To get this mass of varied humanity within the mind's eye,
let us divide and group it. First, recall some small city or town with
which you are familiar, of about 10,000 inhabitants; say Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, where the treaty of peace between Japan and Russia was agreed
upon; or Saratoga Springs, New York; or Vincennes, Indiana; or Ottawa,
Illinois; or Sioux Falls, South Dakota; or Lawrence, Kansas. Settle one
hundred towns of this size with immigrants, mostly of the peasant class,
with their un-American languages, customs, religion, dress, and ideas,
and you would locate merely those who came from Europe and Asia in the
year ending June 30, 1905. Those who came from other parts of the world
would make two and a half towns more, or a city the size of Poughkeepsie
in New York, seat of Vassar College, or Burlington in Iowa, of about
25,000 each.
[Sidenote: Grouped by Nationality]
[Sidenote: Queer Towns these would be]
Gather these immigrants by nationality, and you would have in round
numbers twenty-two Italian cities of 10,000 people, or massed together,
a purely Italian city as large as Minneapolis with its 220,000. The
various peoples of Austria-Hungary--Bohemians, Magyars, Jews, and
Slavs--would fill twenty-seven and one half towns; or a single city
nearly as large as Detroit.
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