Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1875 — English Social Cowardice. [ARTICLE]

English Social Cowardice.

A London correspondent of the New York HeraM writes: I suppose all my English friends will feel outraged by it, but truth compels me to say it, in some respects, the English people are the greatest eowards in the world. Physical danger and suffering they will encounter readily enough, but ridicule and public disapprobation have terrors for them which they dare not face. One of the most charming Englishmen I ever met was narrating to me only a day or two ago how a young American, a common friend of both of us, used to wear, when he first came to Ixmdon, a Scotch cap in the street, and how he was finally obliged to tell him that unless “he put on the orthodox stovepipe he could not ac company him. It seems that etiquette forbids a gentleman to appear in public with any other head-gear than the aforesaid stovepipe, and my English friend dared not countenance a contravention of the law. A gallant Captain of the Queen’s body-guard, to whom I related the matter, sustained his countryman, and declared that he himself, although of a profession which requires courage as its first essential, would not venture to show himself in Bond street or the park in a soft felt hat. Pursuing my inquiries, I have found that a similar tyranny prevails in innumerable respects. Mr. Gladstone is reported to have said that a cabinet minister might better commit any blunder rather than have his front door opened by a maid servant. Custom demands that a man shall be employed for that duty, and whoever infriuges the custom becomes an outcast at once. So, too, the carrying of parcels in the street by gentlemen or ladies is forbidden, and I have no doubt been set down as a lunatic by shopkeepers many a time, because I would insist on taking home my purchases in my own hands. I believe an exception is made in the case of books, provided they be not wrapped up in paper. These may be carried without loss of caste, but everything else is a mark of infamy. To walk with the coat unbottoned in front is likewise improper, and is regarded ven - much as walking without any coat at all. Nor may a gentlemap, hot in business, wear a sack-coat in London. No matter how hot the weather may be, his outer garment must be a frock coat buttoned up< as I have mentioned. Only in the country, and while traveling, is the luxury of looseness and comfort permitted. All money is hard money these times —hard to get.