| 1 | ''The American Credo'' is a philosophical tract originally written by George Jean Nathan and Creator/HLMencken in 1920. Subtitled "A Contribution Toward the Interpretation of the National Mind," it attempts a serious examination of the often ludicrous ideas found to be common among Americans. |
| 2 | |
| 3 | The main text of this work is an enumeration of myths, stereotypes, superstitions, nostrums and base beliefs of the American people, succinctly listed. The catalogue is preceded by an essay, which in the first edition takes up a greater number of pages than the 488 items themselves (much like those prefacing several of Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw's plays). The "Revised and Expanded Edition" published a year or so later supplied 381 additional items. ''The New American Credo'' (1927), which omits the original preface and was published under Nathan's name alone, renumbered, expanded and thoroughly updated the catalogue, bringing the number of items to 1231. |
| 4 | ---- |
| 5 | !!Tropes discussed in ''The American Credo'' and ''The New American Credo'': |
| 6 | * AbsentMindedProfessor: "That professors are absent-minded, that they often come to their classes minus collar or tie, and that they sometimes walk into other people's homes by mistake while engrossed in deep thought." (#696; New #895) |
| 7 | * {{Ahem}}: "That a man who habitually clears his throat before he speaks is generally a self-important hypocrite and a bluffer." (#191; New #311) |
| 8 | * AllAsiansKnowMartialArts: "That the average Jap is so expert at jiu-jitsu that, if attacked by half a dozen truck-drivers, he can handily dispose of all of them." (New #877) |
| 9 | * [[TheAllegedCar The Alleged Boat]]: "That all excursion boats are so old that if they ran into a drifting beer-keg they would sink." (#11; New #74) |
| 10 | * AsianHookerStereotype: "That in Japan an American can buy a beautiful geisha for two dollars and that, upon being bought, she will promptly fall madly in love with him and will run his house for him in a scrupulously clean manner." (#5; New #69) |
| 11 | * BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: "That the birth of a child will insure harmony between its parents." (New #760) |
| 12 | * BigFriendlyDog: |
| 13 | ** "That the larger the dog, the safer he is for children." (#332; New #545) |
| 14 | ** "That large dogs are more affectionate than small ones." (New #57) |
| 15 | * BigFun: "That fat men are invariably jolly." (New #1155) |
| 16 | * BrainlessBeauty: "That a beautiful woman never has any brains." (#787; New #1060) |
| 17 | * BritishStuffiness: "That Englishwomen are very cold." (#466; New #697) |
| 18 | * BullSeeingRed: "That if a bull spots a man with a red necktie on, it will go after him post haste, whereas a man with a blue or green one on will leave the bull cold." (New #1223) |
| 19 | * CaliforniaDoubling: [[invoked]] "That all moving pictures of English country life are staged in Fort Lee, New Jersey." (#514) |
| 20 | * ChineseLaunderer: "That all Chinese laundrymen sprinkle their laundry by taking a mouthful of water and squirting it out at their wash in a fine spray; and that, whatever the cost of living to a white man, the Chinese laundryman always lives on eight cents a day." (#271; New #410) |
| 21 | * CollegeWidow: "That middle-aged widows are very fond of college boys." (#651; New #858) |
| 22 | * ConjoinedTwins: "That the Siamese Twins were joined together by gutta percha moulded and painted to look like a shoulder blade." (#9; New #82) |
| 23 | * DashingHispanic: "That the male Spaniard is generally a handsome, flashing-eyed fellow, possessed of fiery temper." (#110; New #211) |
| 24 | * DefiledForever: "That, for a young woman, seduction is a worse fate than death." (New #161) |
| 25 | * DirtyCommies: "That it is necessary for the state police vigilantly to patrol the Croton water dam to keep the Bolsheviki from throwing prussic acid into it and poisoning the New York water supply." (New #37) |
| 26 | * DirtyForeigner: "That Creator/RabindranathTagore is a great mystic, but that he needs a bath." (New #416) |
| 27 | * DiseaseBleach: "That a sudden shock may cause the hair to turn grey over night." (#131; New #217) |
| 28 | * DreamingOfThingsToCome: "That if you are sleeping in a strange house, whatever you dream will happen in reality." (New #150) |
| 29 | * DrunkenMaster: "That General Grant was always soused during a battle, and that on the few occasions when he was sober he got licked." (#422; New #649) |
