The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-07-28
FROM SCANDINAVIA.
STURDY PEOPLE WHO HAVE OVER
RUN WESTERN STATES.

Neither Jan Printz in his stronghold on
the Delaware nor Jan Claudius Risingh
the commander of Fort Casimir, had such
strong reasons for calling their settle
ments New Sweden as the people of many
Q town in Minnesota have. The immigra-
( ton to the northwest from Scandinavia has
been enormous. Beginning q few years
before the war of the rebellion. when
Minnesota was the main hunting ground
Of the Sioux Indians. it continued small
and irregular until 1866 when it began in
a mighty volume, and since that time il
! has continued without serious interrupt
/ ton until now there are in this country
/ more than 400, 900 Swedes and Norwe-
/ gians, the great majority of them being
/ residents of Minnesota, Dakota, Wiscon-
sin, Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and Kansas.
For forty years previous to the war they
came at the rate of from 100 to 1905 q
year Since the rebellion as many as 80,
coo of them have arrived in one year. u
linois has IS, 600 of them, mostly Swedes,
one-half of the number being in Chicago.
Iowa's 10000 are about equally divided
between Swedes and Norwegians. Kan
sas has 1900, principally Swedes, while
Nebraska has Il, 900, the majority of whom
are of she same nationality. In Wiscon-
sin there are 1000, mostly Norwegians,
which is true also of Dakotas $4,000.
Minnesota heads the list with about 1885,
90, most of whom are Norwegians.
LITERALLY TAKEN POSSESSION.
Men of middle age, who remembered
that as boys the picture in their school
books of "a Norwegian killing bear" sug-
gested country and Il race that were then
as remote from us as the Soudan and the
SOudanese now are, viii be amazed at
these figures, but they do not tell the
whole truth. The scandinavian has liter
ally taken possession OF whole counties in
the northwest, and the civilization which
there obtains is that OF Scandinavia, with
some notifications and improvements,
rather than that of the United States. In
Minnesota, more than in any other state,
the Swedes and Norwe gians have i'm
pressed themselves upon business, society
and politics. AT the last census the ma
tive voting population of this state was
SO, 1000, while the fOreign-born voters num-
bered $4,000 In only two other states
does this condition OF affairs prevail, viz:
Nevada and Wisconsin. The foreign born
voter predominates in every congressional
district in Minnesota, their smallest ma
jOrity being 5000 in the First, and the
largest 1900, in the Third.
In the first place it may be said that as
a body the Scandinayians are industrious,
thrifty, honest, and pious. They are more
clannish than the Germans, and more
dOcile than the Irish. The great majority
of them follow agriculture, although there
are many in the pineries, not few are Gf
pOssible) engaged as sailors on the great
lakes, and several thousands of them are
carpenters and masOns. OF a Scandinavian
family every member works. The man
and wife who own and operate a farm in
Minnesota Iowa, or Wisconsin will have
daughters at domestic service in some
adjacent city. Thousands of the best
house servants in Chicago are from the
families of Scandinavian farmers in the
northwest. This industry the close
economy which is usually practiced b.
young and old of both sexes, the absence
of spreeing habits on the part of the men
as a rule, the tendency of all to attach
themselves to the land, save as they can
better their condition in the cities, and
the kindly and helpful disposition which
they show toward each other, are all hay
ing the effect OF lifting these newcomers
to independence and wealth.
THEIR CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS
They have their own churches, mostly
Lutheran, although there are many of the
Methodist and Baptist denominations;
and fifty newspapers and periodicals,
more than half of which are published in
Chicago in their native tongue, sup
ply them with suitable reading. No
small, is without is church organization,
and where there is not wealth enough to
support a clergyman, that functionary
works on week days at the plow, or at the
bench the same as other people, and pre-
pares for his Sunday labors during the
evenings. Singularly undemonstrative,
unobstrusive, and taciturn, the Scandi-
navians, notwithstanding their large
numbers, are not conspicuous. Their go
ings and coming are all quiet; their pro-
ceedings all orderly. They do not, as a
rule, figure in any organizations outside
the church. In the cities they are not
turbulent or excitable. If by any chance
during political campaign a few scores
of them can be persuaded to march in q
procession, they are as demure in their de-
pertinent as if they were in attendance at
funeral Not given much to hilarity,
indulging in it in no Sunday parades or
picnics, and caring little for beer, such of
them as have an appetite for intOxicantS
are satisfied with nothing weaker than al
cohoic spirits. But the bibuIous Scandi-
navians must be comparatively few in
number or else very circumspect when
under the influence of liquor, for the pO-
lice records have very little to say about
them.
One peculiar thing about these two kin,
bred people from the great northern pen
Ursula of Europe is the sublime contempt
in which the Swedes profess to hold the
Norwegians. Nothing hurts a Swedish
young woman more than to be taken for a
Norwegian. and she is not slow to rebuke
the person SO offending. The Swedes
are generally fairer and taller than the
Norwegians, who are apt to be short,
stocky and swarthy, like many of the
Danes. Swedish girls who have had the
benefits of good home training are highly
priced by American families, and they
master the English language so easily
that, with their fair hair and complexion.
it is often difficult to recognize that they
are newcomers. What is true of them is
true of members of both races as regards
their ingual accomplishments A Scandi-
navian soon diVcstS himself of every trace
of his own accent, and speaks English as
fuently as anybody with no greater adj
vantages than he. While most members
OF the race in this country cherish nat
ural affection for the old country, their I'M
emotional natures render them free from
q desire to parade their nationalistic pre-
JUDGES, and il can not he doubted that
they viii be Gssimilated, in spite of their
claunislncss, moro rea lily than the people
of some other nationalities, who bring
their old-country pride and prejudiceS
here with them and transmit them ts
u l..