AMALGAMATING OUR FOREIGN BORN 



speak German in her presence. This con- 

 tinued a good while, but in vain. Games 

 with American children counteracted every 

 chastisement, and by the end of a week, in 

 spite of mamma and her birch, the culprit 

 completely relapsed into English. The 

 penalty was regularly renewed every Friday 

 till the good woman saw its uselessness and 

 desisted. 



Immigrants' love for their mother speech 

 is a powerful centripetal force, its hold con- 

 tinuing long after most or all of them be- 

 come able to converse in our language. 

 "The sound of my native tongue beyond the 

 sea," said Edward Everett, "is as music to 

 my ear, beyond the sweetest strains of Tus- 

 can softness or Castilian majesty." Few of 

 our foreign-born neighbors could express 

 this so eloquently as Mr. Everett, but the 

 dullest of them feel it no less intensely than 

 he. This sentiment has prompted the Ger- 

 mans of many cities to agitate for the teach- 

 ing of German in the public schools which 

 they help support, a demand successful in 

 many municipalities. Swedes and Bohe- 



141 



