Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1890-01-17
THE PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH.
Their Progress in This state-some Notable
Chnrae ristics.

y
Assembly of Pennsylvania ordered that
none but English. speaking immigrants
should he the subjects of naturalization.
Not satisfied with the workings of this
law the same body provided, few years
later, that every foreigner to the English
government arriving after the passage OF
the act should pay duty of forty shi-
Iings, and swear allegiance to Great Brit
ain and the province. These and other
measures discouraging the prospective
immigrants who fell within their scope,
were all aimed at the Germans, who, for
some reason or other, seemed possessed
of wild ambition to land ON the west
ern shore of Delaware. Prior to the year
1927 more than $4,000 of them were
snugly established in the Quaker pro
vince. In spite of severe laws more were
coming by every ship, ard the followers
Of Penn were greatly disturbed in spirit
at the invasion.
Strange things have come to pass since
then. The Quaker has vanished. There
remains nothing to tell the story of his
former greatness but the quaint old bury
ing-ground on Arch street and dozen
faded shad-belly coats, heirlooms in as
many Philadelphia garrets. He persisted
| in no great tumult of arms, nor by the
march of any pestileuce. He was neither
indolent nor lacking in shewdness he did
not starve to death, nor did the Germans
so much as crowd him. He died simply
because he was too good to live-a melan-
choly warning which has not been lost
upon his successors in Pennsylvania poll
tics. But the prescribed German stolidly
bided his time. He came, paid his duty.
and stayed. He took possession of the
rich farms along the Susquehanna, the
Lehigh aud Juniata, and filed the glrUr-
ious valleys which lead down to the
rivers.
He began to have things his own way
and when the new order was established,
after The Revolution, he held in his hands
the political power of the great State
which he haG turned inloa garden where
| the Gods might dwell. Them timorous
Quaker, fearful of German asccudency,
could scarcely have had a provision OF the
| complete triumph attained by his Teu-
tonic rival at the beginning of the present
century. The Quaker was already little
more than memory the German the
potent fact of the social and political
order. But 10 4. when the victor proclaim
ed his conquest il was in Il strange
lun. ue : he no longer thought nor felt AS
| IL German. The fatherlaud was not be-
vond seas. but here. Germany and all its
interests and family ties, was no more TO
him than it was 10 Patrick. He had be-
| come Il Pennsylvania Dutchman.
| The Teulonic immigrant brought with
| him TO PENNSYLVANIA only the Limited
vocabulary of It German peasaut nearly
200 years ago. His pronunciation of tie
native tongue was often inaccurate. OF
the English worse, and the deviation from
! the vernacular has increased with every
generation until all semblance of the
original is in many cases lost. d" Topper"
meaning hurry; fat" forward IN on
er," under: " "fattsh," done or finished,
are few examples of many words not
eIsily accounted for. Neither 4 German
nor an Englshman would make much OF
:" coombera" The former would say
kartoffeI, the latter potato. But our
Pennsylvania Dutchman examines the
tubcr. and, after much smelling and tast-
ing decides that it is Il berry. 'lf II isn't
a berry YES der deihinker is t?" said one
of them to me the other day, and COON
bera, " he calls it, doubtless led to his
word, in spite of my friends explanation,
through a foggy recollection OF his re-
mote ancestors, who named it die grund-
birne, the ground pear. With words de-
noting hesitancy or doubt the Pennsyl-
vania Dutchman is well provided from
over the Rhine, but when he wishes to
express the idea of certainty, promptness
or quickness of perception he is obliged
to use the language of his Anglo-Saxon
neighbor, from whom he learned about
all he knows of these qualities.
To the same source also does he 60 for
his profanity, once he became really ugly.
But that proves nothing one way or the
other. The English is after all, the only
language in which man can swear and
get anything like satisfaction. The prov
erb which bids us beware the fury of the
patient man is good one to remember in
dealing with him, for he is slow to
wrath. He is essentially peasant in its
original and least offensive meaning 4
boor. He has no word dcnoting courtesy.
In good will and friendliness he
abounds; of the little social amenities and
court grades which add so much to the
life of all other people he knows nothing.
For example: Although it may be stated
as Il generalization that all of them can
speak English, association with them is
likely 10 prove embarrassing If you do
not know their language. You may be
an invited guest at their honse, but all