headlines as " 154 Victims of Independence Day Explosives,"
" Boy Shoots and Kills his Brother," " Victims of Pistol
Shooters," " Girl is Fatally Injured by Bomb," " Five Boys
Blo\vn to Fragments by Dynamite," etc., etc. No one was
safe anywhere. An aged workman while crossing a street
would suddenly fall with a bullet through his head, a three-
year-old girl would have her skull fractured while sitting on her
father's knee at an open window, or a labourer while resting
in a public park would fall a victim to some unknown patriot
with a revolver. In 1903 nearly 4,000 persons were seriously
injured, while the dead numbered 176 more than the total
loss of the army and navy in the war with Spain. So far as
statistics go, the totals of that year were a " record," for in
addition to the nearly 4,000 injured there were 466 slain
outright ! Since that year the Journal of the American
Medical Association has kept a chronicle of the casualties of the
" Glorious Fourth," which shows that in ten years the victims
have numbered 36,831, of whom 1,326 have been killed.
Among the injured hundreds have been afflicted with blind-
ness, other hundreds have lost arms or legs or hands, while
the indirect results of this barbarous patriotism through the
death or maiming of breadwinners are beyond estimation.
Such a scandal eventually prompted action on the part
of more peaceful Americans. The press awoke to the necessity
254 America of the Americans
of a vigorous campaign, which in turn reacted upon the
municipal governments, with the result that in 1913 the
injured numbered only 1,131 and the fatalities 32. It seems,
then, as though the agitation for a " sane Fourth " is approach-
ing success, and that in the near future the nation's birthday
will be rationally celebrated by orations, harmless processions,
music and games, and official firework displays.
But not even in the palmy days of the " Glorious Fourth "
orgies was that blood-stained festival of patriotism sufficient
to placate the national fervour of New
^PrtrfJtfsm'!'^ England. True to the old theory that no
quarrels are so bitter as those of the family
circle, that district, with its closer affiliations with the " Old
Home " than any other region of the Union, out-did all
America in patriotic celebrations. The revelry was begun
every 17th of March by the commemoration of Evacuation
Day, was resumed on the 19th of April under the guise of
Patriots' Day, and was continued on the 17th of June for the
purpose of perpetuating the Battle of Bunker Hill. Waiving
the unique fact that Bunker Hill Day is probably the only
example of a defeat being utilised for rejoicing, it is really
surprising that the New Englanders did not also add to their
calendar other festivals in celebration of the " Boston
Massacre " and the " Boston Tea-Party." Even in New
England, however, a saner spirit is in the ascendancy, for of
late there has been a movement in favour of deleting both
Evacuation Day and Bunker Hill Day from the patriotic
calendar. This sentiment has been admirably expressed by
Edwin D. Mead, who, while approving of Patriot's Day
and the Fourth, adds " The devotion of two more days in our
precious year to keeping ourselves hot about crazy old George
HI and British redcoats, is not only a disproportionate
emphasis which is ridiculous, but the celebrations, which now
in their mere character have largely degenerated into vulgarity
and noise, have become positively obnoxious and a hindrance
to right feeling." Such celebrations were fostered by the
Days and Seasons 255
inflammatory text-books which used to be used in all schools,
but now that those elementary annuals of history are being
written in a more impartial spirit it is probable that New
England will revise her patriotic festivals at no distant
date.
If in years gone by Americans have shown themselves
destitute of a sense of the relative importance of national
history, that defect is being rapidly remedied.
