Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from America and the Americans: The Theatres, the Streets, the Cars, the Newspapers, New York, Philadelphia, the Ladies, the Restaurants, the Races, the Waiters, Albany, Niagara
AN adage of respectable antiquity tells us that it is desirable we should see ourselves as others see us. Custom is apt to habituate us to absurdities which at once strike the eye of the unprejudiced and unfamiliar observer. Things which appear ordinary to us, move the occasional visitor to laughter, while the unbiassed critic can find the more or less fatal ?aw even in thatwhich in our superlative self esteem we deem to be perfect. On the other hand, the intelligent foreigner will discover amongst us things and customs which, ad mirable in themselves, are peculiar to ourselves, and worthy of imitation. Every nation and people can in the details of its daily life exhibit something which its fellow nations can follow with more or less advantage. But of course we must not go too far in this direction and accept only the peculiarities of the nation we criticise. It would be idle to emulate the complacency of the ob servant American, who ou his return to New York insisted upon. Perpetually wearing In the button hole of his coat the ribbon of the Eegion of Honour. The American defended his conduct on the plea that the ribbon was the latest fashion in Paris, and that as he had only just quitted France he ought to know.
In the following pages M. Offenbach does not pretend to give any very exhaustive account of America and the Americans, nor does he affect to believe that all he states is quite according to Cooker. The fact that he remained only a few weeks on the great American continent would in itself forbid the possibility of his doing anything of the sort. But he skims the cream from the top of the milk and gives us that which at first sight appeared to his view. Much below the surface he does not venture. Certain peculiarities struck him.
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