The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-21
A GERMAN VIEW OF AMERICA.

the letters written by an intelligent German
from Carlisle, Pa, to the INttStTiste Zettung
of Leipsic-
From the report of the Commissioners of
Emigration at New York, it appears that the
number of emigrants arriving this year is
uncommonly large. And from a recent arti-
Gle in the Mdgdeburger Zeitung we find that
nearly fve-sixths of the German people who
now seek a new home in America belong to
the wealthy classes. We hail this as cause
for rejoicing, since il has too often been the
case that emigrants have come to this coun-
try with the foolish idea that they have only
to stoop and pick up money in the streets;
and, landing here entirely without means,
they learn by bitter experience the difficulty
of obtaining work, and supporting themselves
until they get it, without a cent in their
pockets.
1t will not be waste of time or space if L
briefly mention here some points of interest
to emigrants in respect to which there have
been some changes. In the first place, to
Germans who are not without MEANS and who
dc not intend to remain in New York, but to
go to one of the Western States, the advice
is strongly given to land in Baltimore rather
than in New York. The class of German emil
grants designated would probably come in a
steamer, and the vessels of the North Ger
man Lloyd, which run regularly every week
between Bremen and Baltimore, are in no
wise inferior to those which the same com
pany despatch semi-weekly from Bremen to
Now York, and which bear an excellent
reputation. The two lines of steamers
offer equal conveniences in every respect
If the German emigrant, therefore,
who sets out for the unknown regions of the
Far West can come to Baltimore for the same
price which he would pay from Bremen to
New York, he is strongly advised to do SO.
He lands ignorant of the place and the Ian
guage, and in Baltimore he is far les likely
to fall into the hands of so.called ''emigrant-
runners" and swindlers of every kind than
in New York, where the harbor is infested
with them. Then the connections are so
arranged in the former city that the emigrant
can go directly from the steamer into the
cars. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, one
of the great lines to the West comes down
close to the docks. The landing-place is,
moreover, protected by an iron railing, so
that no sharper can approach the travellers.
Through these iudicious arrangements an
expensive and perilous soiourn in the sea-
port is avoided by the emigrant; and this
should not be overlooked by Germans. New
York offers no such advantages.
But this is not all A single glance at the
map will convince any one that Baltimore is
nearer to the principal cities of the West than
New York. The emigrant can, therefore,
save not only time but money, which is an
important matter, by landing there. Another
reason for giving the preference to Balti-
more IS, that emigrants taking that way are
not forwarded to the West in emigrant trains,
but by the regular passenger trains. Whoever,
like the writer of these lines, has had expe-
rience of the system which prevails on the
trains from New York, will in the name of his
countrymen, thank the Baltimore and Ohio road
for carrying their enigrants in the comfort
BILE cars of the regular trains, and in the same
quick time, instead of packing them like
herrlpgs In miserable cars, and making the
slowest possible time.
Now that the South, in many parts, although
not everywhere, is beginning to recover from
the evils of the civil war, there is a large
field opened for German emigration in some
of the Southern States. The land is there
very cheap and atlthe same time very fruitful.
The climate would in some localities be an
obstacle, but in West Virginia, Kentucky,
and Tennessee this objection would not exist.
There is only in summer a period of about
six weeks of great heat, when little or no rain
falls, and grass and shrubs are withered, but
with the first showers every thing is again
green, and the early autumn looks like a
second spring. The reports that have
been circulated in some European
papers of the ill-treatment which
Germans have received from the so-called
slave aristocracy are mostly exaggerated.
Thus much is certain that the gold aristo-
cracy of New York and other large cities of
the East makes itself felt more sensibly, and
is more oppressive to the emigrant, ignorant
of the language and without money, than is
the treatment of the formerly rich families
of the South, who are now not only humili-
ated by the result of the late war, but are
also very generally despoied of their possess
sions. For emigrants intending to go to the
Southern States Baltimore is by far the most
convenient landing-place.
1t has already been intimated in this letter
that only those emigrants who come here
with the honest intention of honestly slrning
their bread by labor of some kind will find
their expectations fulfilled. Idlers are not
needed here, for there are enough in America
already. The large cities are full of loafers
and rowdies, who are pests to society every
where. If these people, who are familiar
with all the tricks of low American life, find
it hard to fill not their pockets only but
their stomachs, how much more diff
cult must it be for the stranger,
who lands here vainly expecting to
find in America an Eldorado, where he can
fold his hands in idleness Such anticipa-
tions are dashed to the ground with marvel
lous ceerity, and it will be well for him who
INDUCES them if he does not soon fall into a
state of desperation which will lead him into
crime and then into the hands of Justice. 1t
is a striking characteristic of this country,
that while honest effort is often speedily re-
warded by remarkable success, moral bank
ruptcy is apt swiftly to overtake the man
who holds too oheaply his honor and his good
name
In general terms it may be truly said that,
Notwithstanding the obstacles thrown in the
way of trade in this country by its financial