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diff --git a/old/40887-h/40887-h.htm b/old/40887-h/40887-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index f346489..0000000 --- a/old/40887-h/40887-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,10065 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" -"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> - -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en"> - <head> <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> -<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> -<title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of On the Trail of the Immigrant, by Edward A. 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Steiner - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: On the Trail of The Immigrant - -Author: Edward A. Steiner - -Release Date: September 28, 2012 [EBook #40887] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE TRAIL OF THE IMMIGRANT *** - - - - -Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images available at The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/cover_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="327" height="500" alt="image of the book's cover" -title="image of the book's cover" /></a> -</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a name="FRONT" id="FRONT"></a> -<a href="images/ill_pg_frontispiece_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_pg_frontispiece_sml.jpg" width="351" height="500" alt="From stereograph copyright—1904, by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. -AT THE GATE - -With tickets fastened to coats and dresses, the immigrants pass out -through the gate to enter into their new inheritance, and become our -fellow citizens." -title="AT THE GATE" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">From stereograph copyright—1904, by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.<br /> -AT THE GATE<br /> -With tickets fastened to coats and dresses, the immigrants pass out -through the gate to enter into their new inheritance, and become our -fellow citizens.</span> -</p> - -<p><a name="page_001" id="page_001"></a></p> - -<p class="cb">ON THE TRAIL<br /> -OF<br /> -THE IMMIGRANT</p> - -<p><a name="page_002" id="page_002"></a></p> - -<div class="boxx"> -<p class="c"> -<big><big>EDWARD A. STEINER’S</big><br /> -Studies of Immigration</big><br /> -————<br /> -<i>From Alien to Citizen</i><br /> -The Story of My Life in America<br /> -Illustrated net $1.50<br /> -<br /> -In this interesting autobiography we see Professor Steiner<br /> -pressing ever forward and upward to a position of international<br /> -opportunity and influence.<br /> -<br /> -<i>The wonderful varied Life-story of the author of<br /> -“On the Trail of the Immigrant.”</i><br /> -<br /> -<i>The Broken Wall</i><br /> -Stories of the Mingling Folk.<br /> -Illustrated net $1.00<br /> -<br /> -“A big heart and a sense of humor go a long way toward making<br /> -a good book. Dr. Edward A. Steiner has both these qualifications<br /> -and a knowledge of immigrants’ traits and character.”<br /> -—<i>Outlook.</i><br /> -<br /> -<i>Against the Current</i><br /> -Simple Chapters from a Complex Life.<br /> -12mo, cloth net $1.25<br /> -<br /> -“As frank a bit of autobiography as has been published for<br /> -many a year. The author has for a long time made a close<br /> -study of the problems of immigration, and makes a strong<br /> -appeal to the reader.”—<i>The Living Age.</i><br /> -<br /> -<i>The Immigrant Tide—Its Ebb and Flow</i><br /> -Illustrated, 8vo, cloth net $1.50<br /> -“May justly be called an epic of present day immigration,<br /> -and is a revelation that should set our country thinking.”<br /> -—<i>Los Angeles Times.</i><br /> -<br /> -<i>On the Trail of The Immigrant</i><br /> -Illustrated, 12mo, cloth net $1.50<br /> -<br /> -“Deals with the character, temperaments, racial traits, aspirations<br /> -and capabilities of the immigrant himself. Cannot<br /> -fail to afford excellent material for the use of students of immigrant<br /> -problems.”—<i>Outlook.</i><br /> -<br /> -<i>The Mediator</i><br /> -A Tale of the Old World and the New.<br /> -Illustrated, 12mo, cloth net $1.25<br /> -<br /> -“A graphic story, splendidly told.”—<span class="smcap">Robert Watchorn</span>,<br /> -<i>Former Commissioner of Immigration</i>.<br /> -<br /> -<i>Tolstoy, the Man and His Message</i><br /> -A Biographical Interpretation.<br /> -<i>Revised and enlarged.</i> Illustrated, 12mo, cloth net $1.50<br /> -</p> -</div> - -<p><a name="page_003" id="page_003"></a></p> - -<div class="boxx"> -<div class="boxx2"> -<h1> -ON THE TRAIL<br /> - -<small>OF</small><br /> - -THE IMMIGRANT</h1> -<hr /><br /> -<p class="cb">EDWARD A. STEINER<br /> -<i>Professor in Iowa College, Grinnell, Iowa</i><br /> -<br /> -<i>ILLUSTRATED</i><br /> -<br /><br /> -<img src="images/colophon.jpg" width="105" height="71" -alt="colophon" title="colophon" /> -<br /> -<br /><br /> -</p> -<hr /> -<p class="cb">N<small>EW</small> Y<small>ORK</small> C<small>HICAGO</small> T<small>ORONTO</small><br /> - -Fleming H. Revell Company<br /> - -L<small>ONDON AND</small> E<small>DINBURGH</small></p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="c"><a name="page_004" id="page_004"></a><br /> -<small>Copyright, 1906, by<br /> -FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY</small></p> - -<p class="c"> <br /><br /><br /> -New York: 158 Fifth Avenue<br /> -Chicago: 125 No. Wabash Ave.<br /> -Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W.<br /> -London: 21 Paternoster Square<br /> -Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street<br /> -</p> - -<p> <a name="page_005" id="page_005"></a> </p> - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<div class="dedic"> -<p class="c"> -<i>This book is affectionately dedicated to<br /> -“The Man at the Gate”<br /> -R<small>OBERT</small> W<small>ATCHORN</small>,<br /> -United States Commissioner of Immigration<br /> -at the<br /> -Port of New York:</i></p> - -<p><i>Who, in the exercise of his office has been loyal to the interests -of his country, and has dealt humanely, justly and without -prejudice, with men of “Every kindred and tongue and people and -nation.”</i></p></div> - -<p><a name="page_006" id="page_006"></a></p> - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<div class="dedic"><p class="c"><i>ACKNOWLEDGMENT</i></p> - -<p><i>Cordial recognition is tendered to the editors of The Outlook for -their courtesy in permitting the use of certain portions of this -book which have already appeared in that journal.</i><a name="page_007" id="page_007"></a></p></div> - - -<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" summary=""> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#I">I.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">By Way of Introduction</span> </td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_009">9</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#II">II.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Beginning of the Trail</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_016">16</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#III">III.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Fellowship of the Steerage</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_030">30</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#IV">IV.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Land, Ho!</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_048">48</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#V">V.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">At the Gateway</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_064">64</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#VI">VI.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">“The Man at the Gate”</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_078">78</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#VII">VII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The German in America</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_094">94</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#VIII">VIII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Scandinavian Immigrant</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_112">112</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#IX">IX.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Jew in His Old World Home</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_126">126</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#X">X.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The New Exodus</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_143">143</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#XI">XI.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">In the Ghettos of New York</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_154">154</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#XII">XII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Slavs at Home</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_179">179</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#XIII">XIII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Slavic Invasion</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_198">198</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#XIV">XIV.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Drifting with the “Hunkies”</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_213">213</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#XV">XV.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Bohemian Immigrant</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_225">225</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#XVI">XVI.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Little Hungary</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_238">238</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#XVII">XVII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Italian at Home</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_252">252</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#XVIII">XVIII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The Italian in America</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_262">262</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#XIX">XIX.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Where Greek Meets Greek</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_282">282</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#XX">XX.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The New American and the New Problem</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_292">292</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#XXI">XXI.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">The New American and Old Problems</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_309">309</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#XXII">XXII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Religion and Politics</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_321">321</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#XXIII">XXIII.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Birds of Passage</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_334">334</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#XXIV">XXIV.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">In the Second Cabin</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_347">347</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#XXV">XXV.</a></td><td><span class="smcap">Au Revoir</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_359">359</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td> </td><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#APPENDIX">Appendix</a></span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_365">365</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td> </td><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#INDEX">Index</a></span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_371">371</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<p><a name="page_008" id="page_008"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td align="right" colspan="2"><i>Facing page</i></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">At the Gate</span> -</td><td align="right"><i><a href="#FRONT">Title</a></i></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">As Seen by My Lady of the First Cabin</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_010">10</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Beginning of the Trail</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_026">26</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Will They Let Me In?</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_050">50</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Sheep and the Goats</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_066">66</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Back To the Fatherland</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_092">92</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Farewell to Home and Friends</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_114">114</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Israelites Indeed</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_140">140</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Ghetto of the New World</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_156">156</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">From the Black Mountain</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_180">180</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Without the Pale</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_208">208</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">Ho for the Prairie!</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_246">246</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Boss</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_270">270</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">In an Evening School, New York</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_294">294</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Slav of the Balkans</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_302">302</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td><span class="smcap">On the Day of Atonement</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_330">330</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<p><a name="page_009" id="page_009"></a></p> - -<h1>ON THE TRAIL OF<br /> THE IMMIGRANT</h1> - -<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I<br /><br /> -BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION</h2> - -<p class="nind"><i>My Dear Lady of the First Cabin</i>:</p> - -<p>O<small>N</small> the fourth morning out from Hamburg, after your maid had disentangled -you from your soft wrappings of steamer rugs, and leaning upon her arm, -you paced the deck for the first time, the sun smiled softly upon the -smooth sea, and its broken reflections came back hot upon your pale -cheeks. Then your gentle eyes wandered from the illimitable sea back to -the steamer which carried you. You saw the four funnels out of which -came pouring clouds of smoke trailing behind the ship in picturesque -tracery; you watched the encircling gulls which had been your fellow -travellers ever since we left the white cliffs of Albion; and then your -eyes rested upon those mighty Teutons who stood on the bridge, and whose -blue eyes searched the sea for danger, or rested upon the compass for -direction.</p> - -<p>From below came the sweet notes of music, gentle and wooing, one of the -many ways in which the steamship company tried to make life<a name="page_010" id="page_010"></a> pleasant -for you, to bring back your “Bon appétit” to its tempting tables. Then -suddenly, you stood transfixed, looking below you upon the deck from -which came rather pronounced odours and confused noises. The notes of a -jerky harmonica harshly struck your ears attuned to symphonies; and the -song which accompanied it was gutteral and unmusical.</p> - -<p>The deck which you saw, was crowded by human beings; men, women and -children lay there, many of them motionless, and the children, numerous -as the sands of the sea,—unkempt and unwashed, were everywhere in -evidence.</p> - -<p>You felt great pity for the little ones, and you threw chocolate cakes -among them, smiling as you saw them in their tangled struggle to get -your sweet bounty.</p> - -<p>You pitied them all; the frowsy headed, ill clothed women, the men who -looked so hungry and so greedy, and above all you pitied, you said -so,—do you remember?—you said you pitied your own country for having -to receive such a conglomerate of human beings, so near to the level of -the beasts. I well recall it; for that day they did look like animals. -It was the day after the storm and they had all been seasick; they had -neither the spirit nor the appliances necessary for cleanliness. The -toilet rooms were small and hard to reach, and sea water as you well -know is not a good cleanser. They<a name="page_011" id="page_011"></a> were wrapped in gray blankets which -they had brought from their bunks, and you were right; they did look -like animals, but not half so clean as the cattle which one sees so -often on an outward journey; certainly not half so comfortable.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_pg_010_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_pg_010_sml.jpg" width="351" height="500" alt="From stereograph copyright—1905, by Underwood & -Underwood, N. Y. -AS SEEN BY MY LADY OF THE FIRST CABIN. -The fellowship of the steerage makes good comrades, where no barriers -exist and introductions are neither possible nor necessary." -title="AS SEEN BY MY LADY OF THE FIRST CABIN" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">From stereograph copyright—1905, by Underwood & -Underwood, N. Y.<br /> -AS SEEN BY MY LADY OF THE FIRST CABIN.<br /> -The fellowship of the steerage makes good comrades, where no barriers -exist and introductions are neither possible nor necessary.</span> -</p> - -<p>You were taken aback when I spoke to you. I took offense at your -suspecting us to be beasts, for I was one of them; although all that -separated you and me was a little iron bar, about fifteen or twenty -rungs of an iron ladder, and perhaps as many dollars in the price of our -tickets.</p> - -<p>You were amazed at my temerity, and did not answer at once; then you -begged my pardon, and I grudgingly forgave you. One likes to have a -grudge against the first cabin when one is travelling steerage.</p> - -<p>The next time you came to us, it was without your maid. You had quite -recovered and so had we. The steerage deck was more crowded than ever, -but we were happy, comparatively speaking; happy in spite of the fact -that the bread was so doughy that we voluntarily fed the fishes with it, -and the meat was suspiciously flavoured.</p> - -<p>Again you threw your sweetmeats among us, and asked me to carry a basket -of fruit to the women and children. I did so; I think to your -satisfaction. When I returned the empty basket, you wished to know all -about us, and I proceeded to tell you many things—who the Slavs are, -and I brought you fine specimens of<a name="page_012" id="page_012"></a> Poles, Bohemians, Servians and -Slovaks,—men, women and children: and they began to look to you like -men, women and children, and not like beasts. I introduced to you, -German, Austrian and Hungarian Jews, and you began to understand the -difference. Do you remember the group of Italians, to whom you said -good-morning in their own tongue, and how they smiled back upon you all -the joy of their native land? And you learned to know the difference -between a Sicilian and a Neapolitan, between a Piedmontese and a -Calabrian. You met Lithuanians, Greeks, Magyars and Finns; you came in -touch with twenty nationalities in an hour, and your sympathetic smile -grew sweeter, and your loving bounty increased day by day.</p> - -<p>You wondered how I happened to know these people so well; and I told you -jokingly, that it was my Social nose which over and over again, had led -me steerage way across the sea, back to the villages from which the -immigrants come and onward with them into the new life in America.</p> - -<p>You suspected that it was not a Social nose but a Social heart; that I -was led by my sympathies and not by my scientific sense, and I did not -dispute you. You urged me to write what I knew and what I felt, and now -you see, I have written. I have tried to tell it in this book as I told -it to you on board of ship. I told you much<a name="page_013" id="page_013"></a> about the Jews and the -Slavs because they are less known and come in larger numbers. When I had -finished telling you just who these strangers are, and something of -their life at home and among us, in the strange land, you grew very -sympathetic, without being less conscious how great is the problem which -these strangers bring with them.</p> - -<p>If I succeed in accomplishing this for my larger audience, the public, I -shall be content.</p> - -<p>You were loth to listen to figures; for you said that statistics were -not to your liking and apt to be misleading; so I leave them from these -pages and crowd them somewhere into the back of the book, where the -curious may find them if they delight in them.</p> - -<p>My telling deals only with life; all I attempt to do is to tell what I -have lived among the immigrants, and not much of what I have counted. -Here and there I have dropped a story which you said might be worth -re-telling; and I tell it as I told it to you—not to earn the smile -which may follow, but simply that it may win a little more sympathy for -the immigrant.</p> - -<p>If here and there I stop to moralize, it is largely from force of habit; -and not because I am eager to play either preacher or prophet. If I -point out some great problems, I do it because I love America with a -love passing your own; because<a name="page_014" id="page_014"></a> you are home-born and know not the lot -of the stranger.</p> - -<p>You may be incredulous if I tell you that I do not realize that I was -not born and educated here; that I am not thrilled by the sight of my -cradle home, nor moved by my country’s flag.</p> - -<p>I know no Fatherland but America; for after all, it matters less where -one was born, than where one’s ideals had their birth; and to me, -America is not the land of mighty dollars, but the land of great ideals.</p> - -<p>I am not yet convinced that the peril to these ideals lies in those who -come to you, crude and unfinished; if I were, I would be the first one -to call out: “Shut the gates,” and not the last one to exile myself for -your country’s good.</p> - -<p>I think that the peril lies more in the first cabin than in the -steerage; more in the American colonies in Monte Carlo and Nice than in -the Italian colonies in New York and Chicago. Not the least of the peril -lies in the fact that there is too great a gulf between you and the -steerage passenger, whose virtues you will discover as soon as you learn -to know him.</p> - -<p>I send out this book in the hope that it will mediate between the first -cabin and the steerage; between the hilltop and lower town; between the -fashionable West side and the Ghetto.</p> - -<p>Do you remember my Lady of the First Cabin,<a name="page_015" id="page_015"></a> what those Slovaks said to -you as you walked down the gangplank in Hoboken? What they said to you, -I now say to my book: “Z’Boghem,”<a name="page_016" id="page_016"></a> “The Lord be with thee.”</p> - -<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II<br /><br /> -THE BEGINNING OF THE TRAIL</h2> - -<p>S<small>OME</small> twenty years ago, while travelling from Vienna on the Northern -Railway, I was locked into my compartment with three Slavic women, who -entered at a way station, and who for the first time in their lives had -ventured from their native home by way of the railroad. In fear and awe -they looked out the window upon the moving landscape, while with each -recurring jolt they held tightly to the wooden benches.</p> - -<p>One of them volunteered the information that they were journeying a -great distance, nearly twenty-five miles from their native village. I -ventured to say that I was going much further than twenty-five miles, -upon which I was asked my destination. I replied: “America,” expecting -much astonishment at the announcement; but all they said was: “Merica? -where is that? is it really further than twenty-five miles?”</p> - -<p>Until about the time mentioned, the people of Eastern and Southeastern -Europe had remained stationary; just where they had been left by the -slow and glacial like movement of the races and tribes to which they -belonged. Scarcely any traces of their former migrations survive, -except<a name="page_017" id="page_017"></a> where some warlike tribe has exploited its history in song, -describing its escape from the enemy, into some mountain fastness, which -was of course deserted as soon as the fury of war had spent itself.</p> - -<p>From the great movements which changed the destinies of other European -nations, these people were separated by political and religious -barriers; so that the discovery of America was as little felt as the -discovery of the new religious and political world laid bare by the -Reformation. Each tribe and even each smaller group developed according -to its own native strength, or according to how closely it leaned -towards Western Europe, which was passing through great evolutionary and -revolutionary changes.</p> - -<p>On the whole, it may be said that in many ways they remained stationary, -certainly immobile. Old customs survived and became laws; slight -differentiations in dress occurred and became the unalterable costume of -certain regions; idioms grew into dialects and where the native genius -manifested itself in literature, the dialect became a language. These -artificial boundaries became impassable, especially where differences in -religion occurred. Each group was locked in, often hating its nearest -neighbours and closest kinsmen, and also having an aversion to anything -which came from without. Social and economic causes played no little -part, both in the isolation<a name="page_018" id="page_018"></a> of these tribes and groups and in the -necessity for migration. When the latter was necessary, they moved -together to where there was less tyranny and more virgin soil. They went -out peacefully most of the time, but could be bitter, relentless and -brave when they encountered opposition.</p> - -<p>But they did not go out with the conqueror’s courage nor with the -adventurer’s lust for fame; they were no iconoclasts of a new -civilization, nor the bearers of new tidings. They went where no one -remained; where the Romans had thinned the ranks of the Germans, where -Hun, Avar and Turk had left valleys soaked in blood and made ready for -the Slav’s crude plow; where Roman colonies were decaying and Roman -cities were sinking into the dunes made by ocean’s sands. They destroyed -nothing nor did they build anything; they accepted little or nothing -which they found on conquered soil, but lived the old life in the new -home, whether it was under the shadow of the Turkish crescent, or where -Roman conquerors had left empty cities and decaying palaces.</p> - -<p>In travelling through that most interesting Austrian province, Dalmatia, -on the shores of the Adriatic, opposite Italy, I came upon the palace of -Diocletian, in which the Slav has built a town, using the palace walls -for the foundations of his dwellings. In spite of the fact that both -strength and beauty lie imbedded in these foundations, the<a name="page_019" id="page_019"></a> houses are -as crude and simple as those built in an American mining camp. Upon the -ruins of the ancient city of Salona, I found peasants breaking the -Corinthian pillars into gravel for donkey paths. These people although -surrounded by conquering nations were not amalgamated, and were enslaved -but not changed. Art lived and died in their midst but bequeathed them -little or no culture.</p> - -<p>This is true not only of many of the Slavs but also of many of the Jews -who live among them and who have remained unimpressed and unchanged for -centuries; except as tyrannical governments played shuffle-board with -them, pushing them hither and thither as policy or caprice dictated.</p> - -<p>The Italian peasant began his wanderings earlier than the other nations, -at least to other portions of Europe, where he was regarded as -indispensable in the building of railroads. These movements, however, -were spasmodic, and he soon returned to his native village to remain -there, locked in by prejudice and superstition, and unbaptized by the -spirit of progress.</p> - -<p>But all this is different now; and the change came through that word -quite unknown in those regions twenty-five years ago—the word <span class="smcap">America</span>. -Having exhausted the labour supply of northern Europe which, as for -instance in Germany, needed all its strength for the <a name="page_020" id="page_020"></a>up-building of its -own industries, American capitalists deemed it necessary to find new -human forces to increase their wealth by developing the vast, untouched -natural resources. Just how systematically the recruiting was carried on -is hard to tell, but it is sure that it did not require much effort, and -that the only thing necessary was to make a beginning.</p> - -<p>In nearly all the countries from which new forces were to be drawn there -was chronic, economic distress, which had lasted long, and which grew -more painful as new and higher needs disclosed themselves to the lower -classes of society. Most of the land as a rule, was held by a privileged -class, and labour was illy paid. The average earning of a Slovak peasant -during the harvest season was about twenty-five cents a day, which sank -to half that sum the rest of the time, with work as scarce as wages were -low.</p> - -<p>If a load of wood was brought to town, it was besieged by a small army -of labourers ready to do the necessary sawing; other work than wood -sawing there practically was none, and consequently in the winter time -much distress prevailed.</p> - -<p>The labour of women was still more poorly paid. A muscular servant girl, -who would wash, scrub, attend to the garden and cattle and help with the -harvesting, received about ten dollars a year, with a huge cake and -perhaps a pair of<a name="page_021" id="page_021"></a> boots no less huge as a premium. These wages were -paid only in the most prosperous portion of the Slavic world, being much -lower in other regions, while in the mountains neither work nor wages -were obtainable.</p> - -<p>The hard rye bread, scantily cut and rarely unadulterated, with an -onion, was the daily portion, while meat to many of the people was a -luxury obtainable only on special holidays. I remember vividly the -untimely passing away of a pig, which belonged to a titled estate. -According to the law, which reached with its mighty arm to this small -village, the pig must be decently buried and covered by—not balsam and -spices, but quick lime and coal oil. Hardly had these rites been -performed when the carcass mysteriously disappeared—but meat was -scarce, and the peasants were hungry.</p> - -<p>During this same period, the Jewish people who were scattered through -Eastern Europe, began to feel not only economic distress, but existence -itself was often made unbearable by the newly awakened national feeling, -which reacted against the Jews in waves of cruel persecution. Such trade -as could be diverted into other channels was taken from them and they -grew daily poorer, living became precarious and life insecure. It did -not take much agitation to induce any of these people to emigrate, and -when the first venturesome travellers returned with money in<a name="page_022" id="page_022"></a> the bank, -silver watches in their pockets, “store clothes” on their backs, and a -feeling of “I am as good as anybody” in their minds, each one of them -became an agent and an agitator, and if paid agents ever existed, they -might have been immediately dispensed with.</p> - -<p>Now one can stand in any district town of Hungary, Poland or Italy and -see, coming down the mountains or passing along the highways and byways -of the plains, larger or smaller groups of peasants, not all -picturesquely clad, passing in a never ending stream, on, towards this -new world. The stream is growing larger each day, and the source seems -inexhaustible.</p> - -<p>Sombre Jews come, on whose faces fear and care have plowed deep furrows, -whose backs are bent beneath the burden of law and lawlessness. They -come, thousands at a time, at least 5,000,000 more may be expected; and -he does not know what misery is, who has not seen them on that march -which has lasted nearly 2,000 years beneath the burden heaped by hate -and prejudice. Both peasant and Jew come from Russian, Austrian or -Magyar rule, under which they have had few of the privileges of -citizenship but many of its burdens. From valleys in the crescent shaped -Carpathians, from the sunny but barren slopes of the Alps and from the -Russian-Polish plains they are coming as once they went<a name="page_023" id="page_023"></a> forth from -earlier homes; peaceful toilers, who seek a field for their surplus -labour or as traders to use their wits, and it is a longer journey than -any of their timid forbears ever undertook.</p> - -<p>The most venturesome of the Slavs, the Bohemians, in whom the love of -wandering was always alive, started this stream of emigration as early -as the seventeenth century, sending us the noblest of their sons and -daughters, the heroes and heroines of the reformatory wars; idealists, -who like the Pilgrim Fathers, came for “Freedom to worship God.” Their -descendants have long ago been blended into the common life of the -people of America, scarcely conscious of the fact that they might have -the same pride in ancestry which the descendants of the Pilgrims delight -to exhibit. Not until the latter part of the nineteenth century, in the -70s, did the Bohemian immigrants come in large numbers and in a steady -stream, bringing with them the Czechs of Moravia, a neighbouring -province. Together they make some 200,000 of our population, fairly -distributed throughout the country, and about equally divided between -tillers of the soil and those following industrial pursuits. Nearly all -Bohemian immigrants come to stay, and adjust themselves more or less -easily to their environment. The economic distress which has brought -them here, while never acute, threatens to become so now from the over -accentuated<a name="page_024" id="page_024"></a> language struggle which diverts the energies of the people -and makes proper legislation impossible. The building of railroads and -other governmental enterprises have been retarded by parliamentary -obstructionists, to whom language is more than bread and butter. -Business relations with the Germanic portions of Austria have come -almost to a standstill; conditions which are bound to increase -emigration from Bohemia’s industrial centres.</p> - -<p>The Poles were the next of the Western Slavs to be drawn out of the -seclusion of their villages; those from Eastern Prussia being the -earliest, and those from Russian Poland the latest who have swelled the -stream of emigration.</p> - -<p>The largest number of the Polish immigrants is composed of unskilled -labourers, most of them coming from villages where they worked in the -fields during the summer time, and in winter went to the cities where -they did the cruder work in the factories. The Poles from Germany’s part -of the divided kingdom have furnished nearly their quota of immigrants, -and those remaining upon their native acres will continue to remain -there, if only to spite the Germans who are grievously disappointed not -to see them grow less under the repressive measures of the government. -They are the thorn in the Emperor’s flesh, and with social Democrats -make enough trouble, to verify the saying:<a name="page_025" id="page_025"></a> “Uneasy lies the head that -wears a crown,” true! even with regard to that most imperial of -emperors.</p> - -<p>The Austrian Poles who have retained many of their liberties and have -also gained new privileges, have had a national and intellectual -revival, under the impulse of which the peasantry has been lifted to a -higher level which has reacted upon their economic condition; and -although that condition is rather low in Galicia, as that portion of -Poland is called, immigration from there has reached its high water -mark. The largest increase in immigration among the Poles is to be -looked for from Russian Poland where industrial and political conditions -are growing worse, and where it will take a long time to establish any -kind of equilibrium which will pacify the people and hold them to the -soil.</p> - -<p>The Slovaks, who were relatively the best off, and further away from the -main arteries of travel, are, comparatively speaking, newcomers and -furnish at present the largest element in the Western Slavic -immigration. They have retained most staunchly many of their Slavic -characteristics, are the least impressionable among the Western Slavs, -and usually come, lured by the increased wages. They are most liable to -return to the land of their fathers after saving money enough materially -to improve their lot in life.</p> - -<p><a name="page_026" id="page_026"></a>From the Austrian provinces, Carinthia and Styria, come increasingly -large numbers of Slovenes who are really the link between the Eastern -and Western Slavs. They belong to the highest type of that race, but -represent only a small portion of the large Slavic family. Of the -Eastern Slavs, only the Southern group has moved towards America, the -Russian peasant being bound to the soil, and unable to free himself from -the obligation of paying the heavy taxes, by removal to a foreign -country. With the larger freedom which is bound to come to him, will -also come economic relief so that the emigration of the Russian peasant -in large numbers is not a likelihood.</p> - -<p>Lured by promises of higher wages in our industrial centres, Croatians -and Slovenians come in increasingly large numbers, while in smaller -numbers come Servians and Bulgarians.</p> - -<p>The only Slavs who are thorough seamen and who are coming to our coasts -in increasingly large numbers as sailors and fishermen, are the -Dalmatians; and last but most heroic of all the Slavs, is the -Montenegrin, who has held his mountain fastnesses against the Turk and -who has been the living wall, resisting the victories of Islam. His -little country is blessed by but a few crumbs of soil between huge -mountains and boulders, and in the measure in which peace reigns in the -Balkans, he is without occupation and sustenance; so that he is -compelled to seek<a name="page_027" id="page_027"></a> these more fertile shores, where he will for the -first time in history and quite unconsciously, “Turn the sword into a -plowshare and the spear into a pruning hook.”</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_pg_026_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_pg_026_sml.jpg" width="500" height="354" alt="THE BEGINNING OF THE TRAIL. - -The Wanderlust of the olden time still gets its grip on the peasants of -the great plains of Eastern Europe." -title="THE BEGINNING OF THE TRAIL" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">THE BEGINNING OF THE TRAIL.<br /> -The Wanderlust of the olden time still gets its grip on the peasants of -the great plains of Eastern Europe.</span> -</p> - -<p>Tennyson does not over-idealize this Montenegrin in his admirable -sonnet:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">They rose to where their sovran eagle sails,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">They kept their faith, their freedom, on the height,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Chaste, frugal, savage, arm’d by day and night<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Against the Turk; whose inroad nowhere scales<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Their headlong passes, but his footstep fails,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And red with blood the Crescent reels from fight<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Before their dauntless hundreds, in prone flight<br /></span> -<span class="i0">By thousands down the crags and thro’ the vales.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O smallest among peoples! rough rock-throne<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Of Freedom! warriors beating back the swarm<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Of Turkish Islam for five hundred years.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Great Tsernogora! never since thine own<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Black ridges drew the cloud and brake the storm<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Has breathed a race of mightier mountaineers.<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>From Lithuania, a province of Russia, come smaller groups of non-Slavic -emigrants; people with an old civilization of which little remains, and -with a language which leans closest to Sanscrit, yet who, because of -their subjection to Russia, have sunk to the level of the Russian -peasants. Then there are Magyars and Finns, rather close kinsmen, who -because one lives in the South and the other far North, are as different -as the South is from the North; Greeks<a name="page_028" id="page_028"></a> and Syrians, traders all of them -and workers only when they must be. We shall follow them more closely as -they pass into our own national life.</p> - -<p>The Italian emigration, the largest which we receive from any one -source, comes primarily from Southern Italy, from the crowded cities -with their unspeakable vices; the smallest number of emigrants come from -the villages where they have all the virtues of tillers of the soil. The -most volatile of our foreign population, and perhaps the most clannish, -they represent a problem recognized by their home government, which was -the first to concern itself with it, to study it systematically, and to -aid our government so far as possible in a rational solution. The number -of Italian emigrants is still undiminished, and in spite of the fact -that in recent years more than 200,000 of them have annually left their -native land, their withdrawal is scarcely felt and the number could be -doubled without perceptible diminution at home.</p> - -<p>There are then upon this immigrant trail, many people of varied cultural -development; some of them coming from countries in which they have been -part of a very high type of civilization, while others come from the -veritable back woods of Europe, into which neither steam nor electricity -has entered to disturb the old order, nor has yet awakened a new life.</p> - -<p>None of them starts for America tempted by<a name="page_029" id="page_029"></a> wealth which can be picked -up in the streets. That mythical man who, upon landing, refused to take -a quarter from the side-walk, because he had heard that dollars were -lying about loose, in America, has found it true because he has gone -into politics.</p> - -<p>The immigrant of to-day, be he Slav, Italian or Jew, starts upon this -trail, with no culture, it is true, but with a virgin mind in which it -may be made to grow. Not always with a keen mind, but with a surplus of -muscle, which he is ready to exchange at the mouth of the pit or by the -furnace’s hot blast, for a higher wage than he could earn in the miry -fields of his native village;—but it is by no means settled who gets -the best of the bargain.<a name="page_030" id="page_030"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III<br /><br /> -THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE STEERAGE</h2> - -<p>B<small>ACK</small> of Warsaw, Vienna, Naples and Palermo, with no place on the world’s -map to mark their existence, are small market towns to which the -peasants come from their hidden villages. They come not as is their wont -on feast and fast days, with song and music, but solemnly; the women -bent beneath their burdens, carried on head or back, and the men who -walk beside them, less conscious than usual of their superiority.</p> - -<p>The women have lost the splendour which usually marks their attire. -Their embroidered, stiffly starched petticoats, flowered aprons and gay -kerchiefs have disappeared, and instead they have put on more sombre -garb, some cast off clothing of our civilization. The men, too, have -left their gayer coats behind them, to wear the shoddy ones which -neither warm nor become them.</p> - -<p>Beneath the black cross which marks the boundary of the Polish town, -they usually rest themselves. The cross was erected when the peasants -were liberated from serfdom, and beneath it every wanderer rests and -prays: every wanderer but the Jew, for whom the cross symbolizes neither -liberty nor rest.<a name="page_031" id="page_031"></a></p> - -<p>These towns which used to be buried in a cloud of dust in the summer and -a sea of mud in the winter time; to which the peasant came but rarely, -and then only to do his petty trading or his quarrelling before the law, -are the first catch basins of the little percolating streams of -emigration, and have felt their influence in increased prosperity. They -are the supply stations where much of the money is spent on the way out, -and into which the money flows from the mining camps and industrial -centres in America. One little house leans hospitably against the other, -a two-story house marks the dwelling of nobility, and the power of the -law is personified in the gendarmes, who, weaponed to the teeth, patrol -the peaceful town.</p> - -<p>In Russia, before one may emigrate, many painful and costly formalities -must be observed, a passport obtained through the governor and speeded -on its way by sundry tips. It is in itself an expensive document without -which no Russian subject may leave his community, much less his country. -Many persons, therefore, forego the pleasure of securing official -permission to leave the Czar’s domain, and go, trusting to good luck or -to a few rubles with which they may close the ever open eyes of the -gendarmes of the Russian boundary. Austrian and Italian authorities also -require passports for their subjects, but they are less costly and are<a name="page_032" id="page_032"></a> -granted to all who have satisfied the demands of the law.</p> - -<p>These formalities over, the travellers move on to the market square, a -dusty place, where women squat, selling fruits and vegetables; the -plaster cast and gaily decorated saints, stoically receiving the -adoration of our pilgrims, who come for the last time with a petition -which now is for a prosperous journey.</p> - -<p>There also, the agent of the steamship company receives with just as -much feeling their hard earned money in exchange for the long coveted -“Ticket,” which is to bear them to their land of hope.</p> - -<p>From hundreds of such towns and squares, thousands of simple-minded -people turn westward each day, disappearing in the clouds of dust which -mark their progress to the railroad station and on towards the dreaded -sea.</p> - -<p>From the small windows of fourth-class railway carriages they get -glimpses of a new world, larger than they ever dreamed it to be, and -much more beautiful. Through orderly and stately Germany, with its -picturesque villages, its castled hills and magnificent cities they -pass; across mountains and hills, and by rushing rivers, until one day -upon the horizon they see a forest of masts wedged in between the -warehouses and factories of a great city.</p> - -<p>Guided by an official of the steamship company<a name="page_033" id="page_033"></a> whose wards they have -become, they alight from the train; but not without having here and -there to pay tribute to that organized brigandage, by which every port -of embarkation is infested. The beer they drink and the food they buy, -the necessary and unnecessary things which they are urged to purchase, -are excessively dear, by virtue of the fact that a double profit is made -for the benefit of the officials or the company which they represent.</p> - -<p>The first lodging places before they are taken to the harbours, are -dear, poor and often unsafe. Much bad business is done there which might -be controlled or entirely discontinued. For instance in Rotterdam three -years ago, coming with a party of emigrants, we were met by an employee -of the steamship company and taken in charge, ostensibly to be guided to -the company’s offices near the harbour. On the way we were made to stop -at a dirty, third-class hotel (whose chief equipment was a huge bar) and -were told to make ourselves comfortable. While we were not compelled to -spend our money, we were invited to do so, urged to drink, and left -there fully three hours until this same employee called for us. I -complained to the company through the only official whom I could reach, -and who no doubt was one of the beneficiaries, for the complaint did not -travel far.</p> - -<p>This is only the remnant of an abuse from<a name="page_034" id="page_034"></a> which the emigrant and the -country which received him, used to suffer; for our stringent -immigration laws have made it more profitable to treat the immigrant -with consideration and to look after his physical welfare.</p> - -<p>Yet, admirable as is the machinery which has been set up at Hamburg for -the reception of the emigrant, these minor abuses have not all passed -away and while care is taken that his health does not suffer and that -his purse is not completely emptied, he is still regarded as prey.</p> - -<p>The Italian government safeguards its emigrants admirably at Naples and -Genoa; but other governments are seemingly unconcerned. When the -official has done with the emigrants, they are taken to the emigrant -depot of the company (which in many cases is inadequate for the large -number of passengers), their papers are examined and they are separated -according to sex and religion. At Hamburg they are required to take -baths and their clothing is disinfected; after which they constantly -emit the delicious odours of hot steam and carbolic acid. The sleeping -arrangements at Hamburg are excellent. Usually twenty persons are in one -ward, but private rooms which have beds for four people can be rented.</p> - -<p>The food is abundant and good, plenty of bread and meat are to be had, -and luxuries can be bought at reasonable prices. At Hamburg<a name="page_035" id="page_035"></a> music is -provided and the emigrants may make merry at a dance until dawn of the -day of sailing.</p> - -<p>The medical examination is now very strict, yet seemingly not strict -enough; for quite a large percentage of those who pass the German -physicians are deported on account of physical unfitness.</p> - -<p>I wish to make this point here, and emphasize it: that restrictive -immigration has had a remarkable influence upon the German and -Netherlands steamship companies, in that they have become fairly humane -and decent, which they were not; but improvement in this direction is -still possible.</p> - -<p>The day of embarkation finds an excited crowd with heavy packs and -heavier hearts, climbing the gangplank. An uncivil crew directs the -bewildered travellers to their quarters, which in the older ships are -far too inadequate, and in the newer ships are, if anything, worse.</p> - -<p>Clean they are; but there is neither breathing space below nor deck room -above, and the 900 steerage passengers crowded into the hold of so -elegant and roomy a steamer as the <i>Kaiser Wilhelm II</i>, of the North -German Lloyd line, are positively packed like cattle, making a walk on -deck when the weather is good, absolutely impossible, while to breathe -clean air below in rough weather, when the hatches are down is<a name="page_036" id="page_036"></a> an equal -impossibility. The stenches become unbearable, and many of the emigrants -have to be driven down; for they prefer the bitterness and danger of the -storm to the pestilential air below. The division between the sexes is -not carefully looked after, and the young women who are quartered among -the married passengers have neither the privacy to which they are -entitled nor are they much more protected than if they were living -promiscuously.</p> - -<p>The food, which is miserable, is dealt out of huge kettles into the -dinner pails provided by the steamship company. When it is distributed, -the stronger push and crowd, so that meals are anything but orderly -procedures. On the whole, the steerage of the modern ship ought to be -condemned as unfit for the transportation of human beings; and I do not -hesitate to say that the German companies, and they provide best for -their cabin passengers, are unjust if not dishonest towards the -steerage. Take for example, the second cabin which costs about twice as -much as the steerage and sometimes not twice so much; yet the second -cabin passenger on the <i>Kaiser Wilhelm II</i> has six times as much deck -room, much better located and well protected against inclement weather. -Two to four sleep in one cabin, which is well and comfortably furnished; -while in the steerage from 200 to 400 sleep in one compartment<a name="page_037" id="page_037"></a> on -bunks, one above the other, with little light and no comforts. In the -second cabin the food is excellent, is partaken of in a luxuriantly -appointed dining-room, is well cooked and well served; while in the -steerage the unsavoury rations are not served, but doled out, with less -courtesy than one would find in a charity soup kitchen.</p> - -<p>The steerage ought to be and could be abolished by law. It is true that -the Italian and Polish peasant may not be accustomed to better things at -home and might not be happier in better surroundings nor know how to use -them; but it is a bad introduction to our life to treat him like an -animal when he is coming to us. He ought to be made to feel immediately, -that the standard of living in America is higher than it is abroad, and -that life on the higher plane begins on board of ship. Every cabin -passenger who has seen and smelt the steerage from afar, knows that it -is often indecent and inhuman; and I, who have lived in it, know that it -is both of these and cruel besides.</p> - -<p>On the steamer <i>Noordam</i>, sailing from Rotterdam three years ago, a -Russian boy in the last stages of consumption was brought upon the sunny -deck out of the pestilential air of the steerage. I admit that to the -first cabin passengers it must have been a repulsive sight—this -emaciated, dirty, dying child; but to order a sailor to drive<a name="page_038" id="page_038"></a> him -down-stairs, was a cruel act, which I resented. Not until after repeated -complaints was the child taken to the hospital and properly nursed. On -many ships, even drinking water is grudgingly given, and on the steamer -<i>Staatendam</i>, four years ago, we had literally to steal water for the -steerage from the second cabin, and that of course at night. On many -journeys, particularly on the <i>Fürst Bismark</i>, of the Hamburg American -line, five years ago, the bread was absolutely uneatable, and was thrown -into the water by the irate emigrants.</p> - -<p>In providing better accommodations, the English steamship companies have -always led; and while the discipline on board of ship is always stricter -than on other lines, the care bestowed upon the emigrants is -correspondingly greater.</p> - -<p class="cb">. . . . . -. . . . . -. . . . . -. . . . . -. . . . . -. . . . . -. . . . .</p> - -<p>At last the passengers are stowed away, and into the excitement of the -hour of departure there comes a silent heaviness, as if the surgeon’s -knife were about to cut the arteries of some vital organ. Homesickness, -a disease scarcely known among the mobile Anglo-Saxons, is a real -presence in the steerage; for there are the men and women who have been -torn from the soil in which through many generations their lives were -rooted.</p> - -<p>No one knows the sacred agony of that moment which fills and thrills -these simple minded folk who, for the first time in their lives face the -unknown<a name="page_039" id="page_039"></a> perils of the sea. The greater the distance which divides the -ship from the fast fading dock, the nearer comes the little village, -with its dusty square, its plaster cast saints and its little mud huts.</p> - -<p>From far away Russia a small pinched face looks out and a sweet voice -calls to the departing father, not to forget Leah and her six children, -who will wait for tidings from him, be they good or ill. From Poland in -gutteral speech comes a: “God be with you, Bratye (brother), strong oak -of our village forest and our dependence; the Virgin protect thee.”</p> - -<p>The Slovak feels his Maryanka pressing her lips against his while she -sobs out her lamentation, and he, to keep up his courage, gives a -“strong pull and a long pull” at the bottle, out of which his white -native palenka gives him its last alcoholic greeting.</p> - -<p>Silent are the usually vociferous Italians, whose glorious Mediterranean -is blotted out by the sombre gray of the Atlantic; they shall not soon -again see the full orbed moon shining upon the bay of Naples, sending -from heaven to earth a path of silver upon which the blessed saints go -up and down. In the silence of the moment there come to them the rattle -of carts and the clatter of hoofs, the soft voice of a serenade and then -the sweet scented silence of an Italian night. They all think, even if -they have never thought<a name="page_040" id="page_040"></a> much before; for the moment is as solemn as -when the padre came with his censer and holy water, or when the acolytes -rang the bells, mechanically, on the way to some death-bed.</p> - -<p>It is all solemn, in spite of the band which strikes the well-known -notes of “Lieb Vaterland, magst ruhig sein,” and makes merrier music -each moment to check the tears and to heal the newly made wounds. They -try to be brave now, struggling against homesickness and fear, until -their faces pale, and one by one they are driven down into the hold to -suffer the pangs of the damned in the throes of a complication of -agonies for which as yet, no pills or powders have brought soothing.</p> - -<p>But when the sun shines upon the Atlantic, and dries the deck space -allotted to the steerage passengers, they will come out of the hold one -by one, wrapped in the company’s gray blankets; pitiable looking -objects, ill-kempt and ill-kept. Stretched upon the deck nearest the -steam pipes, they await the return of the life which seemed “clean gone” -out of them.—It is at this time that cabin passengers from their -spacious deck will look down upon them in pity and dismay, getting some -sport from throwing sweetmeats and pennies among the hopeless looking -mass, out of which we shall have to coin our future citizens, from among -whom will arise fathers and mothers of future generations.<a name="page_041" id="page_041"></a></p> - -<p>This practice of looking down into the steerage holds all the pleasures -of a slumming expedition with none of its hazards of contamination; for -the barriers which keep the classes apart on a modern ocean liner are as -rigid as in the most stratified society, and nowhere else are they more -artificial or more obtrusive. A matter of twenty dollars lifts a man -into a cabin passenger or condemns him to the steerage; gives him the -chance to be clean, to breathe pure air, to sleep on spotless linen and -to be served courteously; or to be pushed into a dark hold where soap -and water are luxuries, where bread is heavy and soggy, meat without -savour and service without courtesy. The matter of twenty dollars makes -one man a menace to be examined every day, driven up and down slippery -stairs and exposed to the winds and waves; but makes of the other man a -pet, to be coddled, fed on delicacies, guarded against draughts, lifted -from deck to deck and nursed with gentle care.</p> - -<p>The average steerage passenger is not envious. His position is part of -his lot in life; the ship is just like Russia, Austria, Poland or Italy. -The cabin passengers are the lords and ladies, the sailors and officers -are the police and the army, while the captain is the king or czar. So -they are merry when the sun shines and the porpoises roll, when far away -a sail shines white in the<a name="page_042" id="page_042"></a> sunlight or the trailing smoke of a steamer -tells of other wanderers over the deep.</p> - -<p>“Here, Slovaks, bestir yourselves; let’s sing the song of the ‘Little -red pocket-book’ or ‘The gardener’s wife who cried.’ ‘Too sad?’ you say? -Then let’s sing about the ‘Red beer and the white cakes.’” So they sing:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Brothers, brothers, who’ll drink the beer,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Brothers, brothers, when we are not here?<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Our children they will drink it then<br /></span> -<span class="i1">When we are no more living men.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Beer, beer, in glass or can,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Always, always finds its man.”<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>Other Slavs from Southern mountains, sing their stirring war song:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Out there, out there beyond the mountains,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Where tramps the foaming steed of war,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Old Jugo calls his sons afar;<br /></span> -<span class="i2">To aid! To aid! in my old age<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Defend me from the foeman’s rage.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Out there, out there beyond the mountains<br /></span> -<span class="i2">My children follow one and all,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Where Nikita your Prince doth call;<br /></span> -<span class="i2">And steep anew in Turkish gore<br /></span> -<span class="i2">The sword Czar Dushan flashed of yore,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Out there, out there beyond the mountains.”<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>If the merriment rises to the proper pitch, there will be dancing to the -jerky notes of an<a name="page_043" id="page_043"></a> harmonica or accordion; for no emigrant ship ever -sailed without one of them on board. The Germans will have a waltz upon -a limited scale, while the Poles dance a mazurka, and the Magyar -attempts a wild czardas which invariably lands him against the railing; -for it needs steady feet as well as a steadier floor than the back of -this heaving, rolling monster.</p> - -<p>Men and women from other corners of the Slav world will be reminded of -the spinning room or of some village tavern; and joining hands will sing -with appropriate motions this, not disagreeable song, to Katyushka or -Susanka, or whatever may be the name of this “Honey-mouth.”</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“We are dancing, we are dancing,<br /></span> -<span class="i3">Dancing twenty-two;<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Mary dances in this Kolo,<br /></span> -<span class="i3">Mary sweet and true;<br /></span> -<span class="i1">What a honey mouth has Mary,<br /></span> -<span class="i3">Oh! what joyful bliss!<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Rather than all twenty-two<br /></span> -<span class="i3">I would Mary kiss.”<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>Greeks, Servians, Bulgarians, Magyars, Italians and Slovaks laugh at one -another’s antics and while listening to the strange sounds, are -beginning to enter into a larger fellowship than they ever enjoyed; for -so close as this many of them never came without the hand upon the hilt -or the finger upon the trigger.<a name="page_044" id="page_044"></a></p> - -<p>When Providence is generous and grants a quiet evening, the merriment -will grow louder and louder, drowning the murmur of the sea and -silencing the sorrows of the yesterday and the fears for the morrow.</p> - -<p>“Yes, brothers, we are travelling on to America, the land of hope; let -us be merry. Where are you going, Czeska Holka?” (a pet name for a -Bohemian girl). “To Chicago, to service, and soon, I hope, to matrimony; -that’s what they say, that you can get married in America without a -dowry and without much trouble.” Ah, yes; and get unmarried again -without much trouble; but of this fact she is blissfully ignorant. -“Where are you going, signor?” “Ah, I am going to Mulberry Street; great -city, yes, Mulberry Street, great city.” “Polak, where are you going?” -“Kellisland.” “Where do you say?” “Kellisland, where stones are and big -sea.” “Yes, yes, I know now: Kelly’s Island in Ohio. Fine place for you, -Polak; powder blast and white limestone dust, yet a fine sea and a fine -life.”</p> - -<p>All of them are going somewhere to some one; not quite strangers they; -some one has crossed the sea before them. They are drawn by thousands of -magnets and they will draw others after them.</p> - -<p>We have all become good comrades; for fellowship is easily begotten by -the fellows in<a name="page_045" id="page_045"></a> the same ship, especially in the steerage, where no -barriers exist and where no introductions are possible or necessary. I -am sharing many confidences; of young women who go to meet their lovers; -of young men who go to make their fortunes; of bankrupts who have fled -the heavy arm of the law; of women hiding moral taint; of countless ones -who are hiding grave physical infirmities; and of some who have lost -faith in God and men, in law and justice.</p> - -<p>Yet most of them believe with a simpler faith than our own; God is real -to them and His providence stretches over the seas. No morning, no -matter how tumultuous the waves, but the Russian Jews will put on their -phylacteries, and kissing the sacred fringes which they wear upon their -breasts, will turn towards the East and the rising Sun, to where their -holy temple stood.</p> - -<p>Rarely will a Slav or Italian go to bed without committing himself to -the special care of some patron saint.