Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1882 — THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA. [ARTICLE]

THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA.

One of the striking facts of our immigration statistics is the enormous English immigration in late years. For a long time it has exceeded that from Ireland, and the Philadelphia American ventures the prediction that “before many years are over the English vote may have to be considered quite as much as the Irish” The English immigrant does not loiter about the towns. As a rule he is possessed with land hunger, and, bringing capital with him, he buys a farm in the west or south. Many addict themselves to mining, others to manufacturing, in both of which occupations is to be found much imported English talent. Virginia exerts a peculiar attraction. For fifteen years past an excellent class of citizens, possessed of considerable capital,have been settling in the Old Dominion, contributing a valuable element to its social and commercial life. Such are their numbers that the keeping es the queen’s birthday has become a well recognized Virginia event. The fact is recorded that retired army and navy officers, the sons of clergymen and country gentlemen, have taken up their quarters in numbers in the Old Dominion and in Maryland, and ivetherea life not unlike that of Virginia gentlemen farmers, lang syne. In addition to this, a new element of Englishmen has of late been making great strides here. The aristocratic class is buying in the far west acres by the thousand. Dukps and earls are acquiring territorial possessions which vie in extent with those they possess in the old country, and manufacturers are starting here branches of business carried on at home. In fact, the stake England has in this country greater every day.

Snake and fish stories being exhausted for the season the fertile newspaper liar has turned himself loose on mosquitoes. The latest is that a Jersey man went to Mauch Chunk, Pa., 'to spend his vacation, and during the first night three old hens, which had gone to roost on a tree outside his bedroom window, were disturbed by a cat, and flew into the apartment. The Jersey man was awakened, and slashed a pillow around until the bewildered fowls found their way out. Th e next morning he told his host that he should came there every summer, for during the night he had seen but three mosquitoes. A guild has been organized in New York for the distribution of free ice to the poor, a praiseworthy work of humanity worthy of imitation in other crowded cities. Arrangements have been perfected with an ice company which will send its wagons daily to all parts of the city during the remainder of the season, delivering from ten |o fifteen pounds of ice to the families who have received orders for the same, and a double quantity on Saturday to last over Sunday. Blank orders have been sent to clergymen, physicians and others, to be filled in at their discretion.

The proposition to erect a $30,000 Garfield memorial monument in Philadelphia seems to drag. It was started over a month ago. the scheme being to secure 2,000 sls subscriptions. Bo far less than 600 subscriptions have been received, and the committee in charge has felt called upon to appeal to the patriotism of the Philadelphians not to let the scheme fall through. Our consul, Mr. Mason, at Basle, Switzerland,sends another long report to the state department. He says there is a crusade against American meats, and unless it is opposed, it will destroy our meat trade. This time our German friends assess hams in canvas covers as cotton goods, and meat in cans as hardware, thus exacting a duty that is simply prohibitive. The machine type-setter’ in the London Times office is a comparative failure. It does its work but breaks more than it saves. Tbe manager, however, is very unwilling to acknowledge a failure, and sticks steadily to the use of the macb'ne,. Conjectures in regard to the wheat crop now relate chiefly to the question whether the present harvest will be the largest ever known in America. That it will be so abundant as to afford a large surplus forexport is no longer a matter of doubt. Tbe corn crop, on the other hand, is a subject of grave anxiety.