The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

C2THE UNITED STATES.majority forgot tlieir mother tongue after the first or second generation. A verylarge proportion even changed their names, either translating them into Englishor replacing them by others derived from various sources.Hence it is no longerpossible to determine the numerical strength of the German families that helpedto people the Central States, and especially Pennsylvania and Maryland.Those who have preserved their German names and kept up the original provincialdialect, have borrowed so many English terms, required by the new conditionsof their existence, that they are quite unintelligible to Germans arrivingfresh from Europe. Light literature is rich in works written in this curiousjargon, which is neither German nor English, and which gives rise to the mostamusing misunderstandings.The Teutonic immigrants who, from the year 1848, began to swarm into everypart of the republic — peasants, artisans, traders, members of the liberal professions—had amongst their ranks men of worth and enterprise in suflB.cient numbers atonce to make their mark as joint workers for the common weal of the Americannation. The majority have become fellow-countr3'men of the Anglo-Americansby the more or less habitual use of the English language, and by the share theyhave taken in the social and political life of the people.These Germans have maintained constant relations with the fatherland, andcontribute in a very large measure to the trade that has been developed betweenNew York and Hamburg, as well as between the other seaports of both countries.They have introduced into the States certain German feasts and ceremonies, theysing the national hymns in chorus, cultivate the native literature, and develop itin the schools, theatres, periodical and other publications. They even exercise apowerful influence on public opinion in a sense favourable to themselves, as wasmade evident during the Franco-German war of 1871.As regards the proportion of Germans settled in the Anglo-American republic,the estimates vary enormously according to the views taken by different statisticians.In the eyes of several patriots all those are Germans who are born inAmerica of German parents, or even who can trace their descent from Germanimmigrants.Thus are explained such figures as 6,000,000, or even 10,000,000 ofGermans mentioned in some works as inhabiting the United States. Otherwriters, holding less exaggerated views on this subject, class amongst the Germansall the inhabitants of the republic who have preserved their family names andare still able to converse more or less fluently in the mother tongue.A more reasonable calculation restricts the name of Germans to the immigrantsproperly so called and to those members of their families whose ordinary languagehas remained German. This is a far from numerous class, so potent is the attractionexercised by American society on the new arrivals.It may be stated generallythat all the children begin by thinking in the English language. Mostof the immigrants become rapidly assimilated to the Anglo-Americans, so much sothat they soon speak English almost exclusively, even in the family circle itself.In the absence of special statistics based on the declaration of the citizens themselves,the Teutonic element in the United States may be approximately estimated