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least politically corrupt country in all Europe, very much because of this veneration for ] government and its representatives. This is what keeps the army together, one bureaucracy clean and pure, and the people governable.
      Patience and perseverance are the next prominent characteristics. Germans stick to a thing that they have begun if it is in the least practicable, until it is done, and the necessary waiting for results seems merely to confirm their resoluton [ . . .]
      The Germans are also an industrious people. They work at something, men, women, and children, the whole day long; and although it is often mere puttering, they have the satisfaction of knowing that they are not idle. Even in fairly well-to-[do families...

ex initial landing at
Wolfgang Johannes Helbich (with collaboration of Annette Haubold), ”Alle Menschen sind dort gleich...” : Die deutsche Amerika-Auswanderung im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Düsseldorf; Historisches Seminar (Series) ; Bd. 10; 1988) : 135 : link

being a passage from :
Josiah Flynt, “The German and the German-American,” in The Atlantic Monthly 78 (November 1896) : 655-664 (658)
U Michigan copy/scan (via google books) : link
Cornell U copy/scan (one of serveral via hathitrust) : link
 

The essay at once essentializes and anatomizes/analyzes the “German” psyche; interesting reading now (September 2025) with respect to current occupant of the White House, e.g., —

“This is one of the main differences between these nationalities, — the German is impulsive, and the Anglo-Saxon practical. Where the German’s impulsiveness does harm is where he allows it to govern his prejudices. He has a great many of these, and once formed they become an integral part of his feelings. To let one go is like parting with one of the his senses.”
p660

—

Josiah Flynt (1869-1907), writer, tramp, private railroad “dick,” known for his writing on tramps especially
wikipedia : link

Robert Ito, “An Occasional Hobo” (subtitled : “Josiah Flynt Willard’s journey from tramp to America’s leading expert on hoboland to enemy of the tramps”), in The Believer (June 2011) : 3-9 pdf at author’s website : link
 

9 September 2025