</p> - -<p>Vice there is, crude, rough vice, down here in the steerage. Yes, they -drink vodka,—even that rarely; but up in the cabin they drink champagne -and Kentucky whiskies, the same devils with other names. Seldom do the -steerage passengers gamble—a friendly game of cards perhaps, here and -there; while up in the cabin, from sunlight until dawn, poker chips are -piled<a name="page_046" id="page_046"></a> and pass to and fro among daintily attired men and women. There -are rough jests in this steerage, and scant courtesy; but virtue is as -precious here as there, although kept under tremendous temptation. I -have crossed the ocean hither and thither, often in the steerage, more -often in the cabin; and I have found gentlemen in dirty homespun in the -one place, and in the other supposed gentlemen who were but beasts, -although they had lackeys to attend them, and suites of rooms in which -to make luxurious a useless existence. The steerage brings virtue and -vice in the rough. A dollar might not be safe, and yet as safe as a -whole bank up in the cabin; the steerage might steal a loaf of white -bread or a tempting cake, but it has not yet learned how to corner the -wheat market; the men in the steerage might be tempted to steal a ride -upon a railroad, but in the cabin I have met rascals who had stolen -whole railroads, yet were called “Captains of Industry.”</p> - -<p>Down in the steerage there is a faith in the future, and in the despair -which often overwhelms them, I needed but to whisper: “Be patient, this -seems like Hell, but it will soon seem to you like Heaven.”</p> - -<p>Yes, this Heaven is coming; coming down almost from above, on yonder -fringe of the sea, for far away trails the low lying smoke of the<a name="page_047" id="page_047"></a> pilot -boat, and but a little farther off is—land—land. None but the -shipwrecked and the emigrants, these way-farers who come to save and be -saved, know the joy of that note which goes from lip to lip as it echoes -and reëchoes in thirty languages, yet with the one word of throbbing -joy,—land—land—<span class="smcap">America</span>.<a name="page_048" id="page_048"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV<br /><br /> -LAND, HO!</h2> - -<p>T<small>HE</small> gay spirits soon flag when land is heralded; for Ellis Island is -ahead, with its uncertainties, and the men and women who were the -merriest and who most often went to the bar, thus trying to forget, now -are sober, and reflect. The troubled ones are usually marked by their -restless walk and by their eagerness to seek the confidences of those -who have tested the temper of the law in this unknown Eldorado.</p> - -<p>Not long ago, on one of the ships in which I sailed, there was in the -steerage, a monk, who neither walked nor talked like one. He shunned me, -not because of my heresies, but because of my Latin, and although he -mumbled out of a prayer-book and unskillfully counted his beads, I knew -that “The devil a monk was he.”</p> - -<p>On the eve of the great day of landing, he was pacing the deck, -evidently in an unreverential mood, and I too was there, being one of -those who prefer the biting wind of the night to the polluted air of the -steerage. He came close to me as we walked, and hesitatingly asked me in -a French to which clung a peculiar dialect never spoken in monasteries,<a name="page_049" id="page_049"></a> -whether I had been in America before. When I replied in the affirmative, -he inquired all about the examination of baggage and of men, and when I -told him how strict it is, that nothing is hid from the lynx eyes of the -custom-house officials, and that nothing is sacred to them, not even the -body of a monk, he grew visibly excited.</p> - -<p>Stealthily he drew from under the folds of his cassock, a stone, a -large, brilliant, tempting diamond, and said: “You may have that.” As I -took it between my fingers, I detected traces of the torn rim of its -setting, and passed it back into the trembling hand of his “Reverence.” -“You needn’t be afraid of that,” he said; “I am one of the monks driven -out of France, and I am taking the treasures of the Brotherhood over. I -am afraid of the high duty and it will be cheaper for me to give you -that diamond which is a pendant from the jewels of the Virgin, than to -pay for what I have; that is, if you will help me to pass this little -bag safely in.” With this he drew aside his cassock and fumbling in the -folds brought to light a little bag which he would have handed to me, -but I assured him that I was not a smuggler even for pious purposes, and -after darting at me an impious glance, he disappeared into the steerage.</p> - -<p>The next day at Quarantine, a messenger boy of unusual size came on -board and calling out<a name="page_050" id="page_050"></a> the names of a rather large number of steerage -passengers handed them telegrams which were written in English and were -rather suspiciously vague.—“Pavel Moticzka,—Ivan Kovaloff,—Isaac -Goldberg,” and last,—“Jaques Rosenstein.” My friend the monk nearly -jumped out of his cassock to reach for his message, and the “Boy,” who -made most remarkable haste for a telegraph messenger, slipped a pair of -handcuffs where only rosaries hung; and a Jewish jeweller’s clerk from -Paris, who was running away with the best part of his employer’s -diamonds,—was in the toils of the law.</p> - -<p>Some years ago when the steerage of the Hamburg American Line had not -been made even partially decent by our stringent immigration laws, over -500 steerage passengers, booked for the <i>Fürst Bismark</i>, at that time -the swiftest boat of the line, were, without explanation or -notification, stowed away in a freight boat scheduled to cross in twelve -days, but never having actually made the trip in less than sixteen days.</p> - -<p>The quarters were very close but the number of passengers was not -excessively large, the weather was favourable, and blissfully ignorant -of the slowness of the ship, we were comparatively happy.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_pg_050_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_pg_050_sml.jpg" width="349" height="500" alt="WILL THEY LET ME IN? - -It is a serious matter to many a man who has invested his all in a -ticket for the New World to face the possibility of rejection." -title="WILL THEY LET ME IN?" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">WILL THEY LET ME IN?<br /> -It is a serious matter to many a man who has invested his all in a -ticket for the New World to face the possibility of rejection.</span> -</p> - -<p>We were divided about equally into Russian Jews, Slavs and Italians, and -there was very little choice so far as comradeship was <a name="page_051" id="page_051"></a>concerned. The -passengers were all fairly dirty, the Italians being easily in the lead, -with the Russian Jews a good second, and the Slavs as clean as -circumstances allowed.</p> - -<p>The Italians were from the South of Italy and had lost the romance of -their native land but not the fragrance of the garlic. They quarrelled -somewhat loudly and gesticulated wildly; but were good neighbours during -those sixteen days. They were shy and not easily lured into confidences -by one who knew their language but poorly, in spite of the fact that he -knew their country well and loved it. In sixteen days the average -American has a chance to discover at least one thing which he has found -it hard to believe; that all Italians are not alike, that they do not -look alike, and that they are not all Anarchists. When some relationship -was established between us, and I had to serve as the link among the -three races, we had a grand “Festa” to which the Slavs contributed some -gutteral songs and clumsy dances, and the Italians, sleight of hand -performances which made them appear still more uncanny to the Slavs.</p> - -<p>They also supplied a Marionette theatre, of the Punch and Judy show -variety, and “last but not least,” music from a hurdy-gurdy which played -the dulcet notes of “Cavalliero Rusticana” and a dashing tune about<a name="page_052" id="page_052"></a> -“Marghareta, Marghareta.” “Signors and Signorinas,” said Pietro, after -he had played all the tunes of his limited repertoire, “I have the great -honour of presenting to you the national anthem of the great American -country to which we are travelling.” He turned the crank, and out -came,—the ragtime notes of “Ta—ra—ra—boom—de—a.”</p> - -<p>The last number on the program was a song by a Russian Jewess, a woman -whose beauty was marred by bleached hair which had grown rusty, and by a -complexion upon which rouge and powder had done their worst. Her voice -which was strong rather than melodious, had in it an element of -artificiality evidently begotten on the stage. She at once became the -star among our entertainers, and though her culture was superficial, she -was by far the best company for me.</p> - -<p>Her parents, she told me, had been well to do Jews in a market town in -Russia. They had broken away from many of the observances and traditions -of their religion, they and their children followed all the latest -fashions, a governess imported from France brought with her Paul de -Kock’s novels and other elevating(?) Parisian literature; music teachers -came, who discovered in the only daughter a voice which of course, had -to be cultivated in Vienna. There were concerts which the father’s money -arranged, a few glowing press<a name="page_053" id="page_053"></a> notices at so much a line, and finally -the fruitless struggle to appear in opera.</p> - -<p>Then came one of those Anti-Semitic riots, those brutal outpourings of -human hate which she was unable to describe. All she could say over and -over again was, “Strashno, Strashno,” “it was terrible, terrible.” The -house in which she had lived was a wreck, her father beaten to death, -and she—she could not say it; but I knew. She told of women whose -mutilated bodies were torn open, and of children whose heads were beaten -together until they were a bleeding mass. Yes, indeed, it was “Strashno, -Strashno,” terrible, terrible.</p> - -<p>Somewhat early in her girlhood, a clerk in her father’s store “had -looked upon her, and loved her” with a youth’s ardour; but she had -scorned him, as well she might scorn this uncultured, stupid looking son -of Abraham. Again and again he asked her to be his wife, until through -her entreaty, her father drove him out of the store. She told me much of -her life and perhaps many things which she told me were not true. I knew -for instance, that she had not sung before the Czar of Russia, that -Hanslick the great musical critic of Vienna did not predict for her a -Patti’s fame and fortune; nor did I believe that a young millionaire in -Berlin blew out his brains because she would not marry him. But I did -believe that the poor clerk went to New York, that he had<a name="page_054" id="page_054"></a> worked day -and night in a sweat shop pressing cloaks, that out of his earnings he -had supported her in the vain struggle to attain Grand Opera, and that -now she was on her way to reward his faithfulness and become his wife.</p> - -<p>“What is it like, this America?” “What kind of life awaits one on the -East-side?” “What social status has a cloak presser in New York?” “What -chance is there for one to reach the goal of Grand Opera?” These and -other questions she hurled at me while the line upon the horizon grew -clearer, and the hearts of men and women heavy from expectation.</p> - -<p>On this ship too, Susanka, a Slovak girl nursed her way across the -Atlantic, giving food to a little Magyar baby which she despised; and -while she rocked the restless little one to sleep and sang her Slavic -lullaby, “Hi-u, Hi-u, Hi-u-shke-e-e”—one could see in her heavy face -her heart’s hunger for her own child. “Oh! Pany velkomosny (mighty sir), -my little child! I had to leave it with a stara baba (old woman) and it -was gray, ashen gray when I left it, and it will die, it will die!” and -she grew frantic in her grief as she rocked the Magyar child to and fro, -“Hi-u, Hi-u, Hi-u-shke-e-e-e.” “Who was to blame, Susanka?” The look of -pain changed to one of fiery anger as she sent back across the sea, a -curse, long and terrible, against her betrayer.</p> - -<p>Yes, those are heavy hours and long, on that<a name="page_055" id="page_055"></a> day when the ship is -circled by the welcoming gulls, and the fire-ship is passed, while the -chains rattle and the baggage is piled on the deck. “Will they let me -in, signor?” “Why should they not, Antonio?” “Ah! signor, I have not -always been a free man. They held me in jail for four years. Will they -know it in America? I stabbed a man,—yes, signor.”</p> - -<p>“Will they let us in, Guter Herrleben?” anxiously asks Yankev: his wife -Gietel and six children are with him and one of the boys lies motionless -upon the hatch, pale, worn and almost gone. “Consumption? yes; he was so -well, but we were smuggled over and driven by the gendarmes, and had to -be out in the damp, and he caught cold and a cough came and you can see, -Guter Herrleben, quick consumption!”</p> - -<p>Yankev, and Gietel his wife, had an appalling story to tell, and I -listened to it as we squatted on deck under the twinkling stars. The -moon shone in silvery splendour upon the quiet water, and I wondered why -the sea did not grow angry, the constellations pale, and why the moon -did not become red like blood at the horror of it all—a horror which -never can be told. Imagine an Easter night, a night when Yankev and -Gietel celebrated the liberation of Israel from Egyptian bondage. On the -same night their Russian neighbours were celebrating the liberation of -the human race from the power of death. The synagogue<a name="page_056" id="page_056"></a> service was over. -They had told the story of Israel’s passing through the Red Sea, and of -the perishing of Pharaoh’s horsemen; Yankev had come home to the feast -of unleavened bread and bitter herbs; the neighbours had been to the -church where until midnight, in darkness and silence, they mourned at -the tomb of the slain Christ. Then with the passing of the long and -silent night they went from street to street shouting: “Christ is risen, -Christ is risen, Christ is risen, indeed.” But the mob came upon the -defenseless home plundering and burning all in its fury, although -mercifully sparing the lives of the now homeless and penniless family. -Others fared worse, for they had no money with which to bribe, while -their daughters were older and good to look upon. It was a little place -and just a little pogrom. It was not written about nor protested -against; but what would have been the use?</p> - -<p>Dumb from agony we sat there and I had to breathe back into them the -faith which they had almost lost, and the courage which had almost left -them; a faith and courage which I myself did not possess. In the peace -of the night I could hear only the terror of the voice of the Lord -saying: “Vengeance is Mine.” The gentle Nazarene who came in love to -conquer by love, I could scarcely see, and I yearned to make the -Psalmist’s prayer my own.<a name="page_057" id="page_057"></a> “Blessed be the Lord God which teacheth my -hands to war and my fingers to fight.”</p> - -<p>That night and many another last night on board of ship, I listened to -the stories of men and women who were fleeing from the terror of -Russia’s law. Russians who had wrought in secret, who had planned great -things and who had risked everything—Bogdanoff, Philipoff, Lermontoff, -Lehrman, Loewenstern. Jews and Gentiles who had struck out in their -blind fury, who had felt the terror of the law and the greater terror of -taking, or trying to take, human life. Some guilty, some innocent; all -of them caught in the same net.</p> - -<p>Characteristic is the story of a Warsaw merchant who sailed with me on -my last journey. On the evening of the 21st of April, 1906, he went to a -dentist to have some work done. He went in the evening because he was -busy in the daytime, and when he arrived the police were searching the -house; after which all the inmates, dentist and patients, were taken to -the police station and cast into prison. Two hundred and fifty persons -were together in a room large enough for twenty. The odours were -frightful, as in common with all Russian prisons there were no toilet -conveniences outside of that room, in which for three days they were -left. After bribing the officials, twenty fortunate men, my informant -among them, were given another room.<a name="page_058" id="page_058"></a> Nine weeks he remained there -utterly unconscious of the reason for his detention; and only after the -hard and faithful struggle of his wife was he released,—without an -apology, to find his business ruined and only sufficient money left to -go to America.</p> - -<p>On the same ship I met the widow of a Jewish physician, who was shot -down in the act of binding the wounds of those fallen in the uprising of -Moscow. Binding the wounds of soldiers and revolutionists alike, he was -shot in the back by a police lieutenant who afterwards was promoted to a -captaincy.</p> - -<p>No, it is not easy to travel in the steerage; not because there is not -room enough, nor air enough, nor food enough, although that is all true; -but because it is hard to believe down there that the God of Israel is -not dead, nor His arm shortened, if not broken, like those of the Greek -deities.</p> - -<p>Yet they still have faith in Him, these children of His, who have waited -for the fulfillment of His promises. They still wait, although -“Jerusalem the golden” is a far away dream, and they are scattered -wanderers over the face of the earth.</p> - -<p>Friday night, with the coming of the first star, all those who believed, -met, to voice their faith in Jehovah.</p> - -<p>In a corner of the steerage quarters, while the eyes of the Gentiles -looked inquisitively on, they<a name="page_059" id="page_059"></a> turned towards Zion, and lifting up their -voices, greeted the Sabbath: “Come, my beloved, thou Sabbath bride,” -“Lcho dody L Crass Calo.” They sang this one joyous song of Israel, and -stretched out their arms as if to press this spiritual bride to their -rest-hungry souls.</p> - -<p>They do not doubt that Jehovah will guide the destinies of Israel, and -that the Sabbath bride will some day descend upon the earth to abide -forever, bringing rest and peace to the Israel of God.</p> - -<p>At last the great heart of the ship has ceased its mighty throbbing, and -but a gentle tremor tells that its life has not all been spent in the -battle with wind and waves. The waters are of a quieter colour, and over -them hovers the morning mist. The silence of the early dawn is broken -only by the sound of deep-chested ferry-boats which pass into the mist -and out of it, like giant monsters, stalking on their cross beams over -the deep. The steerage is awake after its restless night and mutely -awaits the disclosures of its own and the new world’s secrets. The sound -of a booming gun is carried across the hidden space, and faint touches -of flame struggling through the gray, are the sun’s answer to the salute -from Governor’s Island. The morning breeze, like a “Dancing Psaltress,” -moves gently over the glassy surface of the water, lifts the fog higher -and higher, tearing it into a thousand<a name="page_060" id="page_060"></a> fleecy shreds, and the far -things have come near and the hidden things have been revealed. The sky -line straight ahead, assaulted by a thousand towering shafts, looking -like a challenge to the strong, and a warning to the weak, makes all of -us tremble from an unknown fear.</p> - -<p>The steerage is still mute; it looks to the left at the populous shore, -to the right at the green stretches of Long Island, and again straight -ahead at the mighty city. Slowly the ship glides into the harbour, and -when it passes under the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, the silence is -broken, and a thousand hands are outstretched in greeting to this new -divinity into whose keeping they now entrust themselves.</p> - -<p>Some day a great poet will arise among us, who, catching the inspiration -of that moment will be able to put into words these surging emotions; -who will be great enough to feel beating against his own soul and give -utterance to, the thousand varying notes which are felt and never -sounded.</p> - -<p>On this very ship are women who have left the burdens which crippled -them, and now hope to walk erect; who have fled from the rough, -polluting hands of persecuting mobs, that they may be able to guard -their virtue and have it guarded by gallant men. Here are hundreds of -Slavs who never knew aught but the yoke of czar or other potentate, -whose minds have been enthralled<a name="page_061" id="page_061"></a> by a galling autocracy, and whose -closed eyes have never been permitted to see their own downtrodden -strength. Now they shall have the opportunity to prove themselves and -show the nobility of a peasant race.</p> - -<p>Here are Italians from shores where classic art is stored, and the air -is soft and full of melody; yet they were left uncouth, rough and -unhewn. They come to a rougher but freer air, that they may grow into a -gentler, stronger, nobler manhood and womanhood.</p> - -<p>Melancholy Jews whose feet never knew a safe abiding place, are here, -and their hope is that they may find the peace which went out from their -race, when Jerusalem was laid waste and they were scattered among the -nations of the earth.</p> - -<p>He who thinks that these people scent but the dollars which lie in our -treasury, is mightily mistaken, and he who says that they come without -ideals has no knowledge of the children of men.</p> - -<p>I found myself close to hundreds of these people, closest to the Russian -Jews who most excited my sympathies; and one day when they heard that I -had been in Bialistok, Kishineff and Odessa, that I knew the horror of -it all and that I sympathized with them, they crowded around me almost -like wild animals. What did they ask for above everything? Money?<a name="page_062" id="page_062"></a> No. -The one loud cry was for a speech about America. “Preach to us,” they -said, “preach to us about America.” It was a polyglot sermon which I -preached that Sunday from the covered hatch which was my pulpit, and -when I spoke to them of their new home and their new duties, they -cheered me to the echo.</p> - -<p>I have passed through this gateway more than ten times; I have sounded -as far as a man can sound, the souls of men and women, and I have found -them tingling from emotions, akin only to those which we more prosperous -voyagers shall feel, when we have crossed the last sea and find -ourselves in the presence of the great Judge.</p> - -<p>Many of these emigrants expect to find more liberty, more justice, and -more equitable law than we ourselves enjoy; they imagine that our common -life is permeated by a noble idealism; and while they cannot give -expression to their high anticipations they feel more loftily than we -think them capable of feeling. Many a time I have heard conversations -between those who had read about America and those who were ignorant of -its life, and invariably I have had to keep silence; for had I spoken I -must have destroyed blessed illusions. From the very people whom we call -Sabbath breakers, I have heard glowing descriptions of an ideal American -Sabbath, and from men to whom alcoholic<a name="page_063" id="page_063"></a> beverages seemed essential to -life, I have heard a defense of laws regulating the sale of liquor. If, -in our superficial touch with them in our own country, we find them -materialistic and dulled to what we call our higher life, they are not -the only ones at fault.</p> - -<p> </p> - -<p>Cabin and steerage passengers alike, soon find the poetry of the moment -disturbed; for the quarantine and custom-house officials are on board, -driving away the tourist’s memories of the splendour of European -capitals by their inquisitiveness as to his purchases. They make him -solemnly swear that he is not a smuggler, and upon landing, immediately -proceed to prove that he is one.</p> - -<p>The steerage passengers have before them more rigid examinations which -may have vast consequences; so in spite of the joyous notes of the band, -and the glad greetings shouted to and fro, they sink again into -awe-struck and confused silence. When the last cabin passenger has -disappeared from the dock, the immigrants with their baggage are loaded -into barges and taken to Ellis Island for their final examination.<a name="page_064" id="page_064"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V<br /><br /> -AT THE GATEWAY</h2> - -<p>T<small>HE</small> barges on which the immigrants are towed towards the island are of a -somewhat antiquated pattern and if I remember rightly have done service -in the Castle Garden days, and before that some of them at least had -done full service for excursion parties up and down Long Island Sound. -The structure towards which we sail and which gradually rises from the -surrounding sea is rather imposing, and impresses one by its utilitarian -dignity and by its plainly expressed official character.</p> - -<p>With tickets fastened to our caps and to the dresses of the women, and -with our own bills of lading in our trembling hands, we pass between -rows of uniformed attendants, and under the huge portal of the vast hall -where the final judgment awaits us. We are cheered somewhat by the fact -that assistance is promised to most of us by the agents of various -National Immigrant Societies who seem both watchful and efficient.</p> - -<p>Mechanically and with quick movements we are examined for general -physical defects and<a name="page_065" id="page_065"></a> for the dreaded trachoma, an eye disease, the -prevalence of which is greater in the imagination of some statisticians -than it is on board immigrant vessels.</p> - -<p>From here we pass into passageways made by iron railings, in which only -lately, through the intervention of a humane official, benches have been -placed, upon which, closely crowded, we await our passing before the -inspectors.</p> - -<p>Already a sifting process has taken place; and children who clung to -their mother’s skirts have disappeared, families have been divided, and -those remaining intact, cling to each other in a really tragic fear that -they may share the fate of those previously examined.</p> - -<p>A Polish woman by my side has suddenly become aware that she has one -child less clinging to her skirts, and she implores me with agonizing -cries, to bring it back to her. In a strange world, at the very entrance -to what is to be her home, without the protection of her husband, -without any knowledge of the English language, and with no one taking -the trouble to explain to her the reason, the child was snatched from -her side. Somewhere it is bitterly crying for its mother, and each is -unconscious of the other’s fate.</p> - -<p>“Gdeye moya shena” (where is my wife?) an old Slovak cries as he looks -wildly about for her, whose physique was suspected of being below<a name="page_066" id="page_066"></a> the -normal and who was passed on for further examination.</p> - -<p>A Russian youth, stalwart and strong, is separated from his household -which came together to settle in Dakota; but now he, the mainstay of the -family, is gone and they are perplexed and distracted.</p> - -<p>A little girl scarcely five years of age, cries: “Mitter, mitter, ich -will zu meiner mitter gehen”; she is there alone and uncomforted, -surrounded by rough-looking men, while not far away her mother is -working herself into hysterics because she must await in the detention -room the supreme decision.</p> - -<p>A woman with three children has two of them taken from her because they -are suspected of disease and found to be afflicted by trachoma; the -mother also has the disease, but her husband, now an American citizen, -comes to claim her, and she passes in while the little ones are held in -custody by the immigration authorities.</p> - -<p>One by one we pass the inspectors; we show our money and answer the -questions which are numerous and pertinent.</p> - -<p>The average immigrant obeys mechanically; his attitude towards the -inspector being one of great respect. While the truth is not always -told, many of the lies prepared prove both inefficient and unnecessary.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_pg_066_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_pg_066_sml.jpg" width="500" height="353" alt="THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS. - -In the great examination hall, they wait, some with curiosity, some with -anxiety, the decision that shall give them entrance to the new home or -consign them again to the Old World strife." -title="THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">THE SHEEP AND THE GOATS.<br /> -In the great examination hall, they wait, some with curiosity, some with -anxiety, the decision that shall give them entrance to the new home or -consign them again to the Old World strife.</span> -</p> - -<p>On one of the boats very recently a number<a name="page_067" id="page_067"></a> of young women were -imported for immoral purposes, and each of them was supposed to be -married to the attendant agent of a firm which conducts an international -business. The young man having announced himself as married to the woman -accompanying him, was asked, “Where were you married?” “In Paris.” “Who -married you?” “Pere Abelard.” “When were you married?” “The fifteenth of -May.” “Were your wife’s parents present?” “Yes.” Next the young woman -was questioned, and announced the marriage as having taken place in -Brussels, some time in June, and that she is an orphan. The case is very -plain, and both will have to face the court of special inquiry.</p> - -<p>A young Jewish girl who really escaped the torment of some Russian -persecutions conjures up in her mind a relative in New York whose name -and address are not discovered, and the more she is questioned the more -she entangles herself in a network of lies.</p> - -<p>A dear old mother is held, because instead of the one son who awaits -her, she has announced three or four sons residing here; and continued -questioning more and more involves her in useless affirmation.</p> - -<p>The examination can be superficial at best; but the eye has been trained -and discoveries are made here, which seem rather remarkable.</p> - -<p>Four ways open to the immigrant after he<a name="page_068" id="page_068"></a> passes the inspector. If he is -destined for New York he goes straightway down the stairs, and there his -friends await him if he has any; and most of them have. If his journey -takes him westward, and there the largest percentage goes, he enters a -large, commodious hall to the right, where the money-changers sit and -the transportation companies have their offices. If he goes to the New -England states he turns to the left into a room which can scarcely hold -those who go to the land of the pilgrims and puritans. The fourth way is -the hardest one and is taken by those who have received a ticket marked -P. C. (Public Charge), which sends the immigrant to the extreme left -where an official sits, in front of a barred gate behind which is the -dreaded detention-room.</p> - -<p>The decision one way or the other must be quickly made, and the -immigrant finds himself in a jail-like room often without knowing just -why. There is not much time for explanation.</p> - -<p>Imagine a room filled by at least fifty people, many of them doomed to -recross the terrible sea and to be landed upon strange territory, to -find the way unattended, to their obscure little village. When they -arrive there they are usually paupers with a stigma resting upon them; -for were they not rejected in America, and why? Ah, who knows why!</p> - -<p>Let us pass through this room.<a name="page_069" id="page_069"></a> “Brother, why are you here?” A stalwart -Lettish peasant boy answers demurely, “Because I haven’t money enough. I -had some money and they stole it out of my father’s pockets.” The father -and the boy have been marked by the inspector as likely to become a -public charge, because they had neither money in their pockets nor -friends waiting for them. A matter of ten or twenty dollars is between -these men and the fulfillment of all their desires.</p> - -<p>The court may be lenient, but the father is old and the boy young and it -is more than probable that they will both end their days on the rough -Baltic, where society now is as turbulent as that northern sea.</p> - -<p>A Servian peasant, browned by the hot sun which shone upon the Danubian -plains where he lived, edges up to me, for he hears a familiar Slavic -note in my speech, and he brings this bitter plaint. “How far I have -travelled from Budapest, Vienna, Berlin, and Hamburg. I have spent all -my money and now it looks as if I must go back. Must I go? Tell me.” The -court will tell him to-morrow that he has passed the dreaded dead line, -is over fifty years of age, not too well built, used up by the hardships -of his native country, and that as he is likely to become a public -charge he is marked for deportation. He will be sent back to Hamburg and -how he will find his way home I do not know.<a name="page_070" id="page_070"></a></p> - -<p>A German woman with three children is the next whom I notice. She is at -the point of a nervous breakdown. She has a husband waiting for her, she -has over $100, but P.C. is marked on her slip; so she must face the -court which will admit her, but she has a long twenty-four hours to wait -and the strain is terrible. She needs to be reassured and comforted.</p> - -<p>Two boys under ten years of age came unattended; fine looking boys. Over -their heavy blue coats hung tickets with the mother’s address. How happy -they were to be going to mother. She had preceded them by several years -to work out for herself and for them a new destiny on this side of the -sea; for on the other side life had been blighted by the unfaithfulness -of her husband. At last the hour came when she could send for her -children. How she watched their journeying, and how anxious she was -while they were on the sea! They are on this ship, and she is waiting -for them behind the iron grating at the island. Crowds pour into the -great hall, past the physician, towards the inspectors, towards the -great centre, to the east and the west. Now she sees them; the physician -looks at their faces, and bends low over their chests; but instead of -walking straight towards her they are turned aside with those suspected -of contagious disease.</p> - -<p>“Where are you from, my boy?”<a name="page_071" id="page_071"></a> “Russia.” One of the few real Russian -peasants whom I have met. He measures five feet six inches, is sound as -an oak, and having escaped through the cordons of gendarmes which -separate his native country from the rest of the world, came here to -meet his brother who was at work in the coal mines near Scranton, Pa. -“What about your brother?” “Ah! Barin (sir), my brother they say, was -killed in the mines and they are afraid to let me in; so I suppose I -shall have to go back to Russia,” and the big melancholy peasant cried -like a baby. “Buy this shirt from me, Barin, I need money.”</p> - -<p>“What’s the matter with you, why are you so unhappy, you gay, care free -Roumanian?” Half Slav, half Latin, and the whole no one quite knows -what,—he is dressed in a shepherd’s garb, a heavy sheepskin coat over -him. “Look here, Panye (sir). This keeps me from going as a shepherd to -the West;” and he shows me a lacerated breast on which a wolf has -written the shepherd’s story of his faithfulness to the sheep. “Yes, the -wolves came round and round my sheep,” he says,<a name="page_072" id="page_072"></a> “and I went round and -round between the sheep and the wolves and the nearer they came the -faster I went my rounds between them; but before the morning came they -tore many sheep though they tore me first. I bled and bled and have -remained sore as you see. A younger shepherd took my place and I sold -all and spent all to come here. Ah, well, I could still guard the -sheep.”</p> - -<p>The most melancholy of all men are the detained Jews, for they usually -have strong family ties which already bind them to this new world, and -they chafe under the delay. Their children or friends are waiting -impatiently, crowding beyond their allotted limit, trying the severely -taxed patience of the officials, asking useless questions, and wasting -precious time in waiting; for the courts work their allotted tasks with -dispatch, but with care and dignity; and all must wait in deep -uncertainty through the long vigil of a restless night spent on the -clean, but not too comfortable bunks provided by the government.</p> - -<p>Let no one believe that landing on the shores of “The land of the free, -and the home of the brave” is a pleasant experience; it is a hard, harsh -fact, surrounded by the grinding machinery of the law, which sifts, -picks, and chooses; admitting the fit and excluding the weak and -helpless.</p> - -<p>Much ignorance needs to be dispelled regarding these immigrants. Not -long ago, I heard one of the secretaries of a certain home missionary -society say, with much unction as he pleaded for money for his work, “We -land annually on these shores, a million paupers and criminals.” -Unfortunately, much of such impression prevails. It was my privilege -recently, as a member of the<a name="page_073" id="page_073"></a> National Conference on Immigration, to be -among the guests of the commissioner of the port of New York, and one of -the spectacles which we witnessed was the landing of a ship-load of -immigrants. We stood in the visitor’s gallery and looked down upon a -hall divided and subdivided by the cold iron railings. Many of the -visitors were beginning to hold their noses in anticipation of the -stenches which would come with these foreigners, and were ready to be -shocked by the horrors of the steerage.</p> - -<p>Slowly the bewildered mass came into view; but strange to relate, those -who led the mass appeared like ladies and gentlemen.</p> - -<p>The women wore modern, half acre hats a little the worse for wear, but -bought in the city of Prague a few months before; and they were more -becoming to these young Bohemian women than to the majority of their -American sisters.</p> - -<p>The men carried band-boxes, silk umbrellas and walking canes, the -remnants of past glories. They were permitted to come in first because -they wore good clothing and passed out quickly into their freedom, the -members of our Congress welcoming them heartily by the clapping of -hands.</p> - -<p>After them came Slavic women with no finery except their homespun, -rough, tough and clean; carrying upon their backs piles of feather-beds -and household utensils. Strong limbed men<a name="page_074" id="page_074"></a> followed them in the -picturesque garb of their native villages; Slovaks, Poles, Roumanians, -Ruthenians, Italians, and finally, Russian Jews; but lo, and behold! no -smells ascended to our nostrils, and no horrors were disclosed.</p> - -<p>Taking a group of delegates down among them, we found that they were -wholesome looking people, not devoid of intelligence, and when the -barrier between us was broken down by the sound of their native speech, -they were communicative, at ease, and very human. The first time I -entered New York was at Castle Garden, from the steamer <i>Fulda</i>, twenty -years ago; and having watched the tide of immigration ever since, I can -say that I never have seen, at any time, a ship-load of better human -beings disembark than those which came from the steamer <i>Wilhelm II</i>, on -December 7, 1905. And of the many who came on this ship, it is just -possible that those who wore neither fashionable hats nor trailing -skirts, and who were not politely treated,—it is just possible that -they may after all, make the best members of this democratic society.</p> - -<p>A gentleman from Ohio, a member of the Conference on Immigration said on -the floor, in open debate, and he said it with menacing gesture: “We -don’t want you to send none of them yellow worms from Southern Europe to -our state, we got too many of them now.” No<a name="page_075" id="page_075"></a> doubt the gentleman from -Ohio and the delegate from Rhode Island who said: “We don’t want no more -iv thim durrty furriners in this grand and glorious counthry of ourn,” -voiced the common prejudice which rests itself entirely upon its -ignorance.</p> - -<p>It is true that many criminals come, especially from Italy. Many weak, -impoverished and poorly developed creatures come from among Polish and -Russian Jews, but they are only the tares in the wheat. The stock as a -whole is physically sound; it is crude, common peasant stock, not the -dregs of society, but its basis. Its blood is not blue, but it is red, -wholesomely red, which is more to the purpose. Blue blood we also -receive—thin, worn-out blood, bought at a high price for the daughters -of some of our multi-millionaires; but no one can claim that either they -or we have been specially blessed by it.</p> - -<p>The hardships which attend the examination and deportation of immigrants -seem unavoidable, and would not be materially reduced if any other -method were devised. To examine them at the centres of immigration seems -a rather vague and not a feasible plan. First of all because the -immigrant can present himself as physically fit, more easily in his -native country where the agencies already exist, to prepare him for an -examination which most steamship companies rigidly enforce; because the -long<a name="page_076" id="page_076"></a> journey makes artificial cleansing of diseased eyelids or the -hiding of other physical defects impossible. Again because of the fact -that such commissions would be hard to control so far from home and -would be in constant danger of exposure to “Graft”; a disease not -unknown among American officials at home and abroad. The next reason is, -that these countries might object to the presence of such alien -commissions, which would select the best material and leave the worst; -and the last reason is that it would give foreign governments a very -fine opportunity to detain those who emigrate for political reasons or -those who desire to avoid service in the army.</p> - -<p>Much greater responsibility should be put upon the steamship companies, -many of which still practice their ancient wrongs upon their most -profitable passengers. One of the demands which should be made, and made -immediately, is the abolition of the steerage.</p> - -<p>Future American citizens should be taught when they step on board of -ship, that people in America are expected to live like human beings, and -not like beasts.</p> - -<p>The price they pay for their passage is large enough to entitle them to -better treatment, and if it is not, then the price should be raised to -such a figure as to permit it.</p> - -<p>This humane treatment should follow the passenger<a name="page_077" id="page_077"></a> until the last moment -of his stay under government supervision; for the more humanely the -immigrant is treated, the better citizen he is likely to become.</p> - -<p>The steerage is responsible for not a little imported anarchy, and the -sooner it is abolished the better. The more humanely the immigrant is -treated at Ellis Island, the more humanely he will deal with us when he -becomes the master of our national destiny.<a name="page_078" id="page_078"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI<br /><br /> -“THE MAN AT THE GATE”</h2> - -<p>“What questions will he ask?” “How much money will he take?” “Will he -deal gently with us?” These are the questions which pass from lip to lip -among those detained; for the subjects of the Czar speak of the State in -the personal pronoun. In fact the State is scarcely known in their -vocabulary. It is the person of the ruler which they know, and which -they fear more than they revere. The State they have known, was to them -very personal; but to the new State, they are just so much human freight -which needs to be inspected. In the past this has been done not only -impersonally but inhumanely as well, and that it is now done more -humanely and justly so far as possible, we owe to “the man at the gate.”</p> - -<p>He passed through the gate himself in the old Castle Garden days, when -not much system prevailed, when boarding-house keepers were let loose -upon us, frightening us half out of our senses and completely out of our -change. His dollars were few; but like the average immigrant of to-day -he possessed a buoyant spirit, a strong body, keen wits, and bright eyes -out of which<a name="page_079" id="page_079"></a> shone good nature and the spirit of the mischievous boy. -He was admitted without difficulty, and drifted into Pennsylvania where -he shared the lot of the miner, his labour and his dangers. The miners -then were recruited from the strongest immigrant stock and when they -felt themselves strong enough to organize, he became one of the leaders. -The fact that he led many a rescue party to save his entombed comrades, -and that he displayed courage and intelligence brought him into -prominence, and the Governor of Pennsylvania chose him as State Factory -Inspector. In this position he made enemies enough among the employers -to prove that he was faithful to the task set before him, which was, to -enforce the laws regulating the conditions of labour in workshops and -factories. Later he was appointed inspector at Ellis Island at a time -when the condition of that federal post was anything but pleasing to -those of us who knew them, and who were concerned for the well-being of -the immigrant.</p> - -<p>Roughness, cursing, intimidation and a mild form of blackmail prevailed -to such a degree as to be common. The commissioner in charge at that -time was far above all this, and though made conscious of the conditions -was seemingly powerless to discharge dishonest employees or in any way -improve the morale of the place.</p> - -<p>The new spirit had not yet come into politics<a name="page_080" id="page_080"></a> and the spoils still -belonged to the victors who made full use of the privilege. Among those -who did their full duty and who smarted under the wrong done to this -weak and helpless mass, was the once immigrant, now inspector.</p> - -<p>The conditions steadily grew worse; at least the complaints grew more -numerous. Experiences like my own were not rare. I knew that the money -changers were “crooked,” so I passed a twenty mark piece to one of them -for exchange, and was cheated out of nearly seventy-five per cent. of my -money. My change was largely composed of new pennies, whose brightness -was well calculated to deceive any newcomer.</p> - -<p>At another time I was approached by an inspector who, in a very friendly -way, intimated that I might have difficulty in being permitted to land, -and that money judiciously placed might accomplish something.</p> - -<p>A Bohemian girl whose acquaintance I had made on the steamer, came to me -with tears in her eyes and told me that one of the inspectors had -promised to pass her quickly, if she would promise to meet him at a -certain hotel. In heart-broken tones she asked: “Do I look like that?” -The concessions were in the hands of irresponsible people and I remember -the time when the restaurant was a den of thieves, in which the -immigrant was robbed by the proprietor, whose employees<a name="page_081" id="page_081"></a> stole from him -and from the immigrant also.</p> - -<p>My complaints when I made them were treated with the same neglect as -were those of others, until with the coming in of the Roosevelt -administration they had their resurrection, a change was demanded and -the demand satisfied....</p> - -<p>Mr. William Williams, who was just back from Cuba where he had rendered -distinguished service, and who had come under the notice of the -President, was tendered the office of Commissioner of Immigration at -Ellis Island. Upon his acceptance, the President’s instructions were to -“clean out the stables.” A large measure of reform was inaugurated -during the two and one half years of Mr. Williams’s incumbency of this -office.</p> - -<p>In looking for a successor, the President consulted the records, -evidently with the purpose of discovering one thoroughly conversant with -the conditions, and of experience coupled with executive ability, -sufficient to further extend the needed reforms. Mr. Robert Watchorn was -chosen for this important office.</p> - -<p>This official announcement in relation to the appointment appeared in -the daily press at this time:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="r">“<i>Washington, January 16, 1905.</i></p> - -<p><a name="page_082" id="page_082"></a> “Robert Watchorn will succeed William Williams as United States -Commissioner of Immigration at New York. The appointment will be -solely on merit. Mr. Watchorn is now United States Commissioner of -Immigration at Montreal. He has been in the immigration service for -many years, and his record is perfect.”</p></div> - -<p>I ventured to ask the Commissioner one day if he had been given any -instructions by the President as to the course to be pursued. He -replied: “Yes, the President gave me instructions very brief but very -pointed. ‘Mr. Watchorn, I am sending you to Ellis Island.—You will find -it a very difficult place to manage.—I know you are familiar with the -conditions.—All I ask of you is that you give us an administration as -clean as a hound’s tooth.’”</p> - -<p>Should one desire any further evidence that Ellis Island is a difficult -place to manage, let him turn to this incident and its sequel in Senator -Hoar’s “Autobiography of Seventy Years” (<i>Scribner’s</i>):</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>During the Christmas holidays of 1901 a very well-known Syrian, a -man of high standing and character, came into my son’s office and -told him this story:</p> - -<p>A neighbour and countryman of his had a few years before emigrated -to the United States and established himself in Worcester. Soon -afterwards, he formally declared his intention of becoming an -American citizen. After a while, he amassed a little money and sent -to his wife, whom he had left in Syria, the necessary funds to -convey her and their little girl and boy to Worcester. She sold her -furniture and whatever other belongings she had,<a name="page_083" id="page_083"></a> and went across -Europe to France, where they sailed from one of the northern ports -on a German steamer for New York.</p> - -<p>Upon their arrival at New York it appeared that the children had -contracted a disease of the eyelids, which the doctors of the -Immigration Bureau declared to be trachoma, which is contagious, -and in adults incurable. It was ordered that the mother might land, -but that the children must be sent back in the ship upon which they -arrived, on the following Thursday. This would have resulted in -sending them back as paupers, as the steamship company, compelled -to take them as passengers free of charge, would have given them -only such food as was left by the sailors, and would have dumped -them out in France to starve, or get back as beggars to Syria.</p> - -<p>The suggestion that the mother might land was only a cruel mockery. -Joseph J. George, a worthy citizen of Worcester, brought the facts -of the case to the attention of my son, who in turn brought them to -my attention. My son had meanwhile advised that a bond be offered -to the immigration authorities to save them harmless from any -trouble on account of the children.</p> - -<p>I certified these facts to the authorities and received a statement -in reply that the law was peremptory, and that it required that the -children be sent home; that trouble had come from making like -exceptions theretofore; that the Government hospitals were full of -similar cases, and the authorities must enforce the law strictly in -the future. Thereupon I addressed a telegram to the Immigration -Bureau at Washington, but received an answer that nothing could be -done for the children.</p> - -<p>Then I telegraphed the facts to Senator Lodge, who went in person -to the Treasury Department, but could get<a name="page_084" id="page_084"></a> no more favourable -reply. Senator Lodge’s telegram announcing their refusal was -received in Worcester Tuesday evening, and repeated to me in Boston -just as I was about to deliver an address before the Catholic -College there. It was too late to do anything that night. Early -Wednesday morning, the day before the children were to sail, when -they were already on the ship, I sent the following dispatch to -President Roosevelt:</p></div> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="nind">“<i>To the President,</i></p> - -<p> “<i>White House, Washington, D. C.</i></p> - -<p> “I appeal to your clear understanding and kind and brave heart to -interpose your authority to prevent an outrage which will dishonour -the country and create a foul blot on the American flag. A -neighbour of mine in Worcester, Mass., a Syrian by birth, made some -time ago his public declaration for citizenship. He is an honest, -hard-working and every way respectable man. His wife with two small -children have reached New York.</p> - -<p><a name="page_085" id="page_085"></a> “He sent out the money to pay their passage. The children -contracted a disorder of the eyes on the ship. The Treasury -authorities say that the mother may land but the children cannot, -and they are to be sent back Thursday. Ample bond has been offered -and will be furnished to save the Government and everybody from -injury or loss. I do not think such a thing ought to happen under -your Administration, unless you personally decide that the case is -without remedy. I am told the authorities say they have been too -easy heretofore, and must draw the line now. That shows they admit -the power to make exceptions in proper cases. Surely, an exception -should be made in case of little children of a man lawfully here, -and who has duly and in good faith declared his intention to become -a citizen. The immigration law was never intended to repeal any -part of the naturalization laws which provide that the minor -children get all the rights of the father as to citizenship. My son -knows the friends of this man personally and that they are highly -respectable and well off. If our laws require this cruelty, it is -time for a revolution, and you are just the man to head it.</p> - -<p class="r">G<small>EORGE</small> F. H<small>OAR</small>.”</p></div> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>Half an hour from the receipt of that dispatch at the White House -Wednesday forenoon, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United -States, sent a peremptory order to New York to let the children -come in. They have entirely recovered from the disorder of the -eyes, which turned out not to be contagious, but only caused by the -glare of the water, or the hardships of the voyage. The children -are fair-haired, with blue eyes, and of great personal beauty, and -would be exhibited with pride by any American mother.</p> - -<p>When the President came to Worcester he expressed a desire to see -the children. They came to meet him at my house, dressed up in -their best and glorious to behold. The President was very much -interested in them, and said when what he had done was repeated in -his presence, that he was just beginning to get angry.</p> - -<p>The result of this incident was that I had a good many similar -applications for relief in behalf of immigrants coming in with -contagious diseases. Some of them were meritorious, and others -untrustworthy. In the December session of 1902 I procured the -following amendment to be inserted in the immigration law.</p> - -<p><a name="page_086" id="page_086"></a> “Whenever an alien shall have taken up his permanent residence in -this country and shall have filed his preliminary declaration to -become a citizen and thereafter shall send for his wife and minor -children to join him, if said wife or either of said children -shall be found to be affected with any contagious disorder, and it -seems that said disorder was contracted on board the ship in which -they came, such wife or children shall be held under such -regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe until -it shall be determined whether the disorder will be easily curable -or whether they can be permitted to land without danger to other -persons; and they shall not be deported until such facts have been -ascertained.”</p></div> - -<p>Senator Hoar had touched however, only one of the many phases of the -situation. As the President said, it was still “a difficult place.” Yet -under Commissioner Watchorn changes were soon visible. The place became -cleaner; a new and better system of inspection was organized, discipline -was maintained and strengthened, the comfort of the immigrants was -considered, the money changers were watched, dishonest, discourteous and -useless employees were discharged; and above all, the institution in its -remotest corner was open to any one who wished to come and inspect the -place which is so important in our economic and social life.</p> - -<p>Heartier welcome than the Commissioner gives to the visitor cannot be -imagined; and you may take your place among the dozen or more who have -come and who are watching him as he decides the destinies of human -lives.</p> - -<p>The cases which come before him are those upon which the special courts -have already<a name="page_087" id="page_087"></a> passed; so you will see only the wreckage of humanity; -those who upon landing are barred by a law which is indefinite enough to -leave the way open to human judgment for good or ill.</p> - -<p>Two undersized old people stand before him. They are Hungarian Jews -whose children have preceded them here, and who, being fairly -comfortable, have sent for their parents that they may spend the rest of -their lives together. The questions, asked through an interpreter, are -pertinent and much the same as those already asked by the court which -has decided upon their deportation. The commissioner rules that the -children be put under a sufficient bond to guarantee that this aged -couple shall not become a burden to the public, and consequently they -will be admitted.</p> - -<p>A Russian Jew and his son are called next. The father is a pitiable -looking object; his large head rests upon a small, emaciated body; the -eyes speak of premature loss of power, and are listless, worn out by the -study of the Talmud, the graveyard of Israel’s history. Beside him -stands a stalwart son, neatly attired in the uniform of a Russian -college student. His face is Russian rather than Jewish, intelligent -rather than shrewd, materialistic rather than spiritual. “Ask them why -they came,” the commissioner says rather abruptly. The answer is: “We -had to.”<a name="page_088" id="page_088"></a> “What was his business in Russia?” “A tailor.” “How much did -he earn a week?” “Ten to twelve rubles.” “What did the son do?” “He went -to school.” “Who supported him?” “The father.” “What do they expect to -do in America?” “Work.” “Have they any relatives?” “Yes, a son and -brother.” “What does he do?” “He is a tailor.” “How much does he earn?” -“Twelve dollars a week.” “Has he a family?” “Wife and four children.” -“Ask them whether they are willing to be separated; the father to go -back and the son to remain here?” They look at each other; no emotion as -yet visible, the question came too suddenly. Then something in the -background of their feelings moves, and the father, used to self-denial -through his life, says quietly, without pathos and yet tragically, “Of -course.” And the son says, after casting his eyes to the ground, ashamed -to look his father in the face, “Of course.” And, “The one shall be -taken and the other left,” for this was their judgment day.</p> - -<p>The next case is that of an Englishman fifty-four years of age, to whom -the court of inquiry has refused admission. He is a medium-sized man, -who betrays the Englishman as he stands before the commissioner, and in -a strong, cockney dialect begins the conversation in which he is -immediately checked by the somewhat brusque question: “What did you do -in England?”<a name="page_089" id="page_089"></a> “I was an insurance agent.” “How much did you earn?” “Four -pounds a week.” “Why do you come to America?” “Because I want a change.” -“How much change, that is, how much money have you?” “Forty dollars.” -“What do you expect to do here?” “Work at anything.” “At insurance?” -“Yes.” “The decision of the court is confirmed; deported, because likely -to become a public charge.” Evidently insurance agents are not regarded -as desirable immigrants.</p> - -<p>The next case is a sickly looking Russian Jew over forty years of age, -with an impediment in his speech and physically depleted. He is -guaranteed an immediate earning of ten dollars a week. The commissioner -turns towards his visitors and asks, “What would you do in this case?” -The answers differ, the majority favouring his admission. Although he -values our judgment the commissioner is compelled to confirm the -decision of the court. It is all done quickly, firmly and decisively as -a physician, conscious of his skill, might sever a limb; but it is done -without prejudice.</p> - -<p>He knows no nationality nor race, his business is to guard the interests -of his country, guarding at the same time the rights of the stranger.</p> - -<p>Work of this kind cannot be done without friction, for intense suffering -follows many of his decisions. Yet I have found no one closely -acquainted with the affairs of the island, who does<a name="page_090" id="page_090"></a> not regard the “man -at the gate” as the right man in the right place.</p> - -<p>It is interesting to follow him on one of his rounds; for he watches -closely the workings of his huge machine. “Why don’t you let those -people sit down?” A long line of Italians had been standing closely -crowded against each other when they should have been seated to await -their turn.</p> - -<p>“Open that box,” he says, to a lunch counter man, who forthwith opens -box after box containing luncheons bought by the immigrants as they are -starting westward; boxes containing rations enough for a day or two, -according to the length of the journey undertaken.</p> - -<p>Out upon the roof, shaded, protected and guarded are many who still -await the decision of the court. Little children who came all alone and -who often wait for their parents, in vain; wives whose husbands have not -yet come as they promised they would; a promiscuous company of unhappy -mortals of various degrees. One child, a little girl, sees her father -far away among those who come to claim their loved ones; but the law -still holds the child, and she cries: “Tate, Tateleben,” and he calls -back to her; but his voice is caught by the wind, and the “man at the -gate” has to be the comforter for a season; and no one knows how long it -may be before her own father will comfort her.<a name="page_091" id="page_091"></a></p> - -<p>A blind old mother here awaits tidings from her son that she may be -speeded on towards her destination, and when she hears his voice demands -to know just when she may go; and she, too, draws on the sympathies of -the “man at the gate.”</p> - -<p>We follow him into a room which harbours some eight or ten young women -marked for deportation. They are gaily attired and betray at a glance -that they belong to the guild of the daughters of the street. They claim -to have come to America for all sorts of purposes; but they were caught -with the men who imported them, members of a firm whose business it is -to supply the New York market with human flesh. They know neither shame -nor remorse; it is all crushed out of them, and they brazenly demand to -know just when they may go into New York to begin their careers. America -will be none the worse for their speedy departure.</p> - -<p>We have seen “the lame, the halt and the blind” and one is apt to think -that they represent the normal type of immigrants; while they are really -but a small fraction of the mass which is strong, young, industrious and -virtuous and which makes of the “man at the gate” an optimist. He does -not share the feeling that the immigration of to-day is worse than that -of the past; in fact he will say quite freely that it is growing better -every day. He has his fears and<a name="page_092" id="page_092"></a> forebodings; but he knows that the -miracle of transformation wrought on us, can still be wrought on this -mass which is just like us, in that it is like clay in the hands of the -potter, which may be moulded just as millions of us have been moulded, -into the likeness of a new humanity. The danger, he does not hesitate to -say, lies less in the clay than in the potter.</p> - -<p>The visit over, we take the little boat for the battery, crowding -through a mass of men who look up to the guarded roof where their loved -ones are detained. “Tate Tateleben” comes the painful cry of the little -children, and one envies the man at the gate who on the morrow may -answer these cries and give the children to their fathers and the wives -to their husbands; who may unite those who have been divided by long -years and a wide sea.... But what if he cannot answer the cry of the -children?</p> - -<p>The “man at the gate” need not be envied for the hard, daily task which -awaits him; the task of opening or shutting the gates, of saying: “This -one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.”</p> - -<p>Clear and vivid before his eyes constantly stands the law, commanding -him, on his allegiance, to refuse admission, not merely to those -physically or morally tainted in such degree as to endanger the nation’s -life, but to those “persons likely to become a public charge.” He is<a name="page_093" id="page_093"></a> -not responsible for the law. He is responsible for its execution, even -though his decisions sometimes are not less hard for himself than for -those who find the gates shut against them.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_pg_092_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_pg_092_sml.jpg" width="500" height="351" alt="BACK TO THE FATHERLAND. - -Not merely the dangerous elements are refused admission, but those who -for reasons of ill health of mind or body, or inability to work, are -likely to prove a hindrance rather than a help." -title="BACK TO THE FATHERLAND" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">BACK TO THE FATHERLAND.<br /> -Not merely the dangerous elements are refused admission, but those who -for reasons of ill health of mind or body, or inability to work, are -likely to prove a hindrance rather than a help.</span> -</p> - -<p>It requires a buoyant spirit, a steady hand, a tender heart, and a -resolute mind. He must be both just and kind, show no preferences and no -prejudices, guard the interests of his country and yet be humane to the -stranger. To be able to say of “the man at the gate” that he -accomplishes this in a very large measure is not scant praise; and if -here and there his judgment is questioned, it simply proves that he is -as human as his critics.