The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1845-09-19
From Winters "Stranger in Lowell
"Thc Heart OF the Stranger"

Inc population OF Lowell IS con.
stituted mainly of New Englanders
but there are representatives here
OF almost every part of the civilized
world. The good-humored face O.
the MileSian meets one at almost
every turn, the shrewdly solemn
Scotchman, the transatlantic Yam
kee, blending the crafty thrift Of
Bryce SnailSfoot with the stern re-
ligiouS hcroiSm of Cameron-the
blue-eyed, fair-haircd German, from
the lowered hills which overlook the
Rhine, slow, heavy, and unpromis-
ing in his exterior, yet of the same
mould and mettle of the men who
rallied for 'Fatherland' at the TYR
team call of Korner, and beat back
the chivalry of the French from the
katzbach ; the countrymen of Rich
ter, and Goethe, and our sainted
Follen. Here, too, are pedlars from
Hamburg, Bavaria, and Poland
with their sharp Jewish faces, and
black, keen eyes, at this moment.
beneath my window, are two sturdy.
sm-browned Swiss maidcns, grind
ing music for a livelihood, rehers-
ing in a strange Yankee land the
simple song of their old mountain
home, reminding me, by their foreign
garb and language, of
"Lau,crbrunnen's peasant gir.'
Poor wanderers | cannot say
that love their music; but now as
the notes die away, and, to use the
words of DR.. Holmes, Silence comes
like poulticc, to heal the wounded
ear | feel grateful for their vista
ton. Away from crowded tho
roughfares, from brick walls and
dusty avenues, at the sight of these
poor peasants | have gone in
thought to the vale of Chamounv,
and seen, with Coleridge, the morn
ing star pausing on the bald, awful
head of Sorran Blanc,' and the
sun rise and the sun set glorious
upon snowcy-creStcd mountains,
down in whose valleys the night still
fingers and, following in the track
of Byron and RuSscau, have watch
ed the lcngthoning shadows of the
hills on the beautiful waters of the
Genevan lake. Blessings, then.
upon these young waytarcrS, for
they have blessed me unawares.'
In an hour of sickness and lassitude,
they have wrought for me the mira
Gle of Lorctto's chapel, and borne
me away from the scenes around
me and the sense of personal suffer
ing, TO that wonderful land where
Nature seems still uttcring, from
lake and valley, and from mountains
whose eternal SHOWS lean on the
hard blue heaven, the cchos of that
mighty hymn of a new created world
when 'the morning stars sang TO-
gethcr, and all the sons of God
shouted for joyn
"But of all classes of foreigners,
the Irish are by far the most numcr-
Gus. They constitute a quiet and
industrious portion ofthc population;
and are consequently restricted by
their Yankee ncighbors. For my
self, confess ! feel a sympathy for
the lriShman. | see him as the rep
rescntative of generous, warm
hearted and cruelty oppressed pco-
pie. That he loves his native land,
that his patriotism is divided, that
he cannot forget the claims of his
mother island-that his religion,
with all its abuses, is dear to him
does not decrease my estimation of
him. A stranger in strange land,
he is to me always an object of intc-
rest. The poorest and rudcst has a
romance in his history. Amidst all
his apparent gaety of heart, and ma
tional drollcry and wit, the poor en-.
igrant has sad thoughts of the Gould
mother of him. sitting lonely in her
solitary cabin by the bog-side; re-
collections Of fathers blessing and
a sisters farewell arc haunting him ;
a grave mound i'm a distant church,