The Critic on our Hearth
The Critic on our Hearth is a letter written by Arthur Conan Doyle published in the Daily Express on 8 january 1909.
The Critic on our Hearth
MISS FISK HAS STUMBLED ON THE WRONG STOOP.
MANY PROTESTS.
The articles by Miss Fisk, entitled "As An American Sees Us," that are appearing in the "Express," have called forth a large number of letters attacking her criticisms, and in some cases protesting against their publication.
It is however, always interesting to see ourselves as others see us, and though the "Express" disagrees entirely with Miss Fisk, it is comforting to know that the majority of Americans do not look on us with such jaundiced eyes.
We print below a selection from the letters we have received Sir Arthur Conan Doyle being among our correspondents.
SIR A. CONAN DOYLE OBJECTS.
To the Editor of the "Express."
Sir, — Every nation has its shrews and its grumbles. The English ones go to America and make mischief. The American ones do the sane here. Each has such a narrow mind that because an Englishman may drop his h's too freely, or an American his expectoration, he or she cannot realise that the one has built up the greatest of all modern nations, and that the other dominates a quarter of the globe with its law and its language.
These petty and malevolent critics of either nation would be impotent for evil if it were not that newspapers on either side of the Atlantic give them space for their twaddle, and so perturb the good feelings which should exist, as the reader confounds, in spite of any editorial disclaimers, the contributor and the journal. I am sorry that the "Express" — a paper which I have bought since the first copy — should help on such mischievous work.
- ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.
Crowborongh.