<a name="page_094" id="page_094"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII<br /><br /> -THE GERMAN IN AMERICA</h2> - -<p>T<small>HE</small> past had its apprehensions about its various problems no less than -the present has, and our forefathers looked upon the non-English -speaking immigrants much as we look upon them to-day. No doubt they -spoke of them as an undesirable class.</p> - -<p>Many of us remember when the German and the Scandinavian immigrants who -came, received no heartier welcome than we now give the Slav, the -Italian and the Jew.</p> - -<p>This large tide of immigration from among our non-English speaking races -had its beginning long before there was a Castle Garden or Ellis Island, -and shortly after the Pilgrims and Puritans laid the foundations for -their colonies at Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. Upon the path made by -English Quakers, came in 1682 the first German immigrants. They were -Mennonites, a Protestant sect which manifested in its tenets many of the -faults and virtues of both Quakers and Puritans.</p> - -<p>They sailed up the shallow Delaware Bay, where a Penn, who was<a name="page_095" id="page_095"></a> “mightier -than the sword,” had subdued the savages by his gentle spirit and had -made the flat shores peaceful for the habitation of these strangers. -They settled in what is now called Germantown, and soon their little -cottages were surrounded by gardens where the rosemary wafted its -fragrance on the air, and where no doubt the cabbage lifted its -astonished head above the ground, little dreaming that some day it would -be “monarch of all it surveyed.”</p> - -<p>In some points these Germans out-Puritaned the Puritans; for while it is -said that the Puritans did not kiss their wives on the Sabbath, these -German Puritans did not kiss their wives at all. That they brought with -them noble ideals is proved by the fact that they were the first people -on this continent to oppose slavery, and sent to the Quakers a petition -to that effect. It contains the following quaint paragraph: “If once -these slaves (wch they say are so wicked and stubborn men) should joint -themselves, fight for their freedom and handel their masters & -mastrisses, as they did handel them before; will these masters & -mastrisses tacke the sword at hand & warr against these poor slaves, -licke we are able to believe, some will not refuse to doe? Or have these -negers not as much right to fight for their freedom, as you have to keep -them slaves?”</p> - -<p>The Germans were also the first among us to<a name="page_096" id="page_096"></a> legislate against the vice -of intemperance, and may be said to be the first Prohibitionists, a fame -which the modern German immigrant does not care to share with them.</p> - -<p>One of the most ideal men of this time was Francis Daniel Pastorius, a -man who combined in himself all the graces and virtues of his noble -race; he was a lover of science and the finer pleasures, and was a -mystic who yearned for the closer communion with God. Pietists, Tunkers, -and others followed the Mennonites in the eighteenth century; and -Pennsylvania was soon dotted by communities in which these strangely -garbed people lived their peculiar and simple lives. To name them all -would require much space, and to describe their peculiarities would fill -a book. The Schwenkfelders, the Moravians, and the Amish were the most -important among the later arrivals, and Germany seemed to have exhausted -her ability to produce sects after their departure. Encouraged by good -Queen Anne, Lutherans and Roman Catholics came later, and these were -neither so pious nor so intelligent as their predecessors; but were the -advance guard of that vast horde of peasantry which ceased not its -coming for nearly two centuries, which moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio, -from there southward along the Mississippi to Louisiana, and northward -to Wisconsin and Minnesota, and which was a great factor<a name="page_097" id="page_097"></a> in redeeming -the wilderness and making it to “blossom as the rose.”</p> - -<p>Thousands of these peasants were sold into a semi-slavery as -Redemptionists, and thousands more laid down their lives in the attempt -to blaze paths through the forest and make the fever-stricken plains -habitable. Wherever they went they created wealth by their unremitting -industry, and by their skill in cattle-raising and farming, so that -where an English-speaking farmer starved and was forced to move -westward, they stayed and dug riches out of the neglected soil.</p> - -<p>To-day, in travelling through this country, one can almost invariably -detect the German farm; and the German farmer is everywhere the standard -of excellence.</p> - -<p>These immigrants were not idealists like their forefathers, but were -content to worship God as did their fathers, and by the honest sweat of -their brows eat the fruit from their own “vine and fig tree.” In 1848, -when the breath of freedom grew into a wind-storm, there came -involuntary immigrants, political exiles of whom the late Carl Schurz is -the best known, if not the best example. They were all educated men, -many of them real scholars, and whatever German culture there is among -the Germans to-day in our cities is in a large measure due to their -influence and example. They and their descendants<a name="page_098" id="page_098"></a> are our real German -aristocracy, and in the German centres of Cincinnati and Milwaukee they -form the select society.</p> - -<p>While these men were idealists politically, they were in a large degree -materialists religiously, and planted the seed of Marxian Socialism and -of infidelity among their countrymen. One whole colony in Minnesota made -it one of its tenets not to have a church or even to mention the name of -God, and the little city of New Ulm bore that distinction for a great -many years; but in spite of the most diligent efforts to keep God and -the churches out of their town, several houses of worship have been -built in late years. While much skepticism still prevails, the younger -generation almost as a whole has turned to its God.</p> - -<p>The modern German immigrant comes pressed neither by hunger nor by his -conscience, but most often to escape irksome military service, or drawn -by the German “Wanderlust” which carries him beyond the mountains of his -Fatherland into all corners of the earth, although emigration from -Germany increases and decreases, as the economic times are good or bad. -On board ship he is the jolliest of passengers, and you will find him at -the bar in the morning for his beer and late at night in the -smoking-room with a crowd of jovial men and women, singing the songs of -the Fatherland, which grow sadder as he grows jollier. He carries with -him an exalted opinion of his own<a name="page_099" id="page_099"></a> country, and has fully made up his -mind not to let anything crowd out his love for it, so that when New -York Harbour with its vastness and beauty rises before him he insists -that it is not half as big or as beautiful as the harbour at Hamburg, -and only at the sight of the sky-scrapers does he acknowledge our -superiority. I once stood before mighty Niagara with one of these -subjects of Kaiser Wilhelm, and, with a deprecating shrug of his -shoulders, he said: “Ve gots dem in Shermany too.” This attitude towards -our country lasts a long time, and is lost only when success comes.</p> - -<p>The German immigrant invariably has a good common-school education, -although not always possessed of culture, and, if he has it, he does not -find much of it among those with whom his lot is cast. A young chemist -whom I met grew so despondent at the sight of his German boarding-house, -and at the lack of manners among the boarders that he returned to -Germany two weeks after he landed. Not many such young men come, and few -of such who come succeed, for the “hustle and bustle,” the common tasks -to be performed, and the common people whom they must meet as equals, -repel them. The weaning from aristocratic notions, the being thrown into -the hopper without being asked, “Who are you, and who are your parents?” -are painful processes, and only the fit survive. Although the process<a name="page_100" id="page_100"></a> -is slow, it is sure. A young man who has come to this country to study -our way of doing business was employed in a large department store in -Chicago as a bundle-boy. At first he politely addressed the elevator man -thus: “Vill you blease let me off on de second floor?” but within two -months he said imperatively, “Second”; and he was on the road towards -complete Americanization.</p> - -<p>The city of Milwaukee is probably the most German city in the United -States, although nothing in its business or residence portion suggests -the Germany across the sea and, with sixty per cent. of its population -German, it has not impressed upon the city the best things which we -usually associate with that nationality. The intellectual life of its -people does not receive that stimulus which one might expect; and -whatever German culture there is outside of the ever-diminishing circle -of the “forty-eighters” has been transplanted by Americans who have -travelled and studied in the Fatherland. The few Germans who try to -bring the Germany of America in touch with its glorious heritage across -the sea, usually fail most miserably. The cry I most often heard from -them was, “The idealists are dead, and the dollar reigns supreme.”</p> - -<p>With a few exceptions, neither the German stage nor the German newspaper -has been able to keep alive that intellectual spirit; and,<a name="page_101" id="page_101"></a> as a rule, -the German population falls below the American in its desire to keep in -touch with the intellectual life of Germany. “We have two kinds of -Germans in Milwaukee: soul Germans and stomach Germans, and the latter -are in the vast majority,” said a keen observer; and it does seem that -the national spirit rallies around social usages rather than around the -things which make Germany a world power in the noblest sense. The -editors upon whom I called were all intent upon telling me how great -their papers were and how many subscribers they had, and I could not go -beyond the business point with any of them, although I wasted two hours -upon one, trying to get a glimpse of his German soul; but if I saw it at -all, it had the American dollar-mark written all over it. Upon the -social side the German is abnormally developed, and to be a “good -fellow” is to him a high ideal. He usually belongs to numberless lodges -and societies, in few of which he receives any intellectual stimulus. He -retains his convivial habits and frequents the saloon, but is seldom -intemperate, although the American treating habit often works havoc with -his frugality.</p> - -<p>That I have not misjudged the situation is proved by the fact that -similar conclusions have been reached by eminent German scholars who -have recently visited the United States.</p> - -<p>Prof. K. Lamprecht, of the University of<a name="page_102" id="page_102"></a> Leipsic, who has recently -published his notes under the title “Americana,” says: “Have the Germans -done much besides having a large share in making the soil tillable? A -visit to the great cities such as Chicago and Milwaukee compels to the -sad answer, no.</p> - -<p>“The Germans, capable as they are, in their separate and narrower -activities have not held together and have been overcome by others; -overcome to the degree that they still make the stupid “Dutchman” the -target for their jokes. One need only to see the part he plays in the -American farce to be convinced of this. He is the man who is always too -late, who always wants much and at last gets but little, and who in -spite of the fact that he is portrayed as good natured, is laughed at. -This caricature tells some truth and is the product of some observation.</p> - -<p>“Intellectually he does not stand very high; (the Negro also learns -reading and writing), but in intense thinking he is outdistanced by the -Englishman and presumably by the Slav also.</p> - -<p>“Whoever has visited the beer gardens of Milwaukee, especially the -unfortunate Pabst Park, that pattern of stupidity, must say to himself -that a people which enjoys such things as are here offered, is not -capable of intellectual competition in America. -<a name="page_103" id="page_103"></a> -“Still sadder is the lack of political discernment. One need not speak -of the corrupt condition of American politics. If the Germans had really -had the desire they could greatly have improved the political morals of -the United States. That they did not use their opportunity is due -largely to the fact that when the early German immigrants came to us, -their country was not politically ripe; nevertheless they may be accused -of not having kept pace with the citizens of the mother country, who, -under more difficult conditions have reached a very high political -development. The common people from whom our immigrants sprang, now have -large powers in directing the political well-being of the Fatherland -under less favourable conditions. This is also true in regard to the -German intellectual development with which the German-American has not -kept in touch and to which he is now very slowly awaking.”</p> - -<p>Another thing which this vast German population has failed to impress -upon our cities is the love of law and order which characterizes it in -its native home, and almost without exception it stands arrayed against -any attempt to curtail the privileges of the saloon; while lawmakers, -and officials, are usually kept from enforcing existing laws by their -fear of the German vote. One of the Milwaukee beer-brewers with whom I -talked in regard to his influence upon local politics naively said:<a name="page_104" id="page_104"></a> “No, -we have no influence upon politics at all, but if a sheriff or a judge -should try to enforce laws against our saloons, he would simply lose his -head.” The fact is that a certain phase of municipal life is completely -controlled by the brewing interest in nearly every city where the German -element plays a political part, and that element always rallies to the -support and defence of the brewers. It is a strange but general -experience that the German immigrant is immediately arrayed against the -temperance element; this is due in no small measure to the facts that -his first lodging-place is usually connected with a saloon; that the -German newspaper almost always ridicules temperance effort and -misinterprets the motives of its leaders, and, lastly, that designing -politicians make their slogan, “personal liberty,” synonymous with “beer -at any time and anywhere.” Only very recently a large portion of the -German population of Chicago was the leading element in a mass-meeting -in which over ten thousand people took part, demanding the granting of -special licenses to dance-halls; a precedent which would be as illegal, -as dangerous.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless, the German is a law-abiding citizen, although he has never -been convinced that temperance laws are either wise or just; and that, -in spite of the fact that his own Fatherland is making strenuous efforts -in that direction, and that temperance societies are coming<a name="page_105" id="page_105"></a> to be as -numerous in Germany as they are in America, but much more sensible in -their agitation than with us. The average German comes, willing enough -to obey all the laws, and, if he has proper environment, develops -quickly into the best kind of citizen.</p> - -<p>Neither in Milwaukee nor elsewhere did I find that the Church, whether -Lutheran or Roman Catholic, had kept pace with the intellectual -development of the home Church, nor has it come to feel its social -responsibility to the community. The German Lutheran pastors, in certain -synods, are often more exclusive than the Catholic priests in their -unwillingness to coöperate with other churches for the public good; and -while the churches in Germany are the most progressive on the continent, -here they are the most conservative, and correspondingly inactive in the -affairs which move society. Certain synods of the Lutheran Church, and -those the most prosperous, hold to the Augsburg Confession more -tenaciously than Luther ever did, and believe that beside that Church -there is no Church, and outside of that creed no salvation.</p> - -<p>I attended a Lutheran church one Sunday evening when it was crowded -largely by young people, all of them wage-earners in the lower walks of -life. The whole burden of the sermon of nearly forty-five minutes’ -length was the thought that salvation is not in morality or<a name="page_106" id="page_106"></a> merit or -good deeds, but that the only thing necessary to it is a proper -definition of the nature of Jesus Christ. There was not one ethical note -in the whole sermon, and if it is a fair sample of that man’s -discourses, his flock of more than fifteen hundred souls is feeding upon -barren pasture. When I called upon a Lutheran pastor who was pointed out -to me as a liberal, I found, upon asking him to define his liberality, -that it turned entirely upon social habits and had nothing to do with -theology. “I want to drink my beer whenever I want to,” was the article -in his creed that had driven him into the arms of a more liberal synod.</p> - -<p>Among the Germans of the Northwest there is a good deal of infidelity, -fostered by the Turner societies; but they are languishing and dying, -and with them dies the unbelief. I was told in Milwaukee by a business -man that the disappearance of those societies is due to the fact that -men of affairs discovered that it was poor business policy to belong to -them, because it arrayed against them the conservative church element, -and that the cessation of infidel agitation is not a sign of more faith, -but simply a sign of more common sense. One free-thinking paper is still -published in Milwaukee; but its constituency is gradually growing -smaller, and the lecturers on infidelity, of whom there used to be many, -have dwindled<a name="page_107" id="page_107"></a> to one or two. They find it hard to make a living out of -a thing that has no life. Yet the German immigrant contributes positive -good to this nation’s life; he brings usually a sound body, and while -seldom intellectual, he is nearly always intelligent. He is scrupulously -honest in business affairs, and has elevated the business morals of his -community. By his love of music he has robbed the social life in America -of some of its sternness; and the German singing societies are known not -so much for the artistic quality of their performance, as for keeping -alive the spirit of good fellowship.</p> - -<p>Unfortunately, the German falls an easy prey to the prevailing -materialistic spirit, and when he worships mammon he becomes the most -ardent of devotees. Then he has no time for his “Gesangverein,” nor for -anything else which is not utilitarian, and “Geldmachen,” the making of -money, is his great ideal. In his home life he still emphasizes those -virtues which have given inspiration to the German poets’ best songs. -His wife is, even in America, the model “Hausfrau”; for “she looketh -well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of -idleness.” Yet the Woman’s Club has touched her also, and the -“Kaffeeklatsch,” with its innocent neighbourhood gossip, has given way -to the formal reception and kindred social delusions. The German has -been the prime factor in dispelling<a name="page_108" id="page_108"></a> the Puritan idea of the Sabbath, -which to many is a positive evil, but may at least be considered a mixed -good. Still, he ought not to bear the blame alone, for the average -American was ready to have his Sabbath broken for him and has easily -followed into the breach; just as it often takes four or five grown -persons to escort one child to the circus, so one may find four or five -natives at every Sunday base-ball game, helping the German to amuse -himself.</p> - -<p>The disintegrating process has also been stimulated by the American -tourists who annually cross the ocean, and who, during their visits in -Continental Europe, leave much of the Puritan spirit behind them—too -much for their own good and the good of their country.</p> - -<p>The German has not largely contributed to the deepening of the religious -life of the nation, although wherever he enters the life of the church -he makes its expression more honest. The one thing which he hates -desperately is hypocrisy, and because of that he guards himself very -jealously and seldom speaks of his religious experiences. The German -Methodist and Evangelical Churches, which are of the emotional type, are -not only failing to grow, but are perceptibly becoming smaller. This is -to be deplored, because they developed a somewhat deep if rather narrow -Christian character, and strove to counteract the cold and more formal -spirit of<a name="page_109" id="page_109"></a> the majority of their brethren in other communions.</p> - -<p>The German in America has not produced many great men, but he has filled -this country with good men, which is infinitely better. The cause of the -dearth of prominent German-Americans is due to the fact that they blend -more quickly than any other foreigner (except the Scandinavian) with the -nation’s life, especially if the German reaches any kind of eminence; -and the effect which he has upon the life of the nation is difficult to -trace just because of that.</p> - -<p>The coarse, the crude and the low, retain their national stamp, while -the finer and better soon become part of us. Some of us seem to know the -German best and judge him most from the standpoint of the saloon and all -it implies; but I have almost always found him industrious, intelligent, -honest, frugal, patriotic, and God-fearing—noble qualities for American -citizenship. If he has not risen to the highest which he is capable of -reaching, and if he does not exert his influence for the best in all -directions, it is not due to the fact that he is not willing to do it; -but because he could not rise much higher than the highest marked out -for him by the native citizens, or because he could not quite comprehend -that this money-making, materialistic Yankee had ideals which he was -trying honestly to realize.</p> - -<p>If we misjudge the German, he misjudges the<a name="page_110" id="page_110"></a> American and rates him much -lower than he deserves. This has robbed him of a higher standard for -himself and made him exaggerate our national weaknesses, imitating which -has created a peculiar combination of character which does scant justice -to himself or to his American neighbour. When he revisits his -Fatherland, these weaknesses manifest themselves most; and then his -adopted Fatherland comes in for a good share of the blame for his lack -of manners. The following incident illustrates this point. In the lobby -of a fashionable hotel in Berlin a German-American of this type was -expectorating tobacco-juice with the exactness and frequency of an -adept. To a German who called his attention to this nuisance, he -replied: “Everybody does that in America.” He needs to know the American -and value him as he deserves, and he ought to know that which he does -not seem to, that the making of money is to the true American, after -all, not the greatest of achievements; that the hypocrisy with which he -charges him in his religious life is less frequent than he thinks it is, -and that the national ideal is slowly but surely gaining ascendency. He -ought also to know that, more than any other foreigner, he has impressed -upon us both his strength and his weakness, and that we are growing -quite definitely Teutonic. It is for us to find out what this strength -is and to appropriate it<a name="page_111" id="page_111"></a> more; and it is for him to grow conscious of -his weakness and eliminate it from his social life, that he may become -indeed one of the strongest pillars of this Republic, which already, -like the coming Kingdom, is made up of<a name="page_112" id="page_112"></a> “every nation and kindred and -tribe and people under heaven.”</p> - -<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII<br /><br /> -THE SCANDINAVIAN IMMIGRANT</h2> - -<p>T<small>HE</small> steerage of an English vessel on which the Scandinavian immigrants -travel is not the forbidding place usually found on the steamers which -sail from Continental ports. The passengers have cabins assigned to -them, their meals are served in human fashion, and the general -appearance of everything is in keeping with that of the travellers who -come from the best peasant stock of Europe. The Scandinavian peasants -bear no taint of past slavery; and as far back as their “Saga” reaches, -they were freemen.</p> - -<p>When the new light which first shone at Wittenberg travelled northward, -it found ready entrance into Swedish hearts, and Scandinavia has ever -been the bulwark of Protestantism, so that wherever its story is -written, the name of Gustave Adolphe has a prominent place. With -scarcely any exception the Scandinavian immigrant is a Protestant, a -confessed adherent of some church, and in most cases an ardent worker -and worshipper. Repeatedly during services on shipboard I have found -that every Scandinavian present took an active interest in it, and on -the<a name="page_113" id="page_113"></a> Sabbath the number of Bible readers and students was astonishingly -large. There is practically no illiteracy among them and the steerage -passenger who read nothing on his journey was an exception; the quality -of the reading was also remarkable, for on one journey I counted among -fifty books, nine of Sheldon’s “What would Jesus do?” and only fourteen -novels of a purely secular character.</p> - -<p>The demeanour of the Scandinavian immigrant is quiet, unobtrusive, -almost melancholy; and when he sings it is always in a minor key, his -folk-song having the dreaminess of the Orient and being as far removed -from the jig of his Irish fellow traveller as the North is from the -South. He is homesick from the time he steps on board of ship until he -reaches his home “in the land where there is no more sea”; and the -asylums of the Northwest are full of Scandinavian men and women who have -sunk into hopeless melancholia because of homesickness. Yet in spite of -this most of the immigrants remain in America and more than any other -foreigner blend completely into the national life.</p> - -<p>There is scarcely such a thing as a second generation of Scandinavians, -although the first generation never loses its love and longing for fair -“Scandia.” A great many who come know the English language or at least -some words, and being in touch here with a spirit which is as<a name="page_114" id="page_114"></a> serious -as their own it is no wonder that they remain, and become merged in the -national life. Not one who comes is a pauper, although not a few are -poor; yet nearly all are rich in a heritage of health and character -which unfortunately they do not always retain on this side of the -Atlantic. In fact it is proved that the second generation is weaker -physically, and many of the older immigrants claim that it has lost much -moral fibre also. This complaint which I have heard from all foreigners -about their descendants is largely due to the natural tendency to -overrate the past and to underrate the present. It is also true that the -second generation undervalues the heritage which the parents brought -with them from across the sea; and in not a few cases because of that, -it becomes morally and spiritually bankrupt.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_pg_114_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_pg_114_sml.jpg" width="349" height="500" alt="From stereograph copyright—1905, by Underwood & -Underwood, N. Y. - -FAREWELL TO HOME AND FRIENDS - -Close of kin to us are the Scandinavians, not only in race, but in -thought and in ideals. More than any other element do they blend quickly -and thoroughly with our national life." -title="FAREWELL TO HOME AND FRIENDS" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">From stereograph copyright—1905, by Underwood & -Underwood, N. Y.<br /> -FAREWELL TO HOME AND FRIENDS<br /> -Close of kin to us are the Scandinavians, not only in race, but in -thought and in ideals. More than any other element do they blend quickly -and thoroughly with our national life.</span> -</p> - -<p>I have seldom seen Scandinavian immigrants of more than middle age, and -most of them are young men and women between eighteen and thirty-six. -Some remain in the large cities of the East where they are valued as -servants, gardeners and dairymen, more of them drift to Jamestown, N. -Y., as mechanics; but the large majority of immigrants go to the -Northwest where they have been “hewers of wood and drawers of water,” -where they have turned the sod of far stretching acres towards the sun -and where their cattle graze upon a thousand hills.<a name="page_115" id="page_115"></a> They like the -melancholy plains of the Dakotas; the cold winters remind them of their -own far North, and if any strange country ever grows to them like home -it certainly is this hospitable region in whose mills and factories, -beginning at Chicago and ending in that West which each day comes nearer -to the true East across the Pacific, they are toilers, skilled labourers -and trusted foremen.</p> - -<p>I have yet to find the shop where they are not liked; although their -less industrious fellow workmen of other nationalities call them -treacherous—a word which they themselves do not quite understand; but -which means that the Scandinavians “get ahead,” and that is often cause -enough to give them a bad name. In all my dealings with them I have -found them frank and generous, and while playing farmer in order to know -them better, my fellow labourer has many a time hitched the horses for -me, or shovelled my portion of the corn, and when he found that I was -only a make-believe farmer did not betray my confidence.</p> - -<p>With such experiences and with such high esteem of the Scandinavian, I -joined a party of young Swedes who were travelling from Chicago to the -Northwest. They were disgusted by that city, by its moral and physical -filth, its noise and its few glimpses of God’s heaven, and I -congratulated them upon going to Minneapolis which<a name="page_116" id="page_116"></a> I described in -glowing terms as a clean and godly city in which an American population -of New England descent combined with this wholesome Scandinavian element -in making a model city. Eager to have America shine to them in its very -best light I offered myself as their guide through the city, an offer -which they readily accepted. We had scarcely stepped out of the Union -Depot before I wished that I had not said anything about the godliness -of Minneapolis; for we were set upon by thugs, fakirs and lewd women in -such numbers and in such a disgusting manner that I thought for a moment -I had struck the Bowery in its palmiest days. Dozens of squares around -the depot and deep into the heart of the city were filled by brothels of -the most disgraceful kind; pictures were displayed in show windows and -in the open porticos of museums which would make a Paris street gamin -blush, and the whole city seemed to be stricken by some fatal disease. -Policemen were neither ornamental nor useful, city detectives were -employed by gamblers to hustle the fleeced stranger out of town, the -mayor, the sheriff and who knows who else were in league with gamblers -and thieves, while vice was everywhere rampant and did not even have to -defy the law for there was no law.</p> - -<p>Newspaper men whom I interviewed, told me <a name="page_117" id="page_117"></a>that Minneapolis was -considered by travelling men the “toughest” town this side of Butte, -Montana. Ministers said that they were helpless and many told me that it -was none of their or my business; officials were paralyzed, the mayor -was a fugitive from justice, the chief of police was about to be sent to -the penitentiary for safe keeping; and all of them agreed that these -conditions were in no small measure due to the Scandinavian population -which was not fitted for public responsibility.</p> - -<p>I had just come from Jamestown, N. Y., which has about the same -population of Scandinavians, where they had elected a Swedish mayor who -gave great satisfaction, where many offices were held by Swedes, and -where I had heard no such complaints.</p> - -<p>In Minnesota generally, no taint attached itself to such Scandinavians -as Knute Nelson, Lind and others who had served in high offices in state -and nation; therefore I was shocked, puzzled and disappointed. I found -the common verdict in Minnesota to be: “We can’t trust the Swedes in -public offices;” and the number of defaulting county and city treasurers -of Scandinavian nationality (especially Swedish) who spent a few years -in Stillwater prison, makes the generally accepted estimate of the high -character of the Swede as a citizen waver not a little.</p> - -<p>If this estimate be true it may be due first of<a name="page_118" id="page_118"></a> all to the Swedish -churches, which have not as a rule, in common with a large share of the -American churches, sufficiently emphasized the fact that “righteousness -exalteth a nation,” and that it can become exalted only through a -righteous citizenship. The Lutheran churches have been busy preaching -doctrines and have been so eager to maintain the Augsburg confession -that they have not laid much stress upon upholding the spirit of the -Sermon on the Mount and all that it means for the Kingdom of God. The -“Mission Friends,” as a large body of Swedish Christians calls itself, -has been so busy in common with Methodists and Baptists, doing -evangelizing work, and building up its local church membership, that it -has forgotten that it has something to do with saving the state or the -city.</p> - -<p>The second cause may be ascribed to the clannish feeling fostered by -cunning politicians, which makes these people vote for a Scandinavian no -matter what his character is, just because he is one of their own. In -this as in the first case I do not wish it to appear that the -Scandinavian is a sinner above all others, but he has been remarkably -unfortunate in the character of the officials whom he has chosen, and it -will take a great deal of repentance and general betterment to make the -people of Hennepin County unsuspicious of the Scandinavian office -seeker.<a name="page_119" id="page_119"></a></p> - -<p>The very worst thing in our national life, the most corrupting thing in -every way is this voting as Scandinavians or Hungarians, and not as -Americans. It amounts in many cases to a kind of treason and deserves to -be treated as such. The politicians and the political party which foster -that sort of thing are in a small but very dangerous business which does -more to hamper the American consciousness in the foreigner than any -other thing I know of; and is to-day the great poison which needs to be -eliminated from the national life. In nine cases out of ten the -foreigner is made a scapegoat by designing politicians who give him a -small office which pledges him to do an unfair and often a dishonest -thing. In the Northwest it has brought a stigma upon the Swedes: a bad -reputation which they do not deserve and which they must throw off for -their own good and for the good of the country.</p> - -<p>The third and perhaps the best reason for this state of affairs is the -fact that in common with other foreigners they have had a poor example -set them by the Americans. Minneapolis citizens were so busy making -money that they did not realize that their city was in the hands of -thieves and robbers who not only “killed the body,” but cast many a soul -into hell. One is roused to anger by the disclosures of graft in St. -Louis, Philadelphia and<a name="page_120" id="page_120"></a> other cities too numerous to mention; but when -city officials like the mayor of the city and the chief of police, both -of them of good American stock, are proved to be in league with gamblers -and other immoral folk who corrupt the youth and destroy the trustful -foreigner who comes from farm and forest, then one’s indignation ought -to know no bounds. Justly, the Swedes of Minneapolis say, “the big -rascals were Americans supported by American voters, many of them in -Christian churches and highly esteemed in business and social life.” Nor -can the contented citizen of that beautiful place take any satisfaction -in the fact that some of the rascals were brought to justice and that -the conditions have changed. This miserable state of affairs might still -exist if the aforesaid rascals had not quarrelled with each other and -finally destroyed themselves. Scarcely any one in Minneapolis deserves -the credit of having lifted his voice against it or raised a protest -because of the encroachment of a vice which has no bounds and which can -be made harmless only by being driven away. For a city to give up its -waterfront to palaces of shame where openly and defiantly, women plied -their fearful trade, is poor business, poor esthetics, poor ethics and -poor Christianity. Its encroachment upon the Union Depot where every -stranger enters, and its perfect freedom to obtrude itself, is all poor<a name="page_121" id="page_121"></a> -politics as it certainly is a poor introduction to that beautiful city’s -life. How much the foreigner is to blame I cannot tell, but this is -true: that Minneapolis has the best foreign element and of course some -of the worst; it has a vigorous, earnest American population with a -noble heritage, and yet it has failed not only in making an all-around -citizen of that foreigner but even in governing its own city; and the -usual excuses of an ignorant, Sabbath-breaking foreign element do not -hold good here, for the foreigner in Minneapolis obeys the Sunday law, -goes to church (one church has over 4,000 worshippers on Sunday night), -is not ignorant or vicious, and yet he is said to be a poor citizen.</p> - -<p>After all the blame must fall largely upon those Americans who have lost -the backbone of the Puritans and the vision of the Pilgrims, who feel -little responsibility towards the great city problem, and rest content -with the fact that they live in parks, that the saloon cannot encroach -upon their dwellings, and then are willing to let the rest go as it -pleases and where it pleases. If their pastors lift the prophetic voice, -they are “fired,” even as Savonarola was burned, and it amounts to the -same thing. There is a perfect stream of new ministers who come and go, -and many go away broken in body and in spirit.<a name="page_122" id="page_122"></a></p> - -<p>In the politics of the state, the Scandinavian has a well-deserved and -honoured place, and the administration of Governor Johnson goes far to -disprove any aspersions cast upon his people.</p> - -<p>One of the most interesting communities in Kansas is the Swedish town of -Lindsburgh, where Bethany College is located. It has become an -intellectual and musical centre, and its influence is as wholesome as it -is large.</p> - -<p>I am not defending the foreigner; he has his faults, and too often does -not make the most of his great opportunity, but he is as clay in the -hands of the American who can make of him what he pleases.</p> - -<p>In Jamestown, N. Y., you have a strong American community with firm -convictions, and this same Scandinavian becomes like it.</p> - -<p>In Minneapolis you have no such strong convictions of righteousness and -you have a Scandinavian population which men in authority say is unfit -to exercise its citizenship. Our cities need to cultivate a twentieth -century Puritanism—broad and deep, intense yet sympathetic, unyielding -yet charitable; and they will find that the most ready imitators will be -the foreigners; especially these Scandinavians who were our kinsmen -before they came here and who are ready to be our brothers, and heirs of -the same Kingdom.<a name="page_123" id="page_123"></a></p> - -<p>In everything which makes a strong people and a great state they have -taken an active and conscientious part. They are staunch supporters of -the public schools; their children finally become teachers and in every -academy and university of the northwest the Scandinavians are an -important contingent, industrious and faithful as students, scholarly -and loyal as professors. Their churches are well built, well supported, -and more and more their pastors are taking their places as true leaders -among the people. They are intensely interested in the larger mission of -the gospel and in the evangelization of the world; they believe in -missions, pray for missions, give to missions, and thus have a wide -horizon. In the Northwest they are the greatest foes of the liquor -traffic, and one can always count on many of them in an effort to -enforce existing laws or frame new ones for its restriction or -destruction. Neither they nor any nationality which has come to America -is alike good or free from serious faults, but a man would have to be -short-sighted indeed not to realize that they have brought to this -country rich moral treasures which we have not sufficiently used or -developed.</p> - -<p>What a people we might be, if we would appropriate all that the Jew -brings of spiritual vision and cut down his business ardour and -craftiness by our own emphasis of the nobler gift; if<a name="page_124" id="page_124"></a> we would receive -the Slav’s virgin strength and plant upon it all that we of older -civilization have learned to hold precious; if we would emulate the -German’s thoughtfulness and thoroughness and not imitate and encourage -him in the trade in lager beer and the use of it. What a nation we -should be if we would take the Hungarian’s devotion to his native land -and make it burn with just such a true fire upon the altar of this -country; and finally, if we would mingle all the virtues that the -nations bring us with the seriousness and loftiness of the -Scandinavian’s mind and heart,—if we did this through one generation, -in one city of our country we would bring the Kingdom of God down upon -the earth.</p> - -<p>Nor is this all a pious wish or simply a flow of rhetoric: we shall have -to do that,—cultivate in one another the best gifts,—or we shall reap -a harvest of the worst; for in the Scandinavian we can see how the very -best may become like the worst simply through our own neglect. We must -believe about one another only the best, for people, like bad boys, live -up to their reputation.</p> - -<p>This country ought to be no place for racial or national hatreds, and no -people must be branded as this or that simply because of one superficial -or even deep seated fault. How often I have heard from well meaning, -respectable people:<a name="page_125" id="page_125"></a> “You can’t trust the Scandinavians, they are -immoral, they are treacherous;” when in fact they had no proof for -their assertions, and simply sowed seeds of discord of which they must -some day reap the harvest.<a name="page_126" id="page_126"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX<br /><br /> -THE JEW IN HIS OLD WORLD HOME</h2> - -<p>I<small>T</small> is said of a certain English scientist that he began a work on -“Snakes in Ireland” by the sentence: “There are no snakes in Ireland”; -and one could easily without seeming to be facetious begin this chapter -by saying: “The Jew has no home.”</p> - -<p>He is a man without a country, and without a king; he belongs to a -nation which, scattered over the face of the earth has yet retained the -chief elements of an ancient faith, although no centralized authority -guards it. Inheriting the cultural influences of his past, he absorbs -the culture of each race which harbours him for a season. Although -driven in turn from each insecure habitation, he has not degenerated -into a nomad, but begins the task of home and fortune making, wherever a -more hospitable people affords a resting place for his weary feet.</p> - -<p>In his ancient home in Palestine, in the very citadel of his -faith,—Jerusalem, he is the greatest stranger, and people of alien -beliefs have built their monuments on the sites of his grandest -spiritual conquests, and over the tombs of his prophets and seers.<a name="page_127" id="page_127"></a></p> - -<p>Weeping, he tears his garments and beats his head against a wall which -is all that is left of the temple thrice rebuilt, thrice ruined, and now -having upon its ancient foundations a mosque, with crescent crowned -minaret, from whose height the Muezzin cries: “Allah ho Akbar,” a sound -which vibrates against the ears of the Jew like the mocking of the -prophets who seem to say: “I told you so.”</p> - -<p>Among the Arabs, his kinsmen, he is a stranger; for although in speech, -dress and bearing he is like them, in thought and feeling he is above -them; yet the coarsest Mohammedan servant will pronounce the word -“Yahudi,” with all the scorn of a superior and all the hatred of an -enemy.</p> - -<p>His features have not changed since the time when Egyptian artists drew -with crude touch on their temple walls the story of the stranger’s -coming, his slavery and his exodus.</p> - -<p>Wherever you find him, among the Arabs of North Africa or among the -Danes of Northern Germany, he still bears the marks of his race, with -the flame of Sinai in his look and the fire of the Southland on his -cheek.</p> - -<p>In Africa he is most numerous in Morocco, where 300,000 souls struggle -for daily bread and are hated according to their number; while in Egypt -where once he was found in largest numbers, now only about 10,000 Jews -live.<a name="page_128" id="page_128"></a></p> - -<p>The whole number for Africa does not exceed half a million; in Asia he -is 200,000 strong or weak, in America above 2,000,000, while Europe has -given him room enough to grow into 7,000,000. Between 10,000,000 or -11,000,000 is about the whole number of Jews now in existence, with the -city of New York as the largest Jewish centre in the world, having no -less than 600,000 of the faithful.</p> - -<p>To describe the Jews in their varied environments means to draw many -pictures and yet one; for while they differ widely according to the -degree of civilization by which they are surrounded, certain -characteristics remain the same.</p> - -<p>Everywhere the Jew becomes outwardly like his masters—but often remains -unlike them in his spiritual life and in those deeper things which -express themselves spontaneously and which are too well grounded in his -nature to be wiped out entirely by the mere touch of the stranger.</p> - -<p>Physically he is usually smaller and weaker, has brown or gray eyes and -dark hair, although not seldom it is red and curly. Among the Europeans -his head and neck are always large; but his face is the smallest.</p> - -<p>There are a vivaciousness in his manner, a rather emphatic and constant -gesticulation, and a certain something in his speech which always mark -him, and mark him unmistakably, the Jew.</p> - -<p>He quickly reciprocates both good and evil,<a name="page_129" id="page_129"></a> and is regarded with -apprehension because of his aggressiveness; for as both friend and foe -he is intense. Where an inch of approach is granted he may want an ell, -while where he hates he does not hate in moderation. His business -shrewdness is proverbial, although it is not his native genius for the -proverb current in the Orient: “It takes one Jew to cheat three -Christians, it takes one Armenian to cheat ten Jews, it takes one Greek -to cheat twenty Armenians,” while no more correct than such generalities -are likely to be, proves the assertion that he is not the champion in -the chief game of life.</p> - -<p>He has had bad environment for the development of business honesty, yet -I know of scarcely a community in the world, in which the Jew plays any -part, where he would not have a strong representation, if a group of the -most trustworthy citizens was called together for any purpose.</p> - -<p>The world in which he lives and in which he trades, is the world which -he reflects, and he has not always created the conditions which exist -there.</p> - -<p>To “Jew down,” which is a synonym for beating down in price, is as -current in business where he is no factor, as where he is. In Italy it -is an economic disease, and in Russia, in those regions closed to the -Jewish tradesman, the native haggles with the priest about the price of -a funeral or a baptism, with the cab driver over the fare, and<a name="page_130" id="page_130"></a> even -attempts to bargain on the railroad when he buys his ticket.</p> - -<p>To generalize about the good or bad characteristics of the Jew is as -difficult as it is to portray those of any race. When he judges himself -he is either unjustly severe or profusely apologetic, for a people which -has lived for so many centuries under abnormal conditions, cannot be -known by the stranger, nor can it know itself.</p> - -<p>At present the Jew is somewhere between Shakespeare’s Shylock and George -Elliot’s Daniel Deronda; and more Shylock where the hate of the middle -ages makes it impossible for him to grow into George Eliot’s ideal. He -is most uncomfortably felt in those countries where he is in the -transition period, when he is apt to be over-bearing and given to -sensuous pleasure; even then he is not so grasping as Shylock although -not so lovable as Daniel Deronda. He does not need much time to come to -his full development. His genius quickly manifests itself, and while he -is charged with superficiality, the fact that in all sciences there are -accurate scholars of the Jewish race, disproves that accusation, -although his emotional nature does not best fit him for the patient task -of the investigator.</p> - -<p>His neighbours are quickly conscious of his faults because he is not yet -schooled in the art of suppressing them, and his virtues are often -unrecognized because they shine the brightest in<a name="page_131" id="page_131"></a> the inner circle, from -which the neighbour is usually excluded by mutual consent.</p> - -<p>In Northern Africa we find him to-day just as he was thirty-five or -forty years ago when Sir Moses Montefiore tried to alleviate his inhuman -treatment and his impoverished and miserable condition. The Moors -without knowing the prophecy concerning the fate of Israel are actively -engaged in fulfilling it with a cruel literalness. In every city and -village the Jews have their separate quarters and their own judges.</p> - -<p>They are not permitted to study the reading and writing of Arabic lest -their eyes defile the sacred pages of the Koran; they are not allowed to -ride a horse although they may ride a donkey; and they must walk -barefooted before the mosques.</p> - -<p>They are prohibited from going near a well when a Mussulman is drinking, -and must wear black, a colour despised by the Moors.</p> - -<p>The men are all ugly because of the abject fear on their faces; their -eyes are always cast down and their walk is unsteady while the whole -posture is expressive of the worst kind of slavery.</p> - -<p>They may be beaten, kicked and spit upon at any time without being able -to protect themselves or even having the spirit to do it.</p> - -<p>The women are unusually handsome and some of the homes are splendidly -furnished and are hospitably opened to the traveller. The same<a name="page_132" id="page_132"></a> -conditions existed in Algiers until it passed under the rule of France, -when the Jews asserted their superiority and became landowners, -manufacturers and business men, so that nearly half of the property in -Algiers is said to be in their hands, for which they are again beginning -to feel hatred and persecution.</p> - -<p>The Egyptian Jews are found only in the two cities of Cairo and -Alexandria; but they have followed the victorious arms of England and -have entered the heart of Africa where in Khartum and the fabled -Timbuctoo there are Jewish communities.</p> - -<p>In Asia Minor the largest Jewish population outside of Jerusalem is in -Smyrna; where there are over thirty thousand in the city and vicinity. -These Jews, like those of Morocco, are descendants of Spanish fugitives -and are considered, even by their enemies, honest and industrious, -performing the commonest and hardest labour.</p> - -<p>Jerusalem remains to this day the unhappiest city in the world for the -Jew, who sees in it his glorious past and his present shame, and who -must feel the pangs of persecution most in the city in which once he was -master and lord.</p> - -<p>Highly interesting is the story of the Jews in China. That they existed -there, was known as early as the sixteenth century when the Jesuit, -Ricci, found them in Khai Fung Fu, the old capital of Honan.<a name="page_133" id="page_133"></a></p> - -<p>How they came to China is not definitely known, but according to Chinese -history they came as far back as 58 B. C.</p> - -<p>In 1848 they were found by some English missionaries, who reported their -synagogues in ruins and the Jews unable to read the one scroll of the -law which remained. At present there are only about twenty families -left, and but a few years ago, a number of Jews came from the interior -to Shanghai, to be taught Hebrew by the English Jews and to have the -rite of circumcision performed.</p> - -<p>The real Jewish world, and that which touches our own each day is in the -eastern part of Europe; in Hungary, Poland, Russia and Roumania.</p> - -<p>While most of the Jews in the south of Europe and Asia are the -descendants of Spanish Jews, from whom they inherit a peculiar language -and certain tendencies of worship and belief,—those of Eastern Europe -are nearly all under the cultural influences of Germany, whose language -they speak, in a more or less corrupt form. They left Germany because of -the persecutions of the middle ages and settled among the Slavs, where -they have lived for many centuries; never quite sure of an abiding -place, and suffering ever recurring persecutions of varying degrees of -intensity.</p> - -<p>The Jews of Bohemia, whose spiritual centre<a name="page_134" id="page_134"></a> was the Ghetto of the city -of Prague, as well as the Jews of Hungary, exhibit certain liberal -tendencies in their faith, and are midway between orthodox and reformed -Judaism. They are generally classed among German Jews, while the Jews of -Poland, Lithuania and Bessarabia, are classed with the Russian Jews, by -far the largest number, and the one great source of Jewish immigration -to this country.</p> - -<p>The cause of this immigration is found in the persecutions, not new in -the history of Israel, but like death, always holding a new terror.</p> - -<p>In Russia the horrors of these persecutions are shared by other -non-Russians, yet there is in the Jewish persecutions an element of -hatred and contempt which makes them exceptionally galling, and affects -not only the Jews’ civic, social and economic condition but their -self-respect also. They are classed with the Kalmuks, the Samoyedes, the -Kirghese and other aboriginal tribes of low mental capacity and still -lower standards of civilization; while not sharing with them their legal -status, being as Jews, regarded as outlaws, for whom special repressive -legislation is necessary.</p> - -<p>Above all else, these laws tend to keep them within the pale, which pale -is the old kingdom of Poland, and the western provinces originally -belonging to Poland. On this territory which is by far the smaller -portion of European Russia,<a name="page_135" id="page_135"></a> over 5,000,000 Jews are virtually -imprisoned, entrance into the larger Russia being permitted only to:</p> - -<p>1. Merchants of the first class, who have to pay an annual tax of nearly -$500.</p> - -<p>2. Professional men who have university diplomas. As, however, of the -entire number of pupils admitted to the higher schools only from five to -ten per cent. are permitted to be Jews, this class is very small.</p> - -<p>3. Old soldiers who have served twenty-five years in the army.</p> - -<p>4. Students of higher education.</p> - -<p>5. Apothecaries, dentists, surgeons and midwives.</p> - -<p>6. Skilled artisans, who have no legal residence outside the pale but -who may follow their vocation anywhere, provided they earn their living -by their trade, and that they are members of their trade guilds; a -privilege rarely granted to Jews.</p> - -<p>Worst of all is the element of uncertainty as to the interpretation and -operation of the laws, which are now lax, now severe, but always means -of extortion and a recognized avenue of income for numerous officials.</p> - -<p>The greatest hardship suffered comes from the fact that in the villages, -only those residents who were there prior to a certain date, are -permitted to remain; while the vast majority is herded together<a name="page_136" id="page_136"></a> in the -city Ghettos, which offer but a scant living to the normal population.</p> - -<p>The Jewish part of the city, the Ghetto, is invariably sunk in mud or -dust, according as there is rain or sunshine, and is the picture of -melancholia. Cadaverous men in long, black, greasy cloaks, countless -children and women, who alone carry sunshine; for in the Jewish woman’s -heart the hope of giving birth to the Messiah is not yet dead.</p> - -<p>All of these people are narrow chested, with the melancholy eyes deep -set; they have long bodies and short limbs with which they make ambling -strides like the camel in the desert.</p> - -<p>It is a haggling, bargaining, pushing, crowding, seething mass; ugly in -its environment, hard for the stranger to love, cowed by fear, unmanned -by persecution; a thing to jeer at, to ridicule, to plunder and to kill.</p> - -<p>This is no apology for the Jew. He carries the faults and the sins of -ages; not only his own, but those of his persecutors also. He is himself -the keenest critic of racial faults, and once awakened to them hates -them and his race most unmercifully. His people are greedy, greasy, and -pushing, or doggedly humble; as might be expected of hunted human -beings, who for 2,000 years have known no peace, wherever the cross -overshadowed them. They could escape torment in a moment by having a<a name="page_137" id="page_137"></a> -few drops of holy water sprinkled over them, for baptism opens to all, -the door of opportunity. Whatever else may have died, the ancient fire -is not dead in them, and they prefer to suffer, to die, if need be, -rather than to enter a so-called Christian church through the door of -expediency. Sometimes that door has to be entered, but the Jews who -enter it are still Jews, and often they suffer agonies of mind and of -spirit, to which persecution might be preferable.</p> - -<p>A friend of mine in Moscow, a manufacturer of tobacco, who had lived in -that city for thirty years, received sudden notice to dispose of his -business and leave the city. He was prosperous, his children were going -to school, they knew no home but Moscow, and the town to which they were -to go was in the crowded Jewish pale which he had left as a child.</p> - -<p>He and his family were baptized, he became a full-fledged Russian, with -all the rights of citizenship, and his business went on as usual.</p> - -<p>Soon afterwards, however, he became depressed, the depression increasing -each time that he had to take part in religious ceremonies which were -hateful to him, and it was not long before he grew violently insane.</p> - -<p>I have no doubt that as soon as the Jewish disabilities are removed, -most of those who have entered the Greek Church will return to the<a name="page_138" id="page_138"></a> -faith of their fathers which they have never really left.</p> - -<p>It is said in Moscow of a certain Jew, that after the priest had -instructed him in the catechism, he asked: “Now what do you believe?” -and he replied: “I believe that now I shall not have to leave Moscow.”</p> - -<p>Much more than this, these so-called converted Jews do not and cannot -believe.</p> - -<p>Most of them prefer to live in dirty little hovels, hungry and wretched, -to brood over the ancient lore, the Psalms of David, the prophets’ -messages from God, the law of Moses and the sayings of the sages. Day -and night, while hunger gnaws and poverty oppresses, they look to -Jehovah and fast and mourn and believe.</p> - -<p>Minsk, Wilna, Kovno, and Warsaw contain Jewries in which from 80,000 to -200,000 souls are living—no one knows how; two-thirds by manual labour, -the commonest and the coarsest, for the lowest wage. To-morrow’s bread -is always an unknown quantity, and these people do “Walk by faith and -not by sight.” No labour is too heavy or too dirty; and the mournful -Jewish face will look out at you from the pit of a mine, from under a -burden of wood or water, from the margin of the river as boats are -unloaded, or from the seat of a miserable cab, whose horse and driver -are alike most pitiable. Because of their weak bodies they are<a name="page_139" id="page_139"></a> not -regarded as good labourers, except at tailoring.</p> - -<p>Locked in the city, hampered in their movements by unreasonable laws, -groaning under taxes too heavy to be borne, the government, labour, -religion—life itself a burden, they are living Egypt over again, -waiting and praying for their deliverance. Why are they persecuted? Can -any one answer that question? Has any one yet found the reason for blind -hate, that blindest of all,—the hate of race? They are hated because -they are supposed to be rich; yet seventy-five per cent. of them are -poorer than Chinese coolies.</p> - -<p>They are hated because they have strange customs, because they hold -themselves, in a large measure, aloof from the common life. How can they -be anything but strangers to the adherents of a religion who choose a -holy day, the day of resurrection, to kill them? Easter time is almost -invariably the time of persecution. How can they be other than strangers -to a church, the ringing of whose bells marks the carnage of hundreds of -thousands—murdered for the glory of Jesus—a Jew.</p> - -<p>How can they be anything but strangers to a government whose officials -will step among the mobs to encourage them, shouting: “Steady boys, keep -it up.”</p> - -<p>They are hated by the government because<a name="page_140" id="page_140"></a> they are supposed to be -revolutionists. If only they were! The masses of the Jews are so cowed -by fear that they are unmanned. They do not know the use of a weapon. -Here and there a Jew, alert and keen, sees his misery and is brave -enough to defend himself. Many of them advocate Socialism; it attracts -them because it knows no race, because it preaches a certain kind of -peace, because it is a brotherhood. The Jew does not find in the -orthodox church the meek and lowly Nazarene, because the Messiah whom -the church preaches, is masked behind church millinery; because the -representative of the lowly Nazarene sits upon the throne of the -haughtiest autocrat, and because the cross is an ornament and not an -element in the salvation of men.</p> - -<p>The Jew in Russia is persecuted because he is supposed to use the blood -of Gentile children for his passover. This false accusation has followed -him through the years, in spite of the fact that those who promulgated -it knew that it was false. The shedding of human blood was never one of -Israel’s crimes, and killing is a desire which the Jew lost long ago, -having never been a master in this art.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_pg_140_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_pg_140_sml.jpg" width="351" height="500" alt="ISRAELITES INDEED. - -The root of the persecution of the Russian Jew is found in his superior -ability to cope with the difficulties of existence, in his thrift and -shrewdness which know no bounds." -title="ISRAELITES INDEED" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">ISRAELITES INDEED.<br /> -The root of the persecution of the Russian Jew is found in his superior -ability to cope with the difficulties of existence, in his thrift and -shrewdness which know no bounds.</span> -</p> - -<p>Frankly, the root of this persecution of the Jews is found in their -superior ability to cope with the difficulties of existence in Russia, -in their thrift and shrewdness which know no<a name="page_141" id="page_141"></a> bounds and which have -almost crushed in them their spiritual longings, making them a byword -among the nations.</p> - -<p>But a new inspiration has come to the Jews of Eastern Europe through the -Zionistic movement; a revival of Jewish nationalism, a desire to win -back the lost Palestine,—the Fatherland of their spiritual sires.</p> - -<p>The way back to Palestine is a difficult one and neither their Maccabean -spirit nor the wealth they accumulate may avail them as a nation, to -reach their goal. But the way there is beautiful, the dream is glorious -and the spiritual and physical miracles wrought among the wealthiest and -the poorest of them are remarkable. A new literature and a new psalmody -are being born, a new Maccabean spirit is filling the emaciated bodies -of these sons of Israel, and one of them sings and he but one of -thousands:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Arise, and shine, Jerusalem,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">In costly jewelled diadem;<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Put off thy ash strewn garb of gray,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">In glorious dress, thyself array.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Jehovah made thy people free;<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Now that they long for liberty.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">At end is all thy suffering night,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Jerusalem, send forth thy light.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“A note of ancient psalmody<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Fills heaven and earth with melody;<a name="page_142" id="page_142"></a><br /></span> -<span class="i1">A sacrifice of grateful praise<br /></span> -<span class="i1">From altars old, we now upraise,<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“And God looks pleased from glory down,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">His smile oh! Israel is thy crown.<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Put off thy ashen garb of gray,<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Jerusalem, see thy glorious day.”<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>But for a long time to come, this Jerusalem will have to be New York, -and their Palestine, America.