eighth Virginia, was known in the army as "the German regiment." After the war Muhlenberg was elected to the lower house of Congress from Pennsylvania. He died in Philadelphia in 1807.]

IN1 front of the City Hall in Philadelphia stands a monument erected to the memory of Peter Muhlenberg, a Lutheran minister, the same who in 1775 acted as chairman in that memorable mass-meeting at Woodstock, Virginia, which adopted such forceful protests against British oppression.

When the war clouds began to gather, this minister, not satisfied with a written protest, informed the members of his community of his intention to resign — and that he would preach but once more. This news attracted crowds of hearers from near and far, as Muhlenberg was one of the most popular ministers of Virginia. In his forceful sermon he spoke of the duties citizens owe to their country. In closing he said: "There is a time for preaching and praying. But there is also a time for fighting. Now this time has come !"

In the same moment he threw off his clerical garment and stood in the pulpit in the uniform of a colonel of the Continental army. Hailed by enthusiastic outbursts of his community, he slowly descended from the pulpit. Outside, drums began to rattle. Martial trumpets called the men to the struggle for freedom. Before the sun had set, several hundred sturdy Germans had enlisted as recruits, resolved to follow their minister to war.

In former years Muhlenberg had been officer in a British regiment. As he was acquainted with active service, he was entrusted with the command of a regiment, made up entirely of Germans. It fought with great honor in South Carolina as well as in the North. Later on, Muhlenberg was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. As such he distinguished himself in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. During the siege of Yorktown he held one of the most important

1 From German Achievements in America.

positions, captured the strongest redoubt of the enemy and so became instrumental in the fall of the fortress. For his excellent services he was rewarded with the title of major-general. George Washington counted him among his confidential friends.

THE SCANDINAVIANS

K. C. BABCOCK

[From an article in the American Historical Review for January, 1911.]

Of the present population of the United States probably not less than three million persons are of pure Scandinavian stock, counting both the hundreds of thousands of Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish immigrants now living, and the descendants in the second and third generation of these and other immigrants of earlier years.

The final test of the value of any alien element in the population of a nation must always be its capacity for amalgamation with the better part of the adopting country, its ability and willingness to contribute positively and progressively to the upbuilding of the institutions and spirit of the nation whose life it shares. The Scandinavians have so often shown an exceptional power of adaptability in matters social and political that their large participation in the immigration movement from Europe during the last sixty years makes reasonable the presumption of large benefits to accrue from their coming to America. One of the great advantages which they possess for the enrichment of their chosen country lies in the freedom and education under which they have grown up in the Northern Kingdoms, and in the fact that they have brought with them scanty luggage of social distinctions, class traditions, and ecclesiastical obligations. . . .

The longing for land, the determination to own a farm at the earliest possible moment, is the most significant fact in the story of the influence of Scandinavian immigration to the

United States. The call of the wild, rich, boundless western prairie, to be had in quarter sections, almost for the asking, with water and wood and fish and game near by, fell upon eager hearts in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

Thus it came about that the prospective joys of owning a farm and of expanding its acreage, with the prosperity of the years and with the growth of the family, made the hardship of pioneering and the isolation of the frontiers seem a very little thing to the strong-limbed, sound-hearted, land-hungry Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes in the middle northwest.

The Scandinavian immigrants, from the beginnings of their movement into the promise of the American West, have dedicated themselves, without reservation and without stipulation, to the interests and institutions of the Republic. They come to the New World to stay and to make homes in the old-fashioned sense of the word; they are racially akin to the best in America; they are mentally and temperamentally detached from Old World dogmas, castes, and animosities; they are educated, hard-working, ambitious, and law-abiding, and permanently quickened by the conditions of American life. They will be builders and contributors, not destroyers; their greatest and most enduring services will be as a subtle, steadying influence, reinforcing those high qualities which are sometimes called Puritan, sometimes American, but which in any case make for local and national peace, prosperity, enlightenment, and righteousness.

PART II

THE COLONIES

THE ROMANCE OF POCAHONTAS

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH

[The following selection is taken from Captain John Smith's General Historie of Virginia, etc., published in England in 1624. It will be noted that he sometimes speaks of himself in the first person and sometimes in the third. The action all takes place in or near Jamestown, on the James River, in Virginia.

After Pocahontas had saved Smith's life, she was taken prisoner and kept as a hostage by the colonists for several years, during which time an attachment sprang up between her and John Rolfe. They were married in 1614. He took her to England in 1616 the year in which Shakespeare died where the letter of Captain John Smith to the queen of James I brought them to the favorable notice of the court. Rolfe was appointed secretary of Virginia, and was returning to take up his new duties when Pocahontas died at sea. Many descendants of their daughter still live in Virginia among them the Randolphs. Pocahontas was Rolfe's second wife. Rolfe was the first colonist to plant tobacco in Virginia.

Smith's writing never loses the tone of the courtier. He speaks of the Indian chief Powhatan as the "Emperor" or the "King"; of his braves as "courtiers"; of Pocahontas as a "King's daughter." Is it not possible that this manner toward the Indian had much to do with his successful dealing with them? In the early New England chronicles the attitude toward the red man is usually one of contempt or condescension. To Smith's mind, Pocahontas was assuredly a princess of the blood royal. She had, for him, the nobility of birth as well as the nobility which was hers by nature; and in his gallant Elizabethan fashion he has woven about her head, with the aid of her own romantic conduct, a halo that seems likely to last.]

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Ar last they brought him [Smith] to Werowocomoco, where was Powhatan their Emperour. Here more than two hundred grim Courtiers stood wondering at him, as he had beene a monster; till Powhatan and his train had put themselves in their greatest braveries. Before a fire, upon a seat like a bedstead, he sat covered with a great robe made of Rawocun skins, and all the tayles hanging by. . . . At [Smith's] entrance before the King, all the people gave a great shout. The Queene of Appamatuck 1 was appointed to bring him water to wash his hands, and another brought him a bunch of feathers instead of a towel, to dry them. Having feasted him after their best barbarous manner, a long consultation was held; but the conclusion was, two great stones were brought before Powhatan. Then as many as could laid hands upon him, dragged him to the stones and thereon laid his head. And being ready with their clubs to beate out his brains, Pocahontas the King's dearest daughter, when no intreaty could prevaile, got his head in her armes, and laid her owne upon his to save him from death: whereat the Emperour was contented he should live to make him hatchets, and her bells, beads, and copper; for they thought him as well of all occupations as themselves. For the King himself will make his own robes, shoes, bows, arrows, pots; plant, hunt, or do any thing so well as the rest.

Two days after, Powhatan caused Captain Smith to be brought forth to a great house in the woods, and told him now they were friends, and presently he should go to Jamestown, to send him two great guns, and a grindstone, for which he would give him the County of Capahowosick, and forever esteem him as his son Nantaquoud.

So to Jamestown with twelve guides Powhatan sent him. That night they quartered in the woods, he still expecting (as he had done all this long time of his imprisonment) every hour to be put to one death or other for all their feasting. But almighty God by his divine providence, had mollified the hearts 1 Appomattox, a name famous in American history.