A HISTORY OF THE DANES IN AMERICA. 
JOHN H. BILLE. 
WITH A MAP —PLATE I. 
Of all the nationalities that have come to this country in any 
considerable number, the Danes are the ones of whom the least 
is said or known. They have taken but little part in politics, 
either national, state or local. Their religious organizations 
and institutions have attracted no attention, and their settle¬ 
ments seem to have been wholly lost sight of, even by the prac¬ 
tical politician. It is this peculiar insignificance of the Danes 
as a factor in the life of this country to which I especially wish 
to call attention in the following paper. But as the national 
characteristics, and the ideas and conditions existing in Den¬ 
mark, are largely responsible for the position of the Danes in 
America, it is necessary for an understanding of the subject to 
begin with a discussion of the Danes in Denmark. 
The Danes of to-day, in Denmark, though the direct descendants 
of the redoubtable vikings, possess but few of their stern, war¬ 
like characteristics. In fact, it is only through their fondness 
for the stories recounting the deeds of the ancient gods and 
heroes that the modern Danes show their mental kinship to the 
viking. 
Seven hundred years of peaceful occupation among the most 
peaceful of natural surroundings, together with three hundred 
years of serfdom under which the majority of the people were 
reduced to the condition of mere beasts of burden, are the main 
agencies which have made the Danish descendants of the viking 
a peace-loving, easy-going, good-natured people, with a consid¬ 
erable lack of self-confidence and enterprise. The political events 