</p> - -<p>One can but hope that the Jew will so live and act, as to become one -with the highest ideals of his new country, and so unwrap himself from -ancient faults that in the truest sense, Jerusalem will be the “Bride -adorned for her bridegroom,” and the city come down from heaven among -men, in whose midst the reign of God will be an acknowledged fact.<a name="page_143" id="page_143"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X<br /><br /> -THE NEW EXODUS</h2> - -<p>I<small>N</small> a little studio on the West side of New York, a Jewish sculptor -modelled the clay for a medal upon which he was to engrave for grateful -Israel, the memorial of its settlement in America two and a half -centuries ago. The face of the medal bore the veiled form of Justice, -casting the evil spirit of Intolerance from his throne and placing upon -it the Goddess of Liberty, who is bestowing on all alike the rich gifts -in her keeping. On the reverse side of the medal, Victory is engraving -the date 1655, the year of the landing of the Jewish forefathers. The -Victory modelled by this Jewish genius is not the triumphant, -over-bearing, conquering spirit; but in her noble form are embodied -graciousness, determination and a sincere gratitude.</p> - -<p>At the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the landing of the Jews -in America, held in Carnegie Hall on Thanksgiving day, November 30, -1905, these feelings were given utterance in various ways by various -persons; but by none more truly than by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Silverman, -in his opening prayer. -<a name="page_144" id="page_144"></a> -“We thank Thee for America, this haven of refuge for the oppressed of -the world. We thank Thee for the blessings of a permanent home in this -country, its opportunities for development of life and advancement of -mind and heart, for its independence and unity, its free institutions, -the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We reverently -bow before Thy decree, which has taught us to find enduring peace and -security in the sure foundation of this blessed land.”</p> - -<p>The Jewish pioneers were cultured and far travelled men, who came from -Portugal, Holland and England and their provinces. They were imbued by -the adventurous spirit of the people whom they had left, in order to -seek the undiscovered paths of the sea which led to fabled wealth.</p> - -<p>It is no wonder if, at that early period when Jewish persecutions were -at their height and the Jewish name under the darkest cloud, they had -difficulty in gaining free entrance to their desired haven, and that the -charter which was granted them was given grudgingly. It reads thus:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="r"><i>“26th of April, 1655.</i></p> - -<p><a name="page_145" id="page_145"></a> “We would have liked to agree to your wishes and request that the -new territories should not be further invaded by people of the -Jewish race, for we foresee from such immigration the same -difficulties which you fear, but after having further weighed and -considered the matter, we observe that it would be unreasonable -and unfair, especially because of the considerable loss sustained -by the Jews in the taking of Brazil, and also because of the large -amount of capital which they have invested in the shares of this -company.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> After many consultations we have decided and resolved -upon a certain petition made by said Portuguese Jews, that they -shall have permission to sail to and trade in New Netherlands and -to live and remain there, provided the poor among them shall not -become a burden to the company or the community, but be supported -by their own nation. You will govern yourself accordingly.”</p></div> - -<p>These Jews, true to their religious instincts, built synagogues wherever -they settled and were called Sephardic Congregations. Until the -beginning of the nineteenth century, they were the dominating religious -and cultural type, and while yet retaining certain racial -characteristics, they blended into the national life, having no small -share in its development.</p> - -<p>With the coming to this country of the German peasantry, there was -brought from the villages and towns a not inconsiderable number of Jews, -who scattered through the North and South upon all the highways of -commerce, and who finally became the second strata of the Jewish life<a name="page_146" id="page_146"></a> -in America. At first, they were more or less amalgamated with the -Portuguese Jews, but as their numbers grew overwhelmingly great, they -developed their religious and social life after their own traditions and -were distinguished from their Sephardic brethren by the generic name -“Ashkenazim” (Germans).</p> - -<p>Within this group developed the German Reform movement, which has in -greater or less degree attracted all the Germanic Jews, and from which -the merely traditional and ritualistic element has quite disappeared; so -that at the present time it is not far removed from Unitarianism in -faith and practice. Later, when the population of the Eastern portion of -Europe found its way across the sea, under the impulse of great -nationalistic movements in Austria, Hungary and Poland, a new factor was -introduced into the Jewish communities, which brought with it -Rabbinistic lore and faithfulness to the traditions of the Elders, and -this factor tended to strengthen the Jewish consciousness. In after -years a good portion of this group attached itself to the Reform -movement and cannot be differentiated from the Germanic group; while the -residue has become the link between it and the overwhelmingly large mass -of Russian Jews, which was to come and which now forms the greatest -proportion of the Jewish population.</p> - -<p>This Russian Jewish group is not easily analyzed;<a name="page_147" id="page_147"></a> it is neither -heterogeneous nor homogeneous; it is Polish, Roumanian, Lithuanian, -Bessarabian and Galician. It is steeped in traditionalism, overburdened -by ritualistic laws, loaded by the fetters of Rabbinism, held under the -spell of Kabalism and Wonder Rabbis, swayed now by this teacher and now -by that one. It has no common centre or common aim, and has not analyzed -itself nor its environment. Strongly individualistic, its members are -united to one another and to the other groups, only by their common -misfortune, an indefinable racial consciousness; intellectually and -culturally, far below the other groups, it bears the marks of oppression -and of the oppressor in its thought and in its action. Nevertheless, it -is destined to be the determining influence in the future of Judaism in -America, and as such, deserves special study and consideration.</p> - -<p>The Jewish population may be divided into four large groups, some of -which are subdivided. I. The Sephardic or Spanish-Portuguese Jews, who -have not retained their native speech, but who have preserved certain -peculiarities in their worship, and distinctive ritualistic forms which -are dignified and stately. The Hebrew language which they use in their -service is pronounced in a peculiar way and in better harmony with the -spirit of the language than one hears elsewhere. They are the real -aristocracy among the Jews;<a name="page_148" id="page_148"></a> rarely poor, with much of old time Spanish -pride remaining in their bearing and expressed in their attitude towards -the other Jewish groups. They are centred almost entirely in the Eastern -cities, where they are found in the upper world of finance and in -business and professional life.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The second group, the “Ashkenazim” or -German Jews, has most quickly adjusted itself to the life in America and -has developed what might be called an American Judaism, in which liberal -tendencies have prevailed and have played havoc with the traditions of -the past, very often at the expense of the spirit of Judaism. Some of -these congregations have made Sunday the Sabbath of their week, and the -service is conducted in the English language with the Hebrew almost -entirely eliminated. Out of this group have come most of the prominent -Jews in the United States, and in nearly every community of any size we -find German Jews, engaged in reputable business, most often owning dry -goods or clothing stores.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> - -<p>The third group is composed of Austrian and Hungarian Jews many of whom -have remained orthodox without being slavishly attached to Rabbinism; -while their congregations are usually upon what is called the “Status -Quo” basis,<a name="page_149" id="page_149"></a> which is neither extremely orthodox nor reformed, and -consequently is sterile.</p> - -<p>They are apt to be more clannish than the German Jews, grouping -themselves into centres according to the districts from which they come, -strongly retaining the characteristics of the races among which they -lived so long, and bringing with them many of the antagonisms engendered -in that conglomerate of nationalities, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. -This is especially true of the Hungarian Jews who have become convivial, -like the Magyars, and are not over fond of work. The coffee houses of -“Little Hungary” in New York, draw their revenue largely from these -Jews, to whom life without the coffee house would not seem worth the -living, and for whom each day must hold its pause for a friendly game of -cards or billiards, and a pull at a long and strong black cigar. Among -them are shrewd traders, pawn-brokers and a very small proportion of -peddlers; although the occupation of peddler entails a position not -agreeable to their proud spirits. In a larger degree than the other -groups mentioned, they are engaged in mechanical labour, being wood and -metal workers, and makers of artificial flowers and passementerie. In -these trades they have attained real proficiency. They are not so well -distributed as the German Jews, and are found largely in New York with a -slowly increasing number in Chicago and St. Louis. They<a name="page_150" id="page_150"></a> have brought -with them many of the looser ways of such cities as Vienna and Budapest; -therefore they are less thrifty than the Russian Jews and less -intelligent than those from Germany. Their Judaism is apt to sit very -lightly upon them, as they have neither the spiritual vision of the -first group, nor the ethical conception of religion which the second -group possesses. Racially they are also less conscious of Judaism, and -easily intermarry with Gentiles or lose themselves among them where -their physique does not betray them. A Hungarian Jew usually prefers to -be called a Magyar; yet I know of many instances where that fact was -stoutly denied, though undoubtedly the Magyar spirit was grafted upon -Semitic stock.</p> - -<p>The last and largest group, the Russian Jews, the youngest army of the -immigrants, is ultra orthodox, yet ultra radical; chained to the past, -and yet utterly severed from it; with religion permeating every act of -life, or going to the other extreme, and having “none of it”; traders by -instinct, and yet among the hardest manual labourers of our great -cities. A complex mass in which great things are yearning to express -themselves, a brooding mass which does not know itself and does not -lightly disclose itself to the outsider.</p> - -<p>More broken into individualistic groups than the Austrians and -Hungarians, they have the<a name="page_151" id="page_151"></a> strongest racial consciousness, and perhaps -are also the depository of the greatest Jewish genius. The synagogue is -the centre of each provincial or village group gathered in some Ghetto -and, being subject to no ecclesiastical law outside of itself, is -thoroughly Congregational. These synagogues vary in size and untidiness -as the services vary in monotony and disorder. Each man prays or chants -as fast or as slowly, as high or as low, as he pleases. Naturally, the -effect is not harmonious, neither is there much harmony in the -administration of ecclesiastical affairs.</p> - -<p>Rabbi, Cantor and Shochet (the official slaughterer) are usually out -with each other and with various members of the congregation, and -quarrels during service are not unknown. While the worship seems -fervent, it is often spiritless, and only a small portion of the Russian -Jewish population works seriously at the business of its organized -religious life. The younger generation has much unsatisfied longing for -the real spiritual life, and there are a few Jewish Endeavour Societies -entirely apart from the synagogues, in which this spirit expresses -itself. A still larger number of the young people have slowly but surely -drifted into complete antagonism to the faith of their fathers, and here -lies the great conflict as well as the great problem.</p> - -<p>Nothing in the whole story of immigration is<a name="page_152" id="page_152"></a> so pathetic as this -growing breach between the old and the new; this ever widening gulf -which is not being bridged.</p> - -<p>The Ethical Culture Society has a hold, although not a very vital one, -upon a small number; and here and there one or the other of the young -people drifts into a Christian church, but this makes no serious -impression upon the mass.</p> - -<p>Zionism has become the strong rallying point for many of them, and has -gathered into its various lodges much of the radical element, which is -coming back to the law and the prophets by the way of an awakened -consciousness.</p> - -<p>The Russian Jews are the busiest of our alien population, and although -at first among the poorest, a respectable middle class is growing up, -and is marching towards wealth, if not as yet enrolled among the -millionaires.</p> - -<p>Of the total of 600,000 Jews in New York City, nearly 100,000 are -engaged in various branches of the clothing industry, and in mechanical -and manufacturing pursuits. This is a remarkable showing for people who -nearly all had to adjust themselves to manual labour for which they were -not physically fitted, and which they had no opportunity to perform in -Russia.</p> - -<p>In the trades which they have entered they usually maintain a -satisfactory wage, and cannot be regarded as a serious economic menace. -If<a name="page_153" id="page_153"></a> they remain crowded in the Ghettos of the Eastern cities, it is due, -not so much to their gregarious habits and to the needs springing from -their religious observances, as it is due to the fact that the trades in -which they find readiest employment are here concentrated, and the wages -most satisfying. The needle above all else is to blame for the -congestion of the Ghetto, and a great transformation must come over -Israel both physically and mentally, before the needle will be exchanged -for the plow.<a name="page_154" id="page_154"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI<br /><br /> -IN THE GHETTOS OF NEW YORK</h2> - -<p>A<small>T</small> last we are free, although still upon Uncle Sam’s ferry boat, which -carries those of us who have passed muster, to the Battery, the gateway -into the gigantic city and the vast country which lies beyond where, -“sans ceremonie,” we are landed.</p> - -<p>Boarding house “Runners” call out the names of their hostelries, express -men entreat us to entrust to them our belongings, the voice of the -banana peddler is heard in the land, and through the babel of sounds -there arise the joyous shrieks of those who welcome their dear ones.</p> - -<p>Over in Hoboken, where the cool-blooded Anglo-Saxon awaits his wife, who -“toiled not neither did she spin” during her year abroad,—the joy -remains unexpressed. She may say to him: “Hello, old man!” and he will -reply: “How are you, old girl?” and that is all, so far as the public -knows. But here on the Battery, where Jacob meets his Leah, for whom he -has toiled and suffered these five years, for whose sake he ate hard rye -bread and onions that he might save money to bring her to him;—when -Jacob meets his Leah, there are warm embraces<a name="page_155" id="page_155"></a> and kisses through the -tears. Here, men embrace and kiss each other, and children are held up -to the father’s gaze,—fathers who left them as infants and now see them -grown.</p> - -<p>Half a dozen stalwart men and women will almost crush a little wrinkled -“Mutterleben,” their mother, coming to them for the sunset of her life, -which is to be bright and beautiful after many dark mornings and cloudy -noondays.</p> - -<p>I attached myself to a young Russian Jew of about my own age, who had no -relatives waiting for him, but who had the address of his parents’ -friends. They had come here a few years before, and now served as the -clearing house for that particular district in Russia, of which their -native town was the centre.</p> - -<p>We went up Broadway, and after plunging into the whirlpool of its -traffic, emerged safe at the City Hall, crossed the Bowery and were at -the edge of the great Ghetto, the heart of the largest Jewish community -in the world. It numbers now nearly 700,000 souls, scattered through all -parts of Greater New York, and massed in four centres, commonly called -Ghettos; of which the one through which we are passing is the “Great -Original” one. It is less dirty, less suspiciously fragrant than the -Ghetto which my comrade has left, and in spite of squalor and visible -signs of poverty, a certain air of joyousness pervades its life which is -lacking in the old home. The<a name="page_156" id="page_156"></a> hurdy gurdy grinder lures nimble footed -children from block to block, like the “Pied Piper of Hamelin,” and they -are happier and more graceful than the much be-starched children of the -rich who take lessons in dancing and in conventional deportment.</p> - -<p>The sidewalks and driveways are packed by humanity, most of it children, -for the Abrahamitic promise that his “seed shall increase like the sands -of the sea” has not yet departed from Israel—only the illustration is -not quite complete, for while the Ghetto children are as numerous as the -sands (I counted almost two thousand in one block), they are not nearly -so clean.</p> - -<p>The language of the Ghetto is Yiddish, a mixture of German, Hebrew, and -Russian; but with enough English mixed with it to make the immigrant -halt before such words as “gemovet,” “gejumpt,” “getrusted,” which -sooner or later will become part of his own vocabulary.</p> - -<p>Street signs are written in Hebrew letters, and the passer-by is invited -by them to drink a glass of soda for a cent, to buy two “pananas” for -the same sum, to purchase a prayer-mantle or “kosher” meat, to enter a -beer saloon or a synagogue. Many of these signs are translated into -English, and Rabbi Levinson on Cannon Street has in large English -letters, “Performer of Matrimony;” in the same house one finds “wedding -dresses for hire,” and can have his<a name="page_157" id="page_157"></a> “picture photographed,” and also -may buy “furnitings for pedrooms and barlours.”</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_pg_156_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_pg_156_sml.jpg" width="348" height="500" alt="THE GHETTO OF THE NEW WORLD. - -East of the Bowery in New York City is the heart of the largest Jewish -community in the world. Sidewalks, street signs, language, all indicate -the process of development." -title="THE GHETTO OF THE NEW WORLD" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">THE GHETTO OF THE NEW WORLD.<br /> -East of the Bowery in New York City is the heart of the largest Jewish -community in the world. Sidewalks, street signs, language, all indicate -the process of development.</span> -</p> - -<p>Everything is for sale on the street, from pickled cucumbers to feather -beds, and almost all the work done in this Ghetto is done by Jewish -workmen. There are Jewish plumbers, locksmiths, masons, and of course -tailors; and work and trade are the watchwords of the Ghetto, where, in -all my wanderings through it, I have not seen that genus Americanum, the -corner loafer.</p> - -<p>The prevailing type of dwelling, even after tenement-house legislation, -is much too crowded and too dirty. The New York Ghetto looks remarkably -decent from the outside, but pharisaic landlords have beautified the -“outside of the cup and platter,” while within, the house is poorly -prepared for human habitation. A good example is the house into which I -lead my friend. It is an old fashioned front and rear tenement with -fifty families as residents, and on climbing the stairway to the fifth -story to which our address directs, our nostrils are greeted by a -fragrance which, compared with the well remembered smells of the -steerage, is like unto the odours of Araby the blest.</p> - -<p>We come into the kitchen, where the family of nine is just at dinner; -two of the number, a husband and wife, are regular boarders. I doubt -whether anywhere else, under similar circumstances, we would have -received so genuinely<a name="page_158" id="page_158"></a> hearty a welcome, in spite of the fact that we -were practically strangers to them, and that I had no claim whatever -upon their hospitality.</p> - -<p>One of the children has already been dispatched to the nearest store to -buy additional dainties, and room is made at the already crowded table -for two very hungry adults.</p> - -<p>My Russian friend, amazed as he was at the turmoil of the streets and -the height of the buildings, is still more awed by the sight of such -abundant and wholesome food, to which he may help himself without stint. -There are large sweet potatoes which taste better than cake, and are -permeated by the delicate flavour of nuts; they are a greater contrast -to the small, gnarly, scant portion of potatoes which it has been his -lot to eat, than any forty story sky scraper can be to the tumble-down -shanty in which his father kept store. Meat,—a huge piece of meat, on -his plate,—and in the memory of his palate, only the soft end of a soup -bone, as a special delicacy. What a contrast!</p> - -<p>“Last, but not least,” the pie, that apple pie, of which he had a whole -one for himself and knew not how to attack it; until finally, following -good precedent, he took it into his trembling hands and let his joyous -face disappear in its juicy depths. After the dinner, he was catechized, -all the inhabitants of the far away town were inquired<a name="page_159" id="page_159"></a> after, and the -record of the living and the dead told to the news hungry hearers.</p> - -<p>What a marvellous group this is! and typical of thousands. The father is -a cloak presser. He is a small, cadaverous looking man of very gentle -mien, who knows not much beyond the fact that to-morrow the whistle will -blow, and that he will be on the fifteenth floor of a great cloak -factory, “doing his allotted task,” (God willing). The enemies that -await him are many; the red-headed Irish “Forelady,” who looks hard -after the creases in the cloaks, and who in turn, is suspected by him of -all the evils in the catalogue of sin; the cloak designer, a Viennese -Jew, who hates all Jews, especially Russian Jews, and more especially -this particular one with whom, after the fashion of the Viennese, he -quarrels for pastime. His fellow cloak presser, whose name was Elijah -and who now calls himself Jack, is an ardent Socialist, who “pesters” my -host by his economic theories which are obnoxious to him in the extreme. -“I yoost haf to led him dalk,” is the refrain of my host’s complaint. -Our hostess is corpulent and somewhat untidy; her horizon is even more -limited than that of her husband. She, too, works; she is a skillful -operator, and from 8 <small>A. M.</small> until 6 <small>P. M.</small> she hears nothing but the whirr -of the machine. She does not even have an enemy to vary the monotony by -her Socialistic doctrines. The oldest daughter is<a name="page_160" id="page_160"></a> called Blanche, -although she was named Rebecca; she too works, and has worked for -several years, albeit she is not past sixteen. She embroiders in a -fashionable dressmaking establishment on Broadway, and likes her place; -she sees fine ladies and handles fine stuffs, and, “above all,” she says -to me in good English, “I don’t have to associate with Russian Jews.” -She reads good books,—fiction, biography, history—everything. The two -on her shelf that evening, were “Ivanhoe,” and “The Life of Florence -Nightingale.” Other children are growing up and going to work soon; so -the family is on the up grade, in spite of the fact that work is not -always steady, that the wife’s parents who live with them are old and -feeble, that the youngest child is threatened by blindness, and that -they have paid much money to quack doctors who advertise and to those -who do not. It was pathetic in the extreme to see this family crowd -together to make room for us for the night. My friend slept on a sofa, -the ribs of which protruded like those of Pharaoh’s lean kine, and I -slept soundly on the smoother surface of the floor.</p> - -<p>The next day brought to us the momentous task of going out to find work, -and before the whistle blew for the night’s rest, my friend was part of -a sewing machine, while I being stronger, was assigned to pressing -cloaks. My fellow cloak presser told a piteous story of his wife and<a name="page_161" id="page_161"></a> -four children on the other side, who had been almost heart-broken -because he had been here two years and been kept by “hard luck” from -sending for them. I worked by his side for a day, receiving my first -lessons in cloak-pressing from him, and the last letter from his wife -was so pathetic, that it drew tears from my eyes and money from my -pocketbook towards those tickets. When the day’s work was over, and the -possibility of soon seeing his family was almost realized, he said as we -parted, “I shall sleep happily to-night;” and so did I, in spite of heat -and sore muscles.</p> - -<p>Rarely do these clothes pressers rise to a higher place in their trade, -although occasionally by strict economy and much hard labour, one may -own a shop and “sweat” the “greener” as he has “been sweated.”</p> - -<p>In my wanderings through the Ghetto I dropped into a pawnshop on Avenue -C one day, and after I made some purchases the proprietor grew friendly -and introduced me to his family. He is the happy father of seven sons, -all of them “smart as a whip,” and all of them doing well. The youngest -one, Charles T., the smartest, is still in school and, like all the -Yiddish boys, at the head of his class. Charles T. knows everything, -from Marquis of Queensberry rules to the schedule of lectures at the -Educational Alliance building.<a name="page_162" id="page_162"></a> “What are you going to be, Charles?” I -asked. “A business man like my father;” and the keen look in his big -eyes, the determination of his whole frame and face, showed that he -would succeed even better than his father, who is beginning to think of -“being at ease in Zion,” and retiring from business. Charles T.’s father -began life by buying rags on Houston Street; his sons will sell bonds on -Wall Street.</p> - -<p>The Ghetto is not all barter and manual labour, for there are many -synagogues in which prayers are said every day; although only a few of -these synagogues are anything more than halls or large rooms in tenement -houses, sometimes above or below a drinking-place and in many instances -in ball rooms, which on Saturdays and holy days put off their unholy -garb.</p> - -<p>If all the population of the Ghetto attended to its religious duties, -these one hundred synagogues would have to be increased to a thousand; -but on Saturdays many have to work, and increasingly many wish to work, -so that not twenty per cent. of the Ghetto population attend religious -services. However, on the great feast days, New Year’s day and the day -of Atonement, everybody goes; or as Charles T.’s father would say: “I go -to the synagogue twice a year and pay my dues, and then I’ll not have a ----- thing to do with them for another year.” Charles T.’s father is a -politician.</p> - -<p>Most of the Ghetto rabbis are, like Mr. Levinson,<a name="page_163" id="page_163"></a> “Performers of -Matrimony” and not much else; they are professionally pious and not -deeply religious; they have no vision and measure a man’s religion by -his observances of fasts and feasts; they are ignorant of all literature -except the Talmud, that treasure house of Jewish thought and -prison-house of Jewish souls. They are as superstitious as their -constituency, and often less honest, but in not a few cases truly devout -and charitable. There is no ecclesiastical control over these rabbis, -and they are in some cases self-made men in the worst sense of the word, -while their influence upon the ethical life of the Ghetto is almost -“nil.” They are the Jews’ law court and judges in matters which pertain -to ritualistic questions, but they are almost nothing to them in life. -There is very little preaching, less pastoral visitation, and much -useless bending of the back over musty books full of “dry bones” of -rabbinical lore.</p> - -<p>The one great Jewish intellectual and ethical centre of the Ghetto is -the Educational Alliance building, with its various scattered branches; -it is everything which a Young Men’s Christian Association is to a -Gentile community, only more, inasmuch as it ministers to all, from -childhood to old age. Israel’s intellectual hunger is as great as its -proverbial greed for wealth, and this gigantic building, covering a -block and containing forty-three classrooms, is entirely inadequate to<a name="page_164" id="page_164"></a> -meet the demand. The main entrance is always in a state of siege, and -two policemen are stationed there to maintain order and keep the -crowding people in line. I visited it on a hot Sunday afternoon in July, -and I found the large, well-stocked reading-room uncomfortably filled by -young men. The roof-garden is a breathing-place for thousands, and is -always crowded by children, who are supervised in their play and who -enjoy it eagerly.</p> - -<p>The annual report reads like a fairy tale. Many of the lectures and -entertainments have to be given a number of times to give all an -opportunity to hear and to see, and some of the most difficult subjects -discussed find the most numerous and enthusiastic hearers. Baths, sewing -and cooking schools, are maintained, and to give even a list of all the -agencies employed to lift this population would exhaust my space. There -has been marked improvement among its constituency mentally and -ethically, and the redemption of New York from Tammany was in no small -measure due to the faithful work done by this and other similar centres, -not the least among them being the University Settlement.</p> - -<p>There are several Christian churches in this district, but what their -influence upon the newcomer is I could not determine. In the main it may -be said that the churches do not concern themselves greatly regarding -this problem<a name="page_165" id="page_165"></a> around them, although there are a few notable exceptions.</p> - -<p>The following letter does not give one a hopeful view of the situation. -The gentleman to whom this letter was written, Mr. User Marcus, was -actively engaged in the kind of politics in which the churches ought to -have an interest. He organized a club, and through one of its members -secured a room in the Woods Memorial Church on Avenue A. After the first -meeting Mr. Marcus received the following letter:</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p class="r"><span class="smcap">New York, Nov. 1, 1901.</span></p> - -<p class="nind"><i>Mr. User Marcus, 157 Second Ave., City.</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>—Word has just come to me that your club will mainly -consist of Jews, also that you are acting independently of the club -already formed. Now you must know that the young men who have the -club are the men of our church, and therefore it would not be right -to oust them for strangers, and especially Jews. The men are quite -worked up about it, and came to see me about it the other night, -and this is my decision: that you get another place of meeting -other than ours. I have issued orders that you cannot meet again. -And another thing: I told you strictly that you must be out by 10 -<small>P. M.</small>, which you were not, as you kept the room open until eleven -o’clock. All these things have determined me on my course, and I -hope that you will not take it in a wrong spirit, as I am acting -simply for the best interests of my church, and feel that this is -the best way for all concerned.</p> - -<p>It seems to me that, being Jews, you would scorn to accept any -favours from Christians. I should certainly be<a name="page_166" id="page_166"></a> pretty far gone -before I should ask or even accept a favour at the hand of a Jew, -knowing as I do the feeling which exists between them and the -people of our religion.</p> - -<p class="c">Yours respectfully,</p></div> - -<p>The Jew suspects every convert and suspects and hates the missionary. -His own religious faith may have little hold upon him, but he is hostile -to the attempt to proselyte him and his brethren. He knows Christianity -from its worst side, and he does not always see it in these missions -from its best side, for all religious work which bends its effort -towards making a big annual report must be superficial if not dishonest, -and the temptation to make converts is very great, even if the methods -employed are above suspicion.</p> - -<p>The work of the Jewish Mission in the Ghetto ought to be the -interpretation of the spirit of Christianity, so that it might remove -suspicion and prejudice, and not increase them. Making converts in that -mechanical way used in the revival service of the past is as obnoxious -to the sensible Christian as it is to the sensitive Jew; while the -coddling of the convert and his exhibition as an example do more harm -than good. A true interpretation of Jesus by Christian people in the -churches and out of them, a touch of kindness here and there without a -thought of definite<a name="page_167" id="page_167"></a> results, the treating of the Jew as a man and not -as a special species, would do more to reach the Jewish soul than any -organized missionary effort with which I am acquainted.</p> - -<p>The two great social factors of the Ghetto are the Yiddish newspapers -and the theatre, each of them in some degree entering into the life of -every dweller in the Ghetto, as indeed each of them is a mixture of good -and ill; a battle-field of past ideals and modern aspirations. The paper -most in evidence on the street is the <i>Jewish Vorwaerts</i>, the Social -Democratic organ; if all its readers were adherents of this political -faith, its strength would be enormous. A careful examination of this -subject shows that there are about three thousand Social Democrats in -the Ghetto, and that three hundred of that number are of the extreme -type. The politics of the Ghetto used to be very uniform; they were -Democratic; years ago a Jewish Republican was a curiosity, to-day he is -a very important minority. Tammany had a very strong hold upon this -district, and even to-day the Tammany district leader is its political -saint.</p> - -<p>To “fix and be fixed” used to be considered no crime, and is still -winked at with both eyes, although every time that Tammany is defeated, -the Ghetto has a few less crooked windings. To evade the law is a vice -brought from the lawlessness of Russia, and the political tutelage of -the<a name="page_168" id="page_168"></a> East side of New York has not improved the situation. The Hearst -influence is felt here in a remarkable degree, and the New York <i>Evening -Journal</i> is a great power for both good and ill.</p> - -<p>The Jewish immigrant receives his first training for citizenship in one -of the lodges or societies of which there are legions. Here he becomes -conscious of himself; and above all, he can talk, and unlock the -flood-gates of unexpressed emotion.</p> - -<p>I attended a “meetunk” as it is called, of a “Sick and Benefit Society,” -and I think it is typical of all of them. The “meetunk” was held on -Lewis Street, in a hall on the top story of a rather old and rickety -building. Underneath the lodge room is a dance hall, beneath that a -synagogue, and a saloon occupies the basement. The occasion was a public -installation of officers, and the ladies were invited. To one who has -seen these people in their old environment, the change seems miraculous. -The men wore the very best and cleanest clothing, and the women were -obtrusively stylish.</p> - -<p>All the red tape of the American lodge was observed in this society, in -which most of the members knew nothing of parliamentary law and had -never taken part in debate. Unfortunately for the decorum of the ladies, -there was a wedding ball in the room below, and the Polish mazurka kept -their feet in motion and did not seal their<a name="page_169" id="page_169"></a> lips. The President used -the gavel freely, and, in spite of stamping feet and wild-measured -music, the installation services were carried out. The personnel of this -society is of some interest; its eighty members are drawn almost -entirely from one district in the old country; with the exception of -three or four men, they are all engaged in manual labour. The retiring -President is a graduate of a gymnasium, speaks four languages poorly and -English very well, is a Republican, is thoroughly Americanized, and, -although not active in politics, is an influence for good in their -affairs. He neither smokes nor drinks, and manages to save money from -his meagre wages. The newly installed President is a wood-turner by -trade, earns eighteen dollars a week, is also a Republican, not active -in politics, but a conscientious citizen. The newly elected -Vice-President is a cloak-presser, a strong Social Democrat, and would -die for his political faith. He belongs to the Social Labour wing, and -he hates the Social Democratic wing with a desperate hatred; he is a -good speaker, honest though fanatical, and one who might be made to see -the weakness of his political creed. The Secretary is a Polish Jew, a -dealer in plumbers’ supplies, a Democrat not of the Tammany order, a -stereotyped Anti-Imperialist and Free-trader, speaks English fluently -although only ten years in this country, and is on the road to -Harlem—that is, to wealth.<a name="page_170" id="page_170"></a> The Treasurer is a Russian Jew, an -“aprator,” earns eight dollars a week, speaks English very well, has -been six years in the country but is not yet a citizen; he will be a -Social Democrat first, and a Republican when he has a bank account. Of -the eighty men present, fifteen were Republicans, twenty were Democrats, -two were Socialists, and the rest were not yet citizens.</p> - -<p>Most of them spoke English fairly well, and some could understand a few -words although only four months in this country. Of the married women -the fewest could speak English, but the young girls knew it well -enough—slang, vaudeville songs, and all.</p> - -<p>After the installation services there was much useless discussion (under -the “good of the order”) upon minor points, so typical of such meetings -outside the Ghetto. Characteristic of the “meetunk” was the fact that -the leaders were all members of other lodges. Of the women who spoke for -“the good of the order,” a “Daughter of Rebekah,” the wife of the -President, made a capital speech. The “meetunk” adjourned for a banquet -served in the basement, where a Hungarian stew and beer cheered and -filled but did not inebriate or cause indigestion. National songs were -rendered by the young people as the spirit moved them, and after the -banquet the whole “meetunk” invited itself to the wedding ball -up-stairs, where in the polka<a name="page_171" id="page_171"></a> and mazurka they drove time away wildly, -and prepared themselves badly for the next day’s hard labour.</p> - -<p>In the Ghetto, Friday, the day before the Sabbath, is a day of -agitation, of scrubbing, cooking, baking, and merchandizing; Saturday is -the day of meditation, when the faces are solemn and the step is slow, -and although many must work, there is a perceptible stillness -everywhere. With shuffling step and pious mien the rabbis and members go -to the synagogue, and with much wailing and lamentation praise and bless -Jehovah.</p> - -<p>The second generation of the immigrant Jew has lost its adherence to the -solemn observance of the day of rest; eats and drinks whenever and -wherever opportunity offers, and smokes cigars on the Sabbath (a most -heinous sin). Americanization means to the Jew in most cases dejudaizing -himself without becoming a Christian. There is a painful eagerness on -the part of some of the younger generation especially to cast aside -everything which marks it as Jewish, and I have heard some of the -severest criticisms of the Jews from the lips of such people. The -American Jew becomes over-conscious of the faults of his race, and not -seldom hates the word Jew and feels himself insulted if it is applied to -him. “I hate them all,” I heard a number of the younger Jews say, and -there was no vice in the calendar of Hades which they did not ascribe to -their own race.<a name="page_172" id="page_172"></a></p> - -<p>If, as some people claim, the Jews are discriminated against in New York -by the Gentile business firms, I have proof that there are a number of -Jewish firms that do not employ any Jews and very many that prefer -Gentile help. The Jews who come from various European countries hate one -another on general principles, and a Hungarian or a German Jew looks -down in the greatest derision on the Pole and the Russian. These latter -two nationalities are mentally and physically stronger, their needs are -smaller, their wits are sharper, and as getting ahead always starts -calumny, the Russian Jew gets a good share of it. His is not a -prepossessing nature; his form and face are often repulsive and his -habits are none the less so, but he has an abundance of ambition and a -superabundance of sharpness, which, when they are led into right -channels, become an ennobling talent. East Broadway, the wholesale -district of the Ghetto, suffers from overmuch such talent, and its -capacity for shrewd trading and quick thinking cannot be excelled -anywhere in New York outside of Wall Street.</p> - -<p>The Polish and Russian Jews are under strong suspicion of making money -out of fires and bankruptcies, and the suspicion must be well founded, -for the insurance companies discriminate against them and many of them -refuse to take the risks. Great crimes are seldom laid to<a name="page_173" id="page_173"></a> the charge of -the Russian Jew, although too often he lends himself to rather shady -business transactions, and the percentage of certain crimes is rapidly -increasing. Taking him as a whole, however, he is honest, industrious, -and frugal, and has, above all, the making of a man in him. It is true -that he works for small wages, but he soon wants more; he lives on -little money, but he soon spends more. He does not have as many faults -as his enemies assert, and he has as many virtues as one might -reasonably expect. He is to be feared, not for his weakness, but for his -strength; not for his faults, but for his virtues: he is here to stay, -he does not care to return to Russia, and he cannot if he wishes to. The -Russian Government sees to that. If he wishes to return home for a -visit, he changes his name, puts a big cross around the necks of his -children, and says he is a Protestant; but he has a hard time to -convince the officials, and often is forced to return without seeing his -native village. The Ghetto is not an ideal dwelling-place; its nearness -to the Bowery, the crowded condition of its tenement-houses, and its -inherited weaknesses and sins are against it; yet I have never seen a -drunken man on any of its streets and I have witnessed only one quarrel, -but that was worth a great many of its kind in other places.</p> - -<p>The Ghetto is a peaceful community if not a united one. For instance, -the young man with<a name="page_174" id="page_174"></a> whom I drifted into New York remained closely -attached to the Jews from his own district in Russia, and consequently -retained all the prejudices against the Jews who came from more or less -favoured portions of the Czar’s domain. He was from Lithuania, and -regarded himself and his kind as intellectually keener and more learned -in the law than they; facts which were acknowledged by his neighbours, -but who added to them less complimentary characteristics, such as -exceptional unreliability and trickery in trade.</p> - -<p>Not long ago, as I walked slowly up Second Avenue, I was met by a -well-dressed man, whose face was shaven and whose trousers were creased -after the manner of Americans. In good English although with a strong -accent, he called my name and brought back to my memory a journey across -the sea, and a start in life together on this side. “And how are you -getting along, Abromowitz?” “Getting along like pulling teeth.” “What do -you mean?” “I am learning to be a dentist with my father-in-law, who -keeps a fine office.” “Where do you live?” “On Rivington Street, and you -must come to see me.” I followed him into a tenement house of the better -class, and found him rather well situated. The home which consisted of -three rooms contained all the hall marks of American civilization. -Carpets of various hues were upon the floor, coloured supplements of -Sunday newspapers<a name="page_175" id="page_175"></a> lined the walls, a huge plush album contained -pictures of the friends left behind and the new ones made in America, -and “last but not least” on the wall hung crayon portraits of himself -and his bride in their wedding attire. They also possessed a phonograph -on which they played for my special benefit the latest songs current in -the variety theatres. The young husband told me of his increasing -prosperity, and when I questioned him as to why he did not move into a -better locality, he answered, that he had contemplated doing so, even -having rented a flat out towards Harlem; but when he and his wife viewed -the neighbourhood they found that it was peopled by Russian Jews not of -their own native region, so they preferred to remain on Rivington -Street. To them that street is only a suburb of Minsk; here the news -drifts with every incoming steamer, and although it is almost always sad -news, they thus keep in close touch with the weal and woe of their -kindred and acquaintances.</p> - -<p>I have made it an especial task to follow as closely as possible the -career of a hundred Russian Jews with whom I have come in touch during -my journeys and investigations. Although they did not pass into my field -of observation together, and represent various ages and conditions, the -following may be of interest: After five years, about forty per cent. -had learned to speak English very well, and about fifteen per<a name="page_176" id="page_176"></a> cent. -could write it almost faultlessly, while more than sixty per cent. could -read English newspapers. Of this number seventy-eight per cent. had -become wage-earners and only fifteen per cent. of these had not -materially improved their lot in life. Eighteen were citizens of the -United States, three were Social Democrats of an intense type, five -believed that way, but voted the Republican ticket, and the rest were -divided on national questions about evenly between the two dominant -parties. They voted as they pleased in local affairs, although they were -strongly influenced first by Tammany and later by the Hearst movement -which more and more dominates the east side of New York. Ninety-one per -cent. has ceased to be orthodox in their religious practices, although -in thirty-seven per cent. the “spirit was willing but the flesh was -weak.” All the Social Democrats with the exception of one, had entirely -drifted from their ancient moorings and were avowed atheists. As to -their relation to Christianity I asked one of them, “Do you know -anything about American Christians?” and he replied, “How shall I know -anything about Christians on the East side?” Nearly all of them were -saving some money and one of them had grown rich, at least in the -estimation of his neighbours, and he was in the real estate business. -Among all of them there has been an intellectual awakening. As one of -them said:<a name="page_177" id="page_177"></a> “They have room to think though they have but little -leisure.”</p> - -<p>Modifications and almost marvellous transformations had taken place in -the features of many, and these were the men who had thought themselves -most into our life. Whether there was growth in ethical conception it is -hard to say, for one cannot easily reach beyond the exterior in -sociological observations, and depths do not disclose themselves when -one watches people by the hundred. Their business sense certainly has -not grown less keen, and making money is as much an object in life as it -always was. Perchance even a little more. The scale of things has -changed. I find in most of them that they are more honest in little -things, which comes from the fact that they need not be penurious. The -real estate dealer is an unscrupulous sharper, I know, but in that he -merely shares the unenviable reputation of his guild.</p> - -<p>I should say that many of the surface vices born of certain economic -conditions have disappeared, although I do not see that any great -virtues have taken their places or that at the present time any great -ethical movement is apparent. The synagogue is sterile in that -direction, and the average Rabbi among this class is no ethical factor.</p> - -<p>The public schools, which of course reach only the children, are much -too crowded and have<a name="page_178" id="page_178"></a> such a superabundance of raw material to work upon -that it is impossible for them to reach deep enough into the crowded -life of the Ghetto. Great ethical factors are the Jewish Alliance -already mentioned, Cooper Institute, with its many lectures and Sunday -afternoon services, and some of the settlements in which many honest -attempts are made and splendid results achieved.</p> - -<p>But “Salvation is still from the Jews,” still from within, and the best -thing which can be done for the Russian Jews of New York, and for all -the Jews in America, is to make them more truly Jewish, and that is a -task at which happily both Jew and Christian may work, and for that task -we all need the larger vision which comes partially, at least, from -knowing one another.<a name="page_179" id="page_179"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII<br /><br /> -THE SLAVS AT HOME</h2> - -<p>N<small>EARLY</small> the whole eastern portion of Europe is Slavic territory, and -although here and there broken into by other races, it is the Slav’s own -world which he inhabits. A world which is constantly growing larger in -spite of the fact that his advance in Asia has been checked.</p> - -<p>One need not travel longer than a few hours from the German cities of -Berlin, Leipsic, from the Austrian capital, Vienna, or from Venice, in -Italy, to find himself far from German speech, habits and customs.</p> - -<p>On the Baltic and on the Adriatic, as well as on the Black Sea, the Slav -holds complete possession, although politically he may not everywhere be -the master. He undoubtedly differs in many ways from his close -neighbours, but just where that difference lies is hard to tell, because -the portrayal of the characteristics of a race seems perilous, the -danger being to ascribe to a nation, as traits, the agreeable or -disagreeable impressions gathered from individuals during visits of -shorter or longer duration. Inherited prejudices play no little part in -such judgments; and, again, we too often hear nations given praise or -blame which is based upon an indigestible<a name="page_180" id="page_180"></a> dish, a disagreeable day, a -good glass of wine, or joyous <i>camaraderie</i>.</p> - -<p>To characterize the Slav is doubly difficult, because he has managed in -the last twenty years to start many conflicts, and therefore has made -enemies, who are apt to ascribe to him uncomplimentary characteristics. -The Englishman has disagreeable notions of the Slav in the East, the -German has his Polish problem, the Austrian has the belligerent Czech, -the Italian on the Adriatic has the assertive Illyrian; the Turk doesn’t -think very highly of his Slav neighbours, the Bulgarians and -Montenegrins. It is not only hard not to be prejudiced against the Slav, -but it is hard to be informed about him; first, because he has written -very little about himself, with a few notable exceptions, and, secondly, -because there are so many Slavic tribes which have remained isolated one -from the other, have developed upon different lines, or have been -influenced by the stronger race to which they happened to be neighbours, -so that many characteristics which we ascribe to them are often the -borrowed virtues, or more frequently the sins, of their neighbours.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_pg_180_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_pg_180_sml.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="FROM THE BLACK MOUNTAIN. - -There is no more sturdy stock in Europe than the Slav of Montenegro, -none more ready to turn from gun to wood axe, from blood-revenge to -citizenship." -title="FROM THE BLACK MOUNTAIN" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">FROM THE BLACK MOUNTAIN.<br /> -There is no more sturdy stock in Europe than the Slav of Montenegro, -none more ready to turn from gun to wood axe, from blood-revenge to -citizenship.</span> -</p> - -<p>The Wends, Poles, and Bohemians show in speech and life influences of -their German neighbours; the Slovak in Hungary has a strong Magyar -taint; the Croatian, Servian, Bulgarian, and the Montenegrin come -dangerously near the<a name="page_181" id="page_181"></a> Turk; the Dalmatian on the Adriatic, in spite of -his resistance against it, shows influences of Venice, not only in the -magnificent architecture of his churches, but also in language and -character; while the Slovene of the Alps has received much good from his -brave Tyrolese neighbours whom of course he in turn has influenced.</p> - -<p>The only Slavic people who present an unbroken surface for observation -are the Russians, who, undivided by high mountains or other natural -difficulties, have blended their differences to some extent, and have -become a vast nation, with a common language, a common faith, and -certain characteristics which have become the common possession of all -the people. But to generalize even about the Russian is impossible, -inasmuch as there are at least two well-defined types, divided -geographically, and differing not only in outward appearance, but in -nearly everything about which one is sorely tempted to write in general -terms.</p> - -<p>The Great Russian, who occupies the largest part of his native land, is -undoubtedly of mixed blood, the Finnish extraction manifesting itself in -the flattened features and the protruding cheek-bones; while his enemies -say that you need not scratch him long before you strike the Tartar. He -is rather roughly made, his features are anything but delicate, the nose -is heavy and inclined to be pugnacious (this may be taken as the -general<a name="page_182" id="page_182"></a> tendency of the Slavic nose), his eyes are brown or pale blue, -and friendly, and the face is suffused by a health-betraying glow. The -colour of the hair is seldom or never black, and shades all the way from -a light brown to a definite red, and from that to a rather indefinite -blond.</p> - -<p>The other pronounced type is that of the Little Russian, who occupies -nearly all the southern portion of the country, and differs from his -more numerous brothers in physique and habits as the southern people -usually differ from the northern. The Little Russians are, generally -speaking, smaller, the face more delicately chiselled, complexion and -hair darker, their women vivacious and handsome, and they claim to be of -purer Slavic blood, although you do not have to scratch them at all to -find the Tartar.</p> - -<p>The Slav has moved from the Dnieper as far east as the Ural, and has -moved beyond it as fast as steam could carry him. He has entered the -heart of Europe, is at the doors of the German capital, and has almost -supplanted the native Austrian in Vienna. In the Alps, on its southern -slopes, he has built his huts within nature’s citadels, and faces Italy -on the Adriatic. In the Balkans he has asserted himself, has shaken off -the yoke of Islam, and is destined to be the master of the Bosphorus; -while the Karpathians, which, like a crescent, wind about Hungary, are -the stronghold of the ever-increasing Slav.<a name="page_183" id="page_183"></a></p> - -<p>In a larger measure the other Slavic tribes on non-Russian soil differ -one from another; thus, the Dalmatian is the giant among them, and he of -the Boche de Cattaro is a veritable Slavic Apollo, measuring, on an -average, six feet three inches. He is dark-skinned, and graceful in his -movements. But size and beauty decrease as one travels northward through -Bulgaria and Servia into Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland.</p> - -<p>One despairs of designating as a race, or even as a nation, a people -which differs more widely than one can tell within the limits of a -chapter; people who have neither a history nor a literature in common, -and whose language, although philologically one, varies so that if they -undertook to build a tower or an empire, the confusion of the Biblical -Babel would find a parallel in modern history.</p> - -<p>And yet these differing tribes or nationalities have some things in -common, especially in the social life and organism. There is, first of -all, a temper which is among all of them impassive, seldom aroused even -under the influence of drink. This explains the ease with which they -have been conquered by other races, seldom coming to independence, only -the nature of their country having compelled the Russians to make a -Russia, which they were a long time in making. This also explains the -despotism of the Czar, the patience with which it has been borne, and -the<a name="page_184" id="page_184"></a> long stretches of years without revolution or reformation. But now -his wrath is kindled and the oppression of years has aroused his fury. -The Slav is not a builder of empires, because he is not a citizen but a -subject—a severe master or a submissive servant. As a rule, he bears -oppression patiently, shrinks from overcoming obstacles, is seldom -inquisitive enough to climb over the mountains which lock in his native -village to see what is beyond them, never cares much for the sea and its -perils, the Russian’s desire for harbours being a political necessity -rather than a natural want. Even a democratic institution, such as the -“mir” in Russia, which borders strongly upon communism, and is by some -scholars urged as an indication of the Slavs’ independent spirit, is to -me a proof of their lack of that spirit. Any one who has been at a -meeting of the “mir” knows that the one or the few never dissent; things -go just as they come, and the strong rascal (and there are such among -the Slavs) rules “mir” or “bratstvo” at his own pleasure, and no one -says, “Why do ye so?”</p> - -<p>The family bears among the Slavs strong archaic forms, especially among -those of the south, where the bratstvo (brotherhood) is still the unit. -A bratstvo occupies, according to its size, one or more villages; and -church, cemetery, meadows, and mills are held in common. Besides these -peaceful possessions, they have every<a name="page_185" id="page_185"></a> quarrel in common, and every -member of the bratstvo is most ready to avenge the honour of his people. -These are characteristics visible in their colonies in America. In -Montenegro, the Herzegovina, and also in some parts of Dalmatia, blood -vengeance is still practiced, and it not seldom happens that, to avenge -one life, war is waged until there is not one male member left who can -carry a gun; then the quarrels are continued by the next generation. The -bratstvo is ruled by an elder, elected by all its male members. He is -their justice of the peace, the presiding officer at all meetings, and -in case of war is the captain of his company. The members of a bratstvo -consider themselves blood relatives, intermarriages were formerly -prohibited, and even now are not common. The aristocratic spirit shows -itself in the fact that mechanics, especially blacksmiths, are expelled -from it and share none of its privileges or responsibilities. The elder -of the bratstvo, or household, is an embryo Czar, and the honours shown -to him by all its members express the reverence which the Slav always -shows to those in authority. He can withhold permission for smoking, -dancing, or playing; no one touches the food until he has tasted it, no -one is seated in his presence until he has permitted it; he is the one -member of the household who has an individual spoon, which may not be -used in the cooking; and yet from<a name="page_186" id="page_186"></a> experience I know that he may -sometimes play the Czar too much, and that there is temper enough left -in the household, if not in the men at least in the women, to make it -decidedly uncomfortable for him, and to remind him of his plebeian -origin and his democratic relatives.</p> - -<p>The further north one travels, the more the bratstvo decreases, although -the large communal households do not entirely disappear even in Russia. -Everywhere the bond of relationship is very strong, and to become the -godfather of a child unites one to its family for weal or woe. There is -one relationship common among the southern Slavs which exceeds that of -the closest tie of blood; it is that of <i>probratimtsvo</i>, or -<i>prosestrimtstvo</i>, a brotherhood or sisterhood, or close friendship, -between two men or two women, or even between a man and a woman, which -among orthodox Slavs is still solemnized with the sacraments of the -church. Of course this solemn service is followed by a feast, and the -following toast shows the spirit of that occasion:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">With whom drink I to-day?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">With thee, honoured brother, with thee drink I to-day<br /></span> -<span class="i0">In God’s name.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The Virgin bless thine earthly store;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Increase thine honour more and more;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Be near thy friend with helpful deed,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">But never thou his help to need.<a name="page_187" id="page_187"></a><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">God grant thee much of earthly bliss,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And may the saints thy forehead kiss.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">May wine for friends abundant flow,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And children in thy household grow.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">May God unite our house and land,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">As we thus grasp each other’s hand.<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>Admirable as is the family tie which binds the Slav, abhorrent even to -the strongest “Slavophile” is the position occupied by woman in the -family and in the social life among Southern and Eastern Slavs. To -escape the charge of prejudice, I shall quote a few proverbs current -among the Southern Slavs—a few out of many hundreds:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">The man is the head, the woman is grass.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">One man is worth more than ten women.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">A man of straw is worth more than a woman of gold.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Let the dog bark, but let the woman keep silent.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">He who does not beat his wife is no man.<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>“What shall I get when I marry?” asks a boy of his father. “For -your wife a stick, for your children a switch.”</p> - -<p>Twice in his life is a man happy: once when he marries, and once -when he buries his wife.</p></div> - -<p class="nind">And the woman sings in the Russian folk-song, which I have freely -translated,</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Love me true, and love me quick,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Pull my hair, and use the stick.<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p class="nind">Although there are love-songs of another kind,<a name="page_188" id="page_188"></a> in which woman is -praised for her charms, she becomes virtually a slave as soon as she -marries, and the little poetry of the folk-song does not accompany her -even to the marriage altar. She is valued only for the work she can do -in a household and for the children she can bear; and should this latter -blessing be denied her, her lot becomes doubly pitiable, and she -sometimes seeks release by suicide, after which the proverb says of her, -“It is better thus; a barren woman is of no use in the world.” In -Montenegro the proverb says, “My wife is my mule,” and she is treated -accordingly; and to see her bent double beneath her load of wood, flour, -or oil, while her liege lord walks erect by her side, with his arsenal -of weapons in his girdle, is to see the proverb in action. Yet here, -where woman’s lot is the worst, woman’s virtue is regarded most highly, -the penalty for adultery being swift death, and the social vice almost -unknown.</p> - -<p>It would, of course, be unjust to charge every Slav with beating his -wife, but, unfortunately, it is the rule rather than the exception among -the peasants; and the lot of the Slavic woman grows better only as the -Slav is further from Eastern barbarism and nearer to Western -civilization. Yet she is wooed with the same ardour as is her more -favoured sister, and perhaps she is loved just as much by her husband, -only he has a strange way of showing his affection. That the<a name="page_189" id="page_189"></a> Slavic -woman possesses the qualities to make of herself a “new woman” can be -plainly seen among the women of the higher class in Russia, where there -is a second paradise for women; America, by common consent, being the -first.