But as these
lands were gradually taken, the later influx turned towards the
cities. Here the immigrants not only found employment in those trades
and occupations which the Germans for years had virtually monopolized,
but they also became factory workers in great numbers, and many of
them went into the mining regions.
It soon became apparent that the spirit of this latest migration was
very different from that of the earlier ones. "I do not believe,"
writes a well-informed and patriotic Lutheran pastor in 1917, "that
there is one among a thousand that has emigrated on account of
dissatisfaction with the German Government during the last forty-five
years." Humility on the part of these newcomers now gradually gave way
to arrogance. Instead of appearing eager to embrace their new
opportunities, they criticized everything they found in their new
home. The contemptuous hauteur and provincial egotism of the modern
Prussian, loathsome enough in the educated, were ridiculous in the
poor immigrants. Gradually this Prussian spirit increased. In 1883 it
could still be said of the three hundred German-American periodicals,
daily, weekly, and monthly, that in their tone they were thoroughly
American. But ten or fifteen years later changes were apparent. In
1895 there were some five hundred German periodicals published in
America, and many of the newer ones were rabidly Germanophile.
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