The Abounding American

The Abounding American

Guywhy Guy diced and drabbed and ruffled away his inheritance, and to save his neck took shipping for the tobacco plantations where, they say, he married a daughter of Lo, the poor Indian, and none hath since heard of him. This is the kind of talk that one could hear in the clubs of London a matter of, say, two hundred and fifty years ago. In plain terms, Guy, poor devil, being a wastrel,and a broken wastrel at thathad betaken himself to America, there probably to found one of the fine old Virginia families of which American writers, and particularly American fictional writers, are so prone to babble. America, of course, was really started not by the Indians or Columbus, but by the Pilgrim Fathers, assisted and backed up by several cargoes of blue-brained and cleverblooded spirits from the British Isles, whose minds were full of theology and whose souls were full of tea. I shall be told that it is unkind of me to make such remarks. But, quite apart from all questions of[8] kindness, it is desirable that you know something of the antecedents of a man before you set about a proper estimate of him. If you wish to understand him thoroughly, you must never let sleeping dogs lie nor allow bygones to be bygones. It is notorious that the average frantic Fourth of July American is an adept at showing the best side of himself and his institutions to an admiring world. If you are to believe him the first American was Christopher Columbus, whose name in this connection I had hoped not to mention. But Don Columbus made the mistake of discovering America. For the accomplishment of this feat the Americans bestow upon his memory unqualified pans. Really, of course, the fact that Columbus steered his leaky lugger desperately for Coney Island and Long Branch, when he had the rest of the worldincluding China and Gozobefore him where to choose, proves that so far from being a hero and a man of genius, he was a dull and evilly disposed person. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 56185
Author: Crosland, T. W. H. (Thomas William Hodgson)
Release Date: Dec 16, 2017
Format: eBook
Language: English