</p> - -<p>Among all the Slavs music is much loved, and the fields in the busiest -harvest-time are melodious from song. The Czech’s love for music has -become proverbial, although the proverb is not complimentary to him and -was invented by his enemies. It is said that when a Czech boy is born, -the nurse holds up to him a penny and a violin; if he seizes the penny, -he will be a thief; if the violin, he will be a musician. It is true -that every Czech village has its band, which often wanders all over -Europe, making melody as it goes; and, in nine cases out of ten, the -“Leetle Sherman pand” upon which the American bestows his pennies and -his jokes does not come from Germany at all, but from some village in -Bohemia. Mechanical musical instruments have played havoc with the -native genius of these people. Slavic music has a melancholy strain, and -this is especially true of the music of the Southern Slav, whose simple -musical instruments, the “swirala” and the “gusla,” are not capable of -giving one joyous note, even at a wedding. They may be truly called -Jeremiac instruments. With love of music goes the love of dancing, and -the Czechs and Poles invent<a name="page_190" id="page_190"></a> new dances for every occasion, while the -Southern Slavs cling to their monotonous national “kolo,” which is a -reckless sort of kicking exercise, accompanied by the aforesaid -instruments, while some old minstrel sings of the heroic deeds of the -past.</p> - -<p>Cities among the Slavs are rare; the people usually live in villages, -nearly all of which have common characteristics. It seemed strange to -find that I could walk through a Russian village near Moscow, and yet -could easily think myself among the Slovaks, thousands of miles away, or -even among the more picturesque Dalmatians on the Adriatic. The villages -all look alike. There is always one street, and just one, in the -village; one wood or mud house leans against the other, one thatched -roof overlaps the other, and there is never more than one fire at a time -in a village like this; for generally the whole business burns down at -once. The barns, called “stodoly,” are generally built together, a short -distance from the village. The church occupies the centre of the -village, and near by is a mud-puddle, where geese, pigs, and babies take -their daily swim. Put into some convenient place a pump, tie some -ox-teams to it, place in the foreground clouds of dust or a sea of mud, -and you have a fair picture of Slavic villages.</p> - -<p>Of course they differ in degrees of ugliness, the Russian village taking -the first prize for unadulterated<a name="page_191" id="page_191"></a> homeliness, as there is no sign of -beauty, not even a primitive attempt at decoration, anywhere. Among the -Slovaks in Hungary, and among the neighbouring tribes, there is an -attempt at art. Crudely painted houses are the rule, and somewhere about -them there will be an indication of decoration, but it requires a vivid -imagination to find out just what it is, the art spirit being strong but -undeveloped.</p> - -<p>Little flower-gardens near or around the houses are seldom or never seen -in Russia, but are common among the Czechs and other Western Slavs. The -interior of the houses differs among them as to size and arrangement. -The Russian house has two rooms, separated by the main entrance. One is -called the cold room and the other the hot room. The hot, or winter room -has as its chief possession a brick bake, cook, and heating stove or -oven, the top of which is the bedstead in the winter-time; and a very -comfortable place it is. The cleanliness in these Slavic homes is also -of varied degrees, and is often conspicuous by its absence. Dirt, I am -sorry to say, is often in evidence, and certain insects which would -annoy us dreadfully exist in these rooms in uncountable numbers, but are -treated with silent contempt, which does not tend to their diminution.</p> - -<p>The Slavic tribes differ in their costumes, but nearly all of them have -retained the sheepskin<a name="page_192" id="page_192"></a> coat, which they wear summer and winter. The -wool is turned inside. The skin is often coloured red, and the legs of -the sheep hang over the shoulders. Both men and women wear this coat; -but, of course, the woman’s coat is decorated in fantastic ways and -costs a great deal of money. The rest of the man’s attire consists of -linen trousers and shirt, home-made from the tough fibre to the coarse -stitching. A cap is also worn, and in Russia is generally of fur. There -are numberless varieties of this dress, but in each village all dress -alike, differing only in the fineness of the material used.</p> - -<p>“How do the women dress?” Can a man ever describe a woman’s dress? And -can any mortal describe the Slavic woman’s dress, when in nearly every -village they have a peculiar style? And, oh! what styles! Colour in -everything; red, yellow, silver, and gold, laces and embroideries and -what-not, costing sometimes nearly two hundred dollars. But, of course -they do not get a new dress every year, just one in a lifetime, or, if -they are really good, maybe two. The costliness of the woman’s dress is -the cause of much suffering, for, although the styles do not change, -vanity is a shrewd mistress, and will put a half-inch broader lace upon -a woman’s cap, thus setting all the feminine hearts on fire from envy; -and the next market day the broader lace will be shading every woman’s -eyes, although<a name="page_193" id="page_193"></a> perhaps a feather-bed had to be pawned, or next winter’s -pig had to wander to the butcher’s ere its time had come.</p> - -<p>Among the Slovaks, with whom woman’s garb is most costly and most -picturesque, there is a great desire to lay it aside and adopt the more -fashionable dress of society; for the peasant’s costume compels one to -be addressed as an inferior—<i>ti</i> (thou)—and putting on the modern garb -puts one, at least in the eyes of strangers, upon a higher social level, -and <i>onyi</i> (you) is the pronoun used.</p> - -<p>The Slavic peasant lives simply enough at home. His food consists -largely of a vegetable diet, and meat on the table is the sign of a -holiday, a wedding, or of a fortunate excursion into a neighbour’s -chicken-coop or pig-sty. Among one large tribe they have only one meal a -day, usually at noon. It is cooked in the morning and kept warm under -the ashes or under the feather-bed until it is time to eat it.</p> - -<p>The main staples of diet among all are, potatoes, black, sour rye bread, -cabbage for soups and cakes; <i>kascha</i>, or gruel; and, finally -<i>barshtsh</i>, a concoction made of beets, and not half so bad as it looks.</p> - -<p>The Czech has a reputation as an epicure, and the Bohemian girl is -generally an excellent cook, in addition to her other good qualities. To -mention Slavic cooking and leave out garlic<a name="page_194" id="page_194"></a> would be “Hamlet with the -Prince left out,” and I feel sure that travellers in Slavic countries -will readily testify to the excessive presence of this fragrant bulb, -although they may never have seen it.</p> - -<p>The literature of the Slav is abundant, and some of it is no doubt -great. That of Bohemia is the oldest, that of Poland the most finished, -and that of Russia in modern times the most abundant. The folklorist has -here much virgin territory in which to gather material, but it remains -to be seen whether it is worth gathering and preserving. Both folk-lore -and literature are strongly realistic, being a reflection of the Slavic -character, and not a protest or reaction, as with the Germanic people. -The Slav speaks and sings about plain things plainly, but naturally, and -not offensively when one understands the source of his song. It never -makes sin attractive, and consequently is wholesome. The lyric love-song -is made in the hearts of the people, travels from lip to lip, and is -simple and beautiful in the original; thus the Czech sings:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">If I see thee, kneeling, praying<br /></span> -<span class="i2">In the church, my dear,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I am far from God and heaven,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">But to thee am near;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">If I’d love my God in heaven<br /></span> -<span class="i2">As I now love thee,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I would saint or very angel<br /></span> -<span class="i2">In His presence be.<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p><a name="page_195" id="page_195"></a></p> - -<p class="nind">The Slovak sings thus of love:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Whence getteth everybody<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Love in his very breast?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">It grows not on the bushes,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">It’s hatched not in the nest;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And were this love abiding<br /></span> -<span class="i2">On rocks as heaven high,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">We’d send our hearts to find it,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">Yes, even if we die.<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p class="nind">More poetically, the Croatian sings:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Oh, what is love? a zephyr mild,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">As gentle as a new-born child,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">To kiss each blossoming flower.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Oh, what is love? a wild storm-cloud,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">A roaring, maddening tempest loud,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">A weeping, drenching shower.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Oh, what is love? a scattered gloom,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">A thousand glorious flowers in bloom,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">A glowing, burning fireball,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">A giant held by chains in thrall,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">A joyful, chiming wedding bell,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">A dreadful chasm, a burning hell.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Oh, may thy love, thou dearest child,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Like spring winds be, so sweet, so mild!<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Oh, reach to me thine angel hand,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">And lead me to that heavenly land!<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p>One of the marked characteristics of the Slav is his deep religious -feeling. If you wander through Moscow, you will see at every step -evidences of this in the many churches, chapels, and<a name="page_196" id="page_196"></a> wayside icons -before which the faithful cross themselves or lie prostrate in the dust. -Everywhere the Russian manifests his deep allegiance to the Church, and -every action of his life is in some way influenced by its teaching. He -obeys implicitly all its rules, especially in regard to the many fast or -feast days. He venerates the churches and cloisters, has implicit faith -in the intercession of the saints, and every year out of every village -go forth pious pilgrims over barren wastes and through dense forests to -some sacred tomb in some faraway cloister. The height of ambition of -every pious mujik is to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and a whole -lifetime is spent in self-denying struggle to accumulate money enough -for that purpose.</p> - -<p>Common to all the Slavs is the tendency to superstition; remnants of the -old heathenism remain everywhere, startling one by stories and usages -which during centuries of winters’ nights have grown to grotesque -proportions in the dark, uncomfortable izbas of the peasants, and have -curiously blended with their Christian faith, so that it is difficult -for them to distinguish one from the other. The Slav is usually -charitable to the poor, although not always generous to the weak, and he -cannot be praised for excessive hospitality. He is too often clannish, -is apt to be jealous, and consequently not always faithful or honest. -The Polish and Russian peasants are proverbially<a name="page_197" id="page_197"></a> thievish; as one of -their current sayings has it, “the only things which they will not carry -away are hot iron and millstones,” a characteristic which they lose -completely under better economic conditions.</p> - -<p>The Slav is humanity still in the rough, and to that fact are due his -faults, his virtues, his weakness, and also his strength.<a name="page_198" id="page_198"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII<br /><br /> -THE SLAVIC INVASION</h2> - -<p>T<small>HE</small> Slovak and the Pole, or the “Hunkies” as they are often -contemptuously called, are among the most industrious and patient people -who come to our shores. I know this because time after time I have -followed them from their native villages, across the sea and into the -coal mines of Pennsylvania, or the steel mills, coke ovens and lime -stone quarries along the lakes, to which they were called because their -virtues as labourers were known. Even on board ship they are the most -patient passengers, for hardships are not new to them, and the bill of -fare, meagre though it is, contains not a few luxuries to which their -palates are strangers; if it were not for the seasickness, they would -consider their ocean trip as much of a pleasure as do those of us who -cross the sea for a wedding trip or a vacation. I have crossed the ocean -with them ten times at least, and have never heard a word of complaint, -although their more refined travelling companions say much about their -untidiness, rudeness, and other marks of semi-civilization. I have never -seen one of them read a newspaper; only one man do I remember who read a -book, and that was a prayer-book<a name="page_199" id="page_199"></a> of the Greek Church. They leave their -picturesque garb at home, and lie on the deck in all sorts of weather in -all kinds of dress and undress, the women being barefooted even in -winter. In conversation with the men I can never go beyond the facts -that they are going to work, earn money, pay off a mortgage on a piece -of land at home, or save enough money to send for Katchka or Anka to be -their wedded wife. If the Slovak feels any great emotions when he -reaches New York, he never expresses them; he is usually dumb from -wonder and half frightened, as he faces this new and busy world in which -he will be but an atom or just so much horse-power. In spite of the -contract labour law, he is billed to an agent in New York or taken to -Pennsylvania, where his new life begins and too often ends in a -coal-mine.</p> - -<p>The home which he will make for himself is one of many, and all alike -are painted green or red,—shells of buildings into which crowd from -fifteen to twenty people who are taken care of by one woman whose -husband may be the foreman of a gang and the chief beneficiary of its -labour.</p> - -<p>In the town of Verbocz, in Hungary, I recently met a man who had -returned from America with $2,000 in his pocket, and whose career here -is typical of a large number. He came to America fifteen years ago and -worked in a mine in Pennsylvania<a name="page_200" id="page_200"></a> near Pittsburg. He had stayed long -enough to learn English, to be able to receive and give orders and have -them carried out, so he became a foreman. His wife and children then -came, and moved into one of the houses previously described, bringing -with them twenty men, boarders. Through much industry and frugality they -saved these $2,000 and now in their old age they had returned to spend -that money at their pleasure. The wife has permanently put off the -peasant garb and has retained in her vocabulary such bits of English as -“come on,” “go on” and “how much,” which she displays on every occasion. -The children are still in America, one of the sons being in the saloon -business, and on the road to greater wealth than that which his father -accumulated.</p> - -<p>Their competitors in the field of labour accuse them of filthiness, yet, -after having walked through hundreds of these shanties, I can say that -the report of untidiness among them is exaggerated; for the majority of -homes are cleaner than their crowded condition would warrant, while -there are not a few in which the floors are scrubbed daily, and fairly -shine from cleanliness. Just as uncomplainingly as into the life on -board ship, the Slovak fits into the new work, whatever it may be, and -no animal ever took its burden more patiently than he does his, as he -faces unflinchingly the hot blasts of a furnace or the dark<a name="page_201" id="page_201"></a> depths of -mines. He can be worked only in gangs directed by one of his number who -has gathered a few crumbs of English, and who seasons them freely by -those words which are usually printed in dashes. Such a thing as -rebellion he does not know, as his whole past history testifies; in our -strikes he is a very convenient scapegoat and not seldom a sheep, led to -deeds whose consequences he has not measured. In nearly every case of -violence which I could trace and in which he took an active part, he was -inflamed by drink which interested persons had given him.</p> - -<p>He is considered by the tradesmen of his town to be their most honest -customer, and one merchant who has dealt with the Slovaks for twelve -years, who has carried them from pay-day to pay-day, and through strikes -and lay-offs, told me that he had not lost one cent through them, while -his losses from the other miners were from fifteen to thirty-five per -cent.; and, with but slight variations, this is the testimony of all the -merchants.</p> - -<p>In no small measure this is due to their fear of law, for in Hungary -every debt is collectible, and not even the homestead is exempt from the -executioner. There is also no petty thieving in communities where they -have lived for twenty years, and they have never been accused or even -suspected of theft. As one common accusation<a name="page_202" id="page_202"></a> against them is that they -spend very little in this country and send most of their earnings -abroad, I examined this matter very carefully, interviewing every -merchant and every class of merchants, the postmasters, and even the -saloon-keepers, and they all agree that these people are fairly good -customers.</p> - -<p>In visiting their homes I found that usually they are not lavish as to -house-furnishings; the front room, which in the American household would -answer for the parlour, is filled by the trunks of the boarders, and in -a few cases has that beginning of American civilization, the -rocking-chair. A stand with a white cloth cover holding a few -knickknacks is a rarity, but exists in about five per cent. of the -houses I have visited; carpets I have seen only twice, but the -lace-curtain fashion has not a few imitators. Upon his bed the Slovak -lavishes a great deal of money, making it his costliest piece of -furniture, while his imported feather-beds keep out entirely the more -sanitary mattress and blankets. He does not stint himself in his food, -as is commonly supposed, for he eats a good deal, although his steak, -being cut from the shoulder, is cheap, and is always called “Polak -steak.” He eats quantities of beans, cabbage, and potatoes, and about -eight dollars a month covers the board bill of an adult. He drinks too -much, but drinks economically, preferring a barrel of beer for the<a name="page_203" id="page_203"></a> -crowd to the more expensive glass, and he carries a bottle in his hip -pocket as invariably as the cowboy is supposed to carry a pistol. -Instead of whiskey he sometimes takes alcohol and water, which may, -after all, be the same rose by another name. In buying clothing I am -told that he buys the best which is fitted for his work and for his -station, and to see him after working hours, cleanly washed and dressed -in American fashion from the boots up to the choking collar, one would -not suspect him of miserliness. He does save money, for out of an -average earning of forty dollars a month he will send at least fifteen -dollars to Hungary, and on pay-day the money-order window in the little -post-office is crowded by these industrious toilers who have not -forgotten wife, children, old parents, and old debts.</p> - -<p>Many of them claim that they would buy houses in this country if they -were assured of steady work, and in many places they plead that they -cannot buy property because the company owns all the real estate and -prefers to rent all the houses falsely called homes.</p> - -<p>Unfortunately they have imported into this country their racial -prejudices which are keenest towards their closest kin, and each mining -camp becomes the battle-ground on which ancient wrongs are made new -issues by repeated quarrels and fights which become bloody at times,<a name="page_204" id="page_204"></a> -although premeditated murder is rather infrequent. In a large number of -cases these unfortunate divisions are intermingled by religious -differences, although the Slovak and the Pole do not speak well of one -another even if they belong to the same church. The Pole regards himself -as the especial guardian of the Roman Catholic Church, and while a -majority of the Slovaks are of the same Church, Protestantism has made -some inroads and the Greek Church claims many loyal adherents. Many of -the Catholics belong to the Greek Catholic Church which is that portion -of the Greek Church in Austria which united with Rome after the division -of Poland, and which was permitted to use its own Slavonic ritual and -retain its married clergy. Only a portion of the Greek Church entered -this union so that nearly every large Slovak community has a number of -Russian Greeks, who look upon the Roman Greeks with a great deal of -scorn. In Marblehead, on Lake Erie, where these Slovaks are engaged in -the limestone quarries, this division was discovered after all the -Greeks had built one church, that of the Roman Greeks. A few of the -wiser ones who arrived in this country later were dreadfully shocked -when they saw this, and in Peter Shigalinsky’s saloon plans were made to -gain possession of the church for the only true Greeks, the Russian; -many pitched battles were fought, a long and fruitless litigation -followed,<a name="page_205" id="page_205"></a> and finally Peter Shigalinsky built next to his saloon a new -church, whose orthodoxy is emphasized by one of the horizontal pieces of -the cross slanting at a more acute angle than that of the Roman Greek -church, in which of course there can be no salvation.</p> - -<p>Where they have no church of their own they are usually found -worshipping with the English or Germans, if they are Romanists, but in -many cases the priests told me that they are not wanted and must keep to -one corner of the building. There are not priests enough to shepherd -them, and those they have are in many cases unfitted for the task. It is -asserted that the Lutheran pastors are no better, and count for little -or nothing in making these people Christians and citizens. They are -naturally suspicious of strangers, but grateful for every kindness, and -once a door is opened to their hearts it is never closed again. -Unfortunately, their speech shuts them out from the touch with American -people of the same community, but there are avenues of approach in which -only one language is spoken—the language of love and kindness; one -noble American woman whom I know ministers to them by nursing them and -suggesting simple remedies when they are ill, and has thus become no -small factor in their social and religious redemption.</p> - -<p>Of literature little or nothing enters the mining<a name="page_206" id="page_206"></a> villages, although -among the Poles the hunger for it grows and many papers and magazines -are coming into existence. The Slovak lives an isolated life, sublimely -ignorant of “wars and rumours of wars”; his breakfast is not spoiled by -the glaring head-lines of the daily paper, nor does the magazine or -novel press upon him the problems of human society. He knows his camp, -his mine, his shop, and though he lives in America and in the most busy -States in the Union, his world now is not much bigger than it was when -its horizon touched his village pastures.</p> - -<p>As yet he is not a factor politically, though the political “boss” finds -him the best kind of material, for he is bought and sold without knowing -it, and votes for he knows not whom. At Braddock, Pa., it was told me -that he is sold first to the Democrats and then to the Republicans, and -afterwards is naïve enough to come back to the Democrats and tell of his -bargain, willing to be bought back into his political family. Like -almost all foreigners, he is a Democrat by instinct or by association, -one scarcely knows which, although he is usually anything that a drink -of liquor makes him. I asked one his political faith, “Are you a -Democrat?” “No, me Catholic—Greek, not Russian,” was the reply. “What -are your politics?” I asked a number. “Slovak,” was the invariable -answer. Not twenty per cent. of those I interviewed knew the<a name="page_207" id="page_207"></a> name of -our President, not two per cent. the name of the Governor of the State -in which they were residing. The Slovak does not know the meaning of the -word citizen, and the limited franchise in Hungary is exercised for him -by those shrewder than himself; he is just force and muscle, with all -the roots of his heart in the little village across the sea, and with -his brain wherever the stronger brain leads him.</p> - -<p>At a recent election in Hungary, a district where the Slovaks were in a -large majority, they were, nevertheless, defeated by the Magyar element -which knew how to manage them; so that they may be said to have had just -enough political training to fit them into the political life of the -average American community.</p> - -<p>Although the Slovak is a quiet and peaceful citizen, on feast day he -does not consider his religious nature sufficiently stirred without a -fight, which is usually a crude, bungling affair, devoid of the science -which accompanies such an episode among the Irish, and also without the -deadly results of an Italian fracas.</p> - -<p>On the wedding day of Yanko and Katshka, the silence of the camp is -broken by the sound of a screeching violin, followed by the wailing of a -clarinet and the grunting of a bass viol. Above the discord of noise -made by these instruments is heard the voice of the bridegroom, who -leads the dances with the song:<a name="page_208" id="page_208"></a> “I am so glad I have you, I have you, -and I wouldn’t sell you to any one.” If you enter the house of the -bride, you will find it full of sweltering humanity, all of it dancing -up and down, down and up, while the fiddlers play and the bridegroom -sings about “The sweetheart he is glad to have and wouldn’t sell to any -one.”</p> - -<p>Usually the Slav dancers provide the notes and the bank notes also; for -at the end of the piece half a dozen stalwart men will throw themselves -in front of the musicians, each one of them demanding in exchange for -the money tossed upon the table, his favourite tune to which he sings -his native song. The result is, half a dozen men, each singing or trying -to sing, a different song, all of them pushing, crowding, and at last -fighting, until in the middle of the room you will find an entanglement -of human beings which beats itself into an unrecognizable mass. The -wedding lasts three days, the ceremony often taking place after the -first day’s festivities. The order of proceedings and the length of the -feast vary, according to imported traditions which among the Slavs are -different in every district.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_pg_208_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_pg_208_sml.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="WITHOUT THE PALE. - -Not always is the adverse decision of the Commissioner so easy as in the -case of some Servian gypsies who, deported from New York, found their -way to Canada and quickly made police records." -title="WITHOUT THE PALE" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">WITHOUT THE PALE.<br /> -Not always is the adverse decision of the Commissioner so easy as in the -case of some Servian gypsies who, deported from New York, found their -way to Canada and quickly made police records.</span> -</p> - -<p>Of course the whole mining camp is an interested spectator and guests -usually do not wait for a formal invitation. The ceremony over, the -wedding dinner is served, and never in all the Carpathian Mountains was -there such feasting as there is in the Alleghanies. “Polak” steak,<a name="page_209" id="page_209"></a> -cabbage with raisins, beets, slices of bacon, links of sausages, sweet -potatoes, and, “last but not least,” the great American dish, conqueror -of all foreign tastes—pie; huge, luscious and full of unheard-of -delicacies. Beer flows as freely as milk and honey flowed in the -promised land; again the musicians play and if the bridegroom has voice -enough left he will sing the song of “The sweetheart he is so glad to -have and wouldn’t sell to any one, no, not to any one.” Barrel after -barrel is emptied until the pyramids of Egypt have small rivals in those -built entirely of beer barrels in the little mining town in -Pennsylvania. Many of the drinkers fall asleep as soundly as Rameses -ever did before he was embalmed, while others are making ready for the -end of the feast—the fight, for “no fight, no feast” is the proverb. -Somebody calls a Slovak a Polak, or vice versa; some young man casts -glances at some young maiden otherwise engaged—and the fight is on. I -have never discovered just the reason for the fight, and one might as -well search for the cause of a cyclone, but the results are nearly the -same: furniture, heads, and glasses all in the same condition—broken; -everybody on the ground like twisted forest trees, while one hears -between long black curses the peaceful snores of the unconscious drunk. -The next day and the next the programme is repeated, and this is the -Slovak<a name="page_210" id="page_210"></a>’s only diversion, unless it be a saint’s day, when history -repeats itself and he once more practices his two vices, drinking and -fighting.</p> - -<p>As a rule the Slav is virtuous although this depends largely upon local -conditions in the village or district from which he comes. One could -prove him in certain regions the most virtuous of men while in others he -is just the reverse. Almost without exception where one woman cooks for -fifteen or twenty men as is often the case in mining camps, they respect -her as the wife of one man, while she respects her own virtue and would -fight if necessary to remain loyal to her husband. There is much coarse, -indelicate talk and much crudeness, for the Slav is a realist in speech -and action; therefore that which would seem to us immoral, is simply his -way of expressing himself, accustomed as he is to call “a spade a -spade.”</p> - -<p>The Pole who emigrates to this country comes from nearly the same region -as the Slovak, and lives very much the same life, although in many -things he is his superior. He has greater self-assertion, is not so -submissive to the church, chafes more under restraint, has a greater -racial and national consciousness, and is by virtue of his historic -development both better and worse than the Slovak. He becomes more -identified with American life and will remain an important part of it -whether for good or evil, while a large<a name="page_211" id="page_211"></a> portion of the Slovaks will -return to the villages and the peaceful acres from which they came. The -Polish community is consequently more of an entity and looks towards -permanence. The centralizing power is usually the church; around it, and -stimulated by it, grows the Polish town which not unfrequently occupies -the best location to be had, with its agencies well organized and -controlled.</p> - -<p>Perhaps the best example of such a Polish town completely governed and -controlled by the church is in New Britain, Conn., where the population -is engaged in manufacturing hardware. With rare foresight the best -situation in the city was bought, and facing the still undeveloped part -of this real estate holding, the church, a magnificent white stone -structure, was built; a church which might well be the pride of any -community. Their priest, who is both Czar and Pope, is a strong, wise -monarch who holds in his keeping the destinies of thousands who trust -and obey him implicitly. The houses built are rather rude tenements, -evidently built to bring large and quick results; but the sanitary -condition must be good if it can be judged by the cleanliness and -wholesomeness of the children. Indeed, this part of the city of New -Britain is as clean and orderly as one might reasonably expect among a -population imported to do the roughest kind of labour.<a name="page_212" id="page_212"></a></p> - -<p>One is likely to be apprehensive as to the future when one realizes that -nearly all the children go to a parochial school, in which only a -minimum of the English language is taught; that the men are all -organized into patriotic and religious brotherhoods which march armed -through the streets. One cannot yet determine how much these things will -do to prevent Americanization and assimilation, two things which are -exceedingly desirable and which these and other agencies seem to -prevent.</p> - -<p>Besides Slavs and Poles, lesser groups of Crainers from the Austrian -Alps, Croatians and Servians, have gathered in the larger Slav centres -and around them, and while in a great measure they live the same life as -do their more numerous kindred, there are minor differences which are -somewhat accentuated by the abnormal conditions under which they all -live.<a name="page_213" id="page_213"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV<br /><br /> -DRIFTING WITH THE “HUNKIES”</h2> - -<p>T<small>HE</small> great city had not been kind to them. For three weeks they had been -beaten back and forth all the length and breadth of its hot and -inhospitable streets until their little money and their courage were -exhausted, and they had drifted back to the Battery, the place nearest -home which they could reach “without money and without price.”</p> - -<p>They had come here for work and had sought it from shop to shop, -wherever men with a fair share of muscle were wanted; but they always -found that some stronger man had come before them so they were left, -like the sick man at the Pool of Bethesda, unhealed at the edge of the -water.</p> - -<p>They had been my travelling companions across the sea, and I felt some -responsibility for them, besides being anxious to know what becomes of -men in America who have neither our speech which might be silver, nor -the silent gold which serves as power. So I cast my lot and my small -change among them. We travelled as far as a five cent fare would take us -and began looking for work among the large mansions and fancy farms -which line the shore of Long Island<a name="page_214" id="page_214"></a> Sound. Barking dogs, frightened -house maids and discourteous lackeys we found everywhere, but neither -work nor food for the four of us. We did not look like tramps, although -our clothes were shabby and the dust and grime of the city did not tend -to improve our appearance; yet we spent a whole day looking -unsuccessfully for work, and when night came upon us nothing remained -but to return to the city, as bankrupt in our stock of courage as in our -finances.</p> - -<p>That blessed and famous bread line, where the Lord answers His poor -people’s prayer for daily bread, kept us from starving, and there was -enough free ice water to be had to wash down the bread and benumb our -digestive organs into silence.</p> - -<p>Union and Madison square park benches were our beds a few minutes at a -time, for the watchful policeman kept us moving as if we were drunk from -laudanum. We went the length of lower Broadway, to City Hall park, and -finally to the Battery where the next morning’s gray found us, wearier -and shabbier than ever. Twenty-four such hours as we lived were enough -to push us down the social scale to the level of the tramp, and we were -greeted as such by those birds of passage, one of whom proved to be a -“friend in need.” He really pitied my speechless companions and after -sharing with us his begged buns, he told us of the New Jersey paradise -where<a name="page_215" id="page_215"></a> orchards and truck gardens were waiting for the toil of our -hands.</p> - -<p>He promised to accompany us, and was generous enough to offer to pay our -way across the river. He seemed to enjoy the task of leadership and -unfolded his great plans for us as he led us along the railroad track by -the salt marshes of New Jersey, where we nearly perished from the -attacks of mosquitoes. The New Jersey mosquito is enough of a factor to -prevent the distribution of the immigrant. I certainly should not blame -any one who preferred the stenches of Rivington Street to the sting of -the mosquitoes on the New Jersey marshes. Nowhere was work given us, -although we were treated less rudely, and in a few cases were offered -food in exchange for a few chores; our travelled friend diligently -instructing us to do as little as possible in return for the kind of -food which we generally received. The day’s earning of food included: -smoked sturgeon, which was wormy, and ham bones to which clung a minimum -of meat and a maximum of tough skin. On the whole, we were soon made to -realize that the New Jersey farmer knew how to drive a good bargain, in -connection with what he was pleased to consider his charities.</p> - -<p>When night came, our friend suggested an empty freight car as our -lodging place, and in lieu of a better one, we went to sleep for the -first time in this country, where the bed cost us nothing,<a name="page_216" id="page_216"></a> and where -some one’s else property became temporarily our own. We slept, in spite -of the soreness of our muscles and the continued attacks of mosquitoes, -and when we awoke it was still dark; at least in the car, into which -neither starlight nor sunshine could penetrate,—for we were locked in, -our guide and guardian gone, and with him three watches, four coats and -our shoes.</p> - -<p>After a long, long time, in answer to our cries, a railroad man opened -the car and found us more destitute than we had yet been, and in need of -a better friend(?) than the one we had lost. I told him our story, and -he directed us to a farmer on the Trenton road who always needed -labourers, and who he was quite sure would take us in, notwithstanding -our denuded condition.</p> - -<p>Barefoot and coatless we reached the farm which we recognized by the -fact that a sign was tacked to the gate post, stating in four languages -that “Labourers are wanted within.” In the rear of the house we were -received by a be-aproned gentleman who proved to be the cook and -housekeeper of this strange establishment. After I had told him the -story of our adventures, we were invited to breakfast to which we did -ample justice, in spite of the fact that it was prepared by a man who -evidently knew little or nothing about the art of cooking. He told me -that he too, had drifted from the great city, an<a name="page_217" id="page_217"></a> immigrant who had -found no standing room in the crowded shops. He told me also that every -man at work here was a “Green-horn,” as he expressed it, and that not -one of them had been longer than six months away from the Old Country.</p> - -<p>At last the “Boss” came from the field; a rather portly man, red faced, -hard headed and with small, beady eyes. He made a poor impression upon -me, especially when he began to speak German, a language which he had -acquired to be able to deal with his help. He offered us the hospitality -of his farm and $10.00 a month, beside which he was ready to advance us -the necessary farm clothing which he kept in stock for such emergencies. -The clothing consisted of overalls, jacket, a straw hat and very coarse -shoes.</p> - -<p>We were not told what he charged us for them, but I began to suspect the -man when that evening he drove me to the village to buy a pair of shoes, -none of those in his stock fitting me.</p> - -<p>When we reached the store, he told the proprietor in English which I was -not supposed to understand, to tell me that the shoes were hand made and -cost $3.50. They were common, roughly made shoes which could be bought -in any store for $1.25 and I have no doubt that the profit was to be -divided between these gentlemen.<a name="page_218" id="page_218"></a></p> - -<p>At night in the loft of the barn, a dozen men, representing about ten -nationalities met, and after looking at one another in stolid silence -for a time, went to sleep. In the morning we were initiated into our -task, which consisted of the customary chores, and finally, the field -work in the patches of garden stuff, where hoeing and pulling weeds were -the order of the twelve hours labour, with the beady eyes of the “Boss” -ever upon us. He grew more and more impatient with our unskillful ways, -and swore loudly in English and German, terrifying my Slavic friends -beyond my ability to calm them.</p> - -<p>Each day was the same as the one just past; hard work in the field, poor -food in the kitchen, a hay bed at night, and the impatience of the -“Boss” manifesting itself in personal violence against those of us who -were the weaker among his slaves. Each day one or the other man -disappeared, some of them leaving behind the little bundle of clothing -bought from the farmer. This he immediately appropriated and sold to the -next comer; for one or more new men of the same type were sure to drift -in, to begin the labour which brought no wages.</p> - -<p>According to the cook, the four of us broke the record, having stayed -nearly a month. About two days before pay day I came in at evening with -a broken cultivator. Whether running it into a tree stump had wrecked -it, or whether it<a name="page_219" id="page_219"></a> had been ready to fall to pieces at the slightest -provocation I do not know; but the “Boss” grew violent in his anger and -attacked me with a pitchfork, driving me out of the very gate through -which I had come twenty-nine days before.</p> - -<p>I went to the village and after finding a justice of the peace, laid -before him my complaint, but he discouraged any legal action on my part -because I did not have money enough to back it. When night came, I -returned to the farm and calling out my men, who were only too ready to -follow, we cut through a tall corn-field, and climbing a wire fence were -again on the Trenton road. We walked the whole night, into Trenton and -out of it, and far on our way to Pennsylvania. The next day we found -that our labour was indeed wanted, and a few weeks in the tobacco fields -of a Pennsylvania Dutch farmer put money into our purses and flesh upon -our muscle. Upon finishing our work we started again upon our journey -and soon entered the industrial region of Pennsylvania, where steel -furnaces lined the highway and coke ovens illumined the landscape, -making the air heavy by their fumes. Here for the first time my -companions saw labour in America at its highest tension. They were -frightened by the pots of glowing metal and made dizzy by the roar of -the furnaces.</p> - -<p>Opportunity for labour was soon secured, but<a name="page_220" id="page_220"></a> my companions entered into -it so timidly that I tried to dissuade them from it, but could not, as -here alone was steady employment offered to men of their class. I can -still see them in the great yard of one of the steel mills, pale and -trembling, as if facing the dangers of war. Half naked, savage looking -creatures darted about in the glare of molten metal, which now was -white, “Like the bitten lip of hate,” then grew red and dark as it -flowed into the waiting moulds. Close to these hot moulds the men were -stationed to carry away the bars still full of the heat of the furnace, -and they became part of a vast army of men who came and went, bending -their backs uncomplainingly to the hot burden.</p> - -<p>I watched them day after day coming from their work, wet, dirty, and -blistered by the heat; dropping into their bunks at night, breathing in -the pestilential air of a room crowded by fifteen sleepers, and in the -morning crawling listlessly back to their slavish task.</p> - -<p>No song escaped their parched lips, attuned to their native melodies, -and the only cheer came on pay day, when the silver dollars looked twice -as big as they were, when a barrel of beer was tapped at the boarding -house and this hard world was forgotten. Then they tried to sing from -throats made hoarse by the heat,</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Chervene Pivo<br /></span> -<span class="i1">Bile Kolatshe.”<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p><a name="page_221" id="page_221"></a></p> - -<p>With the song came memories of their native village, the inn and the -fiddlers, the notes of the mazurka and krakowyan, and visions of the -wives and children who awaited their return. To the town they went that -day and sent $20 each, out of the month’s earnings, to Katshka and -Susanka and Marinka, the anticipation of their gladness making them -happy too.</p> - -<p>It was the beginning of the second month and I had drifted back to watch -my men at the furnaces. They were still carrying hot bars from one place -to the other and had withered into almost unrecognizable dryness. I -watched these gigantic monsters consuming them and as I watched a -terrible thing happened. An appalling noise arose above the roar to -which my ears had grown accustomed, and which seemed the normal -stillness. White, writhing serpents shot out from the boiling furnaces -and were followed by other monsters of their kind which burned whatever -they touched, and before I knew what had happened the whole dark place -was full of smoke and the smell of burning flesh. Eight men, my three -among them, had been caught by the molten metal, scorched in its own -fire and consumed by its unquenchable appetite. What happened? Nothing. -A coroner came to view the remains,—of which there were practically -none; out of the centre of the cooled metal, lumps of steel were cut and -buried,—and<a name="page_222" id="page_222"></a> that is all that happened; and oh, it happens so often!</p> - -<p>As I write this, the daily paper lies before me; the <i>Chicago Tribune</i> -of May 13th, 1906. It devotes six columns to the horrors of the steel -mills in South Chicago. I could fill the whole paper with the horrors -which I have witnessed in mill and mine; and I could fill pages with the -names of poor “Hunkies” whom nobody knows and about whom nobody cares. I -cannot write it; it makes me bitter and resentful; so I shall let this -newspaper reporter speak, and he knows but half the story. I know the -other half, but the whole truth would hardly sound credible.</p> - -<h3><span class="smcap">Centre of Mill Horrors</span></h3> - -<p>Here in this hospital building and its environment centres the horror of -horrors of the untutored mill workman. Its inspiration is terror to the -millman of the polyglot pay roll, as he enters the Eighty-eighth Street -gate to his work.</p> - -<p>Hun, Pole, Austrian, Bulgarian, Bohemian—the “Hunkies” of Illinois -Steel colloquialism—indifferent to pain of shattered, burned, mangled -body, grow frantic as the stretcher bearers near this fortress hospital. -At its gates, over and over again, the frantic, hysterical wife and -children of the victim have begged and pleaded for admission against the -grim barrier of the guards.<a name="page_223" id="page_223"></a></p> - -<p>Why is it? You cannot get the information in South Chicago unless it be -that these men are “ignorant.”</p> - -<p>South Chicago distinctly doesn’t like the “Hunkie.” He jams the money -order window of the post-office for two long days after the bi-monthly -pay day. He sleeps sometimes thirty deep in a single room after the day -shift, and he sleeps again in the still warm floor bed, thirty deep, -after the night shift. He has his grocer’s book on which are entered his -scant, half offal meats, which day after day are prepared for him by his -hired cook; he wears little and he sleeps in that; his bed is never -made, for the reason that some one always is in it; his money goes to -the saloon-keeper or through the foreign money order window at the -post-office.</p> - -<p>He is merely a “Hunkie” in Illinois Steel or in South Chicago. What if -the Illinois Steel hospital is his conception of Inferno?</p> - -<p>He doesn’t know much. He doesn’t know when he is spoken to, unless it is -by an epithet which makes any other man fight. Then he moves doggedly -and often with little understanding. Not understanding, he is the -chosen, predestined occupant of the hospital bed.</p> - -<h3><span class="smcap">From Accident to Hospital</span></h3> - -<p>A “Hunkie” who has been “hunked” in Illinois Steel makes a lot of -strictly corporation<a name="page_224" id="page_224"></a> trouble. The chief “safety inspector” and his -staff are alert and active at a moment’s notice of an unofficial -accident report. The Illinois Steel photographer and his camera are made -ready; the stretcher bearers seize stretchers to the necessary number -and a hurried move is made towards the scene of the accident, of which -the Chicago police department may never know.</p> - -<p>On the scene, the camera is set and the photograph—which so seldom is -ever seen beyond the gates of Illinois Steel—is made. Then the -“Hunkie”—protesting if he be conscious enough—is picked up, put upon -the stretcher, and the giant bearers of the body start for the hospital, -which may be a mile away. There are difficulties in the march. Surface -lines for ore and coal trains net the grounds. Often a train’s crew -finds difficulty in breaking a train to let the body through; sometimes -the crew balks and swears, and the stretcher bearers wait for the -shunting of the cars.</p> - -<p>In the hospital? Few people know and they don’t talk. There is a -“visiting hour,” but the surly guard at the gate passes upon the -applicant’s request long before the request may be repeated at the -hospital door. And at the door they don’t encourage visitors.<a name="page_225" id="page_225"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV<br /><br /> -THE BOHEMIAN IMMIGRANT</h2> - -<p>W<small>HATEVER</small> apprehensions one may have about the Slav in America, may be -dispelled or accentuated by a study of the Bohemian immigrants. They -began coming to us when, during the counter reformation under Ferdinand -II, Austria sent her Protestants to the gallows or to America.</p> - -<p>In Baltimore the churches they founded still stand, and a sort of -Forefathers’ Day is observed by their descendants, who, though they have -lost the speech of their fathers, still cling to the historic date which -binds them to a band of noble pioneers—close comrades in spirit to the -Pilgrims of New England. Under Austrian rule Bohemia became impoverished -physically, mentally, and spiritually; and after the misgovernment of -Church and State had done its worst, the flood-tide of immigration set -in anew towards this country.</p> - -<p>Bohemia grew to be in the last century an industrial state, and the -immigrants who came here were half-starved weavers and tailors, who -naturally flocked to the large cities. In New York nearly the whole -Bohemian population turned itself to the making of cigars, and the<a name="page_226" id="page_226"></a> East -Side, from Fiftieth to about Sixty-fifth Streets, is the centre. In -Cleveland, Ohio, more than 45,000 Bohemians live together, while Chicago -boasts of a Bohemian population of over 100,000, who nearly all live in -one district, which began on Twelfth and Halstead Streets, but now -stretches southward almost to the stockyards, with a constant tendency -to enlarge its boundary towards the better portions of the city. The -large tenement-house is almost altogether absent from this locality, the -little frame house of the cigar-box style being the prevailing type of -dwelling, and most of the homes are owned by their tenants. This part of -the city is as clean as the people can make it in a place where -street-cleaning is a lost, or never learned, art. The prevailing dirt is -clean dirt, with here and there an inexcusable morass which offends both -the eye and the nostril. The whole district is typical of Chicago rather -than of Bohemia, and if it were not for the business signs in a strange -and unphonetic language, and occasionally a sentence in the same queer -speech, one might imagine himself anywhere among any American people of -the working class; nor is there a trace of the native country in the -interiors, where one finds stuffed parlour furniture, plush albums, lace -curtains, ingrain carpets, and a piano or organ—all true and sure -indications of American conquest over inherited foreign tastes and -habits.<a name="page_227" id="page_227"></a></p> - -<p>Yet the conquest is only on the surface, for it takes more than a -carpet-sweeper to wipe out the love of that language for which Bohemia -has suffered untold agony; to which it has clung in spite of the -pressure brought to bear upon it by a strong and autocratic government, -and which it is trying to preserve in this new home, in which the -English language is more powerful to stop foreign speech than is the -German in Austria, though backed by force of law and force of arms. With -many Bohemian daily newspapers, with publishing houses printing new -books each day, with preaching in the native tongue, and with societies -in which Bohemian history is taught, the Czechish language will not soon -disappear from the streets of Chicago; and language to the Bohemian, as, -indeed, to all the Slavs, is history, religion and life.</p> - -<p>The Bohemian immigrant comes to us burdened by rather unenviable -characteristics, which his American neighbour soon discovers, and the -love between them is not great. Coming from a country which has been at -war for centuries, and in which to-day a fierce struggle between -different nationalities is disrupting a great empire, and clogging the -wheels of popular government, he is apt to be quarrelsome, suspicious, -jealous, clannish and yet factious; he hates quickly and long, and is -unreasoning in his prejudices; yet that for which a people is hated, -and<a name="page_228" id="page_228"></a> which we call characteristic of race or nation, soon disappears -under new environment, and the miracle which America works upon the -Bohemians is more remarkable than any other of our national -achievements. The downcast look so characteristic of them in Prague is -nearly gone, the surliness and unfriendliness disappear, and the young -Bohemian of the second or third generation is as frank and open as his -neighbour with his Anglo-Saxon heritage. I rather pride myself upon my -power to detect racial and national marks of even closely related -peoples, but in Chicago I was severely tested and failed. I have -addressed many Bohemian audiences to which I could pay this compliment, -that they looked and listened like Americans; but what thousands of -years have plowed into a people cannot be altogether eradicated, and the -Bohemian, with all of us, carries his burden of good and evil buried in -his bones.</p> - -<p>Of all our foreign population he is the most irreligious, fully -two-thirds of the 100,000 in Chicago having left the Roman Catholic -Church and drifted into the old-fashioned infidelity of Thomas Paine and -Robert Ingersoll. Nowhere else have I heard their doctrines so boldly -preached, or seen their conclusions so readily accepted, and I have it -on the authority of Mr. Geringer, the editor of the <i>Svornost</i>, that -there are in Chicago alone three hundred Bohemian<a name="page_229" id="page_229"></a> societies which teach -infidelity, carry on an active propaganda for their unbelief, and also -maintain Sunday-schools in which the attendance ranges from thirty to -three thousand. One of the most painful and pathetic sights is this -attempt to crush God out of the child nature by means of an infidel -catechism, the nature of whose teaching is shown by one of the first -questions and its answer: “What duty do we owe to God? Inasmuch as there -is no God, we owe Him no duty.” As it is always possible to exaggerate -the strength of such a movement I called on the editor referred to -above, one of the leaders, whose paper, in common with two others, -pursues this tendency and daily preaches its destructive creed. Calling -at the office of the Svornost, I found Mr. Geringer, a Bohemian of the -second generation, frank and open in acknowledging his leadership and -the tendency of his paper, although he was less extreme than the -statements about him by priests and preachers had led me to suppose. He -certainly was much more willing to talk about his people than were the -priests upon whom I had called, and I found that his views have not been -without change in the fifteen years since I last read his paper. “We are -fighting Catholicism rather than religion,” he said; and I added, “A -Catholicism in Austria, with its back towards the throne and its face -towards the Austrian eagle;” to which<a name="page_230" id="page_230"></a> he replied, “You have hit the -nail on the head.”</p> - -<p>In reality, this hatred extends unreasonably to all religion, and among -the less educated it amounts to a fanaticism which does not stop short -of persecution and personal abuse. Blasphemous expressions and old musty -arguments against the Bible are the common topics of conversation among -many Bohemian working-men, who hate the sight of a priest, never enter a -church, and are thoroughly eaten through by infidelity. They read -infidel books about which they argue during the working hour, and the -influence of Robert Ingersoll is nowhere more felt than among them. His -“Mistakes of Moses” had taken the place of the usual newspaper story, -and the editorials are charged by hatred towards the Church and towards -Christianity as a whole. The unusual number of suicides among the -Bohemians is said to be due to the fact that their secret societies -encourage suicide. The books published in Chicago are of a rather low -type, and among them are many whose sole purpose it is to vilify the -Church.</p> - -<p>An unusually coarse materialism pervades that colony. Professor -Massarik, of the University of Prague, and a recent visitor to this -country, makes this the chief note of his complaint against them. They -have singing and Turner societies after the manner of the Germans, but -the ideals<a name="page_231" id="page_231"></a> they foster are really the causes of their materialism and -infidelity. The Roman Catholic Church is fighting that spirit by -maintaining strong parochial schools, encouraging the organization of -lodges under its protection, and it now publishes a daily paper. The -Protestants cannot boast of more than one per cent. of members among -them, and the three small churches in Chicago are but vaguely felt and -are practically no factors in the life of this large population. “We -don’t know that they are here,” said one of the infidel leaders, and the -Catholics take no notice of them at all. Some Protestant literature is -scattered among them but it is not of the highest type, and is not -calculated to reach those who need it most.</p> - -<p>Chicago is as much a Bohemian centre for America as is Prague for the -old Bohemia, and the type of thought found there is duplicated in all -the Bohemian centres that I visited; everywhere there is a battle -between free thought and Catholicism, and many a household is divided -between the <i>Svornost</i> and the <i>Catholic</i>, yet I have good reason to -believe that this infidelity is only a desire for a more liberal type of -religion, only a strong reaction and not a permanent thing, and I found -signs of weakening at every point. The little village of New Prague in -southwestern Minnesota is a good example. It is the centre of a large -Bohemian agricultural<a name="page_232" id="page_232"></a> community, and has the reputation of being a -“tough” town and quite a nest of infidelity. I found it a clean and -prosperous place of 1,500 inhabitants, outwardly neater and better cared -for than the ordinary Western village. It has a clean and -wholesome-looking hotel, a little Protestant church and a big Catholic -church, and the usual variety of stores. I was surprised to find the -hotel without the customary bar, and to my question about it the -hotel-keeper replied, “I have no use for bars; I ain’t no drinking man -and I don’t want nobody else to drink.”</p> - -<p>The editor of the New Prague <i>Times</i> had been pointed out to me as the -chief infidel, yet I found him an interested reader of <i>The Outlook</i> and -kindred literature, and a rather fine type of the liberal Christian. -Indeed, while, of course, the Chicago <i>Svornost</i> and its kind find a -great many readers, I came to the conclusion that with the infidels were -classed all those who refused to go to confession, or had helped to -secure a fine edifice for the public school. From the banker, the -physician, the druggist, and the photographer, I received additional -proof that my conjecture was correct, and the only one who had little to -say in praise of these people and much in blame was the village priest, -a true type of the Austrian Catholic, who would rule with an iron hand -if he could, and who misses the strong support of government. Typical of -him was the<a name="page_233" id="page_233"></a> answer to my question as to his touch with the people in -comparison with that of the Austrian priest at home. “You know in -Austria the State pays us, and we don’t need to come in close touch with -the people, but here it is different; here the people pay, and that -alone brings us in closer touch.”</p> - -<p>My impression of New Prague is that it is neither “tough” nor infidel; -it is true that it has saloons and too many of them, that the -Continental Sabbath is the type of its rest-day, but in outward decency -and in the degree of intelligence among its professional and business -men, it rivals any other town of its size with which I am acquainted. It -is surrounded by Irish and American settlements, the first of which it -surpasses in order and decency, and is not far from the other in -enterprise and an unexpressed desire to establish the kingdom of God -upon the earth.</p> - -<p>Unfortunately the saloon holds an abnormally large place in the social -life of the Bohemians, and beer works its havoc among them socially and -politically. The lodges, of which there are legion, are above or beneath -saloons, and all societies down to the building and loan associations -are in close touch with them. It is the pride of Bohemian Chicago that -two of its greatest breweries are in the hands of its countrymen, and -brewers and saloon-keepers control much of the Bohemian vote. I asked -one of the<a name="page_234" id="page_234"></a> politicians whether that element was active in politics, and -he replied, “Oh, yes; we have five aldermen and the city clerk.” The -fact is that they have given Chicago a poor class of officials and have -placed their worst infidels in the city council and on the school board. -There is not a little avowed Anarchy among them, and a great deal more -of Marxian Socialism, one of the daily papers advocating the latter -political faith. Just as there is much dangerous half-knowledge on -religious subjects, so there is on politics, and the worst and yet the -most eloquent arguments I have heard on Socialism, have been by these -agitators.</p> - -<p>Though the Bohemian is very pugnacious, he is easily led, or rather -easily influenced, and in times of political excitement I should say -that he would need a great deal of watching. He is much more tenacious -of his language and customs than the German, and I have found children -of the third generation who spoke English like foreigners. An appeal to -his history, to the achievements of his people, awakens in him a great -deal of pride, which he easily implants into the hearts of his children. -This does not make him a worse American, and in the Bohemian heart -George Washington soon has his place by the side of John Huss, and ere -long is “first” with these new countrymen.</p> - -<p>The Bohemian is intelligent enough to know<a name="page_235" id="page_235"></a> what he escaped in Austria, -and thus values his opportunities in America. Undoubtedly too often he -confuses liberty with license, but in this he is not a sinner above -others. His greatest sin is his materialism, and he stunts every part of -his finer nature to own a house and to have a bank account. Children are -robbed of their youth and of the opportunity to obtain a higher -education by this hunger after money, and parental authority among the -Bohemians has all the rigour of the Austrian absolutism which they have -transplanted, but which they cannot maintain very long, for young -Bohemia is quickly infected by young America, and a small-sized -revolution is soon started in every household. It is then that the first -generation thinks its bitterest thoughts about this country and its -baleful influence upon the young. In fact, the second generation is -rather profligate in “sowing its wild oats,” which are reaped in the -police courts in the shape of fines for drunkenness, disorderly conduct, -and assault and battery.</p> - -<p>The Bohemian is among the best of our immigrants, and yet may easily be -the worst, for when I have watched him in political riots in Prague and -Pilsen, or during strikes in our own country I have found him easily -inflamed, bitter and relentless in his hate, and destructive in his wild -passion. He has lacked sane leaders in his own country, as he lacks -well-balanced leaders in this.<a name="page_236" id="page_236"></a> The settlement and missionary workers in -Chicago find him rather hard material to deal with, for he is -unapproachable, not easily handled, and repels them by his suspicious -nature and outward unloveliness, although he is better than he seems, -and not quite so good as he thinks himself to be, for humility is not -one of his virtues. He develops best where he has the best example, and -upon the farms of Minnesota and Nebraska he is second only to the -German, whose close neighbour he is and with whom he lives in peace, -strange as it may seem. The Bohemian is here to stay, and scarcely any -of those who come will ever stand again upon St. Charles bridge, and -watch their native Moldava as it winds itself along the ancient -battlements of “Golden Prague,” as they love to call their capital. -America is their home, “for better or for worse”; they love it -passionately; and yet one who knows their history, every page of it -aflame with war, need not wonder that they turn often to their past and -dwell on it, lingering there with fond regret.