200 THE IKFLUEKCE OF EAULY SETTLEKS. 



The population of the frontier is thoroughly hetero- 

 geneous. In a town in Montana of about 7,000 inhabit- 

 ants, a religious census discovered, in addition to the 

 usual Protestant sects, evangelical and otherwise, 3,000 

 Catholics, several members of the Greek Church, three 

 Mohammedans and 360 Buddhists. In a single congre- 

 gation there were representatives of fifteen states of the 

 Union, scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and 

 the following nationalities: German, French, Italian, 

 English, Scotch, Irish, Welsh, Norwegian, Swedish, 

 Greek and Eussian, besides a native of Alasl^. The 

 West is being settled by well-nigh every variety of race, 

 representing every type of religion and irreligion— peo- 

 ples different in antecedents, language, customs, habits, 

 ideas and character. The one thing in which a frontier 

 population agrees is the universal and unbending pur- 

 pose to make money. 



We have already seen that the West is peculiarly 

 exposed to the dangers of Mammonism, materialism, 

 luxuriousness and the centralization of wealth; that 

 conditions are exceptionally favorable to the spread of 

 socialism ; that the relative power of the saloon is two 

 and a half times greater in the far West than in the 

 East ; that Mormonism is still vigorous ; that Romanism 

 as compared with the population, is about three times 

 as strong in the territories as in the whole United 

 States ; and that into the West is pouring a large per- 

 centage of our foreign immigration. These forces of 

 evil, which are severely trying the established institu- 

 tions of the East, are brought to bear with increased 

 power upon the plastic and formative society of the 

 West. It is like subjecting a child to evil influences, 

 for resistance to which the full strength of mature 

 years is none too great. 



We have seen (Chap. IV.) that nearly all of the per- 

 ils which have been discussed are greatly enhanced 

 by the presence of the foreign element. It is of the 

 utmost significance that this element constitutes so 

 large a proportion of the settlers who are now shaping 



