dled,
and to this end the politicians provide him with naturalisation papers,
fraudulent it may be--the State Superintendent of Elections in New York
estimates that 100,000 fraudulent naturalisation papers were issued in
New York State alone in 1903,--and thus in the very beginning of his
life in America the immigrant feels himself identified with, and takes
delight and pride in, the American name and nature; and lo! already the
alien is bound to the "native" by the tie of a common sentiment, the
[Greek word] of the Greeks, which is one of the most powerful factors of
nationality.

Poor [Greek word]! many follies have been spoken in your name! But never
before were you identified with fraudulent naturalisation! Never before
were you mistaken for the trick of a manipulating politician!

Such being the tie of a common sentiment, it is not surprising that
the Americans are universally accustomed to graft and boodle. With
characteristic frankness they have always professed a keen interest
in those who live by their wits. It is not for nothing that Allan
Pinkerton, the eminent detective, called affectionately "the old man,"
is a national hero. His perfections are already celebrated in a prose
epic, and he is better known to west as to east than the President
himself. And this interest, this sense of heroism, are expressed in
a vast and entertaining literature. Nowhere has this literature of
scoundrelism, adorned by Defoe and beloved by Borrow, flourished as
it has flourished in America. Between the dime novel and the stern
documents of the Lexow Committee there is room for history and fiction
of every kind. The crooked ones of the earth have vied with the
detectives in the proper relation of their experiences. On the one
hand you find the great Pinker-ton publishing to the world a breathless
selection from his own archives; on the other, so practised a novelist
as Mr Julian Hawthorne embellishing the narrative of Inspector Byrnes;
and it is evident that both of them satisfy a general curiosity. In
these records of varying merit and common interest the attentive reader
may note the changes which have taken place in the method and
practice of thieving. There is no man so ready to adapt himself to new
circumstances as the scoundrel, and the ingenuity of the American rogue
has never been questioned. In the old days of the backwoods and romance
Jesse James rode forth on a high-mettled steed to hold up cars, coaches,
and banks;