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253 Story of an Emigtiant. 272
honor, and above all, as a main cause of civilization, they were
wonderfully pliant and malleable in their adventures with the people they overran.
"At that time, A. D. 1055, these Northmen, under the common name of
Danes, were peaceably settled in no less than fifteen counties in England;
their nobles abounded in towns and cities beyond the boundaries of those
counties, which bore the distinct appellation of Danelagh. They were
numerous in London, in the precincts of which they had their own
burial-place, to the chief municipal court, of which they gave their own
appellation—the Husting."
It is, of course, impossible to ascertain the exact number
of Scandinavians and their descendants in this country, but
we can come very near it by studying the statistics of the
United States treasury department, a recent report from which
gives the number of emigrants during the last seventy years
from Sweden and Norway as 943,330, and from Denmark as
146,237, or a total since the year 1820 of 1,089,567; while
the same report gives the number during the same period
from Ciermany as 4,551,719; Ireland, 3,501,683; England,
1,460,054; English Colonies, 1,029,083; Austria-Hungaria,
464,435; Italy, 414,513; France, 370,162; Russia,
356,-353; Scotland, 329,192; Switzerland, 174,333.
When we take into consideration the numerous Swedish
colonies that settled in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New
Jersey in the seventeenth century, and their descendants,
together with the descendants of Scandinavian emigrants of
the last seventy years, I think it is safe to estimate the total
population of Scandinavian descent at over four millions, or
fully one-sixteenth of the entire population of the United
States. The very fact that the nationality assimilates so
readily with the native American element causes it to be
lost sight of; and it should be so, for the only desirable
immigrants to this country are those who cease to be
foreigners, and merge right into the American nation. Such are
certainly the Scandinavians. They do not bring over any
grievances from the mother country to correct or avenge,
and there are no Clan-na-Gael, no Mafia societies among
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