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August 28, 1912 1 THE1
the significanoe of immigration to
american citizenship and
christianity.
DE. JUAN GETS OONZALEZ.
When a foreigner glances at American civilization
he passes from surprise to surprise, from
wonder to wonder. He is astonished to see a
civilization that has attained in less than a
century a more mature progress in many respects
than other peoples in thousands of years.
ne sees an uuermw&Die ana well arranged
system of railroads, systems of telegraph, telephone
and mail service that are astonishing for
their quickness, regularity and accuracy. He
wonders at the large and beautiful cities that
he sees with their systems of sanitation and
progress. Literary life is reflected in books,
daily papers, and learned reviews, in the public
schools and great universities with teachers of
prestige and thousands of students. The foreigner
sees mutual and patriotic tolerance, a
constant attempt to engage in the greatest and
most humane enterprises, both inside and outside
of the nation. In other words, in social as
well as economical, in scientific as well as in
political life, he sees a great nation, perhaps
the greatest in the world.
But the most marvelous of all is for one to
realize the enormous, the stUDendous attraction
exerted by America upon mankind at large and
expressed visibly by the millions who come here
year after year.
I believe I know something at least of the
civilizations and empires in by-gone times, I believe
1 am somewhat acquainted with the most
influential movements which took place in past
centuries, but to me neither ancient China, nor
Egypt nor Assyria nor Babylonia with their
countless armies nor Alexander with his mighty
and all conquering host nor Caesar with his
powerful Roman legions, nor the Crusaders
with their soldiers belonging to all the Christian
nations, nor any other social movement
in the past can be compared in greatness and
importance with the present generation of immigrants
that throng to the shores of America.
To see a million human beings leaving spontaneously
their own native land, risking the
perils of a long and painful journey, breaking
perhaps forever the ties of home and nation to
reach America and to live there, is something
so strange, great and marvelous that I repeat
it has no equal in the past. The marvel in:
creases when you see that these millions of im
migrants are not made up from one country or
race alone, but from all countries and nations.
All races and civilizations send their representatives
in that crowd. You see how the yellow
and the black mingle with the white and red
races in their desire to reach the shores of
America. They come from the four quarters
of the globe, some from the East, some from
the West, some from the North and some from
the South. You see how the Catholic and the
Jew, the Mohammedan and the Buddist, the
heathen and the unbeliever mingle together in
the same crowd and become united by the same
bond of aspiration to reach America and to become
better for it. It is the greatest social
lY!AtTA?- A * " " *
?wvcuieni, as l said before, that the human
race has ever witnessed. I believe I do not exaggerate
when I say that America is today for
all the nations of the world the promised land,
as Palestine was for the Israelites in the days
?f old. Yes, the United States is today the
promised land for all the peoples of the world.
What is the significance of such an enormous
movement both for America and for mankind
at large! What is its significance today
and what will it be in the years to come!
Therfc are writers, not a few, who believe that
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PRESBYTERIAN OF THE 6
this movement is u calamity, that the end oi'
it will be the destruction of American civilization.
1 confess that they give reasons and facts
which ought to make Americans think and act
accordingly.
1 myself am very far from being an optimist
on this subject, but I believe there are ways
and means of transforming what seems to some
a calamity into a blessing.
1 shall give you iirst some reasons and facts
to demonstrate how this enormous and constantly
on-coming crowd of immigrants is already
defiling both good citizenship and Christianity
in Ameicra. Then in the second place
1 shall show how the citizenship and Christianity
in America, thus solving, the problem by
evangelizing the foreigners.
THE STORY OF NAMES IN TIDEWATER
VIRGINIA.
BY REV. W- H. T. SQUIRES.
The colony of Virginia was the Englishman's
first successful venture in that vast extention of
the Saxon race which has since belted the world.
The little company of original settlers came sailing
into the magnificent water-gate of Chesapeake
Bay with hearts full of loyalty for the
old country that had given them birth. In no
better way was that loyalty expressed than in
the habit of the colonist always referring to
England as "Home," a custom not discontinued
until the Revolution. It was, then, to be expected
that these pioneers should seek every opportunity
to impress on the new and naked land
the long familiar titles of the mother country.
And so persistently did they, that the map of
Virginia spread before the eye tells the story of
every change in English history, and especially
of every change in the royal family from the
lirst James to the third George.
It is noteworthy that the colonist had no
tolerance for Indian names; "heathen" names
they would have called them. To us they are
musical and much more attractive than the
names of the princes and princesses of the Hanover
line. But the early Virginian hated the
painted savage, and not without good reason.
mt - ...
a ne great river is to be the James not the Powhatan,
for the Scotchman is king not the Algonquin.