| 30 | * EatTheEvidence: "That when a military spy is caught he always has in his possession a small but extremely valuable piece of paper which he immediately proceeds to chew up and swallow." (#650; New #857) |
| 31 | * ElephantsNeverForget: "That an elephant in a circus never forgets a person who gives him a chew of tobacco or a rotten peanut, but will single him out from a crowd years afterward and bash in his head with one colossal blow." (#439; New #667) |
| 32 | * EmpathicEnvironment: "That the steam will rattle in the radiators in a hospital when a patient dies." (New #1151) |
| 33 | * EscapeArtist: |
| 34 | ** "That it would have been impossible to keep Houdini imprisoned in any manner, and that it is a good thing he wasn't a criminal." (New #294) |
| 35 | ** "That the late Houdini was able to effect his various escapes from handcuffs, straight-jackets, sealed trunks, etc., because he was double-jointed." (New #1160) |
| 36 | * EvilDetectingBaby: "That a baby knows instinctively whether a man is good or bad." (#853) |
| 37 | * EvilDetectingDog: "That if a dog is fond of a man it is an infallible sign that the man is a good sort, and one to be trusted." (#134; New #233) |
| 38 | * ExplosiveBreeder: "That the philoprogenitive instinct in rabbits is so intense that the alliance of two normally assiduous rabbits is productive of 265 offspring in one year." (#1; New #62) |
| 39 | * ExtremeOmnigoat: "That a goat will wax fat on a diet of tin cans and back numbers of the ''[[Magazine/TheSaturdayEveningPost Saturday Evening Post]]''." (#495; New #605) |
| 40 | * FeudingFamilies: "That Kentucky mountaineers, no matter how well they may be educated, always soon or late return home and take up the family feud." (New #10) |
| 41 | * FieryRedhead: "That red-haired girls are especially virulent." (#436; New #663) |
| 42 | * FightingIrish: "That whenever there is a funeral in an Irish family the mourners all get drunk and proceed to assault one another with clubs." (#313; New #508) |
| 43 | * FlorenceNightingaleEffect: "That a nurse, however ugly, always looks beautiful to the sick man." (#136; New #235) |
| 44 | * FowlMouthedParrot: "That all parrots are very proficient cussers, and that it is unwise for a young woman to have one around the house when her beau calls if she wishes to avoid embarrassment." (New #160) |
| 45 | * GaussianGirl: "That the so-called 'mist photography' of the movies can make a woman of fifty with a face like a dried apple look like a sixteen-year-old Helen of Troy." (New #457) |
| 46 | * GermanicEfficiency: "That the Germans are such a wonderfully industrious people that, the very day the late war ended, all the pretzel factories were again found to be working full-blast." (New #4) |
| 47 | * GirlsLikeMusicians: "That colored girls can't resist the attractions of jazz band musicians, and that every coon saxophone player has children by no less than a dozen wenches." (New #6) |
| 48 | * GirlWatching: |
| 49 | ** "That when a woman with shapely limbs starts to board a street-car all the men within a block stop in their tracks to stare." (New #30) |
| 50 | ** "That when a good-looking girl passes a group of men on the street, they instantly abandon the subject they were talking about and indulge in remarks about her shape." (New #284) |
| 51 | * GiveAwayTheBride: "That the bride's mother always weeps as her daughter is being given away by her father." (New #51) |
| 52 | * GlamorousWartimeSinger: "That, during [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the late war]], Elsie Janis was always near the scene of battle to inspire the American troops to lay down their lives by singing selections from ''Oh, Boy'' and ''The Pink Lady'' and giving imitations of Eddie Foy and Ethel Barrymore." (New #204) |
| 53 | * GoingCommando: "That the young girls of the present day never wear panties." (New #1032) |
| 54 | * GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: "That a man who smokes cigarettes in a long holder is a parlor-snake, but that the man who smokes a pipe is a 100 percenter." (New #1147) |
| 55 | * GossipyHens: "That the old ladies on summer hotel verandas devote themselves entirely to the discussion of scandals." (#17; New #79) |
| 56 | * GreedyJew: "That before long all the money in the country will be in the hands of the Jews." (#657; New #866) |
| 57 | * GrimyWater: "That stagnant water that has turned green is poisonous, and that drinking it means instant death." (New #17) |
| 58 | * HardHead: "That if one hits a negro on the head with a cobblestone, the cobblestone will break." (#213; New #342) |
