Page:Doom of the Great City - Hay - 1880.djvu/59

 “This is a work of uncommon merit. It is an exhaustive picture of life in the United States, which we can recommend to all persons who are interested in the social life of the Great Republic. The book contains twenty chapters, which treat of a great variety of subjects, such as ‘The Cost of Living,’ ‘The Paradise of Editors,’ ‘The Gay Capital,’ ' Marriage Made Easy,’ ‘The Empire City,’ &c., all practical, instructive, and interesting. We can commend the book as spiritedly written and containing much interesting information.”—Galignani’s Messenger.

“So much interest is now manifested concerning the domestic manners and ‘society’ of our first cousins across the Atlantic that this volume is sure to find many eager readers, who will discover in it much of interest and value. Mr. Samuel Phillips Day is by no means an unknown writer, several of his books on American society having been exceedingly successful. He has lived a long time in the United States, principally in New York, and as he is possessed of a great deal of natural quickness of observation he is generally very amusing and trustworthy. His description of New York is unfavourable. ‘The felicity of domestic life, as we in England understand it, is almost unknown in this “go-ahead” centre of commerce. The people live much out of doors, not relishing the tame monotony and dull stillness of home. There are special red-letter days, it is true, in their calendar, when social gatherings occur, but these are not so numerous as they have been a few years ago. The nominal heads of families when their day’s work is done betake themselves to their comfortable clubs, where they read the papers, “liquor,” and indulge in games of hazard. Materfamilias receives her special visitors at home, and so do the female “olive branches” when they have reached the age of womanhood. Each has her familiar male friend or suitor. Indeed, it is not uncommon for a gentleman to have visited an American family many times and yet never to have seen the parents of the young lady or ladies deputed to receive him.’ This is a fact, but at the same time it must be remembered that it is rather a rule with the ‘shoddy’ than with the families of older respectability. Mr. Day is quite right when he describes the genuine New York ‘shoddy’ as the vulgarest creature on earth, and it is he and his brothers and sisters who give the Americans such evil repute abroad. Fast, ignorant, flashy, and brutal, the men of this order and type are simply insufferable. The women are a little better, but often wild and profoundly corrupt Mr. Day gives a very agreeable account of Mr. Longfellow’s residence The chapters on hotels and boarding-houses are well done, and accurate enough to be of value to tourists and others intending to visit America.”—Morning Post.

“This is not merely a very interesting book, but one which has a special value, inasmuch as it is the work of a writer who is thoroughly acquainted with his subject. He has obviously lived in various parts of the States for considerable periods, and he clearly knows enough of society to generalize with tolerable accuracy. It need hardly be said that his opinions are not invariably flattering, and that some of his judgments are likely to give no little offence. Mr. Day finds that American girls are cold and calculating. ‘They will drink champagne with you, crack jokes with you, gossip with you, smoke cigarettes with you, nay, even flirt a bit with you; but they will not marry you, save upon the cold, careful consideration of how you stand with your banker.’ We have heard very often that there are no hotels like those of New York, and the English hotels are only tolerable as they resemble them. Mr. Day tells us that they are anything but desirable residences; huge and unsightly in appearance, destitute of many arrangements for comfort which Englishmen consider a matter of necessity; noisy, bustling, and generally unpleasant places to inhabit. Nor is Mr. Day much more favourably impressed with American religion. From time to time certain ‘evangelists’ have been kind enough to visit this country in hope of ‘converting’ the unenlightened Britisher, and relieving him of a little of his superfluous cash; but it would seem that there is quite sufficient work for them at home, and that the English clergy have very little to learn from their American brethren. If Americans fall short in religious matters, however, they make up in the amount of their superstition. Astrologers and clairvoyants innumerable advertise their pretended gifts in the daily papers, and magnetism and spiritualism count their dupes by thousands. On the vexed question of drink Mr. Day speaks with weight. The over-restrictive legislation which some well-meaning people are anxious to see introduced into this country, in imita-