AMERICAN CURIOSITY.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1887, 20 January 1875, Page 2

AMERICAN CURIOSITY.

Mr Black, the novelist, has published the following amusing letter on this subject in the Athenaeum:— I am sure many of our readers, who ara muck better known in the world of letters than I am, must have wondered at times whether the communications they receive from unknown correspondents in America are to be taken as representing a national characteristic. Are all Americans pd§ sessed. by a wish to knovr minute detaraf of the private affairs of any person whoso name turns up occasionally in the public prints ? I do not seek either to explain or condemn this curiosity—perhaps it is innocent enough ; but only to ask if it fs the. whim of the individuals or a national ha hit. Every one, Lsuppose, who has resorted to literature to earn,what may by courtesy be called a living, knows that in. all parts of the world there are friendly folks who will, after reading a book, sit - down and write a letter of grateful and even effusive thanks to the author ; and that there arc few things more welcome to an author than these evidences of kindly feeling coming from strangers whom lie probably never saw. But I find tbat if I write, a civil note to an Englishman who has sent me such a letter, the little incident naturally drops ; whereas, if I send the same sort of note to an American, he . immediately replies with a polite request that I should send him some particulars of myself and domestic affairs. Now, .my domestic affairs are pretty comfortable ; but I cannot for the life of me understand why iliey should be of the slightest interest to a stranger. Of what concern can it be to anybody to know whether my income is derived from India four per cents, or from a share in a public-house— whether I have a blind aunt, or a brother gone over to the Roman Catholic Church P And if this objection applies to private in* quirers, how much more, to public and official inquirers ? Some little time ago the sub-editor of a New York daily newspaper wrote to me begging me to send. him the proper materials for the construction of an " obit." He said it was the custom of his journal to keep these " obits 1" in readiness. " Heaven forbid' I —as near as I can recollect, these were his pious and comforting words—" that I should speculate on the possibility of, having to use these biographical memoranda in your case; but I must tell yoa that sometimes we find occasion to use an * obit' during the life of the subject." It may be said, " Why don't you leave these friendly 7 but imprudent letters alone? " BuPwait a biti 'Ihe other day a gentleman, commissioned to represent one of the best known American magazines, wrote to me as follows:—" Another matter, of which I speak with diffidence, is Mr 's anxiety to secure a criticalbiographical sketch of jour life and works; I have reason to believe that you shrink from the sort of publicity entailed by.«^pgraphical notice, but you know American publishers are editors. They will 14Jk& somo way—correctly if possible, juror* rectly if not; and it would surejy be better to have fact than fiction." This sounded so very like a threat that I immediately began to ask myself whether I had ever picked a pocket, shoved anybody down a well, or insulted a bishop. My next impression was that I ought to send to this enterprising person such* history of myself as would have turned his hair white in a single night; but life is scarcely longenough for practical jokes. However, my correspondent spoke the truth. The American editor " will have r the biography* some way; and publish your portrait, too, without giving you a chance of revising your own features. In the number of Appleton's Journal, which hast arrived in this country —Appleton's, by the way, was not the magazine represented by my correspondent — I find a biography of myself, which amply confirms his warning. Now it is in no spirit , of protest or complaint that I call atcent on to this latest instance of a curiosity. One cannot feel offended with a writer who , is evidently moved by the greatest goodwill, and who speaks of one's writings, with a_ hearty and generous praise, in which, if one were a little younger, it might be possible to believe. But an Englishman, whatever his calling may be, feels at once surprised and amused to find it recorded of him that, at a certain reception, he wore a flower in his buttonhole; that "his dress was a faultless evening „ attire ;" that " he carried himself with a Gareless ease, which had in it neither &f' ML fectation nor consciousness that a hun- m dred eyes were watching him;" and so on, while details about his domestic affairs naturally follow. All this is done with such naive simplicity and with such an unmistakeable good nature, that one perceives at a glance that the writer was not aware he was doiny anything singular or unusual. The question is, do Americans, as a nation, see nothing odd in this curiosity ? For myseF, I must say that I have seen no trace of it whatsoever in the Americans whom I have met in Khgland, whether as visitors or residents; but that it exists in American in a very considerable degree is scarcely to be doubted.