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Show WHAT IS AN ANGLO-SAXON? (The Figaro, Paris.) English literature has for a long time been the chief study of M. Jusserand, the new French ambassador to the United States. When he was chancellor chan-cellor of the French embassy at London Lon-don he found time not only to perfect himself in the English language, which he has thoroughly acquired, but also to observe the society, the manners and the genius of England, both in life and in letters. . It may be asked. Is it necessary that an ambassador should acquire such notions? Certainly it is, and especially in the case of an ambassador charged with the duty of representing France in the United States of America. And here is the arecise reason: For a considerable time we have had our ears tortured By a common saying which is traveling all over the world. On the one hand.."Anglo-Saxon" means the "energy of a strong people, the boldness of a young rare, the endurance of robust societies, etc.;" and on the other the term "Latins," if we are to believe certain persons, means the neurasthemia of "decadent" races, the inertia of worn-out nationalities, the general paralysis of the old nations and so on. The inventors of this double-barreled balderdash have taken care charitably to place the French -people in the second sec-ond category, so that, according to the everlasting laws of evolution and the struggle for life, our task is ended, our work is done. Very well; thrice happy will we be if the condescension of the so-called Anglo-Saxon races moves them to retire re-tire us with a .pension. But the height of this absurdity is reached by a certain cer-tain number of French writers who jump at this strange fetish with lowered low-ered heads and closed eyes. We, ourselves, our-selves, are helping along this nonsense. The stuff has been innocently picked up and magnified. Even custom or fashion has adopted the logomachy, 'Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxons Latins, Latins." It is the tarte a la creme of our doctors and doctresses of social and economical sciences. One cannot look at a newspaper or a review without noticing this phenomenon phenome-non in "psittacism," this mechanical repetition of two words inexplicable and consequently void of all sense or meaning. How often do we read about the "two civilizations," the "Anglo-Saxon civilization" civil-ization" and the "Latin civilization," as if the unity of European civilization, of which America is a magnificent prolongation, pro-longation, was not a positive fact for all whose vision is not blurred by vain phraseology! If these "verboci nations" to borrow from Rabelais only grew in the shade of colleses, the harm would not be so great. But no; the two ridiculous words are traveling around the world. They help our opponets who rub their hands after totalling up their profits made out of the bad name given to all products that do not bear the trademark trade-mark of the "Anglo-Saxon" shop. All the same, we would astonish our Bretons, our Flemings, our Picards, our Auyergnats, our Basques, our Alsatians, Al-satians, our Picts of Poitou, our Helle-mans, Helle-mans, who, it should not .be forgotten, conquered England, if we told them that they were all simply Latins. Precisely Pre-cisely under the same conditions a citizen of the United States descended from the French of Louisiana or from the Dutch of New York has no right to assume thi3 strange title, "Anglo-Saxon." "Anglo-Saxon." And now we come to the question, What is an Anglo-Saxon? A distinguished distin-guished Englishman, interrogated upon the subject, answered in all sincerity that he had never seen one, and consequently conse-quently he was completely ignorant of the anatomy of the animal. |