"ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2896, 15 September 1909, Page 75

"ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

(Specially Written for the Witness Ladias' Page.)

THE CLOSE OF THE SEASON

July 30. For the year 1909 the London season has all "but reached its close. This week Good--wood saw the end of the summer racing, -and not under'the most favourable conditions. The, first day waa pouring -wet, but later days of the brilliant meeting were fine. This season will be remembered for its inclement,, weather, mamy of its most important events being maasred by the rain. The leading social features of the season have been of wide "contrastr— the church pageant, the royal military tournament, the Imperial Press Conference, the presentation of colours at Windsor, the Ascot races, the test matches between England and Australia, Henley, the polo matches at Huilingham between lngland and America, the State balls, and the parties honoured by royalty have been of a brilliatit description. A brilliant "opera seasonand ' crowded theatres ' hWre ■ also marked -the evenings,' and now society, headed by the King and Queen, are off to Cowes. Their Majesties will embark on the royal yacht to-day^"ahdT will' stay in the Solent "for ten days. The Czar and Czaritsa of Russia are to arrive at Cowes next Mon-' day from France- in the Imperial yacht, and the next day their Russian Majestic* will give a banquet, at which the King and Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales will be present. On Wednesday the King will give a banquet on board the loyal yacht to the 'Royal Yacht Squadron, and the Czar will be a guest, the Czaritsa, on- the Imperial yacht, entertaining the Queen. There will be specially gay doings, and if the weather is fine the Cowes roads for the next ten days will be the scene of gaiety. Afterwards, the King goes to Marienbad for his annual cure, and society disperses to the Continent, and London is "deserted" — the great houses closed, the blinds drawn, and the windows and balcony N gardens neglected; the clubs given over to renovation, and spring cleaning, and the parks to nursery maids and country visitors, and the influx of American and Continental visitors who "do" London when millionaires dspart and leave hotel accommodation possible at reasonable rates. It seems that the rich American is finding London more attractive every season, and a millionaire's reasons, given to the press, why be prefers England to the New York 'season lias brought forth a. storm of- reproach from America — not reproach only, but abuse and derision. This gentleman says that the American invasion of England during the summer is only yet in' its? infancy. ' ' England, v with its delightful town and country houses, is likely to become the head-. quarters of the more wealthy of the Englishspeaking peoples, and there is a_ sort of rough justice in the movement, inasmuch kb the United States and Canada have been almost entirely' populated, so far as their better •lements are concerned, from England, Scotland, and Irelnnd. One of the Teal reasons so many of us are escaping Jrom America is the desire to bo let alono. In London, and for the matter of that in Paris, though not sc ' much there as in London, people are accustomed to mind their own business. Private gossip and scandal are at a minimum here, not only in houses, but in clubs; and your newspapers do nq.t print it. My day. as a wealthy man in England., • is so entirely different from my day in the United States that J. will describe both for the benefit of American friends who may bo desirous of joining us in life in this delightful country. It is the London season. I rise at halfpast eight or nine to a quiet meal, at which we help ourselves without the aid of servants — who are not present at English breakfasts — to the accompaniment of newfpapers that prefer world-politics to who* we call " neighbourhood news." I- walk or ride a-s I choose, and theTe is no crowd of curious spectators to watch me as I niak© my exit. There is. in fact, no curiosity with regard to rich people in England. Only the other day there died your Mr Morrison, one of tne richest men in the world, and I had never heard his name, nor haS any .ot; those at the chvb^ in which the matter was "being discussed. Mr Astor and Mr- Morgan, whese- smallest doings wou'd be chronicled in the United States, may move as '.freely as they please here, and their nrivate coming* and goings are not recorded, for the simple reason that no oqe wants to hear about them. The absence cf claas feeling in England is another reason why many of us prefer to live here. The rich raid poor are not divided into two hostile factions. Every mam has his place. There is not the rush, envy, and malice of New York society with its continual struggle of "Western and Pittsburg- people to get into tha-t curious circle "The Four Hundred." Xew York foe'ety is not what it was in my early day?. "When old Mrs Astor reignsd 3upreme, society in New York was not at all unlike society in London. There was no osten:pt;on. ar.d any persons of birth, brains, or breeding were freely admitted. To-day it is merely a cue'£i<m of money, aiicl sucli claajrming salous as exist in London, where rank, money, and brains occupy about the ssave position, are now iniDossible in most American citie?, and certainly in New York. From a man's point of view, the constant dressing up of the American man is extremely trying. Here, contrarj to the average American notion, there is very HUie formality of any kind; too little, many peoDle think in these days of what is known af> the " ratcatcher " style of dress adopted by the Englishman. Such things as card leaving and calling are xapidly going out cf fashion. and one is free to do as one chooses. If I desire- to entertain at luncheon, I can ask -whom I choose, provid-sd, however, that theTe is something Beyond food .to offer. Authors, actors, poets, playwrights, statesmen, men of business, distinguished foreigners, the delightful members of your Royal Family, all mix and meet here on terms that at first amaze tbe American. Now at home I have to deal with people who are all shaped in the same mould ; for, able, virile, and splendid as the American man is en masse, you will realise th-at there are very few outstanding individualities in that population of ninety millions. Tout political world, too, posse=ses a v arm which, alae! is not yet poaeibla in

