Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-12-29
PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS.

Their Substantial Advancement keco-nlzed.
Public Ledger.
Not many years ago it was quite the
fashion to speak with something like q
sneer Of Pennsylvania Dutch, as if the peo.
pie and their language were quite beneath
the standard of general education. Then
came period Of admiration and imitation,
beginning with Hans Breitmann's poetry,
which was amusing but not the least like
the original, and Harbaugh's verses. less
pOetical or humorous, but much nearer the
composite language Of our native-born
German speaking population, and quite Il
literature of books in and on that curious
dialect. In our own time VIC have seen the
results Of serious study Of the history Ofthe
successive emigrations and settlement of
Germans in this state when it was still :,
province. and Prof. Seidcnsticker, in the
December Scribner, gives good account
of their religious creeds and forms, while
MIR. $. w. Pennypacker, in several arti
cles in the Pennsylvania Magazine of His
tory, described their literature, with the
photographed rarities still extant of
great volumes beautifully printed, such
as the famous German Bible, by Sauer, OF
Germantown, nearly fifty years before any
English Bible was issued in this country.
and the fine portly folios of religious
works from tho press Of Ephrata. Even
now there is . movement ON foot for the
purchase of rare collection of these early
printed German books, gathered together
through long years of painful watching
in the Old-iashioned homes of the de-
scendants Of the early settlers, by Mr..
John Cassel, OF Mont tgomery county,
one of tho numerous descendants
of the Germantown printer, Sauer, and
when this is housed with The other rari-
ties in the library OF the Historical Society
of Pennsylvania, it will deserve careful
study. But quite apart from any question
of merely antiquarian interest there is the
still larger and broader one Of the inllu-
encc exercised by this vigorous race in it's
new home ON this side of the Atlantic. A
recent distinguished German visitor, Mr..
Carl Herzog, for many years in high office
in the Prussian government, and civil gov
ern or of Alsace-Lorraine, was very dcsir
Gus of ascertaining how far the original
German settlements were still factors in
this and the adjoining states. In Il con-
ference at the library of the Historical So
ciety of Mr.. Herzog with Messrs. Sciden-
sticker, Pennypacker, Keim and others,
we'll acquainted with tho Pennsyl-
vania Germans in their homes to-
day, and in the traditions of their
ancestors, this whole matter was carefully
gone over. Beginning with tho purchase
of the Germantown tract by the Frank
fort company, Penn secured the colonial
tion of his new province by large body
of excellent settlers from 4 class Of we'll
tO-dO Germans, all in search of country
int fI,a;,
way and under the leadership of Francis
Daniel Pastorius, man of great learning
and real executive ability. Germantown
tanned it's original character down to
tho Revolution, when the new influx
soon made itself felt and led to the rapid
growth of the suburban village, which con-
tinued until it was incorporated with the
city by the act of consolidation. The sue
cessivc settlements of the MOravians nj
Bethlehem, of tho Dunkers at Ephrata, and
of other branches of the same peace loving
and w-abiding class of cmigrants, as we'll
as the large population OF Reading and
its neighborhoods were for many years
almost unbroken by other people and
other languages than German. Gradually,
however, the great natural advantages OF
Reading and Bethlehem led to the estab-
lishmeDt of important manufacturing and
railroad enterprise in and near these
towns, and the German element has been
overwhelmed by the rapid population Of
all natiOnalitics. The rural population of
Lancaster and the adjoining counties still
remains largely unchanged, and the Penn
sylvania Germans have spread slowly bnt
almost irrcsistibly down through the great
valleys of this state and Of Maryland and
Virginia, and throughout many of the
western counties of Pennsylvania, until
there is hardly purely agricultural dis
trict in which they do not make them
selves felt alike by their Industrious and
successful farming and by their steady ad
hesion to the faith and forms of their an
cestral worship. Fortunately they are
rapidly growing into Il fuller and more
hearty zeal for education, and schools,
newspapers and literature of both
temporal and theological kinds are
effectively working upon the rising
generations. The Pennsylvania Ger
mans are to day found represented in Con-
gress, i'll the great universities, in churches
of all denominations, in the leaders of
science and art and manufactures, on the
bench, at the bar, in medicine, everywhere,
in short, where perseverance, stcadfast pro.
gress and real earncstness OF purpose and
capacity might be expected. TO find men
whose descent is almost an irrefrasable
proof of good training. is equivalent to
finding them in places Of trust. honor and
profit. The German traveller Of today,
who looks for the representative Of the
Germans who came to Pennsylvania with
the first settlers, will find them men who
do honor alike to the country of their an
cesters and the country of their birth.
OUR CORN CROP.