THE SLAV PEOPLES ISTIEDEELE. 605 



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These conditions had of course a deleterious effect on the Polish 

 people, and it was only their great inner vitality, coupled with their 

 traditions and with strong hopes for the future, that kept the nation 

 from annihilation, and that eventually again strengthened and uni- 

 fied it to such a degree that its destruction became impossible. 



The tendency toward the germanization of Poland, or at least that 

 part of the country under Germany, continues, however, as intense 

 and active as ever. 



The total number of the Poles living at the present date is esti- 

 mated at approximately^ 19,000,000. Oi that number there lived in 

 Russia in 1900, about 8,500,000; in Austria, 4,250,000; in Germany, 

 3,450,000 ; and in the United States of America, 1,500,000. 



There are still recognizable within the nation a number of terri- 

 torial or tribal groups differing somewhat dialectically, but ethni- 

 cally none of these divisions can be constituted into separate units. 



Physically, the Poles show especially a close similarity with the 

 Velkorusi (Great-Russians). 



THE LLTZICE (lAUSSITz) SERBS. 



From the powerful branch of the Slavs who centuries ago occupied 

 the territory along the central and lower Elbe there remains to-day 

 only an insignificant body of the so-called Serbians in the Upper 

 and the Lower Luzice. 



The Elbe Slavs, at the time from which we have the first historical 

 notices concerning them, that is, in the ninth to the tenth century 

 A. D., consisted of three large groups. From the time of the first 

 records these groups were in constant and intense struggle against 

 two powerful agencies, the Germans and the Roman hierarchy. The 

 inevitable result was that they fell before such odds and became ger- 

 manized. 



From the fifteenth century onward we find only scattered groups of 

 the Elbe Slavs. The more northern examples of these disappear 

 gradually one after another, and the only remnants surviving to this 

 clay are the " Laussitz " Serbs, settled near the northern boundary 

 of Bohemia. The cause of the survival of this remnant was, besides 

 other circumstances, the fact that Luzice belonged for a long time 

 to the Bohemian crown. The numbers of the " Luzicani " are, how- 

 ever, steadily diminishing by absorption. 



According to the German statistics of 1900, there were still living 

 in Laussitz 93,032 " Serbs," who spoke nothing but their own 

 language. According to other estimates the total number of these 

 " Serbs " at that date was between 150,000 and 160,000 individuals. 

 In 1910 the estimate was 20,000 less. As the people are surrounded 

 by Germans, their complete assimilation with that people can only 

 be a matter of a relatively short time. 



