38 
Bille—A History of the Danes in America. 
isolated from some staid, sober society of his countrymen, in 
which the conditions of his native land are in a measure main¬ 
tained, and where his social standing is dependent on good 
conduct. In the first place, if he is isolated from such a 
community he is obliged to play the part of a mute for almost 
a year after his arrival, save only for such conversation as he 
can carry on in his native language with the horses and cows 
about him, and except for such oaths and other strong expres¬ 
sions in the English language as readily fix themselves in the 
memory of the foreigner, and for the repetition of which there 
seem to be so many urgent occasions for both native and 
foreigner. Then again, there is the depressing effect of his 
social position among the natives. He is made to feel most 
keenly that he is a being of a lower order, a sort of beast of 
burden, tolerated only on account of his burden-bearing capaci¬ 
ties. He is excluded from all social gatherings of a respectable 
character, either on account of language or nationality. He is 
sometimes made the object of pity, but more often of ridicule. 
As a rule there is only one place, the saloon, where he is re¬ 
ceived on terms of social equality, and where something is done 
to make him feel at home and at his ease. It is a rare thing 
indeed that the young foreigner who cuts loose from the settle¬ 
ment and church of his countrymen, comes under the better in¬ 
fluences of American society. He is more often affected by the 
influences already mentioned plus that exercised by a number of 
boon companions, who like himself are isolated from all that is 
elevating, either foreign or American. The character of citizen 
formed under such conditions is without question far more 
dangerous to this country than that evolved in the most isolated 
“priest-ridden” foreign settlement, where at least the sentiment 
“I am my brother’s keeper” is still alive and active. In fact, 
it is from contemplating the effect of the process of American¬ 
ization described above that the foreign clergyman finds one of 
his chief reasons for excluding his flock from American influ¬ 
ence. Being unacquainted with American conditions and out of 
sympathy with them, to begin with, and both from preference 
and education of an uninvestigative turn of mind, he reasons 
from the facts immediately about him; and, seeing only the evil 
