Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Volume 26 December, 1880., Various None [best books to read for beginners .txt] 📗
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Which Has Often Puzzled Foreign Observers Accustomed To Connect
Democracy With Innovating Tendencies And Violent Fluctuations, Is Yet
Easily Explained. Though Ours Is A New Country, Its System Of Government
Is Really Older Than That Of Almost Any Other Civilized Country. In The
Century During Which It Has Existed Intact And Without Any Material
Modification The Institutions Of Most Other Nations Have Undergone A
Complete Change, In Some Cases Of Form And Structure, In Others Of
Theory And Essence. Even England, Which Boasts Of The Stability Of Its
Government And Its Immunity From The Storms That Have Overturned So Many
Thrones And Disorganized So Many States, Has Experienced A Fundamental,
Though Gradual And Peaceable, Revolution. There, As Elsewhere, The
Centre Of Power Has Changed, The Chain Of Tradition Has Been Broken, And
New Conceptions Of The Functions Of Government And Its Relations To The
Governed Have Taken The Place Of The Old Ones. But In america Nothing Of
This Kind Has Occurred: The "Old Order" Has Not Passed Away, Nor Have
Its Foundations Undergone The Least Change; The Municipal And Colonial
Institutions Under Which We First Exercised The Right Of
Self-Government, And The Constitution Which Gave Us Our National
Baptism, Are Still The Fountain Of All Our Political Ideas; And Our
Party Struggles Are Not Waged About New Principles Or Animated By New
Watch Words, But Are Fenced And Guided By The Maxims Transmitted By The
Founders Of The Republic. This Is Our Strength And Our Safeguard Against
Wild Experiments, But It Is Also An Impediment To Every Suggestion Of
Improvement. It Binds Us To The Letter Of Tradition, Leads Us To
Confound The Accidental With The Essential, And Gives To Certain Notions
And Certain Words A Potency Which Must Be Described As An Anachronism.
We Still Use The Language Of The Revolutionary Epoch, Recognize No
Perils But Those Against Which Our Ancestors Had To Guard, And Put Faith
In The Efficacy Of Methods That Have No Longer An Object, And Of Phrases
That Have Lost Their Original Significance. Because George Iii.
Distributed Offices At His Pleasure As Rewards, And Bound The Holders To
Party Services In conformity With His Will, The Sovereign People Is To
Do The Same. "Rotation In Office" Having Been The Means In The
Eighteenth Century Of Dispelling Political Stagnation And Checking
Jobbery And Corruption, It Is Still The Only Process For Correcting
Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 134Abuses And Getting The Public Service Properly Performed. The Prime Duty
Of All Good Citizens Is To Emulate The Incessant Political Activity Of
Their Patriotic Forefathers, And It Is Owing Solely To A Too General
Neglect Of This Duty That Ballot-Stuffing And Machine-Running, And All
The Other Evils Unknown In early Days And In Primitive Communities, Have
Come Into Existence And Gained Sway Throughout The Land. These And
Similar Views, According To Our Observation, Characterize What We May
Without Disrespect, And Without Confining The Remark To The Rural
Districts, Term The Provincial Mind, And Wherever They Exist The Ideas
Of The Civil-Service Reformers Are Not Only Not Understood Or Treated As
Visionary, But Are Regarded With Aversion And Distrust As Foreign,
Monstrous And Inconsistent With Popular Freedom And Republican
Government.
An Unfinished Page Of History.
I Can Easily Understand Why Educated Americans Cross The Atlantic Every
Year In Shoals In Search Of The Picturesque; And I Can Understand, Too,
All That They Say Of The Relief Which Ivied Ruins And Cathedrals And
Galleries, Or Any Other Reminders Of Past Ages, Give To Their Eyes,
Oppressed So Long By Our Interminable Rows Of Store-Box Houses, Our
Pasteboard Villas, The Magnificence Of Our Railway Accommodations For
Ladies And Gents, And All The General Gaseous Glitter Which Betrays How
Young And How Rich We Are. But I Cannot Understand Why It Is That Their
Eyes, Thus Trained, Should Fail To See The Exceptional Picturesqueness
Of Human Life In This Country. The Live Man Is Surely Always More
Dramatic And Suggestive Than A House Or A Costume, Provided We Have Eyes
To Interpret Him; And This People, As No Other, Are Made Up Of The
Moving, Active Deposits And Results Of World-Old Civilizations And
Experiments In Living.
Outwardly, If You Choose, The Country Is Like One Of The Pretentious
Houses Of Its Rich Citizens--New, Smug, Complacently Commonplace--But
Within, Like The House Again, It Is Filled With Rare Bits Gathered Out
Of Every Age And Country And Jumbled Together In Utter Confusion. If You
Ride Down Seventh Street In a Horse-Car, You Are In a Psychological
Curio-Shop. On One Side, Very Likely, Is A Russian Jew Just From The
Steppes; On The Other, A Negro With Centuries Of Heathendom And Slavery
Hinting Themselves In Lip And Eye; The Driver Is A Fenian, With The
Blood Of The Phoenicians In His Veins; In Front Of You Is A Gentleman
With The Unmistakable Huguenot Nose, And Chin; While An Almond-Eyed
Pagan, Disguised Behind Moustache And Eye-Glasses, Courteously Takes
Your Fare And Drops It For You In The Slawson Box. Nowhere Do All The
Elements Of Tragedy And Comedy Play So Strange A Part As On The
Dead-Level Of This American Stage. It Is Because It Is So Dead A Level
That We Fail To See The Part They Play--Because "Furious Goth And Fiery
Hun" Meet, Not On The Battle-Field, But In The Horse-Car, Dropping Their
Cents Together In a Slawson Box.
