The times., 1899-11-29
Tonorrnnh, and Chnracter.

cember number of "Ainslee's Magazine" on
the relation between the topography and
the population of this country. The writer
takes the view that the character Of the
people in various sections of the United
States is largely determined by the nature
Of the land on which they live. For ex-
ample, he says that the rarefed atmosphere
and mountain ranges of the silver States,
north, south, and west of Colorado, have
developed a people venturesome, buoyant,
and high-spirited. while around the mouth
Of the Mississippi, where the ingenuity
of man has for generations been striving
against the entertainments of the river we
find men who stake their fame upon the
construction Of interoceanic canals He
thinks that these natural differences in
population will become not less but more
marked as time goes on, and that they
Will play much larger part in future his
tory making than is now anticipated.
This field Of speculation is an interesting
one, and there is a great deal Of force in
the argument which this writer makes. Tn
doubtedly, climatic and typographical con-
ditions do have great effect upon the char
acter Of a people. They always have in
fuenced it and always win, whether subtly
or openly Nowadays the influence is per-
haps less obvious than il used to be, owing
TO the ease with which communication is
carried on between all parts of the country.
The hermit community is yearly becoming
less possible. Lowlanders can live in the
y-f.z v-arco vrbora ~ rr-oYrJ1
not have been possible for them to do so
two hundred years ago. There is now more
mixing of different elements in the popu-
lation, and more migration from one place
to another and all this tends to less and
less distnctuess Of racial or territorial
characteristics. When the highlander and
the Iowlander intermarry TO any great ex-
tent, neither type is preserved in anything
like pristine purity, though the mixture
may prove very good thing for both
There is this future intermingling TO be
reckoned with in considering the statement
that sectional differences are destined to
become more marked.
Another thing which has to be taken
into account in the making Of this nation
is the original character Of its people.
Never before has a mixture of a dozen
different nationalities and at least three
different races been tumbled headIong into
a territory OF great size, to simmer down
in a hundred years or so as best 1t may.
There are European countries which have
a mixed population-E England has a com
mlngling Of at least three distinct stocks,
the Norman, the Celt. and the Saxon. to
say nothing of the Hebrew and the Span
lard. who had their distinct influence on
national development But the mixing has
come about gradually, in the course of a
thousand years or more. India, which is
more than half the size Of the United
States, has an even more complicated ar
rangement Of races and nationaliues, but
I these are kept distinctly separate in most
cases by Oriental conservatism and diff
4 ference or religious and social customs and
( OF caste. America is the only land in
which all are so nearly on an equality as
( 10 make constant contact IN business. So
cial, and political relations a necessity
The foreign population has had a tendency
TO congregate more or less in this, that, Or
the other part OF the country, and where
there has been such condensation the fu-
ture character OF the inhabitants will be
marked by 1t. Thus people living under
similar climatic conditions viii not be
alike. The Pennsylvania Dutchmau is not
like the Maryland farmer just across the
line. The New Orleans creole is not like
the Nississippian, nor the Swedish farmer
OF Dakota like his Yankee neighbor. In
some parts Of New England more than half
the population is Irish and as different
/ from the native Yankee stock as tempera-
ment. tradition. and religion can make it..
+ All these things must be taken into ac-
count The typographical rule is good, but
+ it is not the whole OF the arithmetic in
this problem OF the future American char
acter.