| 59 | * HardToLightFire: "That if one has only three matches left, the first two will invariably go out, but that the third and last will remain lighted." (#142; New #243) |
| 60 | * HatingOnMonday: "That children are always poorest in class on Mondays, as the antecedent Saturday and Sunday holiday have taken all thought of their studies out of their heads." (New #46) |
| 61 | * HauntedHouse: "That every small village has a haunted house." (#802; New #1089) |
| 62 | * HealthyCountryAir: "That the suburbs are always more healthful than the city." (New #1118) |
| 63 | * HorribleCampingTrip: "That whenever a crowd of boys goes camping in summer two or three of them are drowned, and the rest come home suffering from poison ivy." (#301; New #452) |
| 64 | * INeverGotAnyLetters: "That there are hundreds of letters in the Dead Letter Office whose failure to arrive at their intended destinations was instrumental in separating as many lovers." (#2; New #63) |
| 65 | * IdleRich: "That women who are able to afford servants wear kimonos during the greater part of the day and read best sellers." (#547; New #825) |
| 66 | * ImpoverishedPatrician: "That many of the old Knickerbocker families of New York are today in such impoverished circumstances that they may be found living over hardware and delicatessen stores off lower Second and Third Avenues, but that they retain the old pride of aristocracy none the less and refuse to have anything to do with millionaires from the Middle West, Newport and Palm Beach social lights and other such recently ordained riff-raff." (New #196) |
| 67 | * LamarckWasRight: "That if a woman about to become a mother plays the piano every day, her baby will be born a Victor Herbert." (#10; New #73) |
| 68 | * LateToThePunchline: "That it takes an Englishman two days to see a joke, and that he always gets it backward even then." (#424; New #651) |
| 69 | * LoanShark: "That Henry Ford is against the Jews because he tried to borrow $50,000,000 from them and they demanded 10 per cent. a month." (#862; New #1010) |
| 70 | * MadArtist: "That the futurist painters are all insane." (#568; New #782) |
| 71 | * MadDoctor: "That surgeons often kill patients for the sheer pleasure of it." (#57; New #138) |
| 72 | * MadeInCountryX: "That a suit of clothes made in England will last for years and never wear out, whereas one made in America will go to pieces in a relatively short time." (New #616) |
| 73 | * {{Mammy}}: |
| 74 | ** "That old negro mammies, now fast becoming extinct, always refer to their 'white folks' as 'honey chile.'" (#720) |
| 75 | ** "That the old negro mammy of ante-bellum days was the best cook in the world." (New #499) |
| 76 | * MenCantKeepHouse: "That a bachelor is a very untidy fellow, and that the floors of his living quarters are always a mess of soiled linen and cigarette butts." (New #796) |
| 77 | * MildlyMilitary: The folk conception of the peacetime army amounts to this. "That soldiers in the regular army have a very easy time of it in times of peace, and have nothing to do all day long but sit around and play pinochle." (New #419) |
| 78 | * MischiefMakingMonkey: "That when one takes one's best girl to see the monkeys in the zoo, the monkeys invariably do something that is very embarrassing." (#13; New #75) |
| 79 | * MoustacheDePlume: [[invoked]] "That the woman writer on an evening newspaper who gives advice to the lovelorn is invariably a man with a flowing beard." (#556) |
| 80 | * TheMuse: "That being in love with a beautiful woman is a great inspiration to an artist." (#585; New #715) |
| 81 | * MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: "That in the infinitesimal space of time between the springing of the trap-door and his dropping through it, a hanged man sees his entire life pass in panorama before him." (#322; New #535) |
| 82 | * MysteryMeat: "That the frankfurters sold at circuses and pleasure parks are made of dog meat." (#432) |
| 83 | * NapInducingSpeak: "That all speeches at banquets are long and dull, and that everyone has a fierce time keeping awake during them." (New #285) |
| 84 | * NaturalizedName: "That every man who calls himself Redmond is a Jew whose real name is Rosenberg." (#158) |
| 85 | * NoHeroToHisValet: "That no man can ever conceivably be a hero to his valet." (New #402) |
| 86 | * NouveauRiche: "That people who are born rich are never vain, and that people who are born poor and later become rich are always vain." (#709; New #884) |
