| “ | Talking of old home scenes, op den Graaff | |
| Teased the low backlog with his shodden staff, | ||
| Till the red embers broke into a laugh | ||
| And dance of flame, as if they fain would cheer | ||
| The rugged face, half tender, half austere, | ||
| Touched with the pathos of a homesick tear!” | ||
| Whittier. | ||
The history of Pennsylvania is as yet unwritten.
When the typical American of to-day, momentarily
wearied with the chase after wealth, an establishment,
horses, a footman, and all those things which represent
his conception of prosperity and practical happiness, stops
to inquire, if ever he does, concerning the men who founded
his country, who they were and whence they came,
and what were the causes which have influenced the
development of its civilization, his thoughts invariably turn
toward Massachusetts. Plymouth rock looms up before
him vast and imposing, but the Delaware flows by
unheeded. He is familiar with the story of the Mayflower,
and her burden of strange folk destined to a barren shore
is impressed vividly upon his imagination, but of the
Welcome which sailed over the same sea, bearing a purer
people to a better land, he has never heard a whisper.
Why the chroniclers, who have so energetically and
successfullv tilled the one field, should neglect the other, it
- ↑ Many of the facts contained in this article have been obtained from Seidensticker's “Pastorius und die Grundung von Germantown.”