</p> - -<p>Some years ago, while I was in Prague, Antonin Dvorák, the composer, -celebrated his sixtieth birthday, and the National Opera-house was the -scene of a gala performance and a great demonstration in his honour. -They gave his national dances in the form of a grand ballet, and to the -notes of those wild and melancholy strains of the mazurka, the kolo, and -the krakovyan, came all<a name="page_237" id="page_237"></a> the Slavic tribes in their picturesque garb, -and all were greeted by thunderous applause as they planted their -national banners. At last came a stranger from across the sea, and in -his hand was a flag, the Stars and Stripes, while to greet him came -Bohemia, with Bohemia’s colours waving in her hands; and these two -received the greatest applause of that memorable evening.</p> - -<p>These two are in the heart of this stranger. Faithful to the old, he -will ever be loyal to the new. How to be loyal to this flag in times of -peace; at the ballot-box, on the streets of Cleveland during a strike, -as a citizen and alderman in Chicago, is the great lesson which he needs -to learn, and we need to learn it with him. He will remain a Bohemian -longest in the agricultural districts of Minnesota and Nebraska, where -he holds tenaciously to the speech of his forefathers; but, in spite of -that, I consider him a better American than his brother in the city. He -needs to find here a Christianity which will satisfy his spiritual -nature and which will become the law of his life, a religion which binds -him and yet will make him truly free; and that we all need to find. -Above all, he has to resist the temptation to make bread out of stone, -to use all his powers to make a living and none of them to make a life; -and that is a temptation which we must all learn to resist, for neither -men nor nations can<a name="page_238" id="page_238"></a> “live by bread alone.”</p> - -<h2><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI<br /><br /> -LITTLE HUNGARY</h2> - -<p>T<small>HE</small> initiated New Yorker knows half a dozen restaurants at the edge of -the great Ghetto, where eating and drinking are a pleasure bought for a -modest price, and where the fragrance of fine cigars mingles with that -of better wine, and good fellowship reigns supreme. Some of these -restaurants are splendidly furnished, and cater to the lucrative trade -of those Americans who have had a taste of the social life of Southern -Europe and who like to lapse into its mild sins every once in a while.</p> - -<p>One of these places, now so fashionable that the real Hungarian rarely -darkens its doors, where the popping of champagne corks is heard in the -early morning hours, and where the oyster and lobster have almost -entirely supplanted the native Gulyas,—is one of the pioneers among -them, and in its early days served as a boarding house for the Hungarian -Jews who, for one reason or another, had exiled themselves from the gay -boulevards of Budapest. Here they tried to find consolation in food -cooked Magyar fashion, and in playing for a few hours at “Clabrias,” -their social game of cards, which<a name="page_239" id="page_239"></a> could also occasionally degenerate -into gambling. The keeper of the place whose Semitic name of Cohen had -been changed into the Magyar, Koronyi, recovered the fortune which he -had lost in the Old Country, but in spite of the fact that his bank -account grew larger every day, he still kept the boarding house as he -had always kept it, with his wife as the cook and himself as the waiter.</p> - -<p>In stentorian voice he would call out: “Harom Lövös” (three soups) or -“Harom Gulyas” (three Hungarian stews). Into the kitchen and out of it -he would rush with full and empty plates, in evident enjoyment of his -hard task.</p> - -<p>The reputation of the place travelled as far as Broadway, and great was -the day when rich clothing merchants came to eat his twenty-five cent -dinner with evident relish; but still greater the day when their Gentile -customers were brought thither to taste of the fleshpots of “Little -Hungary.”</p> - -<p>With increased speed he would run to the kitchen calling: “Harom Lövös,” -returning with three plates of soup upon his outstretched arm, -unburdened by a coat sleeve; and his bank account grew and his children -also.</p> - -<p>Two sons, boys still, helped the father call out the orders, until they -came to a realization of the dignity of the business and the size of -their father’s bank account. It was a sorry day for Simon Koronyi when -bills of fare appeared upon<a name="page_240" id="page_240"></a> his tables. They were there only after a -bitter struggle which cost him many a sleepless night. With the bills of -fare came waitresses, leaving the old man no occupation but to stand -silently, and receive the quarters which were heaped in great piles in -the till, while he grew daily more silent and morose.</p> - -<p>The sons had caught the enterprising spirit of this country; they bought -a lot on a street a few blocks nearer Broadway and built a house with a -suggestion of Hungary in its style. The dining-room was frescoed in -Hungarian scenes, with mottoes in the Magyar tongue, and was soon -transformed into a fashionable resort.</p> - -<p>Simon Koronyi, the founder of “Little Hungary,” moved into the house -reluctantly. Stormy scenes followed the introduction of American dishes -into the bill of fare, and when as a last straw a cash register appeared -on the counter, the old man’s heart almost broke. Hesitatingly, his -gentle old fingers moved over the keys of the machine, but he was pushed -rudely aside by the hurrying hand of his younger son. Thus dishonoured -in the sight of his guests, Simon Koronyi, tottering like a drunken man, -went to his apartments up-stairs, and there remained until the “Chevra -Kedisha,” the Jewish Funeral Society, carried him to his last resting -place.</p> - -<hr style="width: 45%;" /> - -<p>A few blocks north of these fashionable<a name="page_241" id="page_241"></a> “Little Hungarys,” the real -Hungary begins, and hither come the “Magyars” as the ruling race in -Hungary is called. If you call them Slavs they will reject it as an -insult.</p> - -<p>The Magyar has not the slightest relation to the Slavs, unless it be -that of ruling a portion of them with a rather iron hand, and hating all -of them proportionately. The Magyar’s closest relation is to the Finns -on the north and to the Turks in the east of Europe, and he is classed -anthropologically as a Ugro-Finn. In his development he has leaned -closely to the west, having a Germanic culture while still retaining a -somewhat untamed Asiatic nature, which manifests itself in nothing worse -than a love of fast horses, fiery wine, and the wild music with which -the gypsy bewitches him, and draws the loose change out of the pockets -of his tight-fitting trousers.</p> - -<p>In that strange conglomerate of races and nationalities called the -Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Magyar has gained a dominant influence, and -although numerically among the smallest, he has gained for himself the -greatest privileges, and practically dictates the policy of the Empire. -Upon those rich plains by the Danube and the Theis, he has been a -plowman who enjoyed the fruits of his toil as long as the marauding Turk -would let him, furnishing wheat and corn for the rest of Europe, and -gaining not<a name="page_242" id="page_242"></a> a little wealth since his arch-enemy has been driven back -into peace. What he has made of his country in the last forty years of -internal and external peace, how he has created for himself a capital -which surpasses Vienna, and built factories and railroads unrivalled -anywhere, forms a glorious page in the history of Europe.</p> - -<p>From this comparatively wealthy country; from its freedom, its broad -prairies and its picturesque village life, there have come to America -one hundred thousand men and women who are hard to wean from this Magyar -land, but who, like all others, finally lose themselves in the national -life, bringing into it fewer vices and more virtues than we ever connect -with the Hungarian as he is superficially known among us. In Little -Hungary rosy-cheeked maidens with bare arms akimbo, stand in many a -doorway while their swains court them on the street as they were in the -habit of doing at home. Nearly every second house advertises “Sor-Bor” -or “Palenka” for sale—the wine, beer, and whiskey to which the Magyar -is devoted; everywhere one hears the sound of the cymbal, that -unpromising instrument which looks more like a kitchen utensil than -anything else, but out of which the gypsy hammers sweet music. Little -Hungary has but a small domain in New York; it ends abruptly with more -restaurants in which gulyas, the favourite stew of the Magyar, lures<a name="page_243" id="page_243"></a> -the appetite; close by is Little Bohemia, and finally the big Germany -which overshadows every other nationality.</p> - -<p>The Hungary of New York, however, is only a stopping place,—is more -Jewish than Magyar, and consequently does not promise a good field for -observation. In Cleveland some twenty thousand Magyars live together -round about those giant steel mills which send their black smoke like a -pall over that much alive but very dirty city. Although street after -street is occupied solely by them, I have not seen a house that shows -neglect, and the battle with Cleveland dirt is waged fiercely here, -judging by the clean doorsteps, window-panes, and white curtains which I -saw at nearly every house. A large Catholic church, with its parochial -school dedicated to St. Elizabeth, the Hungarian queen, shows that the -Magyar does not neglect his religion. There are also a Greek Catholic -church and a flourishing Protestant congregation. A weekly newspaper -keeps the Hungarians in touch with one another and with the homeland, -although it does not represent the Magyar spirit either by its contents -or through the personality of its editor, who has no influence among his -countrymen. I looked in vain for a Hungarian political “boss,” for no -party can claim these people exclusively. Social Democracy has made -great gains among them, which<a name="page_244" id="page_244"></a> is due in no small measure to the fact -that they come from a comparatively wealthy country, from conditions -which are not unbearable, and from something of ease and comfort; and -so, finding the work in the iron-mills hard and grinding, they soon grow -dissatisfied, which means—Social Democracy. A sort of pessimistic -philosophy is developed, and the happy Hungarians grow melancholy, -dejected, and homesick. They cling with rare tenacity to the fatherland, -in which they have a just pride, and whenever the opportunity offers -itself they show how much they love it. The erection of a monument to -Louis Kossuth by men and women of the labouring classes, the enthusiasm -with which it was dedicated, the festivities which recalled by speech, -song, and dress the greatness of the man whose memory they honoured, -speak much for their idealistic and loyal love of country.</p> - -<p>Of all foreigners the Hungarians are among the most tolerant towards the -Jews, who live in large numbers in Hungary, while Hungarian Jews in -Cleveland love to be known as Magyars and are treated as such by their -fellow countrymen. The Magyar’s good nature is also shown by his -treatment of the gypsies, who have followed him in large numbers to -America, and are really a sort of parasite, being supported by the -easy-going and pleasure-loving Magyars, who dance the czardas to the -fiery notes of fiddles<a name="page_245" id="page_245"></a> and cymbals whose owners finally possess the -largest portion of their patron’s wages.</p> - -<p>The Hungarian gypsy boy, who is supposed to choose between the violin -and the penny, must in most cases take the two, for in Hungary as in -America he is both musician and thief with equal adeptness. One gypsy in -Cleveland keeps a saloon which is a combination of the Hungarian -“czarda” (inn) and its American namesake, the saloon, and it combines -the evils of both institutions. The regular bar is supplemented by -rickety chairs and tables and a clear space for the dancing floor, -without which the Hungarian czarda does not exist. On Saturday night, -the soot of the week washed away, the Hungarian is found here in all his -native glory. His moustache, twisted to the fineness of a needle-point, -is his most prominent national characteristic, unless it be his small, -shining eyes which barely escape looking out into the world from -Mongolian openings. A small head and prominent cheek-bones are also -characteristic, while the colour of the hair is dark brown and black, -the blond being almost unknown. He differentiates himself from his -neighbour the Slav by his agility of both temper and limbs, and to see -him dance a czardas, to hear him sing it and the gypsy play it, is as -good as seeing that other acrobatic performance, a circus. When the -gypsy inn-keeper<a name="page_246" id="page_246"></a> knows that his guests have pay-day money in their -pockets, he has ready a band of gypsies, who look shabby enough, and -very unpromising from an artistic standpoint; the leader, who plays the -first violin, tunes it with remarkable care and tenderness, the second -violin scrapes a few hoarse notes after him, the bass-viol comes in -grudgingly, and the cymbal-player exercises his fingers by beating -cotton-wrapped sticks over the strings of his strange instrument. One -patriotic youth, who has had just enough liquid fire poured into him, -now lifts his voice and sings a song of the puszta (the Hungarian -prairie), of the horses and cattle which graze upon it, and of the buxom -maiden who draws water from the village well. Slowly, pathetically, -almost painfully melancholy, the notes ring out as if the singer were -bewailing some great loss, the musicians follow upon their instruments -as sorrowful mourners follow a hearse; but all at once the measure -becomes brisk and the notes jubilant, the singer and the musicians are -caught as by a fever, faster and faster the bows fly over the strings, -the cymbal is beaten furiously, and the bass-viol seems in a roaring -rage.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_pg_246_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_pg_246_sml.jpg" width="500" height="351" alt="HO FOR THE PRAIRIE! - -From Roumania to the sheep farms of the west is a long journey. Those -who make it, form a most useful element in the development of the -country." -title="HO FOR THE PRAIRIE!" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">HO FOR THE PRAIRIE!<br /> -From Roumania to the sheep farms of the west is a long journey. Those -who make it, form a most useful element in the development of the -country.</span> -</p> - -<p>Sunday morning finds the dancers sobered and reverent on the way to -church, most of them going to the Roman Catholic church, in which a -zealous priest blesses, but is not blessed by them. Seldom have I found -among foreigners<a name="page_247" id="page_247"></a> such frank criticism of the priest and yet such -loyalty to the Church. The Hungarian Catholic is not narrow; he is much -more liberal than the Slav or the German Austrian, and a bigoted priest -may hold him to the Church but will not win him to himself. It is always -hard to judge of a priest or preacher from the reports of disgruntled -members of his flock, but the Catholics seldom speak ill of their -shepherd unless there is much hard truth to tell. The following, which I -heard from trustworthy sources, is characteristic. At a meeting of one -of the lodges the motion was made to have a mass said on a certain -memorial day; the priest arose to second the motion, and said, “We have -two kinds of mass, the five-dollar and the ten-dollar one, and I would -not advise you to have the cheap one.” True or untrue, the fact remains -that this priest has built a fine church and a magnificent parochial -school. He is a good financier, and I doubt not that he is such for the -glory of his Church and not for his own enrichment; I can testify to the -fact that he has done much good, that he has quieted much turbulence, -that he is not a friend of strong drink, and that he is a narrow but -exceedingly careful shepherd of his flock.</p> - -<p>The Greek Catholic priest in Cleveland was driven from the church by his -independent parishioners, who found him not only a good financier,<a name="page_248" id="page_248"></a> but -a bad man, a “peddler in holy goods,” as they called him, who was ready -to dispense his blessing to man and beast for money, large or small, or -for a drink more often large than small. The Protestant church is -shepherded by a young man from the Oberlin Theological Seminary, who is -in touch with the American life and its interpretation of the Christian -Church and ministry.</p> - -<p>The Protestant Hungarian is, as a rule, better educated, morally on a -higher level, and in America more quickly assimilated, than his Catholic -brother. In Hungary this has well-defined causes. First, splendidly -equipped Protestant ministers, not a few of them graduates of English -and Scotch universities and imbued by the Puritan spirit of those -countries. Second, a Protestant theology of the Calvinistic type, which, -harsh and hard as it is, makes everywhere strong men and women, and -which in Hungary distinguishes the Calvinistic communities from the -Catholic by a severer philosophy of life and a much more moral conduct. -The third cause may in the eyes of some persons be the most real one. -Wherever a religious community is in the minority and is or has been -severely persecuted, it becomes thrifty and highly moral. Whatever the -reason, the fact exists and is a pleasant one to chronicle.</p> - -<p>Not so pleasant is the problem that, in common<a name="page_249" id="page_249"></a> with all foreigners, the -Magyar presents. Neither church, priest, nor preacher holds authority -over him very long after he reaches these shores. He rebels against, -loses interest in his church, and finally ceases to support it; neglect -not seldom ends in hate, and a rude atheism is a common disease among -these people. Besides this, it is not easy to find enough and suitable -priests and preachers for these foreigners, as slight differences in -language call for different pastors, and in Cleveland alone the Church -could use advantageously men of twenty nationalities of whose existence -the average man has scarcely any idea. The imported pastor is almost -always in discord with his congregation, which is generally in accord -with the freer American spirit and cannot be treated as he treated his -parish in Hungary or Poland. Many, perhaps most, of the pastors who are -educated abroad have no sympathy with the democratic spirit of our -country, and they frequently complain of its effect upon their -authority. I met one such priest on his way back to Europe. He was -leaving his work because, as he said, “I could find nobody in my parish -to black my boots, for everybody considered himself as good as I am. In -the old country my people would stop on the street and kiss my hand, but -here the children say, ‘Hello, Father,’ and go on their way.” The -ministers trained in America<a name="page_250" id="page_250"></a> are few, and these are yet young and -inexperienced.</p> - -<p>The English Protestant churches are not seriously concerned about this -growing problem, the solution of which does not consist only in building -missions and paying money into the treasury, but also in presenting to -these foreigners a living, acting, and blessing Christ, who, when -uplifted, draws all men unto Him.</p> - -<p>It is good to be able to say of people who come to a strange country, as -of the Hungarian, that they maintain their integrity. He is, as a rule, -honest, easily imposed upon, somewhat quarrelsome, addicted to drink, -not so industrious as the Slav but much more intelligent, comprehending -more easily and assimilating more quickly. He is not a problem but a -lesson. Crossing the ocean in December on the Red Star Line steamer -<i>Vaterland</i>, I found among the mixture of steerage passengers over two -hundred Magyars, or, as we more exactly call them, Hungarians. I was -eager to know what they were carrying home to their native country after -years of living with us, and I found that many of them seemed completely -untouched by the American life. Their language, spoken by but a few -people in Europe, is almost unknown in America, and the man without a -language is almost always “the man without a country.” If anything, -these poor creatures seemed worse than when<a name="page_251" id="page_251"></a> they came, for many of them -had failed and were broken in spirit. Some whose tongues had become -loosened were aware of the larger life, and were full of the praises of -America. They were going back to look again upon the village in which -they were born, in which they made whistles from the hanging willows by -the creek, where they chased the pigs into the mud-puddles, where they -lived their small and simple life, and to which they were now returning -as travelled men. They had crossed the ocean, seen miles of earth, had -struggled with wind and weather, felt freedom’s breezes blow, and had -grown mightily. Brain, heart, and soul had developed, or perhaps only -changed, but even change is experience, if not always life and growth. -It was good to talk to these men who had “arrived,” who saw things as we -see them and felt them as we feel them, and who carried American flags -in their pockets to show to their friends and who gloried in their -American citizenship. “I love the old country,” said one of them, “but I -love America more. Stay in Hungary? Oh, no! I do not even want to die -there, but if I do, I want them to wrap me in this shroud,” and he -pulled out of his pocket the Stars and Stripes.<a name="page_252" id="page_252"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII<br /><br /> -THE ITALIAN AT HOME</h2> - -<p>S<small>OMBRE</small> as is the Slavic world, from which both Jew and Slav emigrate, so -bright and joyous is all Italy the home of most of the Latins who come -to us.</p> - -<p>Nowhere in Europe does the sky seem so blue, the stars so brilliant in -their setting, or the colour of earth and sea so entrancing. Approach it -as you will it fills you and thrills you with pleasure unspeakable, and -to eyes accustomed to the sober plains of Russia and the dull -colourlessness of her villages, it seems as unreal as a dream or the -stage setting of grand opera.</p> - -<p>Venice, Genoa, Naples, Milan, Florence, Rome; these names conjure more -in one’s vision than the pen can record. But one could mention a hundred -little spots to us nameless, towns with their own beauty, with their own -art treasures and their own large influences upon the history of -mankind. All Italy has mountains and plains, the North and the South, -vast natural contrasts; yet there is everywhere the one inexplicable -charm which makes the name of the country synonymous with beauty and -art.</p> - -<p>Yet while Italy is one the Italian is not. A<a name="page_253" id="page_253"></a> great gulf still divides -the people of different provinces and districts, and old political -divisions still survive, leaving their marks upon the speech, and the -character of the individual. All the older and newer invasions have left -their traces, and wherever an alien army has come, it has plowed its way -with the sword into the life of these impressionable people.</p> - -<p>Where the Slav has touched the Italian, you see his heavy finger marks -in a rougher exterior, a slower gait, a harsher speech, more industry -and less art. Where the Austro-Germans have enthralled and governed him -you will find him more governable, more sedate, more a statesman and -less a revolutionist, “a captain of industry” rather than a leader of -brigands, more a business man and less a dreamer. Where the French -crossed the mountains they made a gateway for their tastes and habits, -which blended quickly and easily into the Italian character, for the -Italians were never very unlike the French who were their friends and -enemies in turn, and often both at the same time. Where the Arabians and -the Greek touched the South with thought and thoughtfulness, with -culture and vices, with rest and restlessness, these contrasts are -accentuated in the Italian, who, although small in stature, is great in -passions and desires.</p> - -<p>Yet frugality and industry have been forced upon him by the climate and -by economic conditions.<a name="page_254" id="page_254"></a> The rest of Europe long ago became conscious of -this fact. When railroads just began to be built the Italian blasted his -way through the mountains, and I am sure there is not a tunnel which he -did not help to dig, and perhaps not a great stone bridge whose -foundations he did not lay. Until comparatively recently the Italian -seemed indispensable in all such undertakings and in a greater portion -of Europe his camp could be seen wherever the railroad was making a new -path for civilization.</p> - -<p>Never given to alcoholic excess like the Slav, more inventive than his -duller competitor, easily adjusted to any task or condition; he would -lie uncomplainingly in a ditch were the weather hot or cold, wet or dry, -and for a comparatively small wage do a day’s full work, which the -natives of these countries seemed unable to do.</p> - -<p>The pioneer of Italian migrations was his lazier brother, who, with a -trained monkey and a hand-organ out of tune, made his way from place to -place; he also came first across the Atlantic and caused many of us to -believe that he was the typical Italian.</p> - -<p>The tourist who is besieged by the beggars in Naples, and who sees the -lazy Lazzaroni stretched out upon the ground with his face turned -towards the baking sun, sees the exceptional Italian, although this -exception seems to be numerous.<a name="page_255" id="page_255"></a></p> - -<p>As a rule the Italian asks for but little in life. He lives on olives -and macaroni, cornmeal mush or Polenta, as it is called, and is content. -He rarely drinks to excess, his wine being often watered to such a -degree that it can no more be called an alcoholic beverage. His home -need not be either beautiful or commodious when all out of doors is his, -when God has set ornaments into the heavens and calls out of the earth -such beauties as no mortal can reproduce. The very rags which cover his -body become picturesque as the sunlight plays upon them with its -wonderful colouring.</p> - -<p>Satisfied as is the Italian at home by his condition, he is equally -unsatisfied with any restraint by authority; lawlessness has cut so deep -into his life, that it may be said to be a natural characteristic. The -root of it lies in the fact that for centuries the lawmakers were aliens -and conquerors, the laws being made for the strong and not for the weak; -to oppress and not to protect.</p> - -<p>Brigandage and heroism often became synonymous, while murder and theft -were easily excused upon the grounds of expediency. Much of this spirit -has remained in all classes of society, especially in the south, and the -population is so used to it, that the criminal is more often pitied than -condemned, while the people would rather put a halo around the heads of -assassins and murderers, than a rope about their necks. Modern<a name="page_256" id="page_256"></a> -psychology, under the leadership of the Italian physician Lombroso, has -encouraged this leniency towards criminals and the Italian when he can -find no other excuse for a crime lays it to hereditary influences, which -make the criminal still more an unfortunate man. Rarely does he call a -prison by its right name; it is the “place for unfortunates.” The -criminal is regarded as an unfortunate one, and heinous indeed must be -the crime which is looked upon as more than a misfortune.</p> - -<p>The various secret societies in Italy which once had political bearing, -have become largely a menace to organized society, and a school for the -worst kind of crimes. The consequence is that many of the criminals who -come to our shores are Italians who are trying to escape punishment or -who are entangled in the meshes of the Maffia or Camorra, and the -officials are very glad to have their room rather than their company. -Evidences are not lacking that their way out is made easy, even if it -cannot be proved that the government aids them to come.</p> - -<p>It does not follow that the Italian is dishonest; he compares well with -the average European who comes to us, but in his ethics he is decidedly -mixed, and his poetical temper does not always help him to tell the -exact truth. His exceeding great politeness prevents him from saying no -when he means it, and often when one feels himself<a name="page_257" id="page_257"></a> aggrieved by what -seems a deception, it is only an overplus of good manners. He is -extremely amorous in his wooing, jealous when he has attained his end, -and fights for his love to the death. He is generous, if not chivalrous -to his wife, and with proper training in America he may become a docile -husband. Even now he is one of the few European fathers who may push a -baby carriage through the streets without losing caste by it. Travelling -through Italy I have come upon many a husband who took complete charge -of the baby during the journey, while his wife looked out of the window -and enjoyed the leisure. The ties which bind him to his wife are rather -easily broken, due to the fact that many marriages are contracted early, -so that the wife passes from youth to age quickly, and great family -cares are apt to make him feel that he would better move on.</p> - -<p>Socialism tinged by anarchy has deeply eaten into the life of the common -people and is regarded by most Italians as an important factor in the -control of the government, in which corruption and graft are nearly as -common as in Russia. While better conditions are in sight they have not -yet come, and taxation is as heavy as it is unjustly raised and -distributed.</p> - -<p>Eighty-four per cent of all the taxes raised are expended upon the -national debt, the administration and defense; while all the rest of the -national<a name="page_258" id="page_258"></a> needs must be met by only seventeen per cent. But 2.79 per -cent. of that sum is used for education, the consequence being that -fifty per cent. of the population of Italy are illiterate, that the -public schools, both government and church schools, are poor, and that -the high schools and universities are suffering from the lack of proper -equipment and are not able to keep pace with modern advancement in -education. Compulsory education is a law never enforced, and yet -suffrage depends upon the ability to read and write; therefore over -6,000,000 voters are robbed of their right to vote. The king is loved -for the simplicity of his life, the honesty of his purposes, and for his -adaptability to modern thought and conditions. But this cannot be said -of most of his ministers and state officials. The accepted name for an -official used to be and in a measure still is “Goberno Ladro,” which -means government thief.</p> - -<p>The Italian is a good business man and a good organizer, having a talent -for the dollar which to-day makes him a new business force in Europe, -and one to be reckoned with; especially if he improves his business -morals, which are very poor.</p> - -<p>In spite of the fact that Italy is the centre of the most dogmatic -Christian Church, the Italian is tolerant towards those of other faith -or race, even while being superstitious to a degree. He loves the pomp -and splendour of the Church but has not<a name="page_259" id="page_259"></a> been deeply touched by her -ethical features, and is in a measure, as much pagan as when his -forefathers worshipped local deities; although now he calls them patron -saints.</p> - -<p>One might justly accuse the Catholic clergy of not having risen to their -responsibility, of having increased the enmity rather than the love of a -large portion of the population, of having played politics on the off -side and of having had no social vision. But a charge like this though -true, has back of it certain facts which would, perchance, show us the -Roman priests in a better light. There are priests and priests, bishops -and bishops, even as there are popes and popes. If the clergy of Italy -was made after the pattern of the present Pope, if it had his spirit, -his devotion and his piety, the Italian might still become a Christian -who would prove the power of his faith and who would be thoroughly -genuine and tolerant; not a dogmatist, a thorough optimist, a man of -great faith, and consequently not a good politician.</p> - -<p>We know enough of Pope Pius X to wish for Italy and for America also -that he might become the model for all Roman Catholics; then indeed the -immigrant would be to us no problem but a blessing. Yet one cannot judge -the hierarchy by the Pope, and there are in Italy not a few discerning -men who distrust the Church the more, in the measure in which it has a -good Pope behind whom to hide its evil designs.<a name="page_260" id="page_260"></a></p> - -<p>Yet who that has looked into the face of Pope Pius X will ever forget -its strong, yet sweet manliness? He must indeed have no religious -sensibilities who does not realize when in his presence that he is face -to face with a man of God. Shortly after his elevation to his office he -stood before a congregation of some ten thousand people who filled the -court of St. Damassia. His face shone from the pleasure of loving those -who stood before him, and they could not help loving him. He began to -speak, and gradually a deep-felt silence crept over the vast assemblage. -“I am so glad,” he said, “my dearly beloved friends, to see so many of -you here, and I thank you all from the depths of my heart. They tell me -that society is corrupt, full of weakness and disease, a sickly dying -body, but I,” he said, and his voice was filled by the strength of his -faith, “do not believe it.” He then told the simple story of the child -which Jesus raised from the dead; he told it as simply as it was -written, as a disciple of Jesus who was an eye-witness might have told -it to the humble folk of Judea. He told how Jesus with His companions -came, how He looked upon the girl, and as He laid His hands upon her -head said, “The child is not dead; it is not true.”</p> - -<p>With his face bathed in a flame of holy passion the great pope and -preacher said to the breathless multitude: “Non e vero”—it is not<a name="page_261" id="page_261"></a> -true; “Non lo credo”—I do not believe it; “and if we all cling to one -another I believe that humanity still has vitality, and that it will -come to full life and health, as long ago did the little child in -Palestine.”</p> - -<p>As I look upon the Italian at home with his many social diseases which -have so deeply eaten into his life that one might judge him incurable—I -nevertheless say: “Non e vero, Non lo credo.” It is not true, I do not -believe it. True, my faith in his healing does not rest with the Pope, -in spite of his native piety and his sterling character. The Italian is -sick and sore because the Church which has so long been his physician, -acknowledges no error, and even its humble Pope will not persuade it -that it must radically change its treatment; this not only for the sake -of Italy but for the sake of America also. The most dangerous element -which can come to us from any country, is that which comes smarting -under real or fancied wrongs, committed by those who should have been -its helpers and healers. Such an element Italy furnishes in a remarkably -great degree, and I have no hesitation in saying that it is our most -dangerous element.<a name="page_262" id="page_262"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII<br /><br /> -THE ITALIAN IN AMERICA</h2> - -<p>I<small>T</small> is hard to determine how long it is since the first Savoyard came to -our country with his trained bears, making them dance to the squeaky -notes of his reed instrument, as he wandered from town to town. He and -the man with the monkey and organ were of the same adventurous stock, -and they were the vanguard of a vast army of men who were to come; first -with a push-cart, later with shovel and pickax. Not to destroy, but to -build up and to help in the great conquest of nature’s resources, so -abundantly bestowed upon this continent.</p> - -<p>While the average Italian immigrant is not regarded by any of us as a -public benefactor, it is a question just how far we could have stretched -our railways and ditches without him; for he now furnishes the largest -percentage of the kind of labour which we call unskilled, and he is -found wherever a shovel of earth needs to be turned, or a bed of rock is -to be blasted. Hundreds of thousands come each year and each one of them -fits into the work awaiting him, moving on to a new task when the old -one is finished. The kind of work which they do calls for unattached, -migrating<a name="page_263" id="page_263"></a> labour, and eighty per cent. of those who come have no -marriage ties to hinder their movements. When the winter comes and out -of door work grows slack, or when the labour market is depressed, these -unattached forces return to Italy and bask in its sunshine until -conditions for labour on this side of the sea grow brighter. Their -quarters, which are as near as possible to their work, are easily -recognized; not because they are more slovenly than their neighbours, -but because there is such a “helter skelter, I don’t care” sort of -atmosphere about their squalor. This comes from the fact that they -regard their quarters as purely temporary, and treat them as one might a -camping-ground, which to-morrow is to be abandoned for a better site.</p> - -<p>Like all foreigners, they prefer to be among their own; not so much from -a feeling of clannishness, although that is not absent; but because -among their own, they are safe from that ridicule which borders on -cruelty, and with which the average American treats nearly every -stranger not of his complexion or speech.</p> - -<p>In passing through Connecticut, where nearly each large town has its -Italian colony, I found one lonely Italian asking the conductor whether -this was the train for New York. “Which way want you go?” (Usually the -American thinks that the foreigner can understand poor English.)<a name="page_264" id="page_264"></a> All -the Italian knew, he repeated: “New York—New York.” The conductor left -the puzzled man standing on the platform and the train moved on. I -remained with the Italian and saw him three times treated similarly, if -not worse, and I concluded that it is not very safe for the Italian to -distribute himself too thinly over this continent.</p> - -<p>The Italian usually moves into quarters formerly occupied by the Irish -or Jews, whose demands have risen with their better earnings, and who -have left the congested districts for the uptown or the suburbs. At -present it is no doubt true that the Italian is satisfied by these -quarters, and that what nobody wants, he is ready to take. So it is that -he comes to the edges of the great Ghetto in New York, to Bleecker -Street and beyond, and that his trail leads almost into the heart of it. -Jewish and Italian push-cart peddlers stand side by side, the Italian -barber shop seeks Semitic customers, the smells from the “Genoese -Restaurant” blend with those from the “Kosher Kitchen,” and the air is -disturbed by the perfumes of garlic and paprika, a combination not half -so bad as it smells.</p> - -<p>In Chicago, “Little Italy” hovered around a large district condemned to -the sheltering of vice, and when good business sense dictated that it be -moved to some less conspicuous portion of the town, it was immediately -invaded by Italians.<a name="page_265" id="page_265"></a> Scarcely a day had passed, yet the change made was -as complete as it was revolutionary. Large plate windows were broken and -pillows were stuck into the aperture to keep out the lake breeze; the -broad stairways which had led to destruction were slippery now, but not -so dangerous as before; the large parlours were divided and subdivided, -while the gay paper was torn from the walls; it looked as though -conquerors had come who were bent upon destruction. A happy change was -manifest in the streets, for it was full of children, and the innocent -face of a child had not been seen in those streets for years.</p> - -<p>Housing conditions among the Italians are as bad as can be imagined and -the most crowded quarters in our cities are those inhabited by them. -Four hundred and ninety-two families in one block is the record, and it -is held by New York, on Prince Street, between Mott and Elizabeth -Streets; while Philadelphia can boast of having the most unwholesome -tenements, where air is a luxury and daylight unknown. In that city -thirty families numbering 123 persons, were living in thirty-four rooms.</p> - -<p>Of course the landlord who builds these shacks and the community which -tolerates them, are equally to blame. Both commit a crime against -society, but a good share of the blame must fall upon the Italian -himself for being satisfied with such surroundings. He is of course -anxious to<a name="page_266" id="page_266"></a> save money, and a decent dwelling in our large cities is a -luxury; so he who at home used the heavens for the roof of his tenement, -and the long street for his parlour, is naturally content with but a -small shelter for the night.</p> - -<p>Considering the conditions under which the Italians live, their quarters -are not nearly so bad as one might expect, and when a period of -prosperity has come upon the community, when it can look back upon a -year or two of consecutive work, they show in common with other foreign -quarters, decided improvement.</p> - -<p>Rather characteristic is the tenement district of Hartford, Conn., which -has gone through all the stages of such districts in other cities, is no -better than they, and in many respects worse. There are buildings -occupied which would be condemned elsewhere as unfit for human -habitation. There are whole blocks which look damp, dingy and dirty; -ancient structures, with filth oozing from every pore.</p> - -<p>Jews and Italians are the chief inhabitants of this district, although -one comes across a stranded American family here and there, the dregs of -New England, the most hopeless people in this new city of ancient -tenements. The two nationalities live rather close together, and it is a -mixture of Russian and Italian dirt, the Italian article being much the -cleaner.</p> - -<p>Walk through the streets with me and you<a name="page_267" id="page_267"></a> will readily forget that you -are in America. Here Pietro, the shoemaker, on his three-legged stool, -mends boots out on the streets; while Lorenzo shaves his customer upon -the pavement in front of his shop. Gossiping groups of swarthy -neighbours sit together upon the threshhold of their homes, and Bianca, -Lorenzo’s wife, is complaining in a loud voice that Pietro, the -shoemaker, has called her a hussy. “And he a low-down Sicilian, a good -for nothing, has called me, the barber’s wife, a hussy.” She is rousing -the ire of her neighbours, and woe to Pietro, for Lorenzo’s wife has a -temper.</p> - -<p>They do look so unchanged as yet, nearly all of them—so genuinely -homely, as if they had landed but yesterday; and they have not yet gone -through the transforming process, except as Francesco, the chief of the -hurdy-gurdy grinders, has changed one or two tunes of his <i>repertoire</i>; -for he appeases the New England conscience by playing “Nearer, My God to -Thee,” with variations, “Rock of Ages,” closely followed by “Tammany,” -and airs from Cavaliero Rusticana.</p> - -<p>If the Italian in Hartford were less handicapped by the wretched -conditions of his dwelling, he would more easily be able to utilize the -splendid advantages of that city. As it is, he rises very slowly but -perceptibly; although he lives in the worst possible houses, he is -growing more and more cleanly; he is gaining in self-respect and<a name="page_268" id="page_268"></a> when -he has had the opportunity and the experience of the Irish people, he -will probably not only duplicate their splendid record in New England -and elsewhere, but excel it. Slowly but surely he is rising from a -tenement dweller to a tenement owner and soon he “will do others as he -was done,” and charge exorbitant rent for uninhabitable quarters.</p> - -<p>The Italian is regarded as a good asset in the real estate business, for -he can be crowded more than any other human being. He is fairly prompt -with his rent and he does not make heavy demands in the way of -improvements. This he himself appreciates, for he has business sense, -and buys real estate as soon as he can invest his small earnings. -Usually he acquires a small house with a large mortgage. He moves into -the house at once, proceeds to draw revenue from every available corner, -and in a few years lifts the mortgage and is on his way to buy more real -estate.</p> - -<p>The value of the business is proved by the fact that in the Italian -quarters in New York 800 Italians are owners of houses, a large -proportion of course being tenements of the worst character, which -nevertheless, represent the respectable value of $15,000,000. A like -large sum lies in the savings banks of that city, deposited by Italian -immigrants; while the total value of all the property owned by them in -the city of New<a name="page_269" id="page_269"></a> York alone, is not far from $70,000,000. These figures, -I must confess, do not impress me, for the sufferings endured and meted -out for the sake of these earnings are terrible, and in the “tit for -tat” of our economic order the Italian gives as good as he gets. The -narrow quarters he rents are invariably sublet, and he imposes upon the -newcomer conditions as hard as, or harder than, those under which he -began life in the land of the free. The hardest conditions are those he -imposes upon his wife and children; yet he is not a cruel husband or -father, and shares their hard labour, often making the children part -owners of what they earn. Of course the western and southern cities -where the Italians have settled make a better showing, for they are not -the men who came but yesterday; they have had a larger opportunity and -have made full use of it. Italian clubs, opera houses, and Chambers of -Commerce, are being organized in the western and southern cities; and -one can judge of the quality of our Italian immigrant best, where the -struggle for life is not too keen, the surroundings not so terribly -depressing, and where the American spirit has had a chance to be grafted -upon the Latin stock. More and more he is leaving the city and in the -Southwest especially, colonies of Italians are springing up and are -conducted with such eminent success, that with some encouragement, the -Italian may be made helpful in<a name="page_270" id="page_270"></a> reclaiming our arid deserts, even as he -is now making the rocky hill farms of Connecticut and Massachusetts to -“blossom as the rose.”</p> - -<p>Among these settlements, that at Bryan, Texas, is the most notable. It -is composed of what we usually call the least desirable Italian element, -the Sicilian. Nearly twenty-five hundred people have settled there as -renters, although not a few of them are owners of the land they work. -Some eighteen miles separate the various families, all of whom come from -near Palermo, and have lived together in reasonable harmony, making -rapid financial progress. They are as peaceful a community as is found -in so turbulent a state as Texas. In Utah and California the progress -made is still more marked; and proves that the Italian like the rest of -us needs only a fair chance.</p> - -<p>I have had good opportunity also to observe him in his migratory state, -attached to a construction crew on the railroad, and tenting by a cut in -the rock, or by the western fields.</p> - -<p>Usually the farmer fears his coming. The word “Dago” has in it an -element of dread; it carries the sound of the dagger, and the dynamite -bomb. The far away villager who sees the camp approaching fears its -proximity. I have watched the Italians coming and going and although -there was a heated brawl at times, they quarrelled among themselves, -disturbed nobody, left the hen coops of the farmers untouched, did<a name="page_271" id="page_271"></a> -not burn down the village, and paid decently for their food. When they -went away a fairly good source of revenue had disappeared and with it a -good share of unreasoning prejudice.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_pg_270_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_pg_270_sml.jpg" width="353" height="500" alt="THE BOSS - -Where a shovel of earth is to be turned, or a bed of rock is to be -blasted, there the Italian, unattached, migratory, contributes his share -to the public welfare." -title="THE BOSS" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">THE BOSS<br /> -Where a shovel of earth is to be turned, or a bed of rock is to be -blasted, there the Italian, unattached, migratory, contributes his share -to the public welfare.</span> -</p> - -<p>As competitors in certain fields of activity they are justly feared by -those who have regarded those fields as their own peculiar province; and -they are pushing the Russian Jew very hard in his monopoly of the -manufacture of clothing. The nimble fingers of the Italian woman, her -lesser demands upon life, and the ease with which she carries the -burdens of wifehood and motherhood, have enabled her to outdistance the -workers of the Ghetto, although the strife is still on and the issue not -decided. Yet I believe that the future clothing worker in America will -be the Italian and not the Jew; for the Jew loves life and its good -things, and moreover he has educational ambitions for his children, -which the Italian does not yet feel, he being a sinner above all others -in the use of his children’s labour. The Chicago truant officers have -had the privilege of arresting nearly all the parents of one “Little -Italy” at least once; for almost every child of school age was kept at -home and “sweated” for all the strength it possessed.</p> - -<p>The Italian is very fertile in inventing excuses for the purpose of -evading the law, and his ethical standard in that direction is still -extremely low. This comes from his inherited hatred of all<a name="page_272" id="page_272"></a> governmental -restrictions; he still thinks that the state seeks only its own good and -his hurt, in its insistence upon the education of his children. -Substantially this is the Italian’s attitude towards law in general; and -to that in a large measure is due the fact that he rates relatively high -in the statistics of crime.</p> - -<p>I have thus far refrained from using statistics, largely because they -may be juggled with, as has been done very successfully; just as zealots -juggle with Bible texts to prove their contentions. I have done -something besides gathering figures, and that something may be of -importance. I have visited nearly all the penitentiaries in the eastern -and western States; not to ask how many foreigners there are in jail, -but to ask why and how they were convicted, what their present behaviour -is; to look the men and women squarely in the face and to converse with -them. Let me say here again, emphatically, that statistics are -misleading and that in spite of the large number of Italians in prison, -there are by far <i>fewer</i> criminals among them than the statistics -<i>indicate</i>. In a large number of cases, the crimes for which the Italian -suffers, have grown out of local usage in his old home. None the less -are they justly punished here, lest they be permitted to perpetuate -themselves in the new home.</p> - -<p>Most of the Italians in prison have used the stiletto and the pistol too -freely, just as they<a name="page_273" id="page_273"></a> used them at home when jealousy made them mad, or -when they were in pursuit of vengeance for real or fancied wrongs. There -are not a few real criminals who have used the weapon for gain, but in -the majority of cases the stabbing or shooting was an affair of honour -with those concerned, and even the aggrieved parties preferred to suffer -in silence and die, bequeathing their grudge to the next generation, -rather than bring the affair before a sordid court. Testimony in such -cases is very hard to get, and I have seen many a wounded Italian bite -his lips, inwardly groaning, and suffering in silence, unwilling to let -strange ears hear the proud secret of which he was the keeper and the -victim.</p> - -<p>Italian burglars have not reached proficiency enough to have a place in -the “Hall of Infamy,” and bank robbers and “hold-up” men need not yet -fear serious competition from that source. The prisons contain many -Italians who transgressed out of ignorance as well as from passion; -numbers suffer because they do not know the language of the court, and -did not have enough coin of the realm.</p> - -<p>The worst thing about the Italians is that they have no sense of shame -or remorse. I have not yet found one of them who was sorry for anything -except that he had been caught; and in his own eyes and in the eyes of -his friends, he is “unfortunate” when he is in prison and<a name="page_274" id="page_274"></a> “lucky” when -he comes out. “He no bad” his neighbour says: “He good, he just caught,” -and when he comes out, he is received like a hero.</p> - -<p>This is the severest indictment that can be brought against the Italian, -and it is severe enough; but it comes largely from his attitude towards -the State and from the nature of the crime. Lillian Betts, who knows her -foreigners critically and sympathetically, says: -<a name="page_275" id="page_275"></a> -“In New York, the streets the Italians live in are the most neglected, -the able head of this department claiming that cleanliness is impossible -where the Italian lives. The truth is that preparation for cleanliness -in our foreign colonies is wholly inadequate. The police despise the -Italian except for his voting power. He feels the contempt but with the -wisdom of his race he keeps his crimes foreign, and defies this -department more successfully than the public generally knows. He is a -peaceable citizen in spite of the peculiar race crimes which startle the -public. The criminals are as one to a thousand of these people. On -Sundays watch these colonies. The streets are literally crowded from -house line to house line, as far as the eye can see, but not a policeman -in sight, nor occasion for one. Laughter, song, discussion, exchange of -epithet, but no disturbance. They mind their own business as no other -nation, and carry it to the point of crime when they protect their own -criminal. Like every other human being in God’s beautiful world, they -have the vices of their virtues. It is for us to learn the last to -prevent the first.”</p> - -<p>In spite of the fact that Italy seems to be the land of beggars, the -Italian immigrant is rarely a medicant and (according to Jacob Riis), -among the street beggars of New York, the Irish lead with fifteen per -cent., the native Americans follow with twelve, the Germans with eight, -while the Italian shows but two per cent. In the almshouses of New York -the Italian occupies the enviable position of having the smallest -representation, with Ireland having 1,617 persons and Italy but -nineteen; while the figures for the United States are equally -favourable.</p> - -<p>Considering the congested conditions of the tenements, the Italian -retains much of his inherited vigour, but consumption which plays havoc -with him in this uncongenial climate is aggravated by his mode of living -that is so entirely changed. Especially do the women and children -suffer, for they are suddenly transferred from a complete out-of-door -life to the prison-like walls of the tenements.</p> - -<p>In Chicago I visited a family in which I had become interested through a -son who was in constant antagonism to the school law and who was the -special pet of the truant officers. When I first saw these people they -occupied two rear<a name="page_276" id="page_276"></a> rooms in which the mother had been for three months -without once going out of doors. She was coughing constantly although -hard at work making vests; and the husband could not understand how her -red cheeks could so soon have disappeared, or why her colour was as -yellow as the light of the coal oil lamp by which she worked ten of the -fourteen working hours of the day. Thomasio, the son, was stunted -physically and mentally, and the mark of the tenement was upon him. He -was the oldest of eight children and had borne the burden of his seven -brothers and sisters as if it were his own. While the other boys were -playing on the sidewalk, he had to rock the baby. Through seven years he -had rarely seen God’s out of doors, except as it shone upon him through -a little spot in the air shaft of the tenement. He and his parents hated -the school and the school officers who were after him, and that c-a-t -spells cat will be as much as he will know of all the mysteries, in -spite of the zealous truant officers and teachers, lay and clerical. The -public schools will be unable to work their magic not only upon Thomasio -and his family of seven, but upon numbers of the same kind, reared under -the same circumstances, for even before they were born they were robbed -of their mental and physical background, and their horizon will always -be bounded, more or less, by garbage cans, barrels of stale beer, -wash-tubs<a name="page_277" id="page_277"></a> full of soiled clothing, and by cradles full of little -bambinos.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless the Italian is not a degenerate; he usually survives the -wretched years of his infancy and then like all people who share his -environment, grows up less rugged, perhaps more subtle, and hardened to -some things which would prove a very serious handicap to those of us who -know the value of pure air and of soap and water.</p> - -<p>It would seem upon a superficial glance that the large incursion of -Italians to America would add strength to the Roman Catholic Church -here, and that their coming into a community would be welcomed because -of that; but I have found almost the opposite to be true. The Irish -priests do not like them; they lack the serious devotion to the Church -which characterizes Irish or German parishioners, they care only for the -show element in religion and are not willing to pay even for that. They -will come to church on great holidays, when many candles are lighted and -banners are carried; but they do not bother themselves to come to early -mass, nor are they the best attendants at the confessional. They will -spend much money upon showy funerals and christenings, but if the -Catholic Church were dependent for its support upon the Italian -immigrants it would fare badly. This of course may be due to the fact -that they are very poor and<a name="page_278" id="page_278"></a> that in Italy the Church is comparatively -rich; but it is most largely due to the fact that, contrary to the -common opinion, the Italian is not religious by nature, that as a rule -he has no understanding for the serious and ethical side of religion, -that he is a heathen still who needs to have his spiritual nature -discovered and stirred, after which he should have the alphabet of the -gospel preached to him in the simplest possible way. The Italian priest -in America is the poorest kind of vehicle for that purpose; in proof of -which I quote Lillian W. Betts because she cannot be accused of -prejudice in the light of the conclusions which she draws:</p> - -<p>“To one who knows and appreciates the great spiritual life of the Roman -Catholic Church, the relation between that Church and the mass of the -Italians in this country is a source of grief, for it does not hold in -the lives of this people the place it should. Reluctantly, the writer -has to blame the ignorance and bigotry of the immigrant priests who set -themselves against American influence; men who too often lend themselves -to the purposes of the ward heeler, the district leader in controlling -the people; who too often keep silence when the poor are the victims of -the shrewd Italians who have grown rich on the ignorance of their -countrymen. One man made eight thousand dollars by supplying one -thousand labourers to a railroad. He collected five<a name="page_279" id="page_279"></a> dollars from each -man as railroad fare, though transportation was given by the road, and -three dollars from each man for the material to build a house. The men -supposed it was to be a home for their families. They found as a home -the wretched shelters provided by contractors, with which we are all -familiar. This transaction, when known, did not disturb the church or -social relations of the offender, but it increased his political power, -for it showed what he could do. He is recognized to-day as the Mayor of ----- Street; his influence is met everywhere.</p> - -<p>“The claim is made that the parochial school has the advantage that it -gives religious as well as secular instruction. Observing and comparing -the children living under the same environment who attended the public -and parochial schools, I found that they did equally good work in -English, but that the public schools did very much better work in -arithmetic. The time given in the public schools to the so-called “fads -and frills” was apparently given in the parochial school to religious -exercises and instruction, with about an equal degree of comprehension -and application on the part of the pupils. There was no difference in -the appreciation of truth, honesty or peace. They lied, stole and fought -without showing distinction in training. The singing voices of the -children in the public schools were<a name="page_280" id="page_280"></a> far better trained than the voices -of children in the parochial schools.</p> - -<p>“What the Italian needs in New York above all things is his church in -the full possession of its great spiritual power; young men born in this -country, imbued with a love of and appreciation of its great -opportunities, trained for the priesthood, to work and live among the -Italians; in the interval before this is accomplished, a novitiate of at -least five years for all foreign-born and trained priests before they -are put in charge of an American parish; the establishing of music -schools in connection with all the Roman Catholic churches in the -foreign colonies; the rapid disappearance of the Italian parish because -the people have become American. Above all, the immediate suppression of -all proselyting among these people. Their Church is in their blood. The -veneer, which is all the new church connection is, stifles the vital -breath of the soul, and leaves the so-called convert without a Church. -The exceptions prove the rule. Remove the temptation of the loaves and -fishes in this proselyting endeavour and see how successful the effort -is. Let the Catholic Church in America live at her highest among these -people, and the political problems they create will disappear.”</p> - -<p>I do not fully agree with the author of the above; but I join with her -heartily in the desire expressed in her last sentence. I would also -add:<a name="page_281" id="page_281"></a> let the Protestant Church live her highest before these people; -let her take her share in the responsibilities which these strangers -bring, without a thought of proselyting them; and she will find that her -efforts are needed, and are not in vain.<a name="page_282" id="page_282"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX<br /><br /> -WHERE GREEK MEETS GREEK</h2> - -<p>A <small>BAGGAGE</small> wagon heavily loaded by bags and trunks, and half lost to view -in the muddy street and against the muddier sky of Chicago, stopped in -front of the saloon to the Acropolis, on Halstead Street. The baggage -man was surrounded by an angry mob, for he demanded four dollars for his -trip, and that, the unsuspecting immigrants were unwilling to pay. In -this they were supported by their countrymen who had come out of the -saloon to welcome them to New Greece, which is unpicturesquely located -on the West side of Chicago, between dives and cheap restaurants on one -side, and the busy Ghetto on the other. Men of all nationalities, if of -no occupation, gathered about the haggling crowd, and the baggage man -received the support of the mob, for he wore a Union button, and the war -cry: “It’s the Union price” was the Shibboleth by which the Greeks were -vanquished and made to pay the four dollars; not of course, without -having spent an hour in their national pastime of haggling for the -price.</p> - -<p>The driver mounted his quickly emptied wagon, with a curse upon the -“Dagos,” and the crowd<a name="page_283" id="page_283"></a> informally discussed for a while the immigration -question; its verdict being, that it is time to shut our doors against -the Greeks, for they are a poor lot from which to make good American -citizens.</p> - -<p>The crowd dispersed as quickly as it came and the freshly landed Greeks -entered the gates of the “Acropolis,” a Greek saloon and restaurant -combination, not unlike (externally at least) its American prototype on -the same street, where the saloon is decidedly at its worst.</p> - -<p>The newcomers were feasted on black olives, brown bread and goat’s -cheese; for the Greek is very loyal to the national appetite,—and they -immediately begin to plan their entrance into the busy life of America, -through the avenues of barter or of labour.</p> - -<p>It is not to be wondered at that the crowd which knows nothing of the -Greeks, called them “Dagos,” for it would be hard even for one who knows -them only from the classic past, properly to place this group of men, -were it not that their speech betrayed the ancient heritage.