Mother's Day Perhaps Mother's Day, with its purpose of
Arbor^Day. showing "remembrance of the Mother and
the Father to whom grateful affection is
due," is on the one hand a confession of the weakness of family
affection, and on the other a dangerous incentive to centre
such remembrance in one instead of all the days of the year ;
but in view of economic conditions produced through the
wastage of the forests the institution of Arbor Day is wholly
praiseworthy. The object of that celebration, which is being
increasingly recognised by the State governments, was well
expounded by the letter addressed to the school children of the
country by President Roosevelt. " Arbor Day," he wrote,
" which means simply ' Tree Day,' is now observed in every
State of our Union — and mainly in the schools. At various
times from January to December, but chiefly in this month
of April, you give a day or part of a day to special exercises,
and perhaps to actual tree planting, in recognition of the
importance of trees to us as a nation, and of what they yield
in adornment, comfort, and useful products to the com-
munities in which you live. It is well that you should cele-
brate your Arbor Day thoughtfully, for within your hfetime
the nation's need of trees will become serious. We of an older
generation can get along with what we have, though with
growing hardship ; but in your full manhood and womanhood
you will want what nature once so bountifully supphed and
man so thoughtlessly destroyed ; and because of that want
you will reproach us, not for what we have used, but for what
we have wasted. ... A people without children would face
256 America of the Americans
a hopeless future ; a country without trees is almost as
hopeless ; forests which are so used that they cannot renew
themselves will soon vanish, and with them all their benefits.
A true forest is not merely a storehouse full of wood, but, as it
were, a factory of wood, and at the same time a reservoir of
water. When you help to preserve our forests or to plant
new ones, you are acting the part of good citizens. The value
of forestry deserves, therefore, to be taught in the schools,
which aim to make good citizens of you. If your Arbor Day
exercises help you to realise what benefits each one of you
receives from the forests, and how by your assistance these
benefits may continue, they will serve a good end." The
most notable characteristic of this letter and the movement it
endorses is that it manifests an altruistic spirit which has been
sadly lacking in American affairs, but is now, happily, imbuing
the leaders of the nation. For all its devotion to practical
results, to hard work and great wealth, the American tem-
perament has ever been distinguished for a strain of idealism,
which is now taking a concrete form in many ways.
While climatic conditions make it inevitable that Arbor
Day shall be a movable festival, nothing save the unfortunate
want of uniformity in commemoration dates
Decoration stands in the way of a simultaneous celebra-
tion of Decoration or Memorial Day. That
is the All Saints festival of America. Its origin was, of course,
due to the Civil War, for even while that terrible conflict
was still raging it became a custom in the Southern States
for the sorrowing relatives of the fallen soldiers to adorn their
heroes' graves with flags and flowers. In 1868 the com-
mander-in-chief of the army issued an order appointing 30th
May for the general decoration of the graves of those who had
given their lives for their country, coupled with a hope that
the ceremony might be " kept up from year to year." That
hope has now been realised, for although the various States
observe Decoration Day on four different dates — ranging from
26th April to 30th May — ^there is perfect unanimity in the
3RK
Days and Seasons 257
manner and spirit of its celebration. All graves are honoured
alike :
From the silence of sorrowful hours
The desolate mourners go,
Lovingly laden with flowers
Alike for the friend and the foe :
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day ;
Under the roses, the Blue,
Under the lilies, the Gray.
As in the case of Mother's Day, there is a danger lest this
formal duty of Decoration Day shall restrict to one day
in the year a memory which ought to persist through all the
months of the calendar. That some such result has accrued
would appear to be indicated by the neglected condition of
many American cemeteries. On the other hand, however,
some States, and notably Massachusetts, have provided a
corrective against forgetfulness. In the State House at
Boston there is a noble Memorial Hall, where are the battle
flags carried by the Massachusetts Volunteers, and it is
pleasant 'to notice that all visitors to that hall pay it due
reverence by uncovering their heads.
In addition to the more than forty public holidays which
may be enjoyed here and there throughout the Union, it must
not be forgotten that many other days are
^H?d^^^^^ deleted from the working calendar by certain
classes of the community, for in any great
city there are thousands of the population who on one excuse
or another contrive to secure more off-days than are authorised
by the State. America is the land of buttonhole badges, and
those badges are the outward and visible sign of membership
in one or other of the countless societies and fraternal organ-
isations by which the children of Uncle Sam endeavour to
compensate their lack of tradition. As a penetrating but
sympathetic critic has remarked, " The American lives
morally in the vagueness of space ; he is, as it were, suspended
in the air, he has no fixed groove. The levelled society,
17— (2393A) 12 pp.
