Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/237

Rh neighbourhood, and which makes a brick of a pale yellow colour, which gives the city a very cheerful appearance, as if the sun were always shining there. I saw also lovely country-houses in the outskirts, with splendid and extensive prospects over lake and land. Millewankee, not Chicago, deserves to be called “Queen of the Lake.” She stands a splendid city on those sunny heights, and grows and extends herself every day. Nearly half of the inhabitants are Germans, and they occupy a portion of the city to themselves, which is called “German Town.” This lies on the other side of the river Millewankee. Here one sees German houses, German inscriptions over the doors or signs, German physiognomies. Here are published German newspapers; and many Germans live here who never learn English, and seldom go beyond the German town. The Germans in the Western States seem, for the most, to band together in a clan-like manner, to live together, and amuse themselves as in their fatherland. Their music and dances, and other popular pleasures, distinguish them from the Anglo-American people, who, particularly in the West, have no other pleasure than “business.” This reminds me of a conversation I had on one occasion—I think it was at Augusta, in Georgia—in a shop where I went to purchase something. A middle-aged woman stood behind the counter, and I heard by her mode of speaking that she was a German. I asked her, therefore, in German how she liked this New World.

“Oh, yes!” she replied, with a sigh, “it is all very well for business, and for making money. But when I have worked all day and the evening is come I cannot here have any ‘plaisir.’ In the old country, though one perhaps might not get so much by work, yet one could have some ‘plaisir’ when it was done. But here nobody has any idea of any “plaisir,” but just business, business, day out and day in; so that one's life is not very amusing.”