The Americans are said to be grievously addicted to ----: we would
rather avoid the word. Travellers have spread the imputation; but
travellers are known to speak from prejudice, and their report did not
appear to be altogether trustworthy. At length, strange to say, the
charge of being intolerable--must we say it?--_spitters_ is made by
one of themselves, and of course there can be no more said on the
subject: the fact is confessed. This marvellously candid, but painful
acknowledgment, occurs in the recently-published work, _Sketches of
European Capitals_, by W. Ware, M.D., the well-known author of those
charming historical romances, _Letters from Palmyra_, _Aurelian_, &c.
We trust that Dr Ware will not be ostracised on the score of taste or
patriotism by his countrymen, for his extraordinary audacity in
telling them of a fault, and, what is more, in drawing an unfavourable
comparison between them and Englishmen on this most delicate subject.
The following are his remarks:--
'An Englishman, I believe, rarely chews, and, compared with the
American, rarely smokes; but whether he does not secretly practise
both these abominations, I am not prepared to say. But with both these
provocatives, if it be so, one thing he never does--is to spit. That
fact draws a line of demarcation between the Englishman and the
American, broader and deeper a thousandfold than any other in
politics, government, laws, language, religion. _The Englishman never
spits_; or, if he does, he first goes home, shuts himself up in his
room, locks his door, argues the necessity of the case; if necessary,
performs the disagreeable duty, and returns to society with a clear
conscience. The American spits always and everywhere; sometimes when
it is necessary; always, when it is not. It is his occupation, his
pastime, his business. Many do nothing else all their lives, and
always indulge in that singular recreation when they _have_ nothing
else to do. Sometimes, in a state of momentary forgetfulness, he
intermits; but then, as if he had neglected a sworn duty, returns to
it again with conscience-smitten vigour. He spits at home and abroad,
by night and by day, awake and asleep, in company and in solitude, for
his own amusement and the edification of a spitting community; on the
freshly-painted or scoured floor, on the clean deck of a ship or
steam-boat, on parlour floors--covered whether with ingrained
Brussels, Wilton, or Turkey--even there he voids his rheum; upon the
unabsorbent canvas, so that one may see, where numbers congregate, the
railway cars to run in more ways than one; the pulpits and pews of
churches are not safe; the foot-pavement of the streets, the floors of
all public places--of exchanges, hotels, of Congress halls--are foul
with it; and in railway cars it must always be necessary for a lady to
shorten her garments, as if about to walk in the deep mud of the
street, or the snow and water of spring, if she would escape
defilement to either her dress or her slippers. As the power of
direction of these human missiles is by no means unerring,
notwithstanding so much practice, one's own person, and all parts of
his person, are exposed to the random shots of this universal foe of
American civilised life; and often he finds, on different parts of his
dress, proofs abundant of the company he has kept. The only single
spot absolutely secure is a man's face--and that would not be, were it
not for the fear of a duel. That there is not the shadow of
exaggeration in this description, coarse as it is, and coarse as it
has been my intention to make it, all Americans, and all travellers
who have ever been within an American hotel, steam-boat, or
rail-car--all will testify. And the result of it all is, I suppose,
that we are the freest and most enlightened people on the face of the
earth! But for one, republican as I am in principle, I think, on the
whole, I would prefer the despotism of Austria, Russia, or Rome, to
the freedom, if I must take with it the spit, of America. It is vice
enough to tempt one to forswear home, country, kindred, friends,
religion; it is ample cause for breaking acquaintance, friendship, for
a divorce; in a word, it is our grand national distinction, if we did
but know it. There are certainly parts of the country comparatively,
but only comparatively, free from this vice. Here at the north, there
is much less than at the west and the south, though here enough of it
to disgust one with his race. In proportion as general refinement
prevails, the custom abates. At the south, no carpets, no rooms, no
presence, affords protection.[6] Here, in the best rooms, the best
society, there is partial exemption, though not often enough from the
presence of that ingenious, fearful patent--the brazen, china, or
earthen _box_. Would that my country could be induced to pause in this
its wonderful career! Pity some public effort could not be made by way
of general convention, or otherwise, for the abatement of this
national mischief--certainly as worthy of attention as very many of
our political and moral reforms. The advice of the London surgeon,
Abernethy, to an American sea-captain, was at anyrate useful to us
all, and pregnant with good medical philosophy. "Keep your saliva in
your mouth to help to digest your food with," said he, "and do not
spit it all over my carpet." Very wholesome counsel. And, seriously,
who can say how much the pallid face, the proverbial indigestion of
our country, even consumption itself, may not be owing to this
constant drain, which deprives the stomach of a secretion which nature
provided for the most important purposes in the manufacture of the
blood, and which she certainly did not provide to be wasted and thrown
about in the manner of the Anglo-American?'
There is so much frankness and sorrow in this confession of a national
sin against good manners, that the least thing we can do is to assure
Dr Ware, that he takes much too favourable a view of the habits of the
English in the matter in question. That among the highly-educated, the
refined, and in what is called 'good society' generally, no one is
guilty of the crime he speaks of, is quite true; but we take leave to
say that inferior grades of people--the bulk of those walking the
street, for example--are about as guilty of it as are the Americans;
and it must doubtless be from this source that our transatlantic
brethren have been contaminated. This hint as to the origin of a bad
practice may perhaps suggest amendment in those departments of our
population where it is required. Might not something also be done in
the way of school instruction?