Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1883-02-24
THE PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH.

in the very heart of it's Oldest and
highest civilization there are whole
communities whose present inhabi
tants, as we'll as their ancestors for q
century past, were born where they
now reside, and yet are almost entile
strangers to the English language
hundreds and even thousands of them
not being able to speak or understand
a word of it. Take the counties OF
York, Lancaster, Lehigh, Berks, the
northern half of Bucks, and the south
ern half of Dauphin, Pa, besides sew
eral other counties in the State, and
four-tifths of the people will be found
to entirely ignore the English Ian
guage among themselves, and in
many communities the English speak
ing traveller will scarcely be able to
find anyone to whom he can make
himself understood, certainly nc
women.
These people are what are known
as Pennsylvania Dutch. They have
no written language, their speech be-
ing simply dialect, the only analogy
of which with anything else of human
antecedents lies in the fact that an
occasional English, German, French
or Spanish word has been sandwiched
with strange discordance into it, A
great number of the people are bitter
ly opposed to their children's learn
ing to speak English. and if allowed
to go to school at all it is to private
one with a Dutch teacher, and even
at the public schools, where, of course,
English is taught, the children re-
lapse into their native jargon upon
the playground. as was observed by
the writer while passing a country
schoolhouse only few days ago. In
fact, in passing through this entire
section of central Pennsylvania the
ordinary American will find his sur
roundings, as regards both language
and the social customs of the people,
just as strange and foreign to his
ideas as though he were in West
phalia or Norway.
And not only this, but he will find
that he is looked upon with the same
degree of half-suspicious curiosity
and as being as much of an interloper
as would be the case in the foreign
countries mentioned. This condition
of things embraces "a territory of
many thousands of square miles of
the very finest section of this great
commonwealth and population Of
more than 100000 people in the very
heart of our civilization. The masses
of the Southern people have ever
labored under the impression that
during the late unpleasantness our
army was very largely recruited from
foreign countries. This view has
been held up to the writer on innum-
cradle occasions and made to explain
our ability to place such overwhelm-
ing armies in the field This belief
arose from the frequent capture OF
these Pennsylvania Dutchmen, who
could not in many cases speak Eng
lish, and in their contact with several
regiments of troops. raised in this
region. And yet the ancestors OF
these soldiers for generations back
were born upon this soil. In fact, so
far as the matter can be traced, this
language is Indigenous to this sec
ton, as no people using the same or
similar'dialec are known anywhere
else on the face of the earth. The
native Hollander, be he of either high
or low Dutch origin, can no more un-
derstand the people here than can
the ordinary American. AS a rule
they are not an agreeable people to
mingle with either In business deal
ings or in social intercourse. 1gnor-
ance, selfishness and greed are their
governing traits