For Example, As To The Tragedy.
I Met At Dinner Not Long Ago A Lady Who Was Introduced To Me Under A
French Name, But Whose Clear Olive Complexion, Erect Carriage And
Singular Repose Of Manner Would Indicate Her Rather To Be A Spaniard.
Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 135She Wore A Red Rose In The Coils Of Her Jetty Hair, And Another Fastened
The Black Lace Of Her Corsage. Her Eyes, Which Were Slow, Dark And
Brilliant, Always Rested On You An Instant Before She Spoke With That
Fearless Candor Which Is Not Found In The Eyes Of A Member Of Any Race
That Has Ever Been Enslaved. I Was Told That Her Rank Was High Among Her
Own People, And In Her Movements And Voice There Were That Quiet
Simplicity And Total Lack Of Self-Consciousness Which Always Belong
Either To A Man Or Woman Of The Highest Breeding, Or To One Whose
Purpose In Life Is So Noble As To Lift Him Above All Considerations Of
Self. Although A Foreigner, She Spoke English With More Purity Than Most
Of The Americans At The Table, But With A Marked And Frequent Recurrence
Of Forcible But Half-Forgotten Old Idioms; Which Was Due, As! Learned
Afterward, To Her Having Had No Book Of English Literature To Study For
Several Years But Shakespeare. I Observed That She Spoke But Seldom, And
To But One Person At A Time; But When She Did, Her Casual Talk Was The
Brimming Over Of A Mind Of Great Original Force As Yet Full And Unspent.
She Was, Besides, A Keen Observer Who Had Studied Much, But Seen More.
This Lady, In a Word, Was One Who Would Deserve Recognition By The Best
Men And Women In any Country; And She Received It Here, As Many Of The
Readers Of _Lippincott_, Who Will Recognize My Description, Will
Remember. She Was Caressed And Feted By Literary And Social Celebrities
In Washington And New York; Boston Made Much Of Her; Longfellow And
Holmes Made Verses In Her Honor; Prying Reporters Gave Accounts Of Her
Singular Charm And Beauty To The Public In The Daily Papers.
She Was Accompanied By Two Of The Men Of Her Family. They Did Not Speak
English, But They Were Men Of Strong Practical Sense And Business
Capacity, With The Odd Combination In Their Character Of That
Exaggerated Perception Of Honorable Dealing Which We Are Accustomed To
Call Chivalric. They Had, Too, A Grave Dignity And Composure Of Bearing
Which Would Have Befitted Spanish Hidalgos, And Beside Which Our Pert,
Sociable American Manner And Slangy Talk Were Sadly Belittled. These Men
(For I Had A Reason In Making Particular Inquiries Concerning Them) Were
In Private Life Loyal Friends, Good Citizens, Affectionate Husbands And
Fathers--In A Word, Christian Men, Honest From The Marrow To The
Outside.
Now To The Strange Part Of My Story, Revolting Enough To Our Republican
Ears. This Lady And Her People, In The Country To Which They Belong, Are
Held In a Subjection To Which That Of The Russian Serf Was Comparative
Freedom. They Are Held Legally As The Slaves Not Of Individuals, But Of
The Government, Which Has Absolute Power Over Their Persons, Lives And
Property. Its Manner Of Exercising That Power Is, However, Peculiar.
They Are Compelled To Live Within Certain Enclosures. Each Enclosure Is
Ruled By A Man Of The Dominant Race, Usually Of The Lower Class, Who, As
A Rule, Gains The Place By Bribing The Officer Of Government Who Has
Charge Of These People. The Authority Of This Man Within The Limits Of
The Enclosure Is Literally As Autocratic As That Of The Russian Czar. He
Distributes The Rations Intended By The Government For The Support Of
These People, Or Such Part Of Them As He Thinks Fit, Retaining Whatever
Amount He Chooses For Himself. There Is Nothing To Restrain Him In These
Robberies. In consequence, The Funds Set Aside By The Government For The
Support Of Its Wretched Dependants Are Stolen So Constantly By The
Officers At The Capital And The Petty Tyrants Of The Separate Enclosures
That The Miserable Creatures Almost Yearly Starve And Freeze To Death
Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 136From Want. Their Resource Would Be, Of Course, As They Are In a
Civilized Country, To Work At Trades, To Farm, Etc. But This Is Not
Permitted To Them. Another Petty Officer Is Appointed In each Enclosure
To Barter Goods For The Game Or Peltry Which They Bring In Or Crops That
They Manage To Raise. He Fixes His Own Price For Both His Goods And
Theirs, And Cheats Them By Wholesale At His Leisure. There Is No Appeal:
They Are Absolutely Forbidden To Trade With Any Other Person. The Men Of
My Friend'S Family--Educated Men And Shrewd In business As Any Merchant
Of Philadelphia--When At Home Were Liable To Imprisonment And A Fine Of
Five Hundred Dollars If They Bought From Or Sold To Any Other Person
Than This One Man. They Are, Too, Taught No Trade Or Profession. Each
Enclosure Has Its Appointed Blacksmith, Carpenter, Etc. Of The Dominant
Class,
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