</p> - -<p>We never picture the heroes of Greek epics, undersized, like these -moderns; round headed, looking into the world out of small, black, -piercing eyes, their complexion sallow and their hair straight and -black. We too, would place them nearer modern Palermo than ancient -Athens, and judge their blood to have flowed through the veins of rough -Albanese mountaineers and crude<a name="page_284" id="page_284"></a> Slavic plowmen, rather than through the -perfect bodies of those Greeks who have dissolved with their myths, and -who disappeared when Mt. Olympus was deserted by its divine tenantry.</p> - -<p>These modern Greeks have retained much of their past, stored in their -memories at least, and scarcely one of those whom I have met but knows -the Iliad and the Odyssey, or whose black eyes do not sparkle proudly -when he recounts the glory of those Attic days.</p> - -<p>They are still eager to know, even more eager to tell what they know, -and a brave front is not the least part of the equipment of the modern -Greek. A consuming pride which amounts to conceit, shuts his eyes to his -own faults as well as to the virtues of other races, and he will long -hold himself aloof from the hopper which grinds us all into the same -kind of grist.</p> - -<p>“Where do these men come from, Mr. B?” I asked the keeper of the classic -bar of the “Acropolis.” “They are all Athenians.” Every Greek is, -although cradled in some island unrenowned either in the past or the -present. “Why do they come to Chicago? To make money?” I answer my own -question. “Oh, no!” replies the classic barkeeper, delicately ironical. -“They are not poor, no Greek is ever poor, even if he cannot buy five -cents’ worth of black olives.”<a name="page_285" id="page_285"></a> “Do they come here because they have a -better chance?” “Chance? why, everyone of these men was on the way to -become a Demarch (Mayor). They have come here to learn American ways, -and incidentally to enrich American culture by their presence.”</p> - -<p>Full of this pride and confidence in themselves, they are nevertheless -ready to blacken our boots for ten cents, and they do it remarkably -well, displacing negroes and Italians, until later, they open stores and -sell American candies to an undiscriminating public, hungry for the -cheap sweets. No labour is too hard for them, although they prefer to -stand behind the counter. More or less, all the Greeks will finally be -in trades of some kind, and monopolists in all of them. At present, -their eyes are on bootblacking and confectionery stores, nearly every -town of any size in the United States being invaded by them, so that -their presence is beginning to be felt.</p> - -<p>The modern Greek still has the license of the poet, and he uses the -license whether he has the poetry or not. I think he is happiest when he -exaggerates to no one’s hurt; albeit, like the rest of us he does not -always stop to ask whether it hurts or not. Conceit and deceit are as -close relatives as poetry and lying, and to Greeks and Americans they -often look strangely alike.</p> - -<p>If the modern Greek is a hero, he is a cautious one and recklessness is -not one of his faults. He is no “Plunger,” but moves along the “straight -and narrow way which leadeth to”—a big<a name="page_286" id="page_286"></a> bank account. Contented by -little, he does not despise the much, and although he is not meek, he -will inherit a fair share of this earth’s goods. Born with democratic -instincts, he soon feels himself as good as anybody, and when he grows -sleek and fat, he selects “the chief seat in the synagogue” or some -other lofty height, from which he looks in disdain upon his poorer -brothers.</p> - -<p>While hospitable, he has become strangely suspicious of strangers, and -he is not a good bedfellow for he likes to occupy the whole bed. If it -is a settlement which opens its doors to him it becomes all his, and he -does not shrink from intimidation as a means of driving the Italian or -the Jew from its welcoming gates.</p> - -<p>He is industrious and temperate, yet he likes to lounge about the -saloons where he sometimes gets too much of his native wine and then he -can be a really bad fellow.</p> - -<p>In his native village he is as chaste as the women, but in America he -has a bad name and the neighbourhood in which he lives is not regarded -as the safest for unprotected women. The Chicago police especially, has -an eye upon his candy stores which are supposed to be as immoral as they -often are uninviting. The fact that in the Chicago colony, 10,000 Greeks -live, practically without their wives, explains this situation, and it -is just possible that 10,000 Americans<a name="page_287" id="page_287"></a> under the same conditions would -not act differently.</p> - -<p>The police in New Greece is not on a good footing with the inhabitants, -and occasionally shooting and stabbing occur. At such times it is -difficult to know who is more to blame; the police or the supposed -culprits.</p> - -<p>The modern Greek is still punctiliously pious, his church and priest -follow him into every settlement, and he is loyal to the forms of his -religion. It is doubtful whether here or in the Old World, it discloses -to him the ethical teachings of Jesus; but in this, we are in a poor -condition to “cast the first stone” at him. His priest is not servilely -revered or feared, and the relation between them is too often that of -buyer and seller. The priest has the means of grace, the Greek is in -need of them for salvation, and he pays for what he gets,—sometimes -reluctantly.</p> - -<p>At present it would fare ill with any one who would try to wean him from -his Church; for loyalty to it is loyalty to Greece, and the Greek has -never been a turn-coat.</p> - -<p>No more patriotic people ever came to us than these modern Greeks, and -although that patriotism is centred upon their native country, they will -ultimately make good citizens, and even before that day, make splendid -politicians; for in the craft of politics every Greek is an adept, and -he is a<a name="page_288" id="page_288"></a> “Mighty (place) hunter before the Lord.”</p> - -<p>The only trouble with the government of modern Greece is, that it has -not enough offices for all the aspirants for them, and this learned -proletariat is a fair sized menace in this little country. In governing -themselves the modern Greeks have not been a conspicuous success, and -the only things we can teach them in this line are, the willingness to -acknowledge failure and the eagerness with which we seek the better way.</p> - -<p>The New Greece of Chicago, a few blocks in a busy thoroughfare, is not a -large world, yet it is more Greek than the Ghetto is Russian or Little -Sicily is Italian. Homes in the true sense there are but few, because -the women have not yet come; the housing conditions of the Greeks are -bad and likely to remain so for a long time. There are grocery stores -containing little or no American food; saloons, by far too many, but -providing food and drink at the same time as is the custom in Greece; a -Greek bank, the front windows of which are covered by the advertisements -of steamship transportation companies; clothing and dry-goods stores, -whose proprietors are Greeks, although their stock in trade is -necessarily American; and the Greek church with a double cross to mark -its orthodoxy;—this is New Greece.</p> - -<p>Out of it some of our newly arrived immigrants will go in the morning, -to the railroad tracks, to do the digging and the ditching. They<a name="page_289" id="page_289"></a> will -be “bossed” by “Big Pete,” whose size is exceeded only by the length of -his oaths, and who boasts of being able to handle his countrymen easily, -because: “The Greeks can be handled only by a man who can show them that -he is a better man, and that I am; and if you don’t believe it, feel my -muscle. I pay them $1.50 a day and I treat them like Greeks.”</p> - -<p>I watched “Big Pete” treat them like Greeks for half a day, and I did -not discover that such treatment saved a man from being geared to the -highest notch and made to work incessantly, while “Big Pete” watched and -cursed to help the pace.</p> - -<p>The same night that they arrived, some of the young boys were looked -over by the men of the Greek colony, who had assisted them to come, and -whose labour was theirs until the passage money was paid, and paid with -interest. The next morning they began their tutelage in blacking boots -in so-called parlours, whose walls are covered by chromos depicting -Greek wars in which the Greeks are always the victors and the Turks are -slaughtered like sheep at the stockyards; there are also one or two -pictures of classic ruins.</p> - -<p>In such surroundings, and seemingly unconscious of the life about them, -these boys will blacken boots for eighteen hours a day, with heart, mind -and soul in Greece; and their fingers<a name="page_290" id="page_290"></a> in America only when they handle -our coin. They will attempt no conversation, even after they know our -speech, literally obeying the Scriptural injunction to say “Yea, yea and -nay, nay,” and not much else if they can help it. They are not nearly so -communicative as the Italians, and although a smile sits well on a Greek -face, I have rarely seen one there.</p> - -<p>The confectionery stores which are outside of New Greece, are open all -the time, at least so long as a customer may be expected, and although -these customers are nearly all Americans, the Greeks have few friends -among them. They all return to New Greece as often as possible, and -there their virtues unfold, and “their soul delights itself in fatness.” -They are not exceeded even by the Chinese in that loyalty to native food -which I call the patriotism of the stomach, and a Greek grocery store is -filled from one end to the other with food from the classic isles. There -are dried vegetables whose present form does not betray their natural -shape, but which taste luscious, because the flavour of the native soil -clings to them; fish, dried, pickled and preserved in some form, and -cheese made from the milk of goats whose horns butted broken classic -vases instead of modern tin cans.</p> - -<p>The smells seem ancient, too; but in these the Greek revels, and here he -is at home.</p> - -<p>New Greece in Chicago is fortunate in having<a name="page_291" id="page_291"></a> as one of its boundaries, -Hull House, one of the numerous activities of which consists in trying -to discover the possible point of contact between the home-born and the -stranger.</p> - -<p>A Greek play given at Hull House opened the eyes of many American people -to the fact that the past is alive in the modern Greek, and at a -banquet, also at Hull House, where Americans and Greeks vied with each -other in extolling the glory of Athens, the wealth of the past was again -richly displayed. How near the American and the Greek have come to each -other through these two notable events, it is difficult to tell; but I -am sure that they have increased the pride of the Greeks, and have given -us an added respect for them.</p> - -<p>But after all, they will be judged by the way they live to-day and by -the measure in which these small, dark-haired traders and workers -exemplify in their lives the virtues of those men of old, whose names -they have inherited and whose fame they are eager to preserve.<a name="page_292" id="page_292"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX<br /><br /> -THE NEW AMERICAN AND THE NEW PROBLEM</h2> - -<p>T<small>HE</small> miracle of assimilation wrought upon the older type of immigration, -gives to many of us, at least the hope, that the Slavs, Jews, Italians, -Hungarians and Greeks will blend into our life as easily as did the -Germans, the Scandinavians and the Irish.</p> - -<p>The new immigrant, or the new American, as I call him, is however in -many respects, more of an alien than that older class which was related -to the native stock by race, speech, or religious ties. Therefore, I -recognize the fact that it is easy to be too optimistic about this -assimilation, and to regard the Americanizing of the stranger -accomplished, when he discards his picturesque native garb and speech, -to disappear in the commonplaceness of our attire; or when he has -mastered the intricacies of American idioms.</p> - -<p>Outwardly the changes will be the same as those which have taken place -among the older immigrants, accomplished with the same dispatch, even -where the foreigners are segregated in their own quarters. I have in -mind a Polish colony of some six thousand souls in a New England town -where there are Polish churches,<a name="page_293" id="page_293"></a> Polish schools, Polish “butchers, -bakers, and candlestick-makers”; and yet if you walk through that -section of the city you will see the women who a few years ago, when -they landed, wore the numberless short skirts and picturesque waists of -their own making, now sweeping the dust with long trailing skirts, their -ample forms encased in corsets and shirt-waists; while here and there -you will hear even the rustle of the silk lining.</p> - -<p>The boys who upon landing wore coarse linen trousers and shirts have -long ago rebelled against these marks of their Old Country lineage, and -their fathers have bought them the short trousers and shirt-waists, -which make them look like young Americans.</p> - -<p>If you are careful to observe, you will see that the children wear -stockings and underwear; luxuries undreamed of in the Old World, where -boots and shoes were the signs of manhood or womanhood, and where -stockings were unknown to the peasantry, being the marks of a high -calling and fine breeding.</p> - -<p>Especially on Sunday that quarter of the town looks resplendent in its -newness, and the latest American fashions are reflected by the women who -are never a season behind in expanding or reducing to proper -proportions, their sleeves, which they wear short or long, very nearly -as the ladies do, who at that moment have entered<a name="page_294" id="page_294"></a> the portals of the -great meeting house, the bulwark of American ideals in New England. It -is true that they all still eat black bread, drink vodka, and say: -“Pshas creff” when angry; but in eating, drinking and swearing, the -whole colony is on the way to complete Americanization, and one need -have no fear that externally the Slav, Italian and Jew will not “eat of -the fruit of the tree of the garden and become like one of us.”</p> - -<p>The same thing is a fact in the matter of external racial -characteristics. The things which seem to us the most ineradicable and -written as if by an “iron pen upon the rock” are in most cases but chalk -marks on a blackboard, so easily are they washed away.</p> - -<p>These things created by long ages of neglect, hunger, persecution and -climate, are often lost within one generation. The crowd on Rivington -Street in New York looks less Jewish than that in Warsaw, and the -Bohemians in Chicago look so like “us,” that in spite of the fact that I -have some training in detecting racial marks, I am often puzzled and -mistaken.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_pg_294_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_pg_294_sml.jpg" width="500" height="354" alt="IN AN EVENING SCHOOL. NEW YORK. - -American, Armenian, Austrian, Bohemian, Cuban, Dane, Dutch, Finlander, -French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, -Negro, Norwegian, Pole, Roumanian, Russian, Scotch, Slovak, Spanish, -Swede, Swiss. Can you tell them apart?" -title="IN AN EVENING SCHOOL. NEW YORK" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">IN AN EVENING SCHOOL. NEW YORK.<br /> -American, Armenian, Austrian, Bohemian, Cuban, Dane, Dutch, Finlander, -French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, -Negro, Norwegian, Pole, Roumanian, Russian, Scotch, Slovak, Spanish, -Swede, Swiss. Can you tell them apart?</span> -</p> - -<p>Give me the immigrant on board of ship, and I will distinguish without -hesitation the Bulgarian from the Servian, the Slovak from the Russian, -and the Northern Italian from the Sicilian; but as I have said, I often -have the greatest difficulty in accomplishing such a feat, two or -three<a name="page_295" id="page_295"></a> years after the men have landed. It is true that in the first -generation, the old racial marks still lie in the foreground, and that -even in the second generation, the blood will speak out here and there; -but it will require a very sharp scrutiny to detect this, and in the -most cases there will be no hint of the past.</p> - -<p>In Chicago, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, St. Louis and St. Paul I have addressed -audiences composed of Slavs and of native Americans; and I have vainly -tried to distinguish them one from the other in the mass, although of -course when I had a very close and long look, I could make my -differentiation. These racial marks are most tenacious among certain -Orientals where strange strains of blood have accentuated the -difference; but I have seen some Armenians, people bearing the mark of -their race most strongly, who after ten years of life in America, had -lost the peculiar sharpness of their features and were in that stage of -transition where the American image was being imprinted upon them.</p> - -<p>Scarcely a foreigner returns home after a long sojourn in America -without hearing at every step that he looks different. The Jew on board -of ship, to whom I have previously referred, who was warned not to wear -an American flag because it might cost him money in Europe, was right -when he said:<a name="page_296" id="page_296"></a> “They will see it in mine face that I am from America.”</p> - -<p>I do not wish to be as dogmatic in my assertions as Mr. Prescott F. -Hall, the Secretary of the Restriction Immigration League is in his. He -believes that we shall be the inheritors of all the disagreeable racial -characteristics which the immigrant brings with him. It is still too -early to foretell; the new American has not been long enough with us, -and moreover the whole question of racial characteristics is still an -open one.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless in face of the undisputed fact that these outward racial -marks disappear, may we not also believe that with them go the peculiar -racial qualities which mark and mar the life of the stranger?</p> - -<p>Mr. Hall has many figures with which to prove his side of the case; I -have but a few facts gathered from rather intimate association with -certain groups of foreigners.</p> - -<p>Take for instance the Polish peasant. It is a fact that in the Old World -he is known for his inability to distinguish between “mine and thine,” -and between truth and falsehood. The Polish proverb says: “The peasant -will steal anything except millstones and hot iron,” and I know of -instances where the only thing untrue about the saying was the last -saving clause. In this country I have been in nearly every one of the -Polish communities and neither thieving nor lying is laid to their -charge. The little town of Marblehead, Ohio, located in a peninsula in -Lake Erie is peopled<a name="page_297" id="page_297"></a> largely by Poles and Slovaks who find employment -in the large stone quarries. Around them are prosperous farms, large -orchards and vineyards. I took pains to inquire especially what was the -attitude of these Slavs towards stock, chickens, and fruit which did not -belong to them; and not one of the neighbouring farmers complained of -having had anything stolen from his premises, although these Slavs have -lived in that neighbourhood nearly twenty years.</p> - -<p>In the Old World pigs had to be locked in their sties; they were not -safe even after they were butchered. Grain disappeared, even when it was -vigilantly guarded from the time it was a blade of grass until it was in -the barn. The Polish and Slovak peasants were thievish in the Old -Country because they were hungry, and their wage was not sufficient to -buy enough bread. In Marblehead they have bread enough and to spare, as -well as meat and fruit for little money—they do not have to steal.</p> - -<p>In the Old World they lied and stole because they were driven by -necessity. When a Polish regiment came to any town in Austria, women had -to be especially guarded against their lust; but no such charge has been -brought against the regiments of young labourers who have come to -American cities, and who are everywhere regarded as chaste as their -American brothers. In the matter of intemperance they have so far -remained<a name="page_298" id="page_298"></a> as bad as their reputation; but the average mining camp is -rarely in a Prohibition district and the example set by the Americans -they meet is not conducive to sobriety.</p> - -<p>The Jew is certainly distinctive; his faith and fate alike have guarded -his racial qualities; yet he must be blind indeed, who does not see a -vast change going on, within as well as without. The Jew is still a -sharp bargainer, but in that peculiarity the Yankee is giving him -“pointers,” and he will have to grow sharper still if he wishes to keep -up in the race. His business talent is likely to increase because he is -in a business atmosphere; but his business methods will change and have -changed, because his inner being is undergoing a transformation. Subtle -as these changes are I have traced them and can detect them even in the -crowd which is a far different mass from that of the Jews of Europe, a -fact which recently I saw very clearly illustrated.</p> - -<p>It was the Jewish anniversary of the death of the great Zionist leader, -Theodore Hertzl. In front of the Grand Opera House in Hartford, Conn., -were large Yiddish placards announcing the fact, and all the evening -crowds of men, women and children passed into the building filling every -available space on floor and in galleries. The dignitaries of Hartford’s -Jewry sat in the boxes, and young men and women passed through the -crowd, securing members for the various<a name="page_299" id="page_299"></a> Jewish societies. It was an -orderly assembly, more orderly than any synagogue meeting I ever -attended in Russia. America had toned them down, they were less excited, -although even here a policeman had quite a hard task in disposing of one -man who insisted upon entering, in spite of the fact that he had lost -his ticket.</p> - -<p>These people had learned the first lesson in -self-government—self-control; or rather, they were in the way of -learning it. They still swayed to and fro with the movement of the -speaker, a habit acquired in the Talmud schools and practiced at their -worship; but one could see the younger element holding the older in -check, and the older keeping itself in check for the sake of its -children who had learned American ways. There was an indescribable gain -in their looks, in those faces where greed, suffering and brutal hate -had left their deep traces.</p> - -<p>It was a look of hope akin to joy, some such triumphant gladness as the -Jew would feel if the portals of his New Jerusalem were to open again to -the King of Glory. My own heart throbbed gladly when I beheld them for I -saw the gain they had made in manhood and womanhood.</p> - -<p>The program was also a hopeful thing. It was long enough for the meeting -of one of our learned societies and the men had the habit of stealing -one another’s text and time; but whether they were apt learners or had -imported the habit I do<a name="page_300" id="page_300"></a> not know. The first address was by the mayor of -the city and he was greeted like a friend and spoke like one. It was not -the flattering speech of a politician but a scholarly, sympathetic -address, of one who knew Israel’s past and who sympathized with her -aspirations. He knew all about the Zionist movement and about Dr. Hertzl -and spoke as one who was thoroughly acquainted with his subject. After -he had finished speaking the chairman said, “Whenever I hear a Christian -speak of Israel as this man has spoken, I feel like saying, ‘Almost thou -persuadest me to be a Christian.’”</p> - -<p>On the whole it may be said that these new Americans are in that stage -of cultural development or undevelopment, which makes it probable that -so strong and virile a people as that among whom their lot is cast, will -impress them so forcibly, that those things which we call racial -characteristics will after a while disappear.</p> - -<p>Whether we shall enrich this New American by our own ideals, whether we -shall implant in him the broad culture of our own spiritual and -intellectual heritage, is a real problem whose solving may puzzle even -future generations.</p> - -<p>I do not believe that any of the people who come to us, speaking of -races and nationalities as a whole, are degenerate, or so hardened that -they are not capable of assimilation and transformation. Although as I -have said, this cannot<a name="page_301" id="page_301"></a> yet be proved by our own experience, we can -reason with some assurance from the experience of countries in which -these strangers who come to us are also regarded as aliens and subjects; -and where their way upward is retarded rather than helped as it is on -this side of the great sea.</p> - -<p>Let me take as an example the Slovak, one of the crudest Slavic types, -who bears all the marks of the Slav in his features and in all his inner -being. In his own home he belonged to a subject race; for the Magyar -being more powerful and more warlike, was his ruler. In the villages -where this Slovak lives he has been in touch with the Magyar and also -with the Germanic element, to a greater or less degree. I have noticed -this: That wherever he has had a chance, wherever political and economic -difficulties were not too great, he grew into the full stature of the -man above him; and in the long struggle for racial supremacy in Hungary, -the Slav has not yet said the last word. Physically, morally and -spiritually, he equals the Magyar or the German; that is, wherever the -opportunity is not taken from him by wrong economic and political -adjustment.</p> - -<p>I hold no brief for the Slovak or for any Slav; there are many things in -his nature which are repellent. He is too much of a realist by nature -for my taste, and there is a certain kind of crudeness and cruelty in -his make up, from both of<a name="page_302" id="page_302"></a> which I have had occasion to suffer. Yet in -spite of these handicaps I believe that, given the proper environment -and the proper example, or if you please the proper masters, he will -develop into that kind of American which we, the average, are. He -usually takes more than he leaves behind; he inherits more than he -bequeaths; he is human material in the rough; very, very rough but human -material nevertheless. Made of as good clay as any of us, although -perhaps not yet fashioned into the best mould. The moulding will be the -problem; for the New American is more Slavic than anything else.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_pg_302_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_pg_302_sml.jpg" width="348" height="500" alt="A SLAV OF THE BALKANS - -Sometimes crude, often very rough human material. To mould him is the -problem, a problem too, not so difficult as many think." -title="A SLAV OF THE BALKANS" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">A SLAV OF THE BALKANS<br /> -Sometimes crude, often very rough human material. To mould him is the -problem, a problem too, not so difficult as many think.</span> -</p><p><a name="page_347" id="page_347"></a></p> - -<p>The Jews, a subject race everywhere, have suffered so much from friends -and foes alike, that to defend or accuse them would be a work of -supererogation. It is, however, undeniably true, that Judaism in America -faces a greater crisis than it faced in the captivity of Babylon. There -Judaism was made, here it is being unmade; there foes tried to make the -Jews forget Jerusalem, here their friends have difficulty in making them -remember it; there a hope of the Messiah grew up within them, here the -term is so strange to them that it needs reiteration and interpretation. -The loss to Judaism in America amounts to a catastrophe, and from the -present outlook its complete dissolution is merely a matter of time, -only retarded by the constant influx of immigrants from Russia and -Poland. The<a name="page_303" id="page_303"></a> average Jew in America has become so American that he does -not remember the hole from which he was dug, or that Abraham was his -father and that Sarah bore him.</p> - -<p>A certain vague racial fealty holds one Jew to the other; but a strong -and mighty passion holds him to America, making him so much an American -and so little a Jew. It may be true that the leopard does not change his -spots; but even the leopard may lose his spots when he does not need -them. Many of the racial marks of Jew and Gentile alike will disappear -when the need of them passes away; and they will take on readily other -marks which fit them for a better environment.</p> - -<p>The problem with the Jew is not how to make him less a Jew; but how to -make him a better Jew, and consequently a better American; for Judaism -properly interpreted has in it all the elements to make of men good -citizens, good neighbours and good friends.</p> - -<p>At the conclusion of a lecture recently, a rather stupid but zealous man -asked me regarding the Jews. “Can we trust them with the Constitution?” -It was a stupid question asked by a stupid man. God trusted them with -the oracles, the Commandments and the prophecies; the richest spiritual -gifts in the keeping of the Deity. To be sure, they broke nearly all the -Commandments and killed their prophets; but we have<a name="page_304" id="page_304"></a> done the same -thing; and the Constitution is as safe in the hands of the Jew, as the -Bible is in the hands of the Gentile.</p> - -<p>Granting that each one of these races will bequeath us something evil, -let us take the standpoint of the secretary of the Immigration -Restriction League and see to what we shall fall heir. We shall get from -the Slav his crudity, from the Jew his sharpness, from the Italian his -mobility, from the Armenian his Oriental shrewdness, which is akin to -lying, from the Magyar a fiery temper; from each of them something which -we call ill. When these disagreeable qualities are properly proportioned -and balanced, they may so counteract one another, that in the sum total -we may after all be the gainers. It seems absurd to go about this matter -mathematically, whether one traces the possible gain or loss.</p> - -<p>The truth is, that up to this date, in spite of the fact that already -Slav, Jewish and Italian blood flows in the veins of some of us: in -spite of the fact that these people fill the cities almost to -overflowing, there is no perceptible physical or moral degeneration -visible which can be traced to the foreigner.</p> - -<p>The quarters of American cities where the foreigners live are not the -worst quarters; and I would rather trust myself in the dark, to the -mysteries of Hester Street than to certain portions of the West side -exclusively populated by<a name="page_305" id="page_305"></a> a certain type of degenerate Americans. -Recently a professor of economics in one of our universities asked me to -show him those terrible parts of New York where the foreigners live; -where the children are said to be so unhappy, the men so oppressed by -poverty; and where the women have not enough to wear. I took him across -the Bowery, which has lost its terrors since it became foreign -territory, across the streets of the Ghetto and along its avenues. We -found the supposed unhappy children, well dressed and well fed, dancing -to the notes of the hurdy-gurdy grinder, as happy as children naturally -are, who do not have many “manners to mind,” whose playground is the -street, and who have music from morning till nightfall. We walked -through endless rows of tenements and saw men engaged in lawful -pursuits; from the garret to the cellars the Ghetto was a beehive of -industry. We saw no street loafers, drunkards or idlers. In “Little -Hungary,” where we ate and enjoyed a daintily served dinner, we loitered -until evening, when we met a vast army of men and women who came pouring -in from Broadway’s stores and shops, walking with that pride and -happiness which comes from the consciousness of having done a day’s -work, and done it well. My friend was very much disappointed because he -saw no horrors, no unhappy children or unhappy men.<a name="page_306" id="page_306"></a></p> - -<p>Again we passed the Bowery, going on to the American section of New -York, the Rialto. Here were horrors enough; whole blocks where there -were no children; for both the very wicked and the very rich are not -blessed by them. Young and old men, fashionably dressed and properly -tipsy, went in to cheap shows, saloons and brothels, to have a “good -time.” These young men, rich sons of rich fathers, and these old men, -are idlers and perverters of their own passions. They and they alone are -the great problem which we have need to fear; for it is a problem which -cannot be solved. In the fashionable restaurants of Fifth Avenue and -Upper Broadway, we saw the women “who toil not neither do they spin,” -and who, with all the Heavenly Father’s care, were not properly clothed. -They too, more than the women of the Ghetto, are the problem we need to -study; for among them and by them are lost our democracy, our purity and -our virtue.</p> - -<p>I fear more from a certain type of Jew on Upper Broadway, than I do from -the Jew of the Ghetto; even as I fear more from a certain type of -over-ripe Americans than I do from this undeveloped peasantry. The -question which the American faces is not whether the foreigner can be -assimilated, but who will do the assimilating. Not even the question -whether the foreigner is the inferior need concern us; for in the race<a name="page_307" id="page_307"></a> -which is now on and at its height, the American just described is left -behind; and those of us who are watching the race are not at all amazed.</p> - -<p>In nearly all the manufacturing towns of New England, the Swede and the -German are forging to the front, while the Pole and the Italian are -following closely; but the sons of the shrewd and inventive Yankees are -keeping fast company, riding in fast automobiles, and drinking strong -cocktails. They will soon be in the rear because of physical, mental and -spiritual bankruptcy.</p> - -<p>It does not follow that these New Americans do not present a racial -problem; but the problem is largely one of assimilating power on our -part. The real problem is: Whether the American is virile enough and not -so much whether the foreign material is of the proper quality. I have no -doubt as to either proposition; I believe that there is still remarkable -assimilating power left which increases rather than decreases with the -mixture of blood. I also believe that the average New American is like -wax, hard wax sometimes,—perhaps more like lead or steel; but he will -be moulded into our image and bear the marks of our characteristics -whatever they may be.</p> - -<p>As I write this I realize that I am saying “us” and “our” as if I were -not a New American myself and one of those who make up the racial -problem. Yet when I recall to myself the fact that I too belong to an -alien race, it comes to me like<a name="page_308" id="page_308"></a> a shock; when I realize that I was born -beneath another flag and that this is but my adopted country, it gives -me almost a sense of shame that I have in a great degree, if not -altogether, forgotten these facts, and I am so completely and -absorbingly an American, that I can write “us” and “our,” speak of my -own people as foreigners, and of my own native country as a strange -land. Something has so wrought upon me that in spite of the fact that I -came to this country in my young manhood, I look upon America as my -Fatherland. That same power is still active; still strong enough to -repeat the miracle of the yesterday; for I am no better than these -millions who are regarded as a menace. I came here with the same blood -as theirs and the same heritage of good or ill, bequeathed by my race; -yet I feel myself completely one with all which this country possesses, -that is worth living for and dying for. With millions of these New -Americans I say to-day that which we shall continue to say, whether it -fares well or ill with our adopted country:<a name="page_309" id="page_309"></a> “Thy people shall be my -people, and thy God my God.”</p> - -<h2><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a>XXI<br /><br /> -THE NEW AMERICAN AND OLD PROBLEMS</h2> - -<p>“C<small>OMPETITION</small> is the life of prejudice” is an old truth, in a somewhat -new setting. Back of the prejudice against Jew, Italian and Slav, is -this fact: they are monopolizing certain departments of labour and -trades, and in nearly every activity they are beginning to be felt in -competition. The Swede is regarded as treacherous by the man whose place -he has taken in the machine shops East and West; the Slovak and Pole are -called dirty and unreliable by the miners whom they have supplanted in -Pennsylvania, and the Jew is accused of trickery by the American who has -a clothing store on the next corner. Under whatever name the feeling -against the foreigner hides itself, it usually is in substance the fear -of competition; and every law restricting immigration has been with the -idea of protecting American labour.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless the economic problem presented by the New American is -ill-defined, largely formulated by conflicting business interests, and -is still only a question of the labour market. As a rule it may be said -that the immigrant is willing to work only for the standard rate of -wage;<a name="page_310" id="page_310"></a> and whether that rate has been lowered by the recent influx of -immigrants remains an undecided question. There are as reliable figures -to prove that it has increased, as that it has decreased. The reports -and resolutions of Labour Unions are coloured by self-interest as much -as are the reports of Manufacturers’ Associations.</p> - -<p>It is an undisputed fact that the New England loom workers have been -largely displaced by the Irish and by French Canadians; and that Greeks, -Armenians and Syrians are now displacing these in turn. The native New -Englander however has not suffered by the process; for the foreman, the -forewoman and the man who invents the loom and makes it, are these New -Englanders, who do something more and better than merely keep the -spindles full. It is true that the Irishman no longer has the supremacy -on railroad sections, and that he has been supplanted; but not even by -the wildest imagination can we say that this Irishman has suffered in -the process; for is he not now policeman, fireman, alderman or some -other kind of <i>man</i> where formerly he was only a <i>hand</i> on a section?</p> - -<p>A similar change has taken place in all channels of activity; whether -this is for good or ill, I am not ready to say. While no doubt exists in -any mind that there are foreigners who are willing to work for less than -the standard wage, it is because they do not yet know what<a name="page_311" id="page_311"></a> that -standard is; or because the immediate need drives them to take work at -any price. Those of us who are acquainted with the immigrant as a -labourer are aware that very soon he knows enough to demand his full -wage, and that, smarting under a real or fancied wrong he will “strike” -as quickly as if he had had twenty-five years of training in a Labour -Union.</p> - -<p>The history of the labour troubles of the last fifteen years proves -conclusively that the foreigner will strike; and that he knows how to -use the weapons of the strike, such as picketing and slugging and all -that goes with that form of industrial warfare. It is at such a time -that he is most denounced for his pernicious activity; while the very -Labour Union with which he has made a common cause, will then repudiate -him as a “scab” and a menace.</p> - -<p>The author who, in his book,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> which is supposed to be an authentic -source of information on immigration, quoted the following, surely must -have done so against his better judgment: “The agent<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> stated also that -the rising generation of Jews, Italians and Hungarians are likely to -live for the most part in the same conditions as their parents, and to -remain unskilled labourers.” This is so evidently untrue that it must be -known<a name="page_312" id="page_312"></a> to be false by any man, even although he has examined this -subject very superficially. The standard of living rises very -perceptibly in the first generation among all classes of immigrants; and -in proof of that I have the testimony of merchants in nearly all -industrial centres in the United States. The boy who landed in -Pennsylvania in homespun will discard it within a week and demand of his -father short trousers and shirt waists. He will get them too; and he -will get the best the father can afford. The wife will soon grow weary -of keeping twenty boarders in one room; and I have seen the dawn of -liberty rise upon her face as with flushing cheek she told her husband: -“Me boss of this shanty.” When he tried to strike her as he did in the -Old World she would remind him of the fact that this is the land of -liberty, and I have seen her lift the battle-axe in defiance. Axe in -hand she said: “I won’t keep boarders,” and the husband has been long -enough in this country to know that when a woman in America says: “I -won’t,” she won’t; and the boarders go.</p> - -<p>With the going of the boarders comes the demand for a carpet; a cheap -cotton carpet with huge design of many colours, the same kind that our -forefathers put upon their floors when rag carpets went out of fashion; -not very beautiful; but thoroughly and primitively American.</p> - -<p>Plush furniture is added and stands stiffly<a name="page_313" id="page_313"></a> against the wall; not very -useful, but somewhat like the article which stands in more pretentious -parlours. The “installment plan” agent finds among these people willing -victims to plush albums, sewing machines and crayon portraits. Scarcely -any of the New Americans I know are miserly or have essentially a -different standard of living from our own, except as that standard was -forced upon them by economic conditions. All of them in common with our -frail humanity will spend money in proportion to their income and often, -too often, out of proportion. The Slovak and the Pole who are most -complained about on this score of a low standard of living, are fond of -fine clothes and good food. In their native village they go about -resplendent in glorious apparel, usually twice the value of ours; though -we affect a higher standard of living. There are Slovak girls in -Pennsylvania now, who have spent a year’s wage on a dress in the old -country; and I have known women living in wretched huts who paid ten -dollars for the half yard of lace on their caps. Mother vanity has her -devotees everywhere and she exacts her tribute on this side of the -Atlantic as well as on the other.</p> - -<p>Those who know the immigrant and care for his well being, are not -concerned by the fact that he does not spend money, but that he does not -spend it wisely;—that the girls of the first and second generations -follow the fashions too quickly,<a name="page_314" id="page_314"></a> and buy the things which are useless; -even as their mothers will fill the homes with things which are neither -comfortable nor beautiful. The Jews who are such a great economic factor -in our life may be accused of everything with more show of justice than -of this one thing; namely, that, viewed from this standpoint, their -standard of living is low. They are proverbially good dressers; and good -eating is part of their traditions; it is closely allied to their -religion. If it were not for the Jews in New York and in Chicago, the -theatres would be half empty and the music halls not less so; one of the -stock complaints against the Jews of our large cities is that they want -the best seats in these places, that they want to go to the best hotels -and live in the finest residence sections. To get along in the world, to -get up and out, to be “as good as the best,” is a passion in Israel; a -passion which has made the Jew more enemies than he himself knows.</p> - -<p>I cannot regard the immigrant as a problem from this narrow economic -view: while upon the broader question, of the general effect he has upon -the condition of labour in America, I am at present in no position to be -dogmatic. I recognize that it is natural for those engaged in the same -pursuit to fear the competition which will lower their wage and -consequently narrow their whole life. I believe that it is the business -of the government to protect them against unjust<a name="page_315" id="page_315"></a> competition, but first -we must have tangible facts; and those we do not yet possess.</p> - -<p>Let me quote again, almost verbatim, a labour leader from Ohio, who -lifted up his voice in the Immigration Congress which convened in -Madison Square Garden, New York, on December 6, 1905. He said: “We don’t -want you fellers to let in any more of them yellow crawling worms from -Europe; we have them in Ohio. They live on a piece of bread and one -beer, and we can’t live like a decent American ought to live.” I happen -to know Ohio and the city from which this gentleman comes. I do not know -a single foreign colony there, in which men are satisfied by a piece of -bread and one beer. Those I know fix no limit as to the beer; and the -vats of the Cincinnati brewers would be dry, were it not for the -proverbial thirst of the foreigners who live on the classic shores of -the “Rhine,”—as a certain muddy stream is called which manages to flow -into the Ohio by way of Cincinnati. The discernment(?) of this man and -of his kind is not enough to raise a false alarm. Any of us would bow -before facts, presented by an unprejudiced observer and would gladly -help to cry “Halt” to the invasion of strangers who would lower the -standard of living in America.</p> - -<p>It takes neither figures nor close investigation to discover that in -spite of the constant inflow of foreigners, the standard of living is -rising continually;<a name="page_316" id="page_316"></a> that the luxuries of yesterday are the comforts and -necessities of to-day; and that in a larger measure than ever, it is -true that the masses, if they have not reached this plane, are -constantly at work trying to reach it. To blame the immigrant for the -slums and the sweat-shops rests also upon pure assumption. It is -indisputably true that the “slum” was always more or less here and that -it is found wherever poverty and vice have met each other.</p> - -<p>The immigrant moves into wretched houses and narrow streets and alleys -because they are here. American citizens draw revenue from death traps -and do it without a twinge of conscience; but even then these places are -not slums. I venture to assert that in the real slums of American -cities, the native Americans, using the word native in its true sense, -outnumber these foreigners with whom we always associate the slums, with -their grim twins—Poverty and Vice.</p> - -<p>Only degenerate people sink into slums; and these foreigners have helped -to regenerate them. In Chicago the first Ghetto developed in a quarter -which could truly be called slums; full of dives in which the foulest -vice flourished. Nearly all the women in those dens, and there must have -been hundreds of them, were native Americans, or came from what we call -the better immigrant stock, Germans and Scandinavians. On one side of -this Ghetto was the most congested<a name="page_317" id="page_317"></a> railroad district in the United -States; on the other side as foul a slum as ever disgraced any city; but -the Jew did not sink into the mire. He lifted that district out of it, -so that to-day it is practically empty of that kind of vice.</p> - -<p>There is no doubt that in the last few years, the army of unfortunate -women and gamblers has received recruits from among recent immigrants, -and there is also no doubt that the number will still increase; but the -stock, the root, the peculiar kind of decayed house and people which we -call slum, is a native product. Most of the Slavs who come here do not -know anything about the business of prostitution or gambling; and until -a few years ago this was true among the Jews also. I am willing to -assert that the people who are making these peculiar crimes their -business, are ninety per cent. native Americans. This does not -necessarily cast any aspersion upon the American people; for I can -truthfully say that as a whole their standard of morality is higher than -that of any other people I know. Yet it is true that the class of -immigrants who come, peasants and labourers, do not import the slum, the -brothel and the gambling house.</p> - -<p>If I were sent out to-day to find the people best fitted to replenish -our physical stock, to help in winning the wealth of forest and mine, I -should not go to Paris, to Vienna, to Berlin and<a name="page_318" id="page_318"></a> London; or even to -Glasgow or Edinburgh. I should go to the very villages in the -Carpathians and Alps, on the broad Danubian plains, from which our -recent immigration comes. Whether we are in need of replenishing this -stock, whether the wealth of forest and mines should be harvested as -quickly as it is now, is another question of those many with which I -cannot deal here. Taking conditions as I see them, granting that we need -muscle and brawn, I can say very dogmatically that we are getting -exactly what we need. The sweat-shop it is true flourishes because of -this recent immigration; but gradually its domain is losing ground and -the fighters at the front against both slums and sweat-shops are the New -Americans, who are helping to solve some old problems and to heal some -old diseases.</p> - -<p>The claim that every able bodied foreigner who comes here is worth so -many dollars to this country has been ridiculed. Count Aponyi, of -Hungary, who claims that his country loses money by the withdrawal of -this able bodied army of men and women, puts the height of our gain at -five thousand dollars for every man. However that may be, this is true: -immigration has had a direct economic influence upon the countries from -which the immigrants come, an influence which is both for good and bad. -In certain regions wages have increased nearly fifty per<a name="page_319" id="page_319"></a> cent. The -relation between servant and master has changed, and a note of -independence rings from the guttural throats of Slovaks and Poles; while -“strike” and “meeting” are two English words which have entered -permanently into their vocabularies. The removal of so many able bodied -men has left whole villages with but women and children; and while the -moral tone of such regions has not improved, one cannot as yet perceive -any economic loss. This is due to the fact that money comes pouring in -which offsets the loss sustained by the removal of so large a -population.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless it is a fact that the governments of Europe most concerned -still regard themselves as losers, and are taking steps to restrict the -emigration of desirable classes.</p> - -<p>It has been claimed by a certain member of congress, that the withdrawal -of this money from America is an economic loss and that the American -people should stop it; because the money goes to support foreign -governments. The argument is both narrow and false. First of all it is -true, that the immigrant has earned this money in the most honest way, -and that consequently he has a right to send it home if he pleases to do -so.</p> - -<p>Secondly, this money no more goes for the support of foreign governments -than does the money that the politician paid for the imported cloth<a name="page_320" id="page_320"></a> of -which the evening suit was made which he wore when he delivered that -criticism.</p> - -<p>Thirdly, the money sent home each year by the men who have earned it, is -only a small fraction of the large sums which are spent annually by -Americans abroad; money which in a great number of cases has not been -earned by those who spent it, or has not been earned so honestly as it -has been by those “hewers of wood.”</p> - -<p>Fourth, the money which is spent by Americans in Paris, Dresden, Nice -and Carlsbad, does not so immediately return to the United States as -does the money which is spent in Kottowin or Breczowa or in Oswicczim. -That flows into the trade channels whose golden stream runs directly -back to the United States; for more money in those villages means more -money for Southern cotton, Chicago lard, and Connecticut clocks and -sewing machines.</p> - -<p>I doubt that even the minutest investigation will prove that the money -sent annually to Italy or Hungary means a loss to the United States, or -that as yet the immigrant is a serious economic menace.<a name="page_321" id="page_321"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a>XXII<br /><br /> -RELIGION AND POLITICS</h2> - -<p>O<small>N</small> a recent trip through Germany there fell into my hands a little book -about America which bears the modest title, “Americana.” It was written -by Professor Karl Lamprecht of the University of Leipzig, and is a -note-book in which he records his impressions about us. Being a -Professor of History and especially conversant with that part of it -which deals with our country, his conclusions have large value.</p> - -<p>That which impressed him most about our life was the prevalence of the -religious atmosphere and the genuineness of our piety. The sentence -which seemed to me to stand out above every other which he has written -is this: “My conviction that this people is destined to great things -bases itself above all else upon the fact, that it is capable of -religious impressions.” I have felt this by virtue of a sort of vague -faith, and have always regarded the religious problem which the -immigrant presents, as the crucial one. We shall soon be of one -blood—sooner yet of one speech; but how soon we shall have one faith, -and common religious ideals, or how long we shall be able to preserve -those religious ideals<a name="page_322" id="page_322"></a> which are the guarantee of our greatness, as -well as of our permanence as a republic, are very large and very serious -questions.</p> - -<p>It is not easy to deny that certain phases of our religious life in -America are to a great degree unknown in Southern and Eastern Europe, -and cannot be readily understood by the average immigrant:—the entire -separation of Church and State, yet the complete union of religion and -national life; the large place of the individual as a religious -functionary, and yet the absolute equality of priest and people; the -prevalence of forms and the permanence of the ethical and spiritual.</p> - -<p>The immigrant comes to us, largely from countries in which the Church -and the State, the cross and the sword, are one. In fact to the large -majority of those who come, nationality or race, and the Church, are one -and the same. The Russian and the Southern Slav who are not <i>pravo</i> -Slavs, adherents of the Greek Church, are regarded very much in the -light of traitors to their nations. The Pole is a Catholic by national -instinct; Poland and Roman Catholicism are to him one and the same; -while the Jew is a Jew by race and faith, regarding as a profligate, him -who betrays his people by becoming a Christian.</p> - -<p>Roughly speaking, nearly eighty per cent. of our present immigration is -made up of Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, Greek Orthodox and<a name="page_323" id="page_323"></a> Jews. -More or less, usually more rather than less, they bring with them and -foster these ideas. This is undoubtedly true of nearly all the Slavs -whom the Church divides racially and who are enemies; remaining so a -long time on this side of the Atlantic. The Church, cognizant of this -fact, fosters it in no small degree, because it can hold its children -more loyally to itself by giving the national idea a large place. -Polish, Bohemian and Slovak church societies of a semi-military -character exist in large numbers, and many of their members carry arms. -Although in itself this may be a harmless way of keeping men loyal to -the Church, it does seem to clash with one of our religious ideals, -which is fundamental in maintaining religious liberty. I am judging only -as an outsider and am telling only what seems to me to be the case; but -I am speaking also for a large number of Catholic priests who see in -this no small menace and who have tacitly admitted it.</p> - -<p>The sooner the Catholic Church can get rid of Polish and Italian priests -who have been trained in Europe, to whom religion is a sort of -politics,—and a certain kind of politics is religion,—the better for -the Church and of course the better for the State.</p> - -<p>The immigrants free themselves from the autocracy of the Church and of -the priest more quickly than from the national idea, and they<a name="page_324" id="page_324"></a> easily -breathe in the liberating atmosphere and sometimes manifest it in a very -disagreeable way. The close supervision which the priest exercises over -his parishioners, the respect they pay to him, the awe in which he is -held, are helpful rather than detrimental phases of their religious -life, where the priest is a true priest. There are, however, too many -who are not, and I am sure that the authorities of the Church concerned -are perhaps more anxious about this than are we, who are simply looking -over the fence at our neighbours’ affairs.</p> - -<p>I am more concerned by the fact that in nearly all the immigrants with -whom I have dealt, forms and a certain blind faith, obscure the ethical -demands of Christianity. This is certainly true of the adherents of the -Greek Orthodox Church and not entirely untrue of those belonging to -other Churches. I am conscious of the fact that just here prejudice can -blind one completely; and I want to keep myself free from that charge.</p> - -<p>My religious outlook cannot be called narrow, when one takes into -consideration that Roman Catholic priests were both my teachers and my -companions, that I have lived in a Russian monastery, that I know the -Slav, the Italian and the Jew better perhaps than I know the American, -and that to know them as sympathetically as I do, one must know them -without prejudice. Probably on the other hand<a name="page_325" id="page_325"></a> I shall not escape the -charge of timidity when I say that in the countries in Europe from which -our present immigration flows the Church has fostered the form of -religion and has too often neglected its ethical demands; or perhaps -that it has laid greater emphasis upon the poetry of religion than upon -its stern prose.</p> - -<p>Into the Easter celebration the Greek Orthodox churches have woven all -the charm which the religious mind can invent. I have seen almost the -third heaven opened on Easter eve in Russia and also in Poland. Yet -hardly had the last triumphant cry, “Christ is risen” died upon the gray -morning, when the same mob which shouted, “Christ is risen,” also cried, -“Kill the Jews.” Kisheneff, Bialistok, Sedlice and the scenes of small -and large pogroms in Poland, Austria and Hungary, which have remained -unrecorded, are sufficient proof of the fact that many of the Slavic -people have no idea of the teachings of Jesus; and that religion to them -is a matter of form necessary to observe, a sort of charm against evil -spirits and bad luck.</p> - -<p>In this respect, however, the churches concerned are not sinners above -others; and the Protestant churches in America have also been more -successful with the millinery of religion than with its essence. It -would be wrong to say that the people who now come to us will dull our -religious faculties, and make them less impressionable.<a name="page_326" id="page_326"></a> Nothing could -be further from the truth; for essentially they are a religious people -and even now there are taking place among them great religious -developments. I believe that in the crude state in which the present -immigrant comes, he is ready for the best the Church can give to him. No -one church is equal to the task, and antagonistic as they may be towards -one another, I believe the nation needs both the Protestant and Catholic -types; that the field now is so large and the problem so difficult, that -they both need to put forth their best efforts. Each needs to prove -Lessing’s story of the “Three Rings”; each needs to prove that it has -the true ring, the true message of redemption, and it can prove that -best by living its best, and by noblest endeavour for these children of -men who have brought to our doors the problem of Christianizing the -whole world.</p> - -<p>The breadth of vision and the depth of conviction which animate a -certain section of America in this respect, are best illustrated by -these ringing words from a recent address by President Tucker of -Dartmouth College: -<a name="page_327" id="page_327"></a> -“If God were not pouring into New England out of the riches of other -countries, New England would be empty. While the latest foreigner may -not compare favourably with the native stock, what of the second and -third generations of foreigners? They are forging to the front, partly -because of their virility and ambition, and partly through the sacrifice -of the homes to educate their children. The rising scale of foreign -population is on a better level than the falling scale of the native -population. If the old New England stock is not willing to sacrifice as -it used to, and if the New England boy is not as ambitious as his -grandfather, I thank God that he is sending us those who are willing to -sacrifice and anxious to rise; and that he is giving this challenge to -the old stock: Rise up and show yourselves! If we do not see and feel -it, it is to our shame. We are not the elect of God unless we prove our -election, and if He can do better for the world through some other stock -and religion than through the native stock and Protestant religion, let -Him work in His own way.”</p> - -<p>I need not say here how large a place the public school and the -settlement both have (in spite of the fact that they are often called -godless institutions) in making religious impressions upon the -immigrant. The glimpse of a higher world, the world of the spirit, has -been given to many eyes almost blind to the divine light, by modest men -and women who have worn neither cassock nor crosses, and who were -ordained to their holy task only as they felt the touch of needy -children resting upon their hearts.</p> - -<p>I recall a little, sharp-eyed Jewish lad whom lured from his news stand -by recklessly buying<a name="page_328" id="page_328"></a> his whole stock of evening papers. He had lived in -Boston five years and was Bostonese, to the dropping of his Rs, and the -picking them up again, to put where they did not belong. He was a -product of the public school, not yet finished, but in the making; and -over him hovered the benediction of some noble teacher, whose glory he -reflected. “Teacher? O yes! teacher was even more than parents, almost -like God. Teacher knew more than the stupid rabbi, who tried to drill -into him the Hebrew alphabet.”</p> - -<p>The boy had neither church nor synagogue, nor priest nor preacher nor -rabbi; he had but two things to cling to, the school and the settlement. -Piteous was his scorn of the faith of his fathers, the accusation and -condemnation of everything Jewish, the contempt with which he called his -people “Sheney”; the horror of fast and feast days, and his delight in -the anticipation of a Jewish Sabbath meal. He will become what Max -Nordau calls a “stomach Jew,” in opposition to the “soul Jews,” who -alas! are growing fewer and fewer, on both sides of the sea.</p> - -<p>This boy, grown up, or growing up in Boston, knew nothing of us, of our -type of Christianity, or of Christianity at all; except the fact that -the world is divided between Christians and Jews. The settlement has -done something for him; it has given his unskilled fingers the taste for -handicraft, and he told me with honest pride of the<a name="page_329" id="page_329"></a> things he had made -with “his own hands.” It has also given him a knowledge of human -kindness, although he does not yet realize that the men and women in the -settlements are working because of the love they have for God’s -children.</p> - -<p>I have found Jews everywhere who were Christian in spirit; and the -distance between synagogue and church is as great as it is, only because -of prejudices, which the church has not yet allayed and which -unconsciously it is increasing.</p> - -<p>The Jew is suspicious of missions and missionaries and has good reason -to be, but he responds quickly to the notes of true religion whenever -they strike his heart; even as he responds quickly to the best things in -our national life.</p> - -<p>I recall walking through Boston in the streets stretching South and far -North where Russia and Polish Jews live. They are keepers of shops of -all varieties, busy scavengers of second-hand articles; busier than we -know, with thread and needle in clothing and sweat shops. They are -dealers in junk, the refuse and wreckage of our industrial -establishments; creators of new avenues of trade and of some new -industries. Some of these Jews know that they live in Boston and act -like it. I had alighted at the North Station and was walking with a lady -whose luggage I had offered to carry to the car. She had a baby on<a name="page_330" id="page_330"></a> one -arm and a large satchel in the other hand, so in order not to knock -against her with the heavy valise which I carried, I walked on the -inside. Suddenly from his shop door, a Russian Jew, in English strongly -tainted by Yiddish, called out: “You greenhorn, don’t you know that in -Boston men don’t walk on the insides of the ladies?” Promptly, as though -impelled by a command, I shifted my load, and “walked on the outside of -the lady.”</p> - -<p>That Jew had been responsive to Boston’s spirit of decorum and would be -equally responsive to the best in its religious life if it were -presented to him. He likes least to be singled out as a Jew and to be -dealt with as such, either by churches or missions. He is most easily -approached from the standpoint of the average man, and not from the -peculiar racial and religious standpoint of the Jew.