258 America of the Americans
without traditions, without a past, in which he Hves, does not
provide him with one. The only traditional social groove
which did exist, and which was supplied by the churches, has
been almost worn down by the incessant action of material
civilisation and the advance of knowledge. To construct, or
wait for the construction of, new, permanent grooves, the
American has neither the time nor the inclination. Obeying
the national genius, he creates mechanical ones, in the form of
associations, as numerous and varied as they are superficial,
but all revealing the uneasiness of the American mind assailed
by a sort of fear of solitude and, again, by the desire felt by
the individual to give himself a special status in the midst of
the community at large."
Perhaps something of the tenuity of the emotional Hfe of
America may be laid to the charge of the fathers of the
Repubhc. " No title of nobihty shall be
Societies as orranted by the United States," declared the
a Substitute ° x ^i. r- ^-^ x- ** a j
for Titles. framers of the Constitution. And no
person holding any office of profit or trust
under them," they added, " shall, without the consent of the
Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title
of any kind from any king, prince, or foreign state." This
helps to explain why so many American women, greatly to the
disgust of those parents who are immune from the temptation,
are wilhng enough to wed the titles which the Constitution
debars. But it also explains why Congressmen are so proud
of being " Honourables," and, above all, why most Americans
are so eager for membership in those societies which mark
them out from their fellows. Such are such organisations as
the " Sons of the Revolution," which is confined to male
descendants of those who fought in the Revolution, the
" Descendants of the Signers," who must prove their lineal
connection with the men who signed the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, the " Daughters of the Revolution," the " Colonial
Dames of America," the " General Society of Mayilower
Descendants," and countless other associations which in
7 YORK
[BRAR
Days and Seasons 259
every case are so constituted as to establish caste divisions
as rigid as the grades of the peerage. Nor are these the
only pathetic illustrations of American attempts to create
an artificial emotional tradition ; in addition there are
innumerable fraternity societies with high-sounding names,
the " Tribe of Ben Hur," the " United Ancient Order
of Druids," the " Knights of Columbus," etc., etc., which,
apart altogether from their insurance benefits, are popular
because they tend to supply that colour and ceremony
so lacking in American Hfe. All these associations, with
their " commanderies " and " chapters " and " temples,"
have their annual processions and conventions which are,
of course, made the excuse for extra-legal hoHdays without
number. Those processions and conventions, however, have
their value in providing effects which help to quicken the
imaginative life of the country.
If the chapters on the Drama and Play-time, and the fore-
going enumeration of public and other holidays, are not
sufficient proof that the American is not
for^ VacaTions ^^olly a slave to business and dollar-hunting,
convincing evidence to that effect is afforded
by the national passion for vacations. Natives candidly
admit that in June the regular structure of American life is
broken up. " Vacation has become a fetish," is the exclama-
tion of one writer. A trip to Europe is, of course, the chief
ambition of most Americans, despite the exhortations of
patriots to " See America first," but as there are so many
milhons for the holiday fever to attack, the native resorts
do not lack patronage. Of course, the day excursionists
contemptuously termed " Boiled-eggers " by hotel managers,
because they carry their own food with them, are beyond
count ; but the proportion of famihes who insist upon a
full-bodied and protracted summer vacation every year is
far larger than in any other country. Everybody goes some-
where. " People from the mountains go to the seashore,
and vice versa. Eastern people rush to the West. Western
260 America of the Americans
people come back Eastward, Southerners come North. It
is a national hegira, a flux of population and a craze for
change/' A mere catalogue of the resorts most in favour
would swell to the proportions of a book, especially if an
attempt were made to tabulate the attractions as they are
set forth by their various champions, but the characteristics
of the most popular were tersely described by an unconven-
tional Western girl in the following epitome : " Ashbury
Park, too religious ; Long Branch, too stuffy ; Southampton,
too respectable ; Lennox, too scattered, too many large
country seats ; Bar Harbour, too slow, too many Phila-
delphians ; Newport, too snobby ; Narragansett Pier, too
near Newport, and not ' it ' ; Atlantic City, ' it,' something
doing all the time, always on the jump."