America. The idea of a younger son of an American aristocratic family taking part in the management of national affairs is almost impossible on that side of the water Mr Roosevelt was a notable, a fine, ex* ception. Of late years we have got to regard politics as a trade, and a pretty bad one at that. In Itondon I am not perpetually stared at, telephoned at, written at, paragraphed; at, - and libelled. The afternoon ia spent here in Any of a hundred pleasant ways, and an intellectual dinner is enjoyed without mention of stocks ~ and shares . j I have only one objection to your English ■ life, and that is your -super-tax on th» j wealthy man, which we are still, I am j glad to say, able to avoid in the United I States. | This millionaire contrasts the unattractive picture of a rich man's typical day in New York, with a host of interviewers and. photographers dodging his steps from morning till night. "Be lived in a beautiful hotel, beautiful in design and superior in mechanical comfort to anything in England, . but' over-heated and over-decorated, -over-noised, and very little of the milk of human kindness about it. The waste of time over little things, such as shaving — "it takes half an hour -to get shaved in America" — is intolerable, the writer says, after the quickness of London. This statement has surprised many who have the habit of thinking that America is over quick. . Hastening down town to attend to the affairs of the corporation with which he is connected, the writer says, he is snapshotted, worried by impecunious acquaintances, hustled by time-wasters all day long, so that concentration to business is almost impossible. And the return to the hotel and quiet dinner and game of bridge afterwards is magnified in the morning papers, this gentleman says, into a huge gambling gathering. The hustling and publicity and exaggeration are a few of the reasons ho gives for the growing partiality of the rich American for England. To earn his roonev in the United States and spend it in London seems to be, much to the chagraa of many compatriots, this gentleman's ideal programme. - ] I have said nothing of your public school and university education ; nothing of the unpretentious, quiet national spirit of England — too self-deprecating, too reach inclined to put its worst foot forward; I have said too : little of the fact that a man is received : here for what he is, and not for what he is worth. A wave of this "self"-deprecia.tion" has passed over England this week —^because a Frenchman has been the first to fly across the Channel. M. Bleriot's unexpected ! triumph has taken all England by storm, for it was dramatic from the fact tha v it was for Mr Latham's achievement that England was impatiently and waiting. Himself and his monoplane were daily photographed, the illustrations and tha interviewers keeping the rjublic in touch with every movement of this daring explorer of the air, and a crowd awaited from sunrise to sunset on the cliffs of ' Calais to see the start anc 1 another on the cliffs of Dover to welcome the man who accomplished the feat which would not only be epoch-making in the history of the air, but win the prize of jQIOOO offered by the Daily Mail, among other prizes, amounting to almost £4000 in all. to the first man whose flying machine "brought him without mishap from ' coast to coast. The eyes of two countries were fixed upon M.r Latham expectantly. ; Half English md half French in nationality and education, both nations were equally interested in the feat to be, and waited hourly for its- accomplishment. The first attempt, as all the world knows, ended in failure six miles from the French coast J through the failure of the engines of the ' flying machine, Mr Latham dropping into the sea, or upon it rather, being rescued by the torpedo boat in attendance. But, ful of hope and certainty. Mr Latham waited to make the second attempt till the • high winds blowing day after day should , have subsided, and while he slept on the ' day of the 26th M. Bleriot wrested the prize and the honour. { In the cold grey dawn, on the meadow j at Basques, M. Bleriot and his friends waited ; Mr Latham, worn out with the watching of fruitless days and nights, slept, under engagement to be called if the weather showed any hope of the crossing. Mr Latham's watchers thought not, and in the dawn hif> rival, M. Bleriot, scared over the sand dunes .of Baraques and away over the grey waters of the Channel, «xm passing out of sight of his anxious wife, following in the destroyer. In about half an hour M. Bleriot dropped to earth on the Dover Cliffs among am excited" littie group of coast guardsmen, policemen, and pressmen. I London, as is its fashion with heroes, was greatly excited over this new hero, and immediately set to work to fea^t M. Bkriot ; but Dover was beforehand with the honour?. After a happy meeting between Madame Bleriot and her husband Dover made much of them, and on th« Mon-day the successful man of the air, with his wife, proceeded to Lor.«d«nn. M. Bleriot's arrival at Victoria was greeted with great enthusiasm, and he was eT^erta.iii'sd to J"iK-heon at the Savoy Hotel by Lord Xorlhcliffe. who presented the Daily Mail priz" of £10G0. A number of distinguished men, among them Lieutenant Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer, were asked io meet th° hero- of the hour, and Mr Hald-ane, Minister of War. received him. j "Yout achievement.*' said he to M. Bleriot, "gives you a special place in history. It mnrks the be<rin.ning of a new period The wonderful ease with wHch you did. it was du.e to your great couras*-" ,

