Dignified old streets that
formerly echoed with the tread of patriots now resound to the din of
Polish weddings and christenings, and the town that sheltered William
Goffe, one of the judges before whom Charles I was tried, now houses
Polish transients at twenty-five cents a bed weekly.
The transient usually returns to Europe, but the landowner remains.
His kind is increasing yearly. It is even probable that in a
generation he will be the chief landowner of the Connecticut Valley.
It will take more than an association of old families, determined on
keeping the ancient homes in their own hands, to check this
transformation.
The process of racial replacement is most rapid in the smaller
manufacturing towns. In the New England mills the Yankee gave way to
the Irish, the Irish gave way to the French Canadian, and the French
Canadian has been largely superseded by the Slav and the Italian.
Every one of the older industrial towns has been encrusted in layer
upon layer of foreign accretions, until it is difficult to discover
the American core. Everywhere are the physiognomy, the chatter, and
the aroma of the modern steerage. Lawrence, Massachusetts, is typical
of this change. In 1848 it had 5923 inhabitants, of whom 63.3 per cent
were Americans, 36 per cent were Irish, and about forty white persons
belonged to other nationalities.
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