Vacation " folders," in other words, the hterature of the
hohday resort, and the alluring advertisements of the
American railroads, are as native and unique a product as
peanuts. " Spend this summer where hving is a joy," is the
exordium of the Rock Island press agent. " Minds and bodies
corroded with the bartering moil, the dust and grime of the
city, shed cares and worries hke leaves. Faded cheeks find
crimson. Jangling nerves find harmony. Days are full of
vibrant hving and nights bring perfect rest." All this is
penned in the interests of Colorado, but every other region
has its equally eloquent advocate. And when winter comes
the claims of Florida and California are exploited with the
same impassioned rhetoric.
But wherever Americans spend their hohdays, whether in
the exclusive radius of Newport or amid the heterogeneous
community at Atlantic City, whether among
* RoSe"^^" the recesses of the mountains or along the
Maine coast, the vacation hotel has one
feature of immutable stability. There is certain to be a piazza,
and even more certainly will that piazza have an abnormal
proportion of rocking-chairs. The " rocker," indeed, is the
permanent element of all American hohdays. From
Days and Seasons 261
post-breakfast-time to the luncheon hour, from after luncheon
to dinner-time, from after dinner till bed-time, the " rockers "
never cease. To and fro, to and fro, to and fro, heedless of
the eternal creaking and squeaking and chafing, the " rocker "
falsifies the denial of perpetual motion. Those not to the
native manner born are likely to grow distracted by the
everlasting fidgeting of the piazza " rocker," yet in its
restlessness, its never-ceasing agitation, its dawn to sunset
swaying back and forth, it is perhaps an apt s} mbol of the
American temperament. Indeed, if the United States should
ever wish to change its national emblem it might consider
the appropriateness of a dollar bill vert with a " rocker " Or,
17A— (2393A)
INDEX
Adams, John, 14
, Maude, 123
Addams, Jane, 215, 228
Agriculture : America a rural
nation, 181, 182 ; statistics of
farm produce, 182 ; Indian
corn, 183, 184 ; cotton grow-
ing, 184, 185 ; cotton by-
products, 185, 186 ; other farm
products, 186
Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 71
Alexander, John W., 149, 150
America : the lure of, 217, il8;
the reverse of its prosperity,
218 ; not an Arcadia, 219
Ames, Winthrop, 116
Argonaut, the, 66
Atherton, Mrs., 75
Atlantic Monthly, the, 89
Babbitt, Irving, 51, 53
Barber's shop, an American, 177
Bartholdi, Auguste, 217
Baseball, 245, 246, 247
Beard, Professor Charles A., 28
Belasco, David, 104, 106, 113-115.
120, 198
Bennett, James Gordon, 60
Bisland, Elizabeth, 95
Book News Monthly, the, 179
Boot-cleaning, the question of,
177, 178
Borglam, Gutzon, 155
Boston : likeness to London, 204 ;
old part, 205 ; as a literary
centre, 205 ; Pubhc Library,
206 ; City Club, 206, 207 ;
" Back Bay sets," 207
Boston Transcript, the, 57, 58, 61
Bryan, William J., 12, 20, 56
Burbank, Luther, 170
Burroughs, John, 95, 98
Butler, President, 36
Cabinet, the, 18, 19
Cable, George W., 80, 81
Campaign biographies, 12
Campaign funds for Presidential
election, 1 1
Carnegie, Andrew, 169
Carrel, Dr. Alexis, 170
Carson, Mrs. Norma Bright, 179
Century, the, 67
Chambers, Robert W., 83, 84
Channing, William Ellery. 69
Chautauqua Institution, 40
Chicago : " the Windy City,"
214 ; friendliness of, 214 ; cor-
ruption in, 215 ; good govern-
ment movement in, 215
Chicago stockyards, 187, 188
" Chinese Business," 12
" Chronicle, A Modern," 83
Churchill, Winston. 82, 83
Cities : uniformity of, 194 ; sub-
jective distinctions, 195
Civil Service, the, 16, 17
Clarke, Thomas B., 139, 140
Clay, Henry, 3
Cleveland, President, 2, 3, 12, 16
Collier's Weekly, 57
Commoner, Lincoln, 56
Congress : bicameral, 20 ; quali-
fication of members, 21 ; re-
presentation in, 21, 22 ; powers
of the Senate, 23 ; election of
Senators, 23 ; salaries of con-
gressmen, 24 ; how legislation
is introduced, 24 ; standing
committees, 25
" Coniston," 83
Continent, the, 65
Corcoran, William W., 142
Corning, Dr. Leonard, 172
Correspondence schools, 40
Cortissoz, Royal, 61
Coitrier- Journal, Louisville, 56 .
