A further reason for uneasiness in the face of foreign comment was that honest Americans were aware that their country suffered from the crudities of youth. It is unpleasant enough for "Seventeen" to be nagged by an unsympathetic maiden aunt, but it is intolerable if she has some ground for her naggings. In small matters as well as great "conscience doth make cowards of us all." In a period of such rapid expansion as prevailed in the young manhood of Irving, Cooper, and Bryant it was unavoidable that most of the population were drawn into business undertakings that were usually eager and hurried and that were often slipshod or even shady. The American colleges and their graduates were not as distinguished as they had been in the earlier colonial days, and the new influence of European culture from the Old World universities was yet to come. In the cities, and notably in New York, the vulgar possessors of mushroom fortunes multiplied rapidly, bringing up vapid daughters like Halleck's "Fanny,"[7] who in all the modern languages was Exceedingly well-versed; and had devoted To their attainment, far more time than has, By the best teachers, lately been allotted; For she had taken lessons, twice a week, For a full month in each; and she could speak French and Italian, equally as well As Chinese, Portuguese, or German; and, What is still more surprising, she could spell Most of our longest English words off-hand; Was quite familiar in Low Dutch and Spanish, And thought of studying modern Greek and Danish; and whose father, a man of newly affected silence that spoke "unutterable things," was established in a mortgaged house filled with servants and "whatever is necessary for a 'genteel liver'" and buttressed with a coach and half a dozen unpaid-for horses. At the same time the countryside was developing a native but not altogether admirable Yankee type. At their best, Halleck[8] wrote, The people of today Appear good, honest, quiet men enough And hospitable too--for ready pay; With manners like their roads, a little rough, And hands whose grasp is warm and welcoming, though tough. [7] "Fanny," stanzas cxxi, cxxii. [8] "Wyoming," stanza iv. And at their worst Whittier[9] looked back a half century, to 1818, and recalled them as Shrill, querulous women, sour and sullen men, Untidy, loveless, old before their time, With scarce a human interest save their own Monotonous round of small economies, Or the poor scandal of the neighborhood; * * * * *