M. Bleriot disclaimed! great courage, but claimed for his feat the due of hard work. He had prepaid the way laboriously, and was more than satisfied with the result. Ma-dame Bleriot professed herself that day to be the happiest woman in the world-. The wife of the great aviator, of whom the public has heard nothing till now, shares her husband's triumph, as she has shared the bad days of which the world has not heard. "Believe me," she said, smiling among flowers and a circle of friends, "the domestic side of an aviator's wife is not a bed of roses. Of course I am the happiest Frenchwoman alive, and have been since I heard that my husband had safely landed at Dover. I have forgotten the difficulties of th© past, the terrible emotions I have experienced, the shocks I suffered' when, M. Bleriot had- an accident, and the fact that for seven long years I have lived in a feverish atmosphere, heard of nothing but aviation, dangers, experiments, and machines." But madarae always believed in her husband. His confidence in himself was always so great she had to believe in him, she says. Meanwhile Mr Latham is suffering his eclipse. "Hard luck !" is the general opinion, for his aeroj^ane was considered the superior ' invention. Wlien he heard that M. Bleriot had started, has distress •was- poignant, and he would have immediately followed his rival but that a wind sprang up and made it impossible. When, two days later, be made the attempt, he - reached Dovex all but two miles, and when within sound of the acclaims of triumph his machine again dropped into the sea. This time Mr Latham's bead was hurt, and his next attempt was indefinitely postponed!. What visions, as France says, does the flight not bring to all of us! Those wno do not love us see England no longer an i&land to be aoproachied in the teeth of Dreadnoughts, but one of many countries nnder one sky to be approached without barriers. H. G. Wells, author of "Th© War in the Air." has expressed himself very strongly on the present situation, so strongly that his letter has brought forth many objections. This is part of what he says : — The foreigner is ahead of us in education, and this is essentially true of the middle and upper classes, from which invention and enterprise come — or, in our own case, do not oome. He makes a better class of man than we do. His science is better than ours. His training is better than ours. His imagination is livelier. His mind is more active. Hb requirements in a novel, for example, are not kindly, sedative pap ; his uncensored plays deal with reality. His schools are places for vigorous education instead of genteel athleticism, and hia home has books in it, and thought and conversation. Our homes and schools are relatively dull and uninspiring; there is no intellectual guide or stir in them;, and to that we v - owe this new genera-tion of nicely behaved, unenterprising eons, who play srolf-and dominate the tailoring of the" world, while Brazilians, Frenchmen, Americans, and G-ertnans fly. That we are hopelessly behindhand in aeronautics is not a fact by itself. It is merely an indication that we are behindhand in our mechanical knowledge and invention. M. Bleriot's aeroolane points also to the fleet. The struggle for naval fiipremacy is not mer<»lv ■& strusrs-ie in shipbuilding and expenditure. Much more is it a strugsrle in knowledge and invention. It is not the Power that has the most ships or the biggest *hies that is going to win in a naval conflict. It is «he Power that thinks -quiok-est of what to do. is most resourceful and inventive. Eighty Dreadnoughts manned by dull men are only eighty targets for a quicked adversary. Well, is there any reason to suppose that our navj is going to keep above the general national level in these things? Is the navy bright? The arrival of M. Bleriot suggests most horribly to me how far behind we must be in all matters of ingenuity, device, and mechanical contrivance. I am reminded again of the days duruie the Boer war. when one realised tbst it had -n-pver occurred- to our h-appy-eo-lucky army that it was poe- ] sib!e to make a military ufe of barhed wire I or construct a trench to defy shrftpnel. Supnose in the North Sea we got a surprise like that, nnd fi«hed out a parboi'ed, halfnrowried admiral explaining wh»t a con- : foundedlv slim unexpected, almost uneentlem«uly thing the <»nemy. had done to him Very T>robaJ>lv the navy ia the bright exception to the British system, its officers are ' rescued from the dull homes and dull school* of their c'«ss while still of tender years, i»nct shaped after a fashion of their own. But M. Bleriot. remind? us that we may no longer shelter »nd degenerate behind thee bhie back*.' And the keenest men at pea. *re nnn^ the worse for having keen men on land behind them.