The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-18

vduaity, and n too close resemblance among
the different units of the mass. II seems to
imply that the circumstances in which peo.
pie is placed may have more influence than
their hereditary peculiarities Some eccentric
theorists have imagined that the inn
ported population derives n certain local
color from the soil, and that the Americans
show certain symptoms of conforming to the
hed Indian type 1t may be said with more
plauslbility that the climate has a great in
uuence in producing that peculiar
variety of lanky and salow humanity
which our caricaturists delight in
pcturing Undoubtedly the ruddy and
succulent Englishman or German
is rapidly parched into different being by
the extremes of American climate Many
moral causes, however, conspire in the same
direction. Many of the Western States have
received, if not the mass of their population
at least the most intelligent and active part of
it, from New England The infusion has
leavened the whole mass, and the descendants
OF the Puritans have acted as the school
masters and political teachers of the rising
generation. The enormous emigration of the
last twenty years has, however, altered the
conditions. In such towns as New York and
Philadelphia there are huge Jumps of foreign
population which has not as yet been
melted down. Rural districts are to
be found where the inhabitants are
exclusively German or Swedish or
Welsh. In many of the Western towns the
German traveller may walk down whole
streets, and fancy himself back in Fatherland
Is the assimilating power of the native popu-
latlon sufficient to absorb these foreign ele-
ments without being materially altered in the
process The better part of the German emil
grafton consists of O singularly tenacious and
ploddlng race, who take a very firm root in
the land. Is it not possible that they may
act upon the more vivacious and volatile Yam
kee at least as forcibly as he acts upon them?
10 add strong infusion of the Teutonic ele-
ment would remind one of pouring beer into
a gin cocktail The result of such an expert
ment Is being tried ON q large scale:
and to all appearance it is likely to
be continued for some time to come
When the emigrants were scattered
widely over a large surface, they would easily
conform to the manners and customs of the
natives. Now that they form large isolated
masses, it is scarcely possible that they should
not produce more marked influence. At the
same time, the population of the States is
now so large, and has assumed so marked
character, that much greater immigration
than formerly would be required to produce
an equal effect. The infowing stream bears
constantly decreasing proportion to the re-
servoir into which it is poured. Some of the
| large towns are to great extent swamped by
| the Irish population; but the predominant
! element of the nation is as Enthusiastically as
| ever the native American.
Another curious influence of the emigra-
| ton is upon the religions of the country.
| The city government of New York is SO ex-
| clusively under Irish and Roman Catholic
control that it gives away land to Roman
| Catholic churches and favors the attempts of
! the priests to interfere with the system of
education. 1t has even been asserted, with
| some appearance of truth, that the next great
| difficulty ahead will be a religious quarrel;
and that the parties, instead of being free
trade and protectionist, or divided by their
views of slavery, will be distinguished by
! their sympathies with different religious sects.
The separation OF Church and State has
hitherto prevented any such disputes from
affecting politics; but it does not follow that
such antagonistic elements will not contrive
| to find some le-ground for their natural
! animosities. The recent change in the char
acter of the emigration, if it continues would
deprive the Roman Catholics of the princi-
pal source from which they have hitherto
drawn fresh recruits, and would tend
to postpone the anticipated diff
Guilty. Germans, for the most part,
take such matters pretty easily; and it
is said that there are whole districts in the
West, inhabited by Germans, where the
population is respectable, quiet, and well
educated, but which have simply no churches
or clergy OF any description whatever. IC
pronounce any distinct opinion upon the
probable religious future of the United
States would be to claim the gift of pro
phecy; but any one would write sngularly
interesting book who should do what Mr.
Hepworth Dixon failed to do, and, instead o.
giving us the eccentricities of few isolated
communities, give us some real information
as to the growth and relative influence of thC
great religious bodies amongst which Americi
is divided.
The influence of emigration upon thes
and other questions opens many curious sub
iects of speculation, at which we cannot ever
hint. Meanwhile it may serve to remind u
how many important changes are going on, a
it were, surreptitiously, to which our atten
ton is seldom called, and whose real inhuenc
! it is almost impossible to unrayel. We hea
great deal about the ups and downs OF part
f struggles, and the rival merits Of successiv
Presidents; but the silent action of the grea
f movements of the population may be pre-
; ducing changes in comparison with which tn
= temporary ascendancy of Republicans Q
e Democrats is a matter of little importance
g Tomention only one other circumstance ther
is much to be said of the possible influence c
9 the new Pacific Railway. The Chinese, it
j said, are so frugal and hardworking as to CT
Y out all rival populations. China contains, &
we constantly say in figures whose signit
: cance we seldom realize, third of the popJ
i lation of the globe. 1t is now brought clos
g to the greatest field for labor in the world
y Who can say what the consequences may be
!. COUNTRY OF THE PLATE.