Perhaps It Was So
Once, But At Present They Are, I Think, More Universally Common In
New York Than In Any Other Part Of The States.
Go to Wall Street,
the front of the Astor House, and the regions about Trinity Church,
and you will find them in their fullest perfection.
What circumstances of blood or food, of early habit or subsequent
education, have created for the latter-day American his present
physiognomy? It is as completely marked, as much his own, as is
that of any race under the sun that has bred in and in for
centuries. But the American owns a more mixed blood than any other
race known. The chief stock is English, which is itself so mixed
that no man can trace its ramifications. With this are mingled the
bloods of Ireland, Holland, France, Sweden, and Germany. All this
has been done within but a few years, so that the American may be
said to have no claim to any national type of face. Nevertheless,
no man has a type of face so clearly national as the American. He
is acknowledged by it all over the continent of Europe, and on his
own side of the water is gratified by knowing that he is never
mistaken for his English visitor. I think it comes from the hot-
air pipes and from dollar worship. In the Jesuit his mode of
dealing with things divine has given a peculiar cast of
countenance; and why should not the American be similarly moulded
by his special aspirations?
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