263
264
Index
Cricket, 240. 241
" Crisis, The," 83
" Crossing, The," 83
Daly, Arnold, 116
Dargan, Ohve Tilford, 112
Da vies, Arthur B., 148
Day, Chancellor, 227
Dearth, Henry G., 148
Deland, Margaret, 80
Democrats and Republicans, 26,
Dial, the, 65 [28
Dickens, Charles, 14, 196, 200
Divorce and " hustling," 176
Doubleday, Abner, 245
Drew, John, 119, 120 i
Dual government of America, 27 !
" Easiest Way, The," 108, 109 I
Edgett, Edwin F., 58 '
Edison, Thomas Alva, 160, 162,
163, 164, 165 i
Education : American passion
for, 40 ; connection of with
immigration, 41 ; early interest
in, 41, 42 ; no uniform ele-
mentary, 42 ; Bureau of, 42 ;
the common schools, 43 ; State
interest in, 43, 44 ; compulsory
attendance, 44 ; the rural
school, 44, 45, 46 ; private
schools, 47 ; secondary schools,
47, 48 ; universities, 48 ; voca-
tional, 49, 50 ; elective system,
50 ; humanistic, 53
Electoral College, the, 13
Ehot, Ex-President, 36, 50
Eggleston, Edward, 82
Emerson, Ralph W., 69
Farnol, Jeffrey, 87
Farrar, Geraldine, 135, 136
Fine Arts : influence of wealth,
138; picture dealers, 138, 139;
foreign portrait painters, 140 ;
influence of expositions, 141 ;
National Academy of Design,
141 ; permanent art galleries,
142, 143 ; is there a native
Fine A.rts (contd.) —
school of painting ? 143, 144,
150 ; failure to " express
America," 145 ; international
influence, 146, 151 ; Whistler's
influence, 146 ; artistic rebel-
hons, 147 ; Cubism, 147, 148 ;
national themes neglected, 149 ;
sculpture, 152 ; architecture,
156
Fisher, Sydney G., 93
Fiske, Mmnie Maddern, 122, 123
Fitch, Clyde, 102
Flexner, Dr. Simon, 170, 171
Franklin, Benjamin, 138
Fraternities, 50, 52
Freeman, Mrs., 79. 80
French, Daniel C, 154, 155
" From Log Cabin to White
House," 2
Fruit-growing, 189, 190
" Fruit of the Tree, The," 78
Frye, Prosser Hall, 97
Garfield, President, 2, 16
Gay, Walter, 146
" Gerr^^mandering," 22
" Getting pork," 24
Gilchrist, Edward, 91
" Girl of the Golden West, The,"
107
Godkin, Edwin L., 56
Goldsmith, Wallace, 65
Golf, 242, 243
" Great Divide, The," 107, 108
Greeley, Horace, 56
Greenslet, Ferris, 96
Habit, a distressing national, 196
Hale, George E., 167
, Philip, 132, 133, 137
, Philip Leshe, 144, 145
Hammerstein, Oscar, 126, 127,
128
Hardy, Thomas, 84
Harper's Magazine, 67, 75, 84
Weekly, 65
Harrison, General, 6, 7
Harvard Universitv, 42, 49, 50, 53
Index
265
Harvey, Colonel George, 65
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 16, 72
" Hazard of New Fortunes, A," 74
Hearst, William R., 58, 59
" Heart's Highway, The," 79
Held, Anna, 117
Herald, the, 59, 60
Herrick, Robert, 85
Holidays : forty legal, 248 ; no
national, 249 ; New Year and
Christmas Day, 249, 250 ;