| 87 | * ObfuscatingDisability: "That a very small proportion of beggars posing as blind are actually blind." (New #117) |
| 88 | * ObnoxiousInLaws: "That a man always dislikes his mother-in-law, and goes half-crazy every time she visits him." (#479; New #590) |
| 89 | * OfCorsetHurts: "That tight corsets used to be the cause of many female ailments and that since women abandoned the wearing of them their general well-being has increased 100 per cent." (New #7) |
| 90 | * OfficerAndAGentleman: "That General Robert E. Lee was exceptionally meticulous in the matter of dress and never went into battle without putting a clean collar on." (New #41) |
| 91 | * OfficerOHara: "That the chief industry of Ireland is the breeding and exporting of policemen." (New #1162) |
| 92 | * OfficeRomance: "That the stenographer in a business house is always coveted by her employer, who invites her to luncheon frequently, gradually worms his way into her confidence, keeps her after office hours one day, accomplishes her ruin, and then sets her up in a magnificently furnished apartment in Riverside Drive and appeases her old mother by paying the latter's expenses for a summer holiday with her daughter at the seashore." (#154; New #254) |
| 93 | * OldFashionedRowboatDate: "That when a man embarks in a canoe with a girl, the chances are two to one that the girl will move around when the boat is in mid-stream and upset it." (#100; New #195) |
| 94 | * OldNewBorrowedAndBlue: "That if a bride wears an old garter with her new finery, she will have a happy married life." (#121; New #229) |
| 95 | * OminousOwl: "That the quivering cry of a screech owl heard just outside a house is a sign that some one in the house will shortly die." (#731; New #1139) |
| 96 | * OnionTears: "That in a photoplay a motion picture actress brings tears to her eyes by concealing an onion in her handkerchief." (#677; New #914) |
| 97 | * OstrichHeadHiding: "That an ostrich always buries its head in the sand when pursued." (New #1180) |
| 98 | * OutGivingBirthBackInTwoMinutes: |
| 99 | ** "That Polish women are so little human that one of them can have a baby at 8 A. M. and cook her husband's dinner at noon." (#46) |
| 100 | ** "That when a society woman has a baby she is a complete wreck for months afterward, but that a washerwoman can have one at eleven o'clock in the morning and with perfect comfort go to a movie the same afternoon." (New #33) |
| 101 | * PiggyBank: "That when a child has had a toy dime-bank for two days it always takes a can-opener, pries it open and spends the accumulated ten cents at the nearest candy store." (New #112) |
| 102 | * PocketProtector: "That many soldiers' lives have been saved in battle by bullets lodging in Bibles which they have carried in their breast pockets." (#230; New #362) |
| 103 | * PreachersKid: "That a minister's son usually grows up to be a drunkard or a thief." (#777; New #1072) |
| 104 | * PretextForWar: "That Hearst instigated the murder of Americans by Mexican thugs in order that the American government might intervene and protect his interests down there from the lawless bands of Mexican soldiers." (New #121) |
| 105 | * ProductPlacement: "That whenever a vaudeville comedian quotes a familiar commercial slogan, such as '[[Creator/HisMastersVoiceRecords His Master's Voice]]', or 'Eventually, why not now?' he is paid $50 a performance for doing so." (#193; New #319) |
| 106 | * PurelyAestheticGlasses: "That a negro who wears gold-rimmed spectacles never actually needs them, but affects them because they make him look intelligent." (#605; New #734) |
| 107 | * TheQuietOne: "That [[UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge Coolidge]] is a very taciturn man, but that if he ever elected to say anything it would be of world-shaking importance." (New #7) |
| 108 | * RainRainGoAway: "That one always feels depressed on a rainy day, but that the moment the sun comes out again one feels gay and cheerful." (New #615) |
| 109 | * ReallyGetsAround: "That the Empress Catherine of Russia fornicated continuously, and that every morning she would cause her regiments to line up outside the palace that she might survey the men and pick out the likeliest candidate for the night's pleasure." (New #1163) |
| 110 | * ReturningToTheScene: "That a criminal always returns to the scene of his crime, and usually in the dead of night." (New #967) |
| 111 | * RomanceOnTheSet: [[invoked]] "That every female moving-picture star carries on an intrigue with her leading man, and will marry him as soon as he can get rid of his poor first wife, who took in washing in order to pay for his education in the art of acting." (#303; New #456) |
