litigation. Thus the glowing fraternal communism of poor Janson ended
in the drab discord of an American lawsuit.

In 1862 the followers of Jacob Hutter, a Mennonite martyr who was
burned at the stake in Innsbruck in the sixteenth century, founded the
Old Elmspring Community on the James River in South Dakota. During the
Thirty Years' War these saintly Quaker-like German folk had found
refuge in Moravia, whence they had been driven into Hungary, later
into Rumania, and then into Russia. As their objection to military
service brought them into conflict with the Czar's government, they
finally determined to migrate to America. In 1874 they had all reached
South Dakota, where they now live in five small communities. Scarcely
four hundred all told, they cling to their ancient ambition to keep
themselves "unspotted from the world," and so have evolved a
self-sustaining communal life, characterized by great simplicity of
dress, of speech, and of living. They speak German and refrain
entirely from voting and from other political activity. They are
farmers and practise only those handicrafts which are necessary to
their own communal welfare.

While most of these German sectarian communities had only a slight
economic effect upon the United States, their influence upon
immigration has been extensive. In the early part of the last century,
it was difficult to obtain authentic news concerning America in the
remote hamlets of Europe. All sorts of vague and grotesque notions
about this country were afloat. Every member of these communities,
when he wrote to those left behind, became a living witness of the
golden opportunities offered in the new land. And, unquestionably, a
considerable share of the great German influx in the middle of the
nineteenth century can be traced to the dissemination of knowledge by