42

lations may serve to explain some features in the social and
political life of the Germans in Baltimore, of which we desire
to give in this sketch a faithful picture.

In ethnographical productions as well as in literary efforts,
to describe the real status of a single class of population, any
flattering encomiums or uncharitable insinuations, any favorite
hypotheses or prejudicial insinuations will surely mislead the
unsophisticated into erroneous conclusions and preoccupy the
intelligent with suspicion against the motives, the veracity or
the ability of the author; therefore, all such deviations are
avoided in this bird's-eye view of German Baltimore. A
merely mathematical outline of the existing religious, educa-
tional, commercial, industrial and social institutions, support-
ed by figures, accurate when possible and always within the
limits of truth when exactness was not accessible, will char-
acterize these lines and enable the reader to cast light and
shadow wherever his eye is predisposed to find it.

This is agreeable to every independent thinker but especial-
ly valuable to the immigrant who looks for a new home in
which he longs to find, if possible, that which he mourns as
having left behind.

As German immigration into large cities for very palpable
reasons, can never assume a colonial character, their habita-
tions are never collected in Separate wards or districts and al-
though perhaps predominant in certain sections, they may be
called scattered in every direction. This is evidently benefi-
cial, as the constant contact with the native population causes
affiliation which ends mostly in the second and always in the
third generation in complete amalgamation. This has been
noticed in nearly all, but especially in the eastern cities of
this country and Baltimore is no exception, so that no intel-
ligent German will come here without looking forward to this
result, however much he may be attached to his inherited
opinions and habits of life. Our German element therefore,
may be properly compared to a school, which exists perhaps
for centuries, yet year by year undergoes changes in teachers
and still more in pupils, of whom sight is lost as soon as they
leave the threshold of their "alma mater." This analogy
will be found striking when applied separately to the differ-
ent manifestations of German life in regard to religion, edu-
cation, literature, arts, commerce, industry, social intercourse
and condition, and politics during the last twenty or thirty
years. This, however, would reach beyond the compass of
our present aim—of dealing only with the present, therefore,
we simply state, that as the statistics given in the preceding
pages were taken from the census of 1860, so these mentioned
in the following lines are deducted from the official sources
dated January 1, 1868. Begining with