| 112 | * SadClown: "That every circus clown's heart is breaking for one reason or another." (#31; New #98) |
| 113 | * ScrewTheRulesImBeautiful: "That a jury never convicts a pretty woman." (#419; New #646) |
| 114 | * SerenadeYourLover: "That when a Spaniard is in love he hangs around all night beneath the window of his inamorata and serenades her with a guitar." (#830; New #1046) |
| 115 | * SpeaksFluentAnimal: "That Professor Garner was able to carry on long and intimate conversations with monkeys in their own language." (#359; New #463) |
| 116 | * SouthernBelle: "That all the girls in Richmond, Va., are great beauties, but that they will not look at a Yankee." (#863) |
| 117 | * SouthernGentleman: "That Southerners are chivalrous." (#843; New #994) |
| 118 | * StealingFromTheTill: "That all bank cashiers, soon or late, tap the till." (#265) |
| 119 | * StockAnimalDiet: "That rats and mice subsist entirely on cheese, and that, while such exotic brands as Camembert, Gruyere and Port du Salut are not especially to their taste, American cheese invariably fetches them." (New #2) |
| 120 | * StubbornMule: "That all mules are very obstinate." (New #369) |
| 121 | * StuntDouble: [[invoked]] "That all the difficult feats ascribed to movie stars in the films are really done by doubles." (New #23) |
| 122 | * SweetHomeAlabama: "That nowhere is such hospitality found as south of the Mason and Dixon line." (#730; New #1136) |
| 123 | * SwitchedAtBirth: "That the nurses in maternity hospitals are often careless and that the babies frequently get mixed up." (#667; New #942) |
| 124 | * TakingTheVeil: "That all nuns have entered convents because of unfortunate love affairs." (#214; New #343) |
| 125 | * ThereWillBeToiletPaper: "That the best way quickly to stop the flow of blood, if one cuts one's self with a razor, is to clap a bit of tissue paper upon the wound." (New #1175) |
| 126 | * ThroughHisStomach: "That the way to a man's heart is through his stomach." (New #903) |
| 127 | * ThrowItIn: [[invoked]] "That motion-picture directors always throw away the working 'script after the first scene, and make up the action as the play progresses." (#538; New #811) |
| 128 | * TongueOnTheFlagpole: "That there was once a man who placed his tongue against the rails of the Monon railroad near Kokomo, Indiana, and, being unable to get loose, had his head cut off by a passenger train four hours later." (New #1130) |
| 129 | * TontoTalk: "That whenever two Indians meet they greet each other with the word 'How!'" (#388; New #493) |
| 130 | * TrueArtIsAngsty: [[invoked]] "That a play, a novel, or a short story with a happy ending is necessarily a commercialized and inferior piece of work." (#75; New #169) |
| 131 | * TheUnpronounceable: "That all Russians have unpronounceable names." (#96; New #189) |
| 132 | * UpperClassTwit: "That in English families of title, the younger sons always cut up high jinks, and have to be sent out of the country because of gambling debts or escapades with women." (#753; New #973) |
| 133 | * VillainousLineage: "That if the one-year-old offspring of a criminal were to be taken by a sedate English couple and brought up by them as their own, he would, nevertheless, after coming down from Oxford, be caught in petty thievery." (New #21) |
| 134 | * VodkaDrunkenski: "That a Russian peasant, in the days of the czar, drank two quarts of vodka a day." (#342; New #555) |
| 135 | * WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: |
| 136 | ** "That every negro who went to France with the army had a liaison with a white woman and won't look at a nigger wench any more." (#95; New #190) |
| 137 | ** "That all negro prize-fighters marry white women, and that they afterward beat them." (#390; New #489) |
| 138 | * WickedStepmother: "That step-mothers are very harsh to their stepchildren and frequently beat them when their fathers are not around to protest." (New #11) |
| 139 | * WidowsWeeds: "That all young widows prolong the period of mourning if they think black becoming." (#589) |
| 140 | * WomenDrivers: "That when a woman driving an automobile gets into a tight place she promptly loses her head and causes an accident." (#827; New #1066) |
| 141 | * YodelLand: |
| 142 | ** "That the chief form of headgear among the Swiss is the Alpine hat." (#185; New #305) |
| 143 | ** "That the Swiss, when they sing, always yodel." (#370; New #473) |
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