Thanksgiving, 250, 251 ; the
"glorious Fourth," 251-254;
Bunker Hill day, 254 ; Arbor
day, 255, 256 ; Decoration day,
256 ; extra-legal, 257 ; passion
for vacations, 259, 260
Holman, Alfred, 66
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 173
" Hoosier Schoolmaster, The," 82
Hough, Emerson, 82
House of Governors, 34
" House of Mirth, The," 78, 156
Howells, William Dean, 70, 72-77,
81, 87, 94, 95. 100
Hutchinson, A. S. M., 87
Independent, the, 65
" In the Quarter," 83
Invention : national passion for,
160 ; Patent Office statistics,
160, 161 ; Patent lawyers, 161 ;
wealth the incentive to, 1 61 ,162 ;
some typical, 162, 163 ; the
cinematograph, 163, 164 ;
American attitude to the in-
ventor, 165, 166 ; astronomical
inventions, 166
Jackson, A. V. Williams, 95
, President, 16, 19
James, William, 97
Jefferson, Thomas, 219, 221
Johnson, Owen, 85, 86
. Richard M., 9
" John Ward, Preacher," 80
Jones, Henr}^ Arthur, 101
Journalism, School of, 54, 55
" Jungle, The," 86, 187
Kauffman, Reginald, 85
Keck, Charles, 155
" Ketons, The," 74, 75
" King Alfred's Jewel," 89, 90
Klein, Charles, 102
" Kreutzer Sonata, The," 111
Labour, American Federation of,
222-225
" Lady of Aroostook, The," 74
" Lady of the Decoration, The,"
86
Lambs' Club, 198
Lamson, Gardner, 130
Lawn-tennis, 244, 245
Leslie's Weekly, 57
Liberty, statue of, 217, 218
Life, 61, 66, 67, 248
Lincoln, Abraham, 2, 17, 19, 165
Lindsay, Judge B., 230
Literary Digest, the, 66
Literature : statistics of, 69, 70 ;
is there an American ? 71 ;
" the great American novel,"
71, 72 ; the " best sellers," 76,
77 ; publishing conditions, 77 ;
the Indiana school, 81, 82 ; the
sex novel, 84, 85 ; transient
" best sellers," 86 ; return to
romanticism, 87 ; poetry, 87-
93 ; history, 93, 94 ; travel
books, 94, 95 ; biography, 95,
96 ; literary criticism. 96, 97 ;
religion and philosophy, 97 ;
nature essays, 98
Longman, Beatrice, 156
Lowell, J. R., 1, 217
, Percival, 168
Lukeman, Augustus, 155
Luks, George, 148
Lumbering, 190, 191
MacDowell, Edward A., 136
Mackaye, Percy, 112
Major, Charles. 82
" Man of the Hour, The," 111
Mantell, Robert B., 120
Marlowe, Julia, 117, 118
Marshall Field store, 179, 180, 181
266
Index
McCarthy, Denis A., 90
McCutcheon, G. B., 82
, J. T.. 65
McKinley, President, 59
Mead, Edwin D., 254
Meat packing, 187
Meltzer, Dr. S. J., 172
Metal mining, 191
" Mid-term danger," 2
Mitchell, Langdon, 103, 109, 111
" Modern Instance, A," 74
Moody. William Vaughn, 104, 107
More, Paul Elmer, 65, 96
Moore, George, 84
Morton, T. G., 172
" Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage
Patch," 110
Miiller, Margarethe, 96
Municipal government : ineffi-
ciency of, 35 ; mayor, 35 ;
" boss " control, 36 ; costliness