THE CALL OF THE LAND 



Americans of foreign origin is harmless. 

 Elsewhere, though showing a bad side, it is 

 so evanescent that no patriot need lose sleep 

 over it. In instances, however, which are 

 far from few, it involves evils of a radical 

 nature. Country concentrations belong in 

 the main to the innocent class, yet some of 

 the ills characterizing the city groups attach 

 to the country communities also. 



Entrenched foreignism is an obstacle to 

 progress. Into the defiant flocks very little 

 good literature, whether American or ver- 

 nacular, finds its way. The best German- 

 American papers are first-class, and the same 

 may perhaps be said with little exaggeration 

 of one or two French and Italian sheets 

 published here. But the immense civilizing 

 pressure which our great newspapers, our 

 innumerable magazines, and our fresh, 

 attractive, and instructive book literature 

 bring to bear upon the rest of the popula- 

 tion, whether in city or town, is as good as 

 lost within those close brotherhoods. 



Even where schools are provided and 

 generally attended by the children who 



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