FOOTPRINTS OF FAMOUS AMERICANS IN PARIS BY JOHN JOSEPH CONWAY, M.
A. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MRS. JOHN LANE AND 32 ILLUSTRATIONS UN
ON JOHN LANK TUB HODLET HEAD NEW YORK JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXO . r.
i -m TO MY MFIM, ONC PRIKND COLONEL HENRY WATTERSON DBAN OF
AMERICAN JOURNALISTS NOBUKST SONT OF THE XWITKD NORTH AND SOUTH TH
ROOK K AFKKCT10N ATK1Y UKDICATKI INTRODUCTION THERE was a very
distinguished American wit whose contribution to the sum of his
nations achievement consisted in one sentence which has become
historical. Good Americans, said Tom Appleton, Cf when they die go
to Paris Tom Appleton so called among his intimates was the Sydney
Smith of the Boston society of his day, a big, round-shouldered man
with heavy, sombre eyes behind which his audacious humour lay in
ambush and enlivened the transcendental seriousness of the Huston
of that time. Being only an amateur humorist, he nearly achieved
the signal honour of being forgotten m the immortality of liis
epigram, and it is due to the genial Autocrat of the Breakfast
Table that the name of the man who made a complete character study
of his countrymen in eight words lias not been forgotten For,
indeed, the end and aim of most Americans for more than a century,
whether they could afford it or not, was to go to Paris Of course,
in postponing the time of their visit Tom Appleton exaggerated, as,
indeed, all wits do Still, it was only to point the national
aspiration more trenchantly For it is not too much to say that in
those dayn the stay-at-home Americans were homesick for a sight of
the city they had never seen xi xii FAMOUS AMERICANS IN PARIS Fm
going to Paris was the exultant boast. Never to London For London
was a duty, butParis was a joy. Paris lured them by its traditions
of friendship, by the promise of a life of which hitherto they had
had no conception, and by the lavish generosity with which it
shared its treasures of science, art and beauty with all strangers
within its gates. So, undaunted by an unknown tongue, by racial and
religious differ ences, and by a totally different outlook on life,
they succumbed to the spell under which the most rigid of New
England Puritans discovered, possibly for the first time, the foic
tic viwc. Strict ladies, from the most godly of New England country
towns, became so disloyal to their ice-water principles ts to drink
claret, excusing this awful backsliding by the mercifully impure
condition of the water, whiU many a blameless Presbyterian wan so
falsa to hi tipln inking as to go to a theatre on a Sunday when,
had he bam at home, he wottld have gone to mcetiji. Such was the
lure of Paris. Besides, the language, which most of them did not
understand, has always, like charity, tuvemJ a multitude of
indiscretions. While Paris overflowed with indescribable charm, the
dreariness of London of those days, on the other hand, was only the
ordinary characteristic of most American towns, exaggerated in the
case of London because of its unwieldy ise. Indeed, for many
decades the American, sensitive to fogs and cold shoulders, fled
from London to Parts, unaware that under the national frost was
hidden ashy, friendly soul struggling with an historic inability to
be INTRODUCTION xiii anything hut frigid. But that has long since
changed, for between the sixties and seventies of the last century
America discovered what was nearly as important as the discovery of
America byColumbus, and that was London. And it is but doing
justice to the genius whose centenary the world celebrates now, to
acknowledge that it is entirely due to Charles Dickens that this
amazing discovery was ever made. For from that time on the Amciican
went on pilgrimages to London, not so much to study the London of
history as the London of Charles Dickens, who had touched its dull
streets with the glamour of his genius and filled thorn with life.
From that time hey came to England to see. the places in which the
creatures of his fancy had lived...
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
