18 Hattie Plum Williams 
Germans come assisted by relatives or friends, the proportion 
being twice as great as for the United States as a whole. The 
settlements include a large number of new arrivals, almost one 
half having come within a recent five-year period. The history 
of their immigration shows that they respond to the same ebb and 
flow as does immigration in general, although the causes in the 
two instances are not identical. 
Il. Location of the Settlements 
The Russian Germans in Lincoln are settled chiefly along the 
entire west edge of the city, in two compact groups, separated 
from each other and from the rest of the city by the railroad 
yards and the wholesale district. The north settlement extends 
from Seventh to Fourteenth streets and from the railway tracks 
to the city limits, occupying a triangular district, the half of seven 
blocks square. The south settlement is scattered over more terri- 
tory, running from M to A streets and from Eighth street to the 
city limits, approximately ten blocks. On the border of each of 
these settlements and scattered throughout the city is an increas- 
ingly large number of Russian Germans who have left their 
former homes, sometimes in order to be nearer their places of oc- 
cupation but primarily as an evidence of their rise in the social 
scale. 
The locality occupied by these two settlements is the most un- 
desirable part of town. The west edge of the city dips down 
into the Salt flats, a wide valley through which a large creek 
of the same name flows. Two smaller streams which drain 
a wide territory enter Salt Creek within this basin.1 The land 
on these flats is most unlovely to look upon. During dry weather, 
mineral deposits, chiefly alkali, appear on the surface and explain 
the absence of trees and of almost all vegetation except coarse 
weeds. During wet weather, the lack of drainage in much of 
the settlement area makes the streets almost impassable; while 
prolonged periods of rain or sudden melting of the snows pour 
11 See U. S. Geological Survey, Nebraska, Lincoln Sheet, ed. September, 
1897, reprinted November, 1909. 
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