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AMUSEMENTS OF THE PEOPLE. 5
and of sensational acrobatic tricks, which make the staple of 8
music-hall entertainment. Under the present state of things,
the most vulgar end vicious lend tho taste, and the conductors
of such establishments passively follow.
We value ourselves much upon our imagined superiority to
other nations, and in some respects me really are superior. But
my self-complacent feelings of national pride are alwnys
rrlortified when I go abroad, and am enabled to make direct
comparison between English manners and Continental manners.
And when I come back I feel still n10re mortified. For several
Ienrs in Ruccession it happened that I returned homo from a
tour in h’ormsy os Sweden, so as to reach home by a Monday
evening train travelling from Hull to Manchester. Perhaps
Monday evening was an exceptionally bad time to enter the
mnnufucturing districts, but certainly the contrast between the
poor gentleman peasants of Scandinavia, and tho rich, rowdy,
drunken artisans of England, was something extremely painful.
Of course, it is only a small percentage of tho artisans, after
nil, who are really rowdy and drunken ; but this percentage
governs far too much the tone of public amusements. If, as is
usually the case, we find foreign manners superior to English,
it behoves us to inquire why. There is no wisdom in hiding
our heads in our insular home, and pretending that we do not
Bee the backward and uncultured character of that part of the
population, at any rate, which obtrudes itself upon our notice.
It is said that the term ‘‘ gentleman ” is a peculiarly English
one, and that Continental nations have taken the name and the
idea of the character from our nobility, who travel much
abroad, and who often present, it must be allowed, excellent
specimens of the gentleman. Fortunately our Continental
neighbours do not travel in England so much as we travel
abroad; and this accounts for the fact that they have not taken
the name of ‘‘ blackguard ” from us. For 1 must confess that,
in travels over several parts of the world, I have never met
anything quite equal to the English blackpad. The Americsn
rowdy may be a more dangerous charact.er in respect of his
revolver and bowie knife, bat he is, comparatively speaking, a
Imn Of refinement. Reform must begin with 13 true appreciation