An Engineer's Holiday, Or Notes of a Round Trip from Long; 0 To 0: In Two Parts; Part I. , West; Part II. , East (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from An Engineer's Holiday, or Notes of a Round Trip From Long; 0° to 0° In Two Parts; Part I., West; Part II., East

A tour of the World makes many radical changes in those ideas about foreign countries which are insensibly gathered in the course of time from the reading of books and newspapers.

I landed in America, a prospective admirer of its people and institutions, and left it, after five months' stay, charmed with the courteous kindness of its private citizens, astonished at the breadth and boldness of the national mind, and convinced that, so far as power and prosperity are concerned, the great republic is on its way to become the foremost nation of the modern world. But I looked for political enthusiasm, intellectual aspiration, and re publican simplicity of life among the people of the United States. I found politics a close profession, material well-being the goal of ambition, and luxury rampant among the rich.

I believed that the Japanese were, next to the white races, the most advanced people in the world, whose' intelligent appreciation of a civilization higher than their own had led to the overthrow of a remotely ancient social and political system, too rigid for Western ideas of progress. I found them cultured, courteous, and charming; but insincere and reactionary in policy, un - busi ness-like and untrustworthy in affairs.

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