Over Here: Impressions of America by a British officerMacQuarrie, Hector
History
Over Here: Impressions of America by a British officer
MacQuarrie, Hector
United States -- Description and travel; United States -- Social life and customs -- 1865-1918; World War, 1914-1918 -- United States
These first days were strange and ought to have been interesting, and
they were in many ways. Bethlehem is a strange sort of town. It seems to
be divided by a wide, shallow stream called the Lehigh. On one side the
place is almost suggestive of the East, or Southern Europe. There seem
to be many cheerful electric signs about, and the streets are mostly in
the form of avenues.
I think that I will not describe towns and places, but rather tell of
the people I meet and the impressions I glean of their characteristics.
Of course, when I give you an impression it will be a purely local one.
In the same way that it is impossible for a stranger in England to judge
us from the writings of Arnold Bennett when he places all his characters
in the five towns, so what I say about Bethlehem will merely tell a
little about the people living in a small town, and a town that has
suddenly grown from importance as a religious centre to the
insignificance of a great steel city, for it must be the products of
this city that will interest the people at large. Now I have lived
before in similar cities in our country, and I know that the attendants
upon great steel furnaces are not at all insignificant, but possess all
the interesting qualities that man is heir to.
I had a scene with the hotel keeper upon my first return from the steel
plant. He hated my dog and told me that the dog and I together made an
impossible combination for his house, and that I might stay if I
insisted, but _not_ with the dog.
There was nowhere else to go so I decided that Jack would have to leave
me. I hated it, but finally came to the conclusion that for a person
seriously inclined to serve his country in America, a dog approached
being a nuisance. The petty official American people don't seem to treat
a dog with a great amount of respect.
Fortunately, a friend--one of the steel officials--offered to look
after him. Jack will guard the steel official's house and will have a
happy home; so that is all right.
Opposite the Eagle Hotel is a large square sort of building with a low
tower. From the base of the tower rise about eight pillars which support
the belfry above, thus forming an open platform.
At an early hour, one morning, I was awakened by an extraordinary noise.
At first it reminded me of a salvation army band being played, not very
well. As I awoke the music seemed familiar and my mind at once jumped
back to New Zealand days when I belonged to a Bach Society in which we
found great difficulty in singing anything but the chorales, owing to
the smallness of our numbers. I got up and going to the window saw a
number of men standing on the platform blowing trombones with some
earnestness. They played several of Bach's chorales and then ceased. The
general effect was pleasing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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