Despite their efforts to exterminate all
Indian names from their geography some beauiful
names have survived. The noble bay is
still the Chesapeake, although the Englishman
and his children to this day make it a word of
two syllables. So Roanoke lives also in the
popular tongue dissyllabic. The savages across
the bay were friendly and their name, Accomac,
still reniains. Nansemond, Rappahannock, Potomac,
Appomattox, Shenandoah, Pamunkey,
and Mattapony are a few survivals. The Indian
names seemed to cling most tenaciously to the
water. For Indian names go to the great states
of the West, settled for the most part when the
savage had ceased to inspire terror, but for
good royal, loyal, Saxon nomenclature seek Virginia
and the other ancient colonies.
Uovernor Wingfield and his hundred men
landed on a prominent cape just before entering
the Chesapeake. They took possession in the
name of King James and of the Christian religion.
They set up a cross and a flag and
called the land Cape Henry for the Prince of
Wales, a fine young man, who never became
king. The other portal of the water-gate just
visible to the north they called Cape Charles,
for the second son of the king. Charles was a
young man, not so fine, Who became too much of
a king. The river and the settlement which they
fondly dreamed would grow to become a great
metropolis, they called after the king himself,
Jamestown on the James. A peaceful river lead
ODTH (985) 3
iiig oil into the mysterious forests southward,
they knew not where, they called for the daughter
of the king?the Princess Elizabeth. When
three generations had parsed away and the
Stuarts had proven themselves utterly unworthy
Parliament fixed the succession to the crown in
the line of this Princess Elizabeth, by whose
right as James' daughter George V. reigns today.
It has always been a debated question why jj
Governor Wingfield settled where he did, for it
would have been difficult for any man sailing up
James River to have chosen a worse spot. Some |j
contend that Wingfield wished a site that would |]
be convenient to the trade with India?the trade Ij
with India passing up James River! Some that
he located so far inland for fear of Spanish arson
and murder. Had he gone still further up I
stream and located at the falls, Richmond would jjj
have been Jamestown, as she has for a century jij
been Jamestown's political successor. Had he f]
turned into the inviting waters he named for *j
the Princess Elizabeth and settled on the sands
by deep water, a position peculiarly favorable
to commerce and easily defended from the Indians,
Norfolk would have been Jamestown as ji
she has for many years been Jamestown's com- I
mercial successor. For three centuries as men U
have sailed past the high and healthy bluffs at }|
Newport News they have wondered why Wing- sj
field did not build his city there as the Dutch I
stopped at the tip of Manhattan.
A generation passed away and jprosperity
came to the colonists. Settlements were thickening
along the rivers and across the bay. For better
government the colony was divided into >\
eight shires, all of which still survive, though ' >
with boundaries confined and sometimes with *!]
names changed. Henrico, Charles City, James I
City, Warwick (so-called from the famous Earl, \\
a member of the London Company), and Elizabeth
City, to the north of the James. To the
south Warrosquoyoke, from a little bay, but soon
changed to Isle of Wiirht *v.-~ ?11 1
D , UiC >YCii K nown H
island in the south o? England. Charles River fl
on the York, soon changed bo York, and Aocom&c ' |
on the Eastern Shore, soon changed to North
ampton after the loyalist earl, who died fighting
for King Charles against Parliament. Of these
original names five were for members of the fl
royal family, two for members of the nobility V*
and one was geographical. Both Indian names fl
were thrown out. I
Cromwell's time was an era of great pros
perity for Virginia. The lands, especially along H
the Potomac, filled rapidly and that with some J
of the best blood that ever left England. It is ; I
significant that during these years of expansion '$
when six new shires were formed every one of |
them received a geographical name. There is- :|
grim humor here. The Virginians were loyalists |
almost to a man. If there was no king "at |
'home" and no royal familv thA-n vmn- -
? ? jvi" viugcm 11
at Jamestown would content himself with the
familiar names of English shires. You may be I
sure that no Cromwellian name will tarnish the
records of King Charles' Old Dominion! Ah in
the north of England, Northumberland, Lancashire
and Westmoreland adjoin, so in the
Northern Neck of Virginia. Here Lancashire
becomes Lancaster. As in England, Gloucester, ^
New Kent and Surry are found in the south *
of the land.
The long reign of Charles II. did not bring
to his loyal colony that happiness and prosperity
that they wished. In the twenty-five a
years that the "Merry Monarch" ruled at West- ]?
tnincitnr o-r*^l 4^1>/v i--j* 1 "*
me uvteaieu oeriaey ruled at
Jamestown only three new shires are erected, fjj
Stafford, far up the Potomac, showing how J
much more rapidly the Potomac settlements are
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