everance, honesty, and aptitude for agriculture, but because they
share with the Englishman and the Scotchman the instinct for
self-government. Above all, the Scandinavian has never looked upon
himself as an exile. From the first he has considered himself an
American. In Minnesota and Dakota, the Norse pioneer often preceded
local government. "Whenever a township became populous enough to have
a name as well as a number on the surveyor's map, that question was
likely to be determined by the people on the ground, and such names
as Christiana, Swede Plain, Numedal, Throndhjem, and Vasa leave no
doubt that Scandinavians officiated at the christening." These people
proceeded with the organizing of the local government and, "except for
the peculiar names, no one would suspect that the town-makers were
born elsewhere than in Massachusetts or New York."[33] This, too, in
spite of the fact that they continued the use of their mother tongue,
for not infrequently election notices and even civic ordinances and
orders were issued in Norwegian or Swedish. In 1893 there were 146
Scandinavian newspapers, and their number has since greatly increased.

In politics the Norseman learned his lesson quickly. Governors,
senators, and representatives in Congress give evidence to a racial
clannishness that has more than once proven stronger than party
allegiance. Yet with all their influence in the Northwest, they have
not insisted on unreasonable race recognition, as have the Germans in
Wisconsin and other localities. Minnesota and Dakota have established
classes in "the Scandinavian language" in their state universities,
evidently leaving it to be decided as an academic question which is
_the_ Scandinavian language. Without brilliance, producing few
leaders, the Norseman represents the rugged commonplace of American
life, avoiding the catastrophes of a soaring ambition on the one hand
and the pitfalls of a jaded temperamentalism on the other. Bent on
self-improvement, he scrupulously patronizes farmers' institutes, high
schools, and extension courses, and listens with intelligent patience
to lectures that would put an American audience to sleep. This son of
the North has greatly buttressed every worthy American institution
with the stern traditional virtues of the tiller of the soil. Strength
he gives, if not grace, and that at a time when all social
institutions are being shaken to their foundations.

Among the early homesteaders in the up