Americans In Europe
American women (says Mrs. Sherwood) are considered noticeable beautiful in England and on the Continent. They must bear criticism patiently, and they must take care not to gain an unenviably notoriety. "You all have such lovely noses, and you all talk through them," said red English captain to a pretty young American. It is to be feared this is too true. The American has yet much to learn from the low sweet voice of English women with their exquisite pronunciation.
It is very beautiful this English speech. Language in England is amongst all classes a far more elaborate and finished science than with us. Every one, from the cad to the Cabinet Minister, speaks his sentences with what at first seems to us a stilted effort. There is none of the easy drawl, the oblivion of consonants which marks the slovenly American pronunciation. Even the maid who lights your fire in an English lodging-house asks permission in an studiedly proper phrase, with a pretty intonation. The slang of England is the affectation of the few; but the great mass speak one common language most correctly. It would benefit all Americans to draw up water from these wells of English undefiled.
The immediate attention paid to a letter of introduction might put to shame our more tardy hospitality. Never in the records of the history of England has the self respecting Englishman neglected a letter of introduction. If he is well-to-do, he asks the newly introduced to dinner. If he is poor he does what he can. He at least sends tickets for Zoo, or he does some kind thing to make the American at him. It is to be feared that some Americans have no always behaved well about these most charming civilities. London is a very convenient place for the writing and posting of letters; perhaps, that is the reason why English ladies write such pretty letters and so many of them. They are extremely polite and well bred in the immediate response to any little attention, such as the lending of a book or the present of a few flowers. An American belle, it is said, having been asked if she received some flowers, remarked, "Oh! yes, I suppose I did; but I have so many I cannot be always writing notes of gratitude." This was quoted as a piece of American ill-breeding. Let us hope it was individual, not national.
We do not in Fifth-avenue watch our friends' carriages, as they do on the Pincian Hill; but in Europe carriage etiquette is well defined. Indeed, it is said that an American declined a morganatic marriage with a Prince, because she should be seen sitting on his left hand in her carriage. She afterwards married him by the right hand and had the place coveted. A lady must not drive alone in the Bois in a victoria. No gentleman, except a husband or son, must drive with a lady in the Bois, nor is a young girl allowed to drive with a gentleman in a T cart. Two ladies can of course go together but even then one must be of mature age. The etiquette of a London park is said to be the same. A lady must not drive alone with her coachman; she must have a footman also. Even the security of the family landau is not enough. In Paris and in Rome no young lady is allowed to walk without her maid, governess, mother, or protector. Even at thirty-five an Italian single woman would consider herself compromised should she walk half a block alone.
In matters of dress, American women are apt to find a complete bouleversement of their own ideas of propriety. No one would go to the Fifth-avenue Hotel with the bright sun of June, in Full dress, at six o'clock, and afterwards to the theatre. And yet at the hotels in London one sees this sight nightly. Hats not being permitted at the theatre, ladies dress before dinner, and very gaily for the theatre, while American women at home dress plainly for the theatre, they wear orange, and pink silks on top of a coach, while their more sensible English sisters wear dark cloth dresses and plain colours.
American women have made Paris their second home for so long that there is little to be said about their demeanor there. They are great favorites with dress-makers, and specially admired for their little feet. The French shoe makers say that they shave down the lasts of even the Spanish women to fit the beautiful American foot. A well-arched foot looks better in boot than in a shoe, and it is sad to see a foot crumpled up in a tight slipper and a too high heel, a perfect piece of Chinese deformity. To do Americans justice, they do not have to squeeze their feet to make them look small, and the only advice to give them is to go to England for their walking shoes and to learn to walk more on their little feet.
On arriving in London an American will be charmed at the admirable manners of the person who lets lodgings; but she will be astonished at the extortions or the charges for things given away in America. She will be astonished at the respect shown her by the stately manageress of an hotel and more astonished when this same manageress hold out her hand for a fee. In America the lady would not receive the respect, nor would the American landlady accept a fee-- she would consider herself insulted.
From The Madras Mail. Friday Evening November 23, 1888.