England set out many centuries ago from the same point and with the same
intention. America has nothing in common, either of purpose or method,
with either of these countries. To a European it is the most foreign
city on earth. Untidy but flamboyant, it is reckless of the laws by
which life is lived elsewhere. It builds beautiful houses, it delights
in white marble palaces, and it thinks it superfluous to level its
roads. Eager for success, worshipping astuteness as devoutly as it
worships speed, it is yet indifferent to the failure of others, and
seems to hold human life in light esteem. In brief, it is a braggart
city of medieval courage and medieval cruelty, combining the fierceness
of an Italian republic with a perfect faith in mechanical contrivance
and an ardent love of material progress.

Here, then, are all the elements of interest and curiosity. Happy are
the citizens who watch from day to day the fight that never before has
been fought on the same terms. And yet more strangely baffling than the
city are the citizens. Who are they, and of what blood and character?
What, indeed, is a New Yorker? Is he Jew or Irish? Is he English or
German? Is he Russian or Polish? He may be something of all these, and
yet he is wholly none of them. Something has been added to him which he
had not before. He is endowed with a briskness and an invention often
alien to his blood. He is quicker in his movement, less trammelled in
his judgment Though he may lose wisdom in sharpening his wit, the
change he undergoes is unmistakable. New York, indeed, resembles a magic
cauldron. Those who are cast into it are born again. For a generation
some vague trace of accent or habit may remain. The old characteristics
must needs hang about the newly-arrived immigrant. But in a generation
these characteristics are softened or disappear, and there is produced
a type which seems remote from all its origins. As yet the process of
amalgamation is incomplete, and it is impossible to say in what this
hubble-shubble of mixed races will result. Nor have we any clue of
historical experience which we may follow. The Roman Empire included
within its borders many lands and unnumbered nationalities, but the
dominant race kept its blood pure. In New York and the other great
cities of America the soil is the sole common factor. Though all the
citizens of the great republic live upon that soil, they differ in
blood and origin as much as the East of Europe differ