Introducing The American Spirit

CONTENTS

I. THE HERR DIRECTOR MEETS THE
AMERICAN SPIRIT 15

II. OUR NATIONAL CREED 35

III. THE SPIRIT OUT-OF-DOORS 58

IV. THE SPIRIT AT LAKE MOHONK 74

V. LOBSTER AND MINCE PIE 92

VI. THE HERR DIRECTOR AND THE
"MISSOURY" SPIRIT 112

VII. THE HERR DIRECTOR AND THE COLLEGE
SPIRIT 129

VIII. THE RUSSIAN SOUL AND THE AMERICAN
SPIRIT 147

IX. CHICAGO 166

X. WHERE THE SPIRIT IS YOUNG 184

XI. THE AMERICAN SPIRIT AMONG THE
MORMONS 199

XII. THE CALIFORNIA CONFESSION OF
FAITH 216

XIII. THE GRINNELL SPIRIT 237

XIV. THE COMMENCEMENT AND THE END 249

XV. THE CHALLENGE OF THE AMERICAN
SPIRIT 262




I

_The Herr Director Meets the American Spirit_


The Herr Director and I were sitting over our coffee in the _Café
Bauer_, _Unter den Linden_. In the midst of my account of some of the
men of America and the idealistic movements in which they are
interested, he rudely interrupted with: "You may tell that to some one
who has never been in the United States; but not to me who have
travelled through the length and breadth of it three times." He said it
in an ungenerous, impatient way, although his last visit was thirty
years ago and his journeys across this continent necessarily hurried. I
dared not say much more, for I am apt to lose my temper when any one
anywhere, criticizes my adopted country or questions my glowing accounts
of it.

But I did say: "When you come over the next time, let me be your
guide."

"Why should I want to go over again?" he replied. "It's a noisy, dirty,
hopelessly materialistic country. You have sky-scrapers, but no beauty;
money, but no ideals; garishness, but no comfort. You have despatch, but
no courtesy; you are ingenious, but not thorough; you have fine clothes,
but no style; churches, but no religion; universities, but no learning.
No, I have been there three times. That's enough. I know all about it.
_Fertig!"_ And with that he dismissed me without giving me a chance to
relieve my feelings, of which there were many; although he took
advantage of a minute that was left and told me that I was an
_Unausstehlicher Americaner_ whose judgment had been warped by my great
love for my adopted country.

Evidently the Herr Director reversed his decision not to come to this
country; for the following spring I received a cablegram to meet him on
the arrival of his ship at the Hamburg-American dock, which of course I
promptly did. The Herr Director and the Frau Directorin stepped onto the
soil of the United States with a predisposition to be martyrs, to
endure the sufferings entailed by travel with as little grace as
possible, and to suppress to the utmost all pleasurable emotion.

On the other hand, I was determined to show off my United States from
its best side, to woo and win the Herr Director's and the Frau
Directorin's approval. In my laudable endeavor I seemed to be supported
by that divine providence which watches over the whole world in general,
but over the United States in particular. The weather was perfect, the
sky festooned in fleecy clouds, the air charged by a divine energy; and
when the sun shines upon the harbor of New York--well, even the most
taciturn European cannot resist it.