How did Planche feel about the United States?
As in many other ways, he was rather typical of his time and nation. Like many Englishmen, he was amused by American bustle and energy. American innovations in language were a common source of stage humor (ranking second only after the Irish as sources of linguistic humor). He was also sometimes offended by US pretensions to greater equality and fairness than was provided by the society of the UK. He pointed to slavery and the treatment of Native Americans in particular as examples of how the US failed to live up to its boasts. His colleagues, CJ Mathews, Eliza Vestris, and some of the other members of their company, had met American bigotry firsthand, when they had gone to a resort in the Catskills, and were immediately branded as aristocratic snobs for requesting private rooms and meals in their rooms, even though these were common services in most British and many American hotels of the time. They were also labelled as adulterers in the press, because someone assumed Vestris and Mat
