There has, for example, been no lack of news cabled across the Atlantic
in regard to the nominations for President of the United States. The
European reader is made aware that a great deal of strong feeling has
been evoked, and strong language used. When a picturesque term of
reproach has been hurled by one candidate at another it is promptly
reported to a waiting world. But the "reasons annexed" are calmly
ignored. The consequence is that the reader is confirmed in his
exaggerated idea of the nervous irritability of the American people.
There seems to be a periodicity in their seizures. At intervals of four
years they indulge in an orgy of mutual recrimination, and then suddenly
return to their normal state of money-getting. It is all very
unaccountable. Doubtless the most charitable explanation is the climate.

It was after giving prominence to an unusually vivid bit of political
vituperation that a conservative London newspaper remarked, "All this is
characteristically American, but it shocks the unaccustomed ears of
Europe."

As I read the rebuke I felt positively ashamed of my country and its
untutored ways. I pictured Europe as a dignified lady of mature years
listening to the screams issuing from her neighbor's nursery. She had
not been used to hearing naughty words called out in such a loud tone of
voice. Instead of discussing their grievances calmly, they were actually
calling one another names.

It was therefore with a feeling of chastened humility that I turned to
the columns devoted to the more decorous doings of Europe. Here I should
find examples worthy of consideration. They are drawn from the homes of
ancient civility. Would that our rude politicians might be brought under