142 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



a most desirable class of citizens. The reader will observe that the 

 mass of German immigration has settled in the temperate zones of the 

 continent, avoiding the tropics. Thus we find 32,000 or more are 

 colonized in Chile and Argentina, regions extending as far south as 

 forty degrees from the equator, while the Brazilian colonies of Sao 

 Paulo, Parana and Eio Grande do Sul are in the south of the republic, 

 extending to thirty-five degrees below the equator and containing the 

 mass of the German population, though there are some thousands in 

 the tropical state of Minas Geraes lying between fourteen and twenty- 

 three degrees south of the equator, a mountain mining region, where 

 altitude supersedes latitude in the comfort of temperature. 



There is no considerable condensation of Germans in colonies, save 

 in Brazil, Chile and Argentina, there being but 20,000 of them dis- 

 tributed among the other thirteen states of the continent. These people 

 are generally engaged in commerce and trade. In the commercial 

 cities the jewelry business and that of money exchange are almost 

 universally conducted by Germans, generally Jews, who, when not so 

 engaged, are devoted to some other branch of city retail trade. The 

 subjects of this religious faith are excellent citizens and are always 

 appealed to for assistance in public charities; they are more popular 

 as municipal officers than pronounced protestant christians of any 

 nationality. Leading commercial houses in all the republics have 

 German branches operated by young men sent out from the mother 

 country to conduct the American end of their business. It is quite the 

 rule for these men to marry in the country, nor do they condescend 

 to the inferior classes. Their positions are guarantees of character, 

 so that they have access to the best families, differing in this from 

 the English and Americans, who rarely marry with people of the Latin 

 republics. 



The blue eyes, fair hair, clear complexions and general bonhomie 

 of the Germans make them singularly attractive companions to the 

 merry, black-eyed brunette of our southern neighbors. By his won- 

 derful adaptation to the national customs and popular convention, with 

 his extraordinary ability in the mastery of language foreign to his 

 native tongue, his absolute grammatical accuracy in construction with 

 correct pronunciation, he becomes an accomplished member of society, 

 a valuable citizen, a desirable neighbor and an agreeable companion; 

 while the American, like the Englishman, always aggressive, often 

 offensively so, rarely attains a command of the language superior to a 

 " gringo " idiom and contemptuously mentions the people among whom 

 he lives as " the natives," implying their slight remove in his conception 

 from the aboriginees. 



But the Englishman is better regarded than the average American, 

 because he goes among the people as the contracted agent or clerk of 

 a reputable commercial house, while the American is rarely other than 



