Evening star., 1899-04-08
American and Ang1o-SaxOn.

To the Editor of The Evening Star:
In your editorial Of the 4th instant on
American Citizenship" you struck the
right note, but failed to carry the tune.
have read with interest the numerous ar
ticles in your paper referring to the Amer
leans as Angio-Saxons; some writer's ridi-
culed the notion, others claimed that we
were more properly Irish-American. but
your editorial alone touches the rim Of the
truth.
Americans of whatever descent, who think
and talk in English, who live under our
laws (whose beginnings may be clearly
traced to those brought over by the Angles
and SaXons from the wllds OF Germany,
become Anglo-Saxons in spirit and almost
in physical characteristics, in two or three
generations. Language forms the ideas,
and even molds the faces of men into a
combined with speech, it takes only a few
generations to combine In one homogeneous
whole the most heterogeneous assemb!age
of men that can be gathered together.
Were it not for the tremendous influx of
foreigners every year. and the segregation
of large bodies of these aliens in certain
quarters Of cities and remote rural dis
tIicts, our own country would present a
perfect illustration of the truth asserted
1t does, in fact, but the apparent exceptions
are more vivid to some observers than the
working of the rule. When the North
men first cousins of the Anglo-Sax-
their own tongue and became French
Of French. On their removal to England
they strove to transplant their newly ac-
quired language but failed, and curiously
enough, their descendants came to use the
speech of which their remote ancestors
spoke dialect. The pilgrim fathers
knew of this transforming power, and,
fearing lest their children should learn
the language and become absorbed In
the population of the country where they
sojourned, they removed to land where
their beloved speech and customs might
be forever perpefuated
In Switzerland those who speak French
are French, those who speak German are
German Alsace and Lorraine, and Schles-
rule, for in those provinces there have
been disturbing influences. Even the Jews,
though retaining their peculiar customs
and language, In a degree become assimi-
lated in a wonderful measure to the peo-
pie among whom they reside for several
generations.
There is a vigorgdn the Anglo-saxon
speech that affects the minds of those to
whom it is the vernacular. It begets in
those who use it a wonderful love of in
dividual liberty, nnited with great respect
for lawful authority The inferior man
who learns the tongue and lives under it's
influences becomes changed as by a mira
Gle. To use KiplingSs words: at sets him
up and makes man Of him." The Anglo
capacity for self-government has remained
unmodified through all mental. spiritual
and physical eyoiutons. as worsbiner
of nature in the silent forests of Europe as
Christian under the spiritual rule of monk
and priest, as a daring reformef or fantas
teal free thinker, his chief traits remain
unchanged. He is the last work so far In
the evolution of man, and the best.
The Celtic race played its part erandlv
and bequeathed a rich legacy to its success
scr, but 1t has been absorbed almost ner-
fectly, where conditions were favorable.
and the blended strain has produced heroic
men, yet the Anglo-Saxon element has heen
the preponderating one, when work of a
staying character was done. In the
dictionaries of our Anglo-Saxon speech
words may be found derived from
nearly every tongue used on earth, yet the
language remains Anglo-Saxon. So Gus
toms, laws, fashions, habits of living
are borrowed from all Of earth 2peo-
plea; nay, the Angio-Saxon may form q