There were others who came. of course. in somewhat better condition. but nearly all of them were poor. nearly all of them were fleeing oppression or fleeing poverty. all of them were coming here to better their condition. but when they came under those circumstances they often did not look well. The American aristocrat turned up his nose and he said. "What a horridlooking lot of horrid people are coining to this blessed land of ours." And yet his own ancestors only a few years back had come in the same or in a worse condition. The test is not how an immigrant looks when he comes here. but how he behaves when he gets here and what he develops into after he has been here a reasonable time. So -that. looking at these people as they come and as they exist the first few years after they are here. everyone can make a bad report and tell the truth. Uncharitable tongues have always been busy with evil prophecies. so it was spoken of the Irish and Germans. But after they had been here a while. when they had risen to respectability and power. we were told. and are now told. "that class of immigrants is all right." The Irishman is respectable now. Why? He has made his traducers respect him.
Identified stereotypes
Generalizations about how immigrants are initially viewed negatively but later become respected.