Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1910-09-15
WHO WILL WE BE?

Who are Americans going to be
before very long? Formerly Eng
lishmen came here. He as a rule
growled most Of the time. as though
not much in this country suited him.
We noted his eccentricities and lido
syncrasies but passed by with the
thought that he could not help be-
ing an Englishman, but his children
would be good Americans as their
father was an Englishman The Irish
came and we recognized that, though
some of them had a little brogue and
were sometimes inclined to vote
again the government" that last was
an acquired passion like a love for
tomatoes or tripe; that in truth ne
was a born American, only he did
not know it. The Scotch came. and
though they were often more Eng
lish than the Englishmen, they all
the time ept their eyes on the main
chance and swiftly made up their
minds that a man would be a fool to
ever go back to the land of lakes AMI
rocks and frogs. unless he might go as
did Carnegie to build a castle therein
and show the peasantry what a chief
of a clan he had grown to be. The
Welsh came here. and when the sec-
ond generation had learned the Ian
guage of this country. they became
first class Americans. especially if
they were able to pick up an office or
two
The scandinavians came. and there
was a free air in the west which to
their nostrils. was even as the air Of
the sea to the free-booting vikings
from whom they descended, and now
wherever they are they are a bulwarl
of liberty and a square deal.
The Germans came. and when they
found beer equal to the best Bavar-
ian. they took to it like mothers
milk. and while they continued to
sing the hymns of fatherland, and to
reverence fatherland. and fatherland
traditions, they recognized at a glance
that there were hopes here sweeter
than they ever could nurse in native
land, and promises of fruitation which
no other land held in it's scope. and
decided that this was a land worth
living for and if needs be worth
dying for Some Frenchmen came.
and while they have ever been among
the besct of our citizens, as a rule the
most of the first generation Of them
wear look which seems to say, cone
can live in Paris, when he leaves
there he camps out"
The Hebrew came. and while he
holds this land as next to the Holy
Land. while he accepts and fulflls
all the duties of citizenship, he as a
rule is as a current in the deep sea,
that moves along the ordinary waters
of the ocean. or rather we should
say, without merging with them
It is out Of all this material that
our nation has thus far been crystal
lizing. but now when we pass along
the street we hear corruption of the
tongue in which Regillus and Her.
minus spoke in the seven-hilled
city; corruptions of the tongue which
was spoken in Attica and Macedonia
and Lacedemonia; corruptions Of the
barbarous tongue. which Attilla and
Alaric spoke. and now and then a few
words which saladin with the same
accent might have used. From these
we have omitted the iaw-breaking
liargons from beyond the Pacific; we
have omitted the dialects of our In
dian tribes. and the soft bastard
Latin" that comes from the south
ern countries of our continent. be-
cause our fathers were earlier in
possession than ours But out Of an
la