-rooms and eating-rooms in fine weather. I am told that this indifference to publicity is a proof of the American devotion to the idea of democracy. ”

“ The true reason is quite obvious to any one who shakes himself free of the superstition that New York is a city of hustle. It is nothing of the sort, and the Irish succeed in it because they and the Americans are sane on the subject of time. We know that the clock and even the sun were meant to be the servants, not the masters, of men. ”

“ The truly sociable person prefers to telephone even if he is given the wrong number several times, because he can hear his friend’s voice; also perhaps because it is much more difficult for a man who is caught on a telephone to refuse an invitation. In a letter one can always make a good excuse. Few people have sufficient presence of mind to lie convincingly on a telephone.
If I wanted further proof of the sociability of the Americans I should find it in the fact that, when traveling, they are content to sleep in Pullman cars. ”

“ The spirit of that older civilization abides, haunts the new life like some pathetic ghost, doomed to wander helplessly among people who do not want to see it. There is a certain suavity about Memphis which the stranger feels directly he touches the life of the place. ”

“ The members of the teaching staffs of the colleges and universities are not a class apart, do not form a caste with traditions of its own and a special out-look upon life. It would be possible to meet a professor—even of English literature—in private life, to talk to him, to be intimate with him and not to discover that he was a professor. This fact may have some connection with the feeling of vitality which the stranger gets when he comes into touch with American education. ”

“ At present Belfast, in a matter of politics, which interests Belfast more than literature or art, has ordered the rest of the British Empire to stand still and not to go any further with Home Rule for Ireland. The rest of the British Empire is holding up its hands. I can imagine Chicago doing the same sort of thing, should occasion ever arise, and Chicago would do so without the slightest regard to the fact that it might conceivably be mistaken in its belief, or even if right might be overwhelmed by the rest of America. ”

“ American men do actually smoke in this way during their meals.
We in Ireland are also wise enough not to set any very great value on time. The English are different. They live hurriedly and are quite absurdly punctual. That, I think, is the reason why we Irish do not get on well in England. We can not persuade ourselves that time is precious. And that is, no doubt, the explanation of the fact, which used to puzzle me greatly, that the Irish get on singularly well in America, especially, I believe, in New York. ”

“ In the suburbs of Indianapolis men have planned and built worthily and beautifully. But the houses of the small towns seem to have been conceived in a mean spirit and built in raw haste. Yet they can not be mean people who live in them. The descendants of the man and woman who pushed their way, mile after painful mile, across the vast distances of this continent must leave mightily inspiring memories. ”

“ New York is a city of immense leisure.
You go into a restaurant and order something to eat. You have time to smoke a cigarette before you get it. You have time to smoke cigarettes after each course, to smoke comfortably and calmly as men ought to smoke. ”

“ There is a spirit abroad in them which will profoundly modify American civilization. Sometimes I seemed to catch the breath of it in football fields while undergraduates yelled at each other through megaphones. ”

“ It must be very gratifying to belong to one of these great nations and to feel that you have a natural and indisputable right, not only to criticize sharply what you find wrong in other countries, but to insist that the inhabitants amend their ways. ”

“ Every traveler is struck by the American sky-scraper buildings, and his observation on the subject lack originality. I do not think the traveler should be blamed for this. He can not help himself. He is always told to look at them directly he lands in New York—even before he lands, if the steamer comes to port in daylight. He is obliged in mere politeness to say something, and it is impossible now to say anything new.
NEW YORK FROM A TOP FLOOR ”

“ Friendliness and brotherly love are beautiful things; but it seems extravagant to undress and dress again in a narrow, curtain-sided box merely for the sake of the satisfaction of being able to hear your neighbor snore. ”

“ In the Middle West the train is an honored guest in every town, and is invited to go along or across the chief streets. This is an enormous advantage to the passengers. They get real glimpses of the life of the places they pass through. ”

“ The English, another of the world’s dominating nations, have forced an extra meal on the unwilling Latin races, insisting that afternoon tea shall be drunk by every one with whom they come in contact. ”

“ This is the good habit of American trains. In other countries trains, when they come to towns, are driven into tunnels or forced to go round the backs of the houses, so that the travelers see nothing except shirts and stockings hung out to dry. People do not, it appears, welcome trains. ”

“ IRISH EYES
We see Ourselves as George A. Birmingham and Herself see us
CITIZENS of great conquering nations go about the world impressing their customs and habits upon foreign peoples. They can afford to criticize the shortcomings of their neighbors; can, without giving offense, reform what they find amiss.
The Americans, for instance, are great travelers, and they have insisted on the establishment of systems of central heating all the principal hotels of Europe. Other people may like chilly bedrooms. The American does not ”