</p> - -<p class="figcenter"> -<a href="images/ill_pg_330_lg.jpg"> -<img src="images/ill_pg_330_sml.jpg" width="348" height="500" alt="ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT. - -The distance between synagogue and church is really not so great as some -suppose. Many a Jew is Christian in spirit if not in creed." -title="ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT" /></a> -<br /> -<span class="caption">ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT.<br /> -The distance between synagogue and church is really not so great as some -suppose. Many a Jew is Christian in spirit if not in creed.</span> -</p> - -<p>Side by side with the religious problem is growing to menacing -proportions the problem of politics. A nation like our own, ideally -founded upon universal suffrage, is putting its destinies in the hands -of men untrained in citizenship; the very name citizen being so new to -them that they cannot easily grasp its meaning. The tutelage of Tammany -Hall and of its kind all over the United States has been a bad -preparation for so momentous a task. It does not diminish the greatness -of the problem in the least when I say<a name="page_331" id="page_331"></a> that the foreigner is usually -the innocent tool, in a corrupting process which has been going on for -many years, and to the existence of which the nation is just awaking.</p> - -<p>I have been offered citizenship papers in the city of New York for ten -dollars; and have seen them peddled by Americans who had back of them -the protection of political bosses of no less genuine American ancestry. -I have seen whole groups of Polanders marched to the ballot-box, when -they were so drunk that they had to be kept erect by a stalwart American -patriot who swore that they had the right to vote, when they had -scarcely been a year in this country. I have seen men who are respected -in their communities, buy votes wherever they could get them, corrupting -a mass of men who were as ignorant of the process of voting and as -unfitted for it, as little babes; and these very men I have heard loudly -proclaiming the corrupting influence of the foreign element.</p> - -<p>With all that, the foreigner is rising in the scale of citizenship and -is not so bad as he has the right to be, considering the example set -him. Delaware is not controlled by foreigners, yet the peaches in its -political basket are rotten both at the top and at the bottom. -Connecticut, the “Constitution State” as it loves to call itself, is -still dominantly American, and yet there are so many “wooden nutmegs” in -the spice box of its<a name="page_332" id="page_332"></a> magnificent State House that its best citizens are -hanging their heads from shame. New Hampshire and Vermont are not model -States, in spite of the fact that the foreign vote is almost “nil”; -while the city of Philadelphia cannot claim that it is better governed -than the city of New York, where the foreign population predominates and -dominates.</p> - -<p>The immigrant, it is true, will sell his vote; but the American buys it, -and sells it too, and he is the greater traitor; because he is betraying -his native country.</p> - -<p>Again, this does not assume that the immigrant is not a political -problem; he is, but only because we are, and in this he rises and falls -with us, and sometimes rises above us. All that which we call patriotism -he quickly imbibes. He loves the Fourth of July, and he knows its -meaning and its value often better than the native born. I have no fear -on that score; and should America, God forbid, engage in war, you would -find at the very front the Jew, the Slav, and the Italian with the -Yankee, fighting the same battle; yes, and fighting his own people -should they unjustly attack us.</p> - -<p>Who doubts that the German Americans would fight in our war against -Germany, if it were a just war—if war be ever just; and who would doubt -for a moment that the Italians, Russians and French would fight on our -side if their governments<a name="page_333" id="page_333"></a> should land soldiers on this continent? No -one doubts it.</p> - -<p>They are caught by the contagious enthusiasm of our patriotism, and will -outdo us; for they love America as no native can love it. Neither do I -fear that they will fail us in fighting our greater battles against -injustice and against corruption in high places. What I fear is that -they will fight, that they will become one with the tumultuous mob, -which may at any time arise and blindly demand its long deferred -dividends for its share of labour, toil and suffering. I fear that we -are gathering inflammable material from the dissatisfied of all the -nations, who here may endeavour to reek vengeance upon all governments; -a mass easily inflamed by demagogues and made a scourge in the land, -when the land needs scourging.</p> - -<p>No nation has ever faced such a problem as we are facing; not only -because of its gigantic proportions, nor because of its peculiar nature, -but because of the fact that the nation’s weal or woe is being decided -right before our very eyes; because its shroud or its wedding garment is -now being woven, and we who live to-day may stretch our hands against -the threads of the loom and say which it shall be.<a name="page_334" id="page_334"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a>XXIII<br /><br /> -BIRDS OF PASSAGE</h2> - -<p>A<small>GAIN</small> the ship’s band plays the songs of the Fatherland, while marching -up the streets of Hoboken towards the dock, comes a long procession of -men escorting one of the chief citizens of the town. He is the owner of -the largest saloon and is about to visit his native land across the sea. -The decks of the steamer are crowded by passengers and their friends, -and through the discordant noise of rattling chains one hears the -mingled notes of joy and sorrow, until finally at the stern command of -the captain the long homeward journey has begun.</p> - -<p>The steerage of the <i>Kaiser Wilhelm II</i> is crowded to the limit; and -Jews, Slavs, Italians and Germans are beginning to settle down in their -congested quarters, in a somewhat closer fellowship than on the westward -journey; for now they have a common experience and a few sentences of -common language to bind them to one another.</p> - -<p>The women all of them, have discarded the peasant’s dress and are -bedecked in the spoils of bargain counters; while the men invariably -wear “store clothes,” always carry huge watches and<a name="page_335" id="page_335"></a> not rarely a -revolver. Where you still see peasant’s clothing you will find a heavy -spirit within it; for the wearer is one of the unfortunates who was -turned back from “the gate which leads into the city.”</p> - -<p>The steerage passengers may be roughly divided into two classes: those -who go home because they have succeeded, and those who go home because -they have failed. Those who have succeeded have not yet reached the -point of achievement which lifts them from the steerage to the cabin, -but still belong to that large class which goes back to the Fatherland -for a season and then returns, to try again the road to fortune. More -than one-fourth of all our immigrants belong to this class and have to -be reckoned with when the sum total is counted. While I cannot give the -exact figures I should say that nearly two hundred thousand men and -women go back and forth each year.</p> - -<p>This class has lost much of the Old World spirit and is neither so -docile nor so polite as it was when first it occupied these quarters. -The ship’s crew has become more civil towards it, which is due to the -fact that the homeward bound steerage passenger has grown to be -something more of a man, has more self-assertion and more dollars; all -of which has power to subdue the over-officious crew. The men have -learned more or less English, which is freely interspersed<a name="page_336" id="page_336"></a> by oaths, -while the women can say: “Yes, no, and good-bye” call their “Dum, de -house” and are fairly versed in the language of the grocery and dry -goods store. They can say “how much” and even “you bet”; but beyond -that, the English language has remained “terra incognita” to them.</p> - -<p>The women are the birds of passage who most go back; for they are loyal -to their kinsmen, to their home and their traditions, not having been -long enough in America to prize the great privileges of womanhood here.</p> - -<p>The children are most loath to return; especially those who have gone to -school here and who in their migrations to and fro, have learned the -difference.</p> - -<p>Anushka, a bright twelve year old girl goes from a Pennsylvania town, to -the Frenczin district in Hungary. She is dressed “American fashion,” has -gone to the public school and speaks English fairly well.</p> - -<p>“Anushka moya, tell me, do you like to go back to Hungary?” and the -little girl tells me: “No, siree. America is the best country. There we -have white bread and butter and candy, and I can chew gum to beat the -band;” and tears fill her eyes at the memory of the American luxuries -which she has tasted. If she stays in her mountain village she will -degenerate into the common life about her, and marry a<a name="page_337" id="page_337"></a> peasant lad with -whom she will hover between enough and starvation, all the days of her -life. Yet she will never forget America, the white bread and butter, the -candy and the chewing-gum.</p> - -<p>In a little village in Hungary I know a woman who in her youth had -tasted all these things and the freedom of life in Chicago. Now, -although she has been married fifteen years and has lived away from -America longer than that, she speaks with glowing eyes of the time when -she lived on South Halstad Street, ate thin bread with thick jam on it, -and the land was flowing with sausages, lager beer and chewing-gum.</p> - -<p>Most blessed are the girls who have been in service in American -families. They have learned English well, and also the ways of the -American household. They have tasted of the spirit of Democracy which -permeates our serving class, and when such an one returns to her native -village she unsettles the relations of servant and mistress. Therefore, -her coming is dreaded by the “Hausfrau” who has had one servant-girl -through many years, paying her fifteen dollars a year and treating her -like a beast. Shall I quote one of those mistresses?<a name="page_338" id="page_338"></a> “What kind of -country is that anyway, that America? These servant girls come back with -gold teeth in their mouths, and with long dresses which sweep the -streets, and with unbearable manners. They do not kiss our hands when -they meet us, and when they speak of their mistress in America they -speak of her as if they were her equals. When one of those girls comes -home with her finery and her money, we are liable to lose every servant; -and wages are going up fabulously.”</p> - -<p>I met one of these servant-girls “with gold teeth in her mouth” after -she had lived three years in America, and I found that she had acquired -something besides gold teeth. She had learned to speak both German and -English, she had manners which were refined, she had been uplifted by an -American mistress out of her peasant life to a plane which women reach -nowhere but in America, and she was the equal if not the superior, of -any of the young women in her village, who had had the privilege of a -common school education which had been denied to her, because of her -lowly origin. It is true, she did sweep the streets with her long -skirts; but she did it gracefully. She walked as the women on Fifth -Avenue walk, and she shook hands with me after the most approved -fashion.</p> - -<p>The older women on the ship returned without any of these graces. They -had been pining for the Fatherland, and in spite of the fact that one of -them was going back to a half-starved country, she said: “In Chicago, -you no can get any tink to eat.”</p> - -<p>In a general way it may be said that it made a<a name="page_339" id="page_339"></a> vast difference where -and how the men had lived in America, as to whether they carried -anything but American dollars back with them. Both the men and the women -who had been in service in American homes showed the largest inheritance -of our spirit; while those who lived in the congested foreign quarters -had simply changed climates for a while, lost some robustness and a few -native virtues, and gained a modest bank account.</p> - -<p>Yet even among those I could notice changes and gains which cannot be -tabulated and which at the first glance might be put down as losses; an -indefinite something which has gone into their fibre for better or for -worse. This was most crudely illustrated by a Ruthenian who had lived -twenty-five years in America; eleven years in a coal mining district and -the rest of the time in a New England manufacturing town. He told me -about his aspirations for his son, who is “very smart and will not work -with his hands.” He talked in Russian: “Yes, my son will be educated. I -have money enough for that. I am stupid and must bear all sorts of -things, but when a man is educated, he can raisovat helle as much as he -wants.” The form in which he put the American phrase saves the necessity -of writing it in dashes.</p> - -<p>I have not yet seen a village in Hungary, Russia or Italy, to which any -number of men has<a name="page_340" id="page_340"></a> returned even after a short sojourn in America, -without that community’s gaining in some ways at least. Better houses -certainly were built, with more or less sanitary improvements according -to the conditions under which the men or women have lived in America. It -makes a vast difference whether the men have lived in mining camps or in -the cities. Undoubtedly the peasant who has lived in a small American -city where he could easily feel and touch its life brings home the -greatest spirit of progress.</p> - -<p>Agricultural conditions have improved rapidly in Hungary and Poland; -business in not a few instances has been put upon an American basis, -which means not only more efficiency, but strange as it may seem, more -honesty; and the scale of living has risen wherever a large number of -people has gone to and fro across the sea.</p> - -<p>The steerage holds numbers who go back because they have not succeeded, -and many who are broken in health, who have been burned by the fires, -scalded by the steam and parched by our heat. Men and women with spirits -broken, who are not going back, but crawling back into the shelter of -the Old World home.</p> - -<p>“O! panye,” cried one of those to whom I tried to minister: <a name="page_341" id="page_341"></a>“it is an -awful country! You don’t know whether they walk on their heads or on -their feet; they do not stop to eat nor sleep, and they drive one as the -water drives the village mill. They build a house one minute and tear -it down the next; the cities grow like mushrooms and disappear like -grass before a swarm of locusts. The air is black in the city where I -lived; black as the inside of the chimney in my cabin, and the water -they drink looks like cabbage soup. The cars go like a whirlwind over -the Puszta (prairie) and I should rather stand among a thousand -stampeding horses on the plains, than on one of those dreadful street -corners. How terribly those whistles blow in the morning and how dark -and dismal are those shops, where they eat up iron and men out of bowls -as big as the barn of our ‘Pan’ (master). The heat outside burns and the -heat inside blisters, and when it is cold it freezes the blood. No, no,” -and he groaned in terror at the remembrance of it; “no more America for -me. That’s all I have,” pointing to his scant clothing. “I am going back -a beggar.”</p> - -<p>Women too there are whose bodies and spirits are nearly broken; and they -go back to wait for their release. Among these, there was one Bohemian -woman from New York, whose hollow cough and glowing cheeks betrayed the -arch destroyer at work. She was one of six thousand cigar makers -employed by one firm, and she had laboured five years in that shop and -rolled many thousands of cigars into shape. As she had to bite the end -of every cigar, she swallowed much<a name="page_342" id="page_342"></a> tobacco juice, and breathed in much -tobacco dust. She had attained great proficiency and could earn twenty -dollars a week; but she had ruined her health, had spent all her savings -for medicine and now was going home to die. She was in that stage where -hope had not left her, and she was bent on making the last great fight -for life in the shelter of her “Matushka’s” love.</p> - -<p>Two old genteel looking people always stood out from the coarse mass -because they kept clean in spite of the odds against them in the -steerage, and because they were always together. Up and down the -slippery stairs they went, like two lovers. Even seasickness did not -separate them and when the sun shone they were on deck, solemnly smiling -back to heaven. They had left their all in America; their children were -sleeping in the strange soil, and now they were going back to the little -town in Austria from which they had gone thirty-seven years before. They -felt too rich in one another to rail against their fate, and their -complaint was as gentle as their pain was deep. They had come to America -full and now they were going home empty; three sons and two daughters -they had brought, and childless they were going back; but “The Lord had -given and the Lord had taken away,” and they blessed the name of the -Lord.</p> - -<p>Those who had prospered in America, and they were the majority, carried -home with them<a name="page_343" id="page_343"></a> sums of money which in the aggregate, amounted, among -600, to four thousand dollars, which did not however represent all they -had saved; for each week they had sent small sums to their homes, and -the money sent from America to Austria and Italy has been a great -economic factor in the life of those countries. The total sum must reach -into many millions. Nor does this sum represent an entire loss to our -country; for the more money there is in a Slav or Italian village the -more and better cotton goods are bought. The daily diet contains more -American lard, the household is likely to be enriched by an American -sewing-machine, and the notes of the phonograph are “heard in the -land,”—which too comes from America.</p> - -<p>Perhaps the greatest gainers by this constant coming and going are the -steamship companies, which for a comparatively large sum of money -provide quarters that in a very short time become unfit for human -beings. The thrifty passengers, and there are not a few of them, who -believe that the steerage going to Europe is not so crowded as coming to -America, and that they can risk travelling that way, are very much -mistaken. Even moderately rough weather makes the unsheltered deck -impossible; the nether decks of the ship become full of sickening odours -and seasickness claims nearly all the passengers as victims. There is no -escape; even on so<a name="page_344" id="page_344"></a> large a ship as the <i>Kaiser Wilhelm II</i> all must -remain in their bunks. On my last trip I counted five bitter days when -not one steerage passenger could go on deck, while the cabin passengers -were travelling over comparatively quiet waters.</p> - -<p>When the sea has become as smooth as a mill-pond the steerage passengers -may venture out; 800 people, crowded in a small space, soon become -acquainted and need not wait for an introduction. Less, much less than -on the outward journey have the races kept themselves apart; it is true -you may still discover groups of Slavs, Italians or Jews; but they have -approached the gates of the Kingdom of God and you may find your -brotherhoods made up of all the nations of the earth. I had around me a -group of forty men who belonged to seventeen nationalities, to four -faiths and to many stations in life; yet we felt ourselves bound to one -another by a meagre knowledge of the English language and by our common -experience in America. Most of these men felt themselves intensely -American; and that was what held us together and in a measure separated -us from the mass. For the majority of these birds of passage are not yet -American, as the following instance will illustrate. In taking a rough -census of the politics of the steerage, I asked one man: “How do you -like President Roosevelt?” He replied:<a name="page_345" id="page_345"></a> “I no know him. I guess he good -man, I get my pay at shop; I work, I get pay, I guess that all right.” -A few expressed both admiration for the President and loyalty to him, -and hoped he would run for another term. They had opinions in politics -and some even declared themselves neither Republicans nor Democrats, but -“Inepenny.” My group of forty men, growing at the end of the journey to -nearly fifty, were a loyal set, and an honest one.</p> - -<p>Each of the men had earned the little money he had, by hard labour; not -one of them by barter, and each had caught a glimpse of the higher life -in America.</p> - -<p>The Slavs were nearly all Democrats, the Italians were Republicans, and -so were the Jews. There were six Social Democrats in the group, nearly -evenly divided among the three races; and they were the best educated if -not the most companionable of the number. The whole group was eager to -know, and the questions asked were as pertinent as numerous. All of them -expected to return to America before another year, and each of them will -grow into the full stature of the American man.</p> - -<p>The touch with the mass in the steerage can be but light; yet I have -looked into the smiling faces of little children, I have played with the -steerage boys and girls, I have talked with every one of the five -hundred adult passengers in the steerage, and I can still say that -usually all of<a name="page_346" id="page_346"></a> them return with some blessing, with some wealth gained, -and better for having been in America.</p> - -<p>The boys and girls are more boisterous and self-assertive, while the men -and women are less cringingly polite than they were. They have lost some -things but have gained more; and I am convinced that the country in -which they have toiled these years has been enriched by the price of -their labour.</p> - -<p>How far these birds of passage present an economic problem is at present -difficult to determine. Those who remain form the greater problem, which -is more than an economic one.</p> - -<h2><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a>XXIV<br /><br /> -IN THE SECOND CABIN</h2> - -<p>I<small>F</small> the man who said, “Give me neither poverty nor riches” had been a -modern globe trotter he might have added: “And when I cross the ocean -let me travel neither in the first cabin nor in the steerage but in the -second cabin.” That is if he cared more for the companionship of human -beings than for the luxuries of modern life, and if he had not objected -to the fact that the second cabin is located directly over the powerful -driving gear of the ship.</p> - -<p>Because of the latter fact one may experience a “continuous performance” -of an earthquake without its disastrous results, and yet not without -consequences which at the moment seem very serious. The second cabin -does not lapse into the silence of the steerage nor into the dignity of -the first cabin, but begins its noisy comradery immediately; being -interrupted only, when the earthquake plays havoc with good nature, and -resumed as soon as the appetite for food and drink returns.</p> - -<p>The second cabin usually holds only one class; the class which has -succeeded. It contains a sprinkling of native Americans, teachers and<a name="page_348" id="page_348"></a> -preachers, whose modest savings are to be spread thinly over Europe; its -usual occupants are foreigners, who after a longer or shorter sojourn, -return for a visit to the cradle home. The Hoboken saloon-keeper who was -escorted by the band to the dock, and in whose honour it played “Lieb -Vaterland magst ruhig sein,” is a typical second class passenger on a -German ship; and his like in large numbers come from Cincinnati, St. -Louis, Milwaukee and other cities made famous by their output of -sparkling lager.</p> - -<p>I discovered on this journey more than thirty dispensers of drink who -were at the bar from morning until midnight, and doing exactly as they -like their customers to do by them; drinking and getting drunk. The -Hoboken saloon-keeper bore the typical name of August, and every one of -the ship’s crew down to the smallest scullion, knew this famous August -and delighted to bask in the uncertainty of his sunshine and to be the -beneficiary of his spasmodic generosity. He was drunk from the moment he -came on board the steamer until he left it, and in his melancholy -moments confided in me, telling me the story of his life and the -magnitude of his fortune. He was born in Bremerhaven, the terminus of -that great ferry which begins at Hoboken. He boasted the friendship of -the Commodore of the German Lloyd fleet, with whom he had gone to -school, and the smoking room<a name="page_349" id="page_349"></a> steward was called to assert this fact. -“Steward, you k-know me?” “Yes, you’re August.” “D-do you know about -C-Captain Schmidt?” “Yes, you sailed under him to South Africa.” “N-no, -you f-fool; I went to school with him,” and obediently the steward -repeated: “Yes, you went to school with him.” He told me the secrets of -the liquor business, the misfortunes which had overtaken his boy who is -following in his father’s footsteps, and is travelling towards delirium -tremens at even a faster rate than this robust, convivial sailor. I -tried my arts on August, painting in wonderful colours the glories of -the Mecca of his pilgrimage, that I might keep him from drinking himself -to death with beer before he saw his Fatherland. And I succeeded; for -when I saw August of Hoboken again, he was drinking whiskey.</p> - -<p>Poles, Bohemians and Slovaks all travelled in the second cabin; but -invariably they were saloon-keepers and displayed the demoralizing -tendencies of their business to their full extent.</p> - -<p>The first days of this journey were made memorable by the noisy -behaviour of two Polish priests who were constantly mixing whiskey with -beer, and who rose to a spiritual ecstasy which was both unpriestly and -ungentlemanly. Among the many priests who were on board, but few were -priests in the true sense of the word, the others bringing disgrace upon -their calling and<a name="page_350" id="page_350"></a> upon their Church. In spite of the fact that the -steerage was full of their kindred and people of their faith, not a -priest found his way to that neglected quarter. As a rule they were -busier at the bar than at their prayers, a fact which of course must not -be charged to priests as a class; but the sooner the Church in America -gets rid of most of its foreign born priests, especially those from -Italy and the Slavic countries, and replaces them by Irish or Americans, -the better for the Church and for our country.</p> - -<p>Dividing the passengers according to their race, most of them were Jews -from Hungary and Russia; and while still unmistakable Jews, they all -bore marks of the new birth which had taken place. The Russian Jews in -many cases were slovenly, obtrusively dressed and noisy; their Yiddish -was tainted by bad English, but they were frugal, sober, and minded -their own business.</p> - -<p>One of the group which I had gathered around me was on his way to -Palestine where his parents now live. His home is in a little Illinois -town not far from Chicago. He began his career like many of his kind, by -peddling. Now he owns a department store and allows himself the luxury -of this long and expensive journey. He is leniently orthodox in his -faith, has come close enough to his Gentile neighbours to have a glimpse -of Christianity at its best, and has been<a name="page_351" id="page_351"></a> completely permeated by the -American spirit. His daughter is a high school graduate, plays the -piano, gives receptions, dabbles in art, takes part in the Methodist -Church fairs and on occasions sings in the church choir.</p> - -<p>Such a close touch with American life was not vouchsafed to another -Russian Jew in that group. He had lived in New York and had also gone -through the long tutelage of hard bargaining and hard times. He too was -going to Europe; but he went to buy diamonds, not to visit his -relatives, and neither his past experience nor his vision was tinged by -any idealism. He was money from the toes up, and in each pocket he -carried some trinket, from fountain pens to diamond pins, which could be -bought at a bargain.</p> - -<p>The Hungarian Jews from “Little Hungary” had progressed most rapidly in -becoming Americanized. They played poker from morning until night, could -bluff with the true American “sang froid,” and swear at their ill luck; -but that they had kept their Jewish shrewdness was shown by their -leaving the game when the tide of luck was at its height. When they did -not play poker they talked about the game of politics as played in New -York, and they knew its ins and outs thoroughly. The higher and better -note struck by Roosevelt and Jerome they had grasped in but a vague way; -and that a man<a name="page_352" id="page_352"></a> could be honest in politics was strange news to them, -nor did they believe that President Roosevelt’s activities were without -regard to his own profit in the game.</p> - -<p>“Little Hungary” has been a bad political school and one need not be -over apprehensive if he regards this poor political tutelage as one of -the greatest problems connected with the influx of foreigners into our -large cities. In speech and names these Hungarian Jews were almost -completely metamorphosed, and their patriotism knew no bounds. On a -certain day one of them dug out of the depths of his trunk a dozen or -more American flags, with which he wanted us to parade up and down the -ship to the notes of a patriotic air. Upon our refusal to do so he grew -angry, saying: “Nice Americans you fas.”</p> - -<p>In contrast to the steerage, the women in the second cabin appeared to -have changed most, and among the younger women, the transformation -seemed complete. I doubt that their clothing lacked the latest -fashionable wrinkle; their physique had lost its robustness and they had -gained in self-possession. I have noticed a very important difference in -the behaviour of the second class coming from America and going there. -The young women who go to America are more or less molested by the men, -their language and behaviour one to the other is not always correct, and -even the American girls have<a name="page_353" id="page_353"></a> lost something of their dignity and -reserve; but going to Europe the greatest propriety is observed, and -although the young people have a good time together, the young women -know how to take care of themselves, the men know better than to be -obtrusively attentive, and if they try, they receive a rebuff from which -they do not lightly recover.</p> - -<p>The second cabin goes back richer not only in worldly goods but in -conscious manhood and womanhood, in loftiness of ideals and above all -else, pathetically grateful to the country which gave these gifts.</p> - -<p>“I owe everything to America,” “I would give everything I own to -America,” “It is God’s country,” are phrases from which I could not -disentangle myself, so fervent and frequent were they. Some of these -people have still a richer inheritance in the consciousness of having -had a share in building up the country in which they have lived. Among -these was a Jewish gentleman, Mr. K., who had in his possession letters -from Christian people in his county, commending him to their friends -abroad, praising his public spirit, his generosity towards the people of -all faiths, and his uprightness in business. He was proud of the fact -that he had voted for William McKinley when he ran for prosecuting -attorney of his county, and that he had voted for him every time he ran -for office. It is true that<a name="page_354" id="page_354"></a> Mr. K. belonged to that class of Jews which -came from Southern Germany and which is the best Jewish product that -Europe has sent us; but his is not an isolated case, and nearly every -county in America has produced such specimens coming from widely -different portions of Europe.</p> - -<p>But few Italians travel in the cabin; there were half a dozen who had -reached that degree of prosperity, and they came from the South, had -been engaged in the cotton business and were indulging in an European -trip, while the product of their plantations was daily increasing in -price. They were genteel, and quiet, and so well dressed and well -groomed, that it came as a surprise to most of the passengers to find -that they were Italians, and that they had risen from the “Dago” class. -On them America has performed the miracle of transformation, in spite of -its sordid instincts and its materialistic atmosphere; a miracle which -art-filled Italy could not perform, a task before which both sculptor -and painter are powerless.</p> - -<p>The Slavs of the first generation who were in the second cabin, were -nearly all saloon-keepers with their families; and although the change -wrought upon them was great, their business obtruded, and they were not -pleasant companions. They had retained the reticence of their race, -spoke only when spoken to, were suspicious of one’s approach, but warmed -to one after a while<a name="page_355" id="page_355"></a> Their horizon had remained bounded by the mining -camps in which their saloons were located; even those from Pittsburg, -and they were not a few, had not looked deep into our American life.</p> - -<p>That the Pole and Slovak will be hard to change, and that they present -somewhat tough material, not easily assimilated, often forces itself -upon me; yet when I see their children, that second generation, born in -America, I can see no difference between the Slav and the German. One of -the most beautiful girls on board of ship, one of the most refined in -her attire and behaviour, was a Bohemian girl born in Chicago. Although -she spoke the language of her people, she spoke English better, -associated with the American girls on board of ship, and it would have -taken a keen student of racial stock to discover her Bohemian origin. -She is not an isolated figure nor an exception. On nearly every journey -I have taken I have found her type, and I recall with especial pleasure -and satisfaction the companionship of two Bohemian school teachers from -Cleveland, Ohio, both of them born in Bohemia, but having grown to -womanhood on the shores of Lake Erie. While they showed in their faces -the Slavic strain, they were thoroughly Americanized and must have been -a blessing to the children whom they taught.</p> - -<p>So one’s apprehension is quieted by such facts,<a name="page_356" id="page_356"></a> which are by no means -rare. Certain crude elements may survive, even in the second generation, -and may perhaps enter into our racial existence, but other such elements -have come to us from other races, and have not spoiled us nor yet undone -us. If we were to pick out on board of ship the most disagreeable -people, we would not seek them among the Slavs nor among the Italians, -but among a certain class of German and Jewish Americans, who are all -flesh; blasphemous in language, intemperate in habits and who are -intensely disliked on the other side of the Atlantic among their own -kinsmen. This is not intended to reflect upon that large class of sober -and intelligent naturalized Americans one meets; but to emphasize the -fact, that the classes of immigrants most desired by us, compare very -well with the best element in our polyglot population. Looking back over -all my experiences, I am justified in saying that the Slav, the Italian -and the Russian Jew, will finally compare well with the earlier output -of foreign born Americans.</p> - -<p>The last night before the landing, an enterprising and pleasure loving -Jew arranged a concert; and although the participants were Jews, -Bohemians, Poles, Germans and Russians, it was a typical American -affair, was as decorous as a church social, and nearly as dull. These -children of the foreigners sang American parlour songs, recited “Over -the hills to the poorhouse,” and<a name="page_357" id="page_357"></a> other poems which are intended to make -one happy by making one sad, and they concluded by singing together “My -Country ’tis of Thee,” but could not remember the words beyond the -second verse, which is so typical of our own young people.</p> - -<p>The day we were to land there were more American flags in evidence in -the second cabin than in any other quarter of the ship. The -over-patriotic Jew had his dozen flags out, swinging them all in the -face of the German policemen who lined the dock at Bremerhaven. Every -button-hole bore the Stars and Stripes. When one of the thriftier Jews -suggested that the wearing of the flag would cost them money, because -the hotel keepers would charge them American rates, another replied: “It -is worth all they will make me pay,” while another still more -emphatically said: “They will see it in mine face that I am from -America; let it cost me money.”</p> - -<p>Swinging the Stars and Stripes they descended the gang plank; Slavs, -Italians and Jews, all of them vociferous, patriotic Americans. Wherever -they went they proclaimed their love for this country, and the -superiority of America over the whole world.</p> - -<p>“I will talk nothing but American; let them learn American, the best -language in the world,” said one; and much to the chagrin of the -sensitive Europeans, these second class passengers<a name="page_358" id="page_358"></a> went blatantly and -noisily through the streets of the cities of Europe, criticising -everything they saw, from barber shops to statuary. One of them who had -travelled far, who had seen on that journey the galleries of Paris, -Munich and Dresden, and who had some little art sense, said: “I tell you -the finest piece of statuary in the whole world is the Goddess of -Liberty in New York Harbour;” and all those who heard said: “Amen.”</p> - -<p>How deep the American ideals have taken root among them, one cannot yet -discern; how completely the second generation will come under their -sway, how much of the old world spirit will disappear or remain, is -difficult to determine. This is no time to be blindly optimistic nor -hopelessly pessimistic; it is a time for facing the dangers and not -fearing them; for this is the noontide of our day of grace. This is the -time to bring into action the best there is in American ideals; for as -we present ourselves to this mass of men, so it will become. At present -the mass is still a lump of clay in the hands of the potter; a huge lump -it is true, but America is gigantic and this is not the least of the -gigantic tasks left for her mighty sons and daughters to perform.<a name="page_359" id="page_359"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="XXV" id="XXV"></a>XXV<br /><br /> -AU REVOIR</h2> - -<p class="nind"><i>My Dear Lady of the First Cabin:</i></p> - -<p> I have followed your good advice, have told my story as I told it to -you; and yours be the praise and the blame. You interrupted me in the -telling, by saying that I did not know the first cabin, and that my -story would not be complete until I knew that part of the ship and that -portion of the world also.</p> - -<p>I have as you see taken passage in the first cabin. They sold me the -ticket as readily as if it were for the steerage and did not ask for my -pedigree, only for my check. Fifty dollars more gave me the privilege of -sitting where you sat (which was at one time the “seat of the -scornful”), of looking proudly upon the second cabin, and pityingly upon -the steerage below.</p> - -<p>It is a delightful sensation this; of being summoned to your meals by -the notes of a bugle rather than by the jangle of a shrill bell; of -looking over half a yard of menu, and ordering what you want, and whom -you want, just as you please, rather than being ordered about as some -one else pleases.</p> - -<p>The first day out I found the first cabin as<a name="page_360" id="page_360"></a> quiet as the steerage; -only more dignified. The passengers were walking on tiptoe; many of them -trying to adjust themselves to these labyrinthine luxuries; while the -distinguished rustle of silken petticoats relieved the pressure of the -atmosphere, which naturally was tense from the excitement of the -beginning of a journey. Critically, almost with hostility, each -passenger measured the other; the tables were buried beneath the loads -of flowers and floral designs which were past the fading, and in the -first melancholy stages of decay; so that all of it reminded me of a -palatial home, to which the mourners have just returned from a rich -uncle’s funeral.</p> - -<p>As yet, no one had spoken to me, although I had volunteered a wise -remark about the weather to one passenger, and the gentleman addressed -recoiled as if I had struck him with a sledge hammer. I learned -afterwards that he occupied a thousand dollar suite of rooms and that -his name was Kalbsfoos or something like it. In choosing his seat at the -table, I heard him remark to the head steward that he did not want to -sit “near Jews,” nor any “second class looking crowd”; but that was a -difficult task to accomplish.</p> - -<p>More than a third of the passengers were Jews, and more than two-thirds -were people whose names and bearing betrayed the fact that they were -either the children of immigrants, or immigrants<a name="page_361" id="page_361"></a> themselves, who too -were returning to the Old World because they had succeeded. In the Vs. -Mr. Vanderbilt’s name headed the list, but the name closest to his was -Vogelstein; while between such American or English names as Wallace and -Wallingford, were a dozen Woolfs and Wumelbachers, Weises and Wiesels. I -need not tell you of the multitude of the Rosenbergs and Rosenthals -there were in our cabin. Mr. Funkelstein and Mr. Jaborsky were my -room-mates. First cabin after all is only steerage twice removed, and -beneath its tinsel and varnish, it is the same piece of world as that -below me; which you pity, and which you dread.</p> - -<p>The staple conversation to-day is the size of the pool—which has -reached the thousand dollar mark, and the fact that a certain actor lost -fifteen thousand dollars at poker the night before. In the second cabin -the pool was smaller, the limit in poker ten cents; while in the -steerage they lived, unconscious of the fact that pools and poker are -necessary accompaniments of an ocean voyage.</p> - -<p>It is a stratified society in which I find myself up here, and the lines -are marked—dollar marked. The stewards instinctively know the size of -our bank accounts by our wardrobes. Around the captain’s table are -gathered the stars in the financial firmament; those whom nobody knows, -who travel without retinue are at the remote<a name="page_362" id="page_362"></a> edges of the dining room, -far away from the lime light.</p> - -<p>In the steerage, everybody “gets his grub” in the same way, in the same -tin pans—“first come first served”; and all of us are kicked in the -same unceremonious way by the ship’s crew.</p> - -<p>The first cabin and the society it represents are not all finished -products. There are many of those who eat, even at the captain’s table, -who are still in blessed ignorance of the fact, that knives were not -made for the eating of blueberry pie; and who also do not know what use -to make of the tiny bowls of water in which rose leaves float, when they -are placed before them.</p> - -<p>Then there are the maidens who walk about with mannish tread, talking -loudly and violently through their noses; who assault the piano -furiously with the notes of rag-time marches; and who waft upon the air -perfumes which offend one’s olfactory nerves.</p> - -<p>Yet beside them, and in strong contrast to them are those superb men and -women, the flower of American civilization, whose like has never been -created anywhere else in the world.</p> - -<p>No, what I have learned in the first cabin has not changed my vision in -the least; for the world it represents is not closed to me; and I -reckoned with it in my story. You know enough about me to realize that I -harbour no class or race prejudices, and that I try to<a name="page_363" id="page_363"></a> “play fair.”</p> - -<p>The people of the steerage are in a large measure what I told you they -are—primitive, uncultured, untutored people; with all their virtues and -vices in the making. They are the best material with which to build a -nation materially; they are good stock to be used in replenishing -physical depletion; and capable of taking on the highest intellectual -and spiritual culture. They are a serious problem in every respect; -whether you shut the gates of Ellis Island to-day or to-morrow, those -that are here are an equally serious problem.</p> - -<p>One thing the journey in the first cabin has done for me; it has made me -grateful for my journeys in the steerage; grateful that I could stand -among those tangling threads out of which our national life is being -woven, and see the woof and the warp, and know that the woof is good. I -am conscious of the fact that it will take strong sound warp to hold it -together, to fill out our pattern and complete our plan. Oh, my dear -lady! What a great country in the making this is! And how close you and -I are to the making!</p> - -<p>Here are we, living at a time in which the greatest phenomenon of -history is taking place. Future generations will wonder at the process -and will say: <a name="page_364" id="page_364"></a>“A new gigantic race was being born between the Atlantic -and the Pacific; a race born to build or to destroy, to cry to the -world, ‘Ground Arms,’ or cast it into the hell of war; a race in which -are welded all kindreds of the people of the earth, or a race which will -destroy itself by mutual hate.”</p> - -<p>My lady, you and I are here to work at a task which will outstrip all -the wonders of the world, and we cannot do it in our own strength; we -need to call to each other, as we bend to our task, the greeting which -the Slovaks sent after you when you left the ship:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Z’Boghem, Z’Boghem,”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“The Lord be with thee.”<br /></span> -</div></div> - -<p><a name="page_365" id="page_365"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX"></a>APPENDIX<br /><br /> -IMMIGRATION STATISTICS</h2> - -<p>T<small>HE</small> author has refrained from using statistics in his book, not because -he has any objection to figures; but because the statistics of -immigration (even those prepared by the United States Government) are -misleading.</p> - -<p>Professor Walter F. Willcox, Chairman of the Committee on Basal -Statistics, appointed by the National Civic Federation, calls attention -to this fact in his report, and gives the following reasons for their -unreliability.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"><p>The meaning of any statistics depends largely upon the meaning of -the unit in which the statistics are expressed. It is a common but -fallacious assumption that a word used as the name of a statistical -unit has precisely the same meaning that it has when used in -popular speech. In the present case the word “immigrant” has had -and to some degree still has different meanings, which may be -called respectively the popular or theoretical meaning and the -administrative or statistical meaning, and these two should be -carefully distinguished.</p> - -<p>In the popular or theoretical sense an immigrant is a person of -foreign birth who is crossing the country’s boundary and entering -the United States with intent to remain and become an addition to -the population of the country. In this sense of the word an alien -arrival is an immigrant whether he comes by water or by land, in -the steerage or<a name="page_366" id="page_366"></a> in the cabin, from contiguous or non-contiguous -territory, and whether he pays or does not pay the head tax. The -essential element is an addition to the population of the country -as a result of travel and the word thus covers all additions to the -population otherwise than by birth. A person cannot be an immigrant -to the United States more than once any more than a person can be -born more than once. It is a characteristic of this meaning that it -does not alter.</p> - -<p>The word immigrant in its administrative or statistical sense is -not defined in the Reports of the Commissioner-General of -Immigration, but from that source and from the instructions and -other circulars issued by the Bureau the following statements -regarding its meaning have been drawn:</p> - -<p>1. The administrative or statistical meaning of immigrant is not -fixed by statute law but is determined by the definitions or -explanations of the Bureau of Immigration and those are dependent -upon and vary with the law and administrative decisions.</p> - -<p>2. In the latest circular of the Bureau immigrants are defined as -“arriving aliens whose last permanent residence was in a country -other than the United States who intend to reside in the United -States.” This definition seems to agree closely with the popular or -theoretical one.</p> - -<p>3. But the foregoing definition is modified by a subsequent -paragraph of the same circular which excludes from the immigrant -class “citizens of British North America and Mexico coming direct -therefrom by sea or rail.” So the official definition is -substantially this: An alien neither a resident of the United -States nor a citizen of British North America, Cuba or Mexico, who -arrives in the United States intending to reside there.<a name="page_367" id="page_367"></a></p> - -<p>4. The only important difference between these two definitions is -that the statistical definition excludes, as the popular definition -does not, citizens of British North America, Cuba and Mexico. As -the natives of Canada and Mexico living in the United States in -1900 were 14.2 per cent. of the natives of all other foreign -countries, it seems likely that the figures of immigration for the -year 1905-06 should be increased about 14.2 per cent. in order to -get an approximate estimate of the total immigration into the -country during the year just ended.</p> - -<p>5. Perhaps the most important difference between the popular or -theoretical and the statistical definition of immigrant is that the -former is unchanging and the latter has been modified several times -by changes of law or by modifications of administrative -interpretation.</p> - -<p>6. Until January 1, 1906, an alien arrival was counted as an -immigrant each time he entered the country, but since that date an -alien who has acquired a residence in the United States and is -returning from a visit abroad is not classed as an immigrant. This -administrative change has brought the statistical and the popular -meanings of immigrant into closer agreement, but in so doing has -reduced the apparent number of immigrants more than ten per cent. -and has made it difficult to compare the earlier and the later -statistics.</p> - -<p>7. Until January 1, 1903, an alien arriving in the first or second -cabin was not classed as an immigrant, but rather under the head of -other alien passengers. This change likewise brought the two -meanings of immigrant into closer agreement, but also made it -difficult to compare the figures before and after that date. By a -mere change of administrative definition the reported number of -immigrants was increased nearly twelve per cent.<a name="page_368" id="page_368"></a></p> - -<p>8. Until the same date an alien arrival in transit to some other -country was deemed an immigrant, but since that date such persons -have been classed as non-immigrant aliens. This change also makes -the figures before 1903 not strictly comparable with later ones. -About three per cent. of those who were formerly classed as aliens -have been excluded since 1903. The alteration has brought the two -definitions closer together, but in so doing has entailed -administrative difficulties which lead the bureau to favour a -return to the former system or at least to favour collecting the -head tax from such aliens in transit.</p> - -<p>9. An immigrant in the statistical sense is a person liable for and -paying the head tax. But to this there are two slight exceptions. -Deserting alien seamen not apprehended are liable for the head tax -which is paid by the company from which they desert, but such cases -are not included in the statistics. Citizens of British North -America, Cuba and Mexico coming from other ports than those of -their own country are reported as immigrants, but do not pay the -head tax. Obviously both are minor exceptions hardly affecting the -rule. In the popular or theoretical meaning of immigrant this head -tax is not an element.</p> - -<p>10. Probably other changes of definition have occurred of recent -years. No attempt has been made to exhaust the list. The general -tendency of the changes has clearly been towards a closer agreement -of the popular and the statistical meanings. But they have probably -tended to make the increase of immigration indicated by the figures -greater than the actual increase, and to that degree to make the -figures misleading. If the Government Bureau of Immigration and -Naturalization could make a carefully studied estimate of the -extent to which such changes in<a name="page_369" id="page_369"></a> the official reports really modify -the apparent meaning of the published figures, it would render a -valuable service.</p> - -<p>11. A committee like the present can hardly make such an estimate -or go further than to point out that for the reasons indicated the -official statistics of immigration are likely to be seriously -misinterpreted and are constantly misinterpreted by the public.</p> - -<p>The official statistics of immigration being subject to all the -qualifications indicated and reflecting so imperfectly the amount -of immigration as ordinarily or popularly conceived the question at -once arises, Can any substitute or any alternative be proposed? -What the public is mainly interested in, I think, and what it -commonly but erroneously believes is indicated by the official -figures of immigration, is the net addition to the population year -by year as a result of the currents of travel between the United -States and other countries.</p> - -<p>Alternative figures for the last eight years, a period which -closely coincides with the last great wave of immigration now at or -near its crest, may be had by comparing the total arrivals and -departures in the effort to get the net gain. The results appear in -the following table:</p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary=""> -<tr align="center" valign="bottom" -style="font-style:italic;font-size:95%"> -<td>Fiscal Year</td> - -<td>Total<br /> -Passengers<br /> -Arrivals</td> - -<td>Total<br /> -Passengers<br /> -Departed</td> - -<td>Total<br /> -Immigration</td> - -<td>Arrivals<br /> -Minus<br /> -Departure</td> - -<td>Per Cent.<br /> -That Net<br />Increase<br /> -Makes of<br /> -Immigration</td></tr> - -<tr><td>1898</td><td align="right">343,963</td><td align="right">225,411</td><td align="right">229,299</td><td align="right">118,552</td><td align="right">51.8</td></tr> -<tr><td>1899</td><td align="right">429,796</td><td align="right">256,008</td><td align="right">311,715</td><td align="right">173,788</td><td align="right">55.8</td></tr> -<tr><td>1900</td><td align="right">594,478</td><td align="right">293,404</td><td align="right">448,572</td><td align="right">301,074</td><td align="right">67.0</td></tr> -<tr><td>1901</td><td align="right">675,025</td><td align="right">306,724</td><td align="right">487,918</td><td align="right">368,304</td><td align="right">75.5</td></tr> -<tr><td>1902</td><td align="right">820,893</td><td align="right">326,760</td><td align="right">648,743</td><td align="right">494,133</td><td align="right">76.3</td></tr> -<tr><td>1903</td><td align="right">1,025,834</td><td align="right">375,261</td><td align="right">857,046</td><td align="right">650,573</td><td align="right">75.9</td></tr> -<tr><td>1904</td><td align="right">988,688</td><td align="right">508,204</td><td align="right">812,870</td><td align="right">480,484</td><td align="right">59.3</td></tr> -<tr><td>1905</td><td align="right">1,234,615</td><td align="right">536,151</td><td align="right">1,026,499</td><td align="right">698,464</td><td align="right">68.1</td></tr> -<tr><td class="tp">1898-1905</td><td colspan="2"> </td><td align="right" class="tp">4,822,662</td><td align="right" class="tp">3,285,372</td><td align="right" class="tp">68.1</td></tr> -</table> - -<p><a name="page_370" id="page_370"></a></p> - -<p>The figures indicate that the net increase of population by -immigration during the last eight years has been slightly more than -two-thirds of the reported immigration. But these figures of net -increase should be increased by an estimate of the arrivals by land -from Canada and Mexico. As the Canadians and Mexicans by birth -residing in the United States in 1900 were 14.2 per cent. of all -residents born in other foreign countries, this would indicate an -influx of 466,000 Canadians and Mexicans, a figure probably in -excess of the truth since the currents have probably been setting -Canadaward of recent years. I estimate, therefore, that the net -increase from immigration 1898-1905 has been about 3,750,000 -instead of 4,820,000 as might be inferred from the reports of the -bureau of immigration. The actual increase would then be about -seventy-eight per cent. of the apparent increase.</p></div> - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> - -<p class="c">Printed in the United States of America<a name="page_371" id="page_371"></a></p> - -<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2> - -<p class="cb"><a href="#A">A</a>, -<a href="#B">B</a>, -<a href="#C">C</a>, -<a href="#D">D</a>, -<a href="#E">E</a>, -<a href="#F">F</a>, -<a href="#G">G</a>, -<a href="#H">H</a>, -<a href="#I-1">I</a>, -<a href="#J">J</a>, -<a href="#K">K</a>, -<a href="#L">L</a>, -<a href="#M">M</a>, -<a href="#N">N</a>, -<a href="#O">O</a>, -<a href="#P">P</a>, -<a href="#R">R</a>, -<a href="#S">S</a>, -<a href="#T">T</a>, -<a href="#U">U</a>, -<a href="#V-1">V</a>, -<a href="#W">W</a>, -<a href="#Y">Y</a>, -<a href="#Z">Z</a></p> - -<p class="nind"> -“<a name="A" id="A"></a>Americana,” by Dr. Lamprecht, quoted, <a href="#page_321">321</a><br /> -Americanizing the stranger, <a href="#page_291">291</a><br /> -Americans, poor example set by, <a href="#page_119">119</a><br /> -Americans or foreigners, in the slums, <a href="#page_316">316</a><br /> -Amish, the, <a href="#page_096">96</a><br /> -Anti-Semitic riots, <a href="#page_053">53</a><br /> -Ashkenazim, the, <a href="#page_146">146</a><br /> -Assimilation, miracle of, <a href="#page_291">291</a><br /> -Atheism of Hungarians, <a href="#page_249">249</a><br /> -Austro-Hungarian Jews, <a href="#page_148">148</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="B" id="B"></a>Bialistok, Jews from, <a href="#page_061">61</a>, <a href="#page_325">325</a><br /> -Bohemian movement, beginning of, <a href="#page_023">23</a><br /> -Bohemian immigrant, distribution of, <a href="#page_225">225</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">characteristics of, <a href="#page_227">227</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">irreligion of, <a href="#page_228">228</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">socialism of, <a href="#page_234">234</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">both best and worst, <a href="#page_235">235</a></span><br /> -Bohemian school teachers from Cleveland, <a href="#page_355">355</a><br /> -Bulgarians, the, <a href="#page_026">26</a>, <a href="#page_180">180</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="C" id="C"></a>Castle Garden days, <a href="#page_078">78</a><br /> -Catholic, <i>see</i> also Roman Catholic<br /> -Catholic Church, foreign priests a hindrance to, <a href="#page_323">323</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the Bohemians, <a href="#page_229">229</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the Italian, <a href="#page_278">278</a></span><br /> -Catholic Hungarians, <a href="#page_247">247</a><br /> -Centre of Mill Horror, <a href="#page_222">222</a><br /> -Christian Church and Jews, <a href="#page_164">164</a><br /> -Church, political power of, <a href="#page_322">322</a><br /> -Citizenship papers for ten dollars, <a href="#page_331">331</a><br /> -Commissioner Watchorn, Ellis Island, <a href="#page_081">81</a><br /> -Commissioner Williams, Ellis Island, <a href="#page_081">81</a><br /> -Competition the life of prejudice, <a href="#page_309">309</a>.<br /> -Count Aponyi, Hungary, quoted, <a href="#page_318">318</a><br /> -Crainers, the, <a href="#page_212">212</a><br /> -Criminal element among immigrants, <a href="#page_075">75</a><br /> -Criminals, Italian, <a href="#page_255">255</a>, <a href="#page_273">273</a><br /> -Croatians, the, <a href="#page_026">26</a>, <a href="#page_180">180</a>, <a href="#page_212">212</a><br /> -Czechs, the, <a href="#page_180">180</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="D" id="D"></a>Dalmatians, the, <a href="#page_026">26</a>, <a href="#page_181">181</a><br /> -Degeneration due to influx of foreigner, not evident, <a href="#page_304">304</a><br /> -Deported from Ellis Island, <a href="#page_065">65</a>, <a href="#page_066">66</a>, <a href="#page_068">68</a>, <a href="#page_072">72</a>, <a href="#page_082">82</a>, <a href="#page_092">92</a><br /> -Detention room, in the, <a href="#page_068">68</a><br /> -Diocletian, palace of, a Slavic town, <a href="#page_018">18</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="E" id="E"></a>Economic problem of new American, <a href="#page_309">309</a><br /> -Economic value of immigrant, <a href="#page_318">318</a><br /> -Educational Alliance, the, <a href="#page_161">161</a>, <a href="#page_163">163</a><br /> -Ellis Island ahead, <a href="#page_048">48</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">examination at, <a href="#page_065">65</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conditions at, <a href="#page_079">79</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">new conditions at, <a href="#page_086">86</a></span><br /> -Emigrant, passports for, <a href="#page_031">31</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">treatment of, at port of embarkation, <a href="#page_032">32</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">medical examination of, <a href="#page_035">35</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">examination of, at home, <a href="#page_075">75</a></span><br /> -Endeavour Societies, Jewish, <a href="#page_151">151</a><br /> -Ethical Culture Society, the, <a href="#page_152">152</a><br /> -Excluding the weak and helpless, <a href="#page_072">072</a><a name="page_372" id="page_372"></a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="F" id="F"></a>Families divided, by inspectors, <a href="#page_065">65</a><br /> -Finns, the, <a href="#page_027">27</a><br /> -Free thinkers, <a href="#page_106">106</a><br /> -First Cabin vs. Steerage, <a href="#page_014">14</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="G" id="G"></a>Gentlemen in homespun vs. beasts in broadcloth, <a href="#page_046">46</a><br /> -George, Joseph J., Worcester, Mass., and Syrian children, <a href="#page_083">83</a><br /> -Geringer, Mr., editor <i>Svornost</i>, <a href="#page_228">228</a>, <a href="#page_229">229</a><br /> -Ghetto, the Russian, <a href="#page_136">136</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of New York, <a href="#page_154">154</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vs. the West Side, <a href="#page_305">305</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vs. upper Broadway, <a href="#page_306">306</a></span><br /> -German aristocracy, the real, <a href="#page_098">98</a><br /> -German Evangelical Church, <a href="#page_108">108</a><br /> -German immigrants, the first, <a href="#page_094">94</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">characteristics of, <a href="#page_097">97</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">socialism of, <a href="#page_098">98</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">intellectual life of, <a href="#page_100">100</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">social life of, <a href="#page_101">101</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">political influence of, <a href="#page_103">103</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">influence of Church upon, <a href="#page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">materialism of, <a href="#page_107">107</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">influence of, on religious life, <a href="#page_108">108</a></span><br /> -German Jews, <a href="#page_148">148</a><br /> -German Methodists, <a href="#page_108">108</a><br /> -Great Russian, the, <a href="#page_181">181</a><br /> -Greek Catholic Church, the, <a href="#page_204">204</a><br /> -Greek Catholic immigrants, <a href="#page_322">322</a><br /> -Greek Church and the Slav, <a href="#page_204">204</a><br /> -Greek immigrant, the, <a href="#page_282">282</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">characteristics of, <a href="#page_285">285</a>, <a href="#page_288">288</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the Church, <a href="#page_287">287</a></span><br /> -Greek Orthodox immigrants, <a href="#page_322">322</a><br /> -Greek play at Hull House, <a href="#page_291">291</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="H" id="H"></a>Hall, Prescott F., quoted, <a href="#page_296">296</a><br /> -Hamburg, treatment of emigrant, <a href="#page_034">34</a><br /> -Hartford, Conn., Italian district, <a href="#page_266">266</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gathering of Jews in, <a href="#page_298">298</a></span><br /> -Hearst influence in the Ghetto, <a href="#page_168">168</a><br /> -Hertzl, Theodore, <a href="#page_298">298</a><br /> -Hester Street vs. the West Side, <a href="#page_305">305</a><br /> -Hoar, Geo. F., Senator, quoted, <a href="#page_082">82</a><br /> -Hoboken saloon-keeper, the, <a href="#page_348">348</a><br /> -Hungarian, <i>see</i> also Magyar<br /> -Hungarian Catholic, the, <a href="#page_247">247</a><br /> -Hungarian Greek Catholic, <a href="#page_247">247</a><br /> -Hungarian gypsies, <a href="#page_244">244</a><br /> -Hungarian immigrant, characteristics of, <a href="#page_250">250</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">socialism of, <a href="#page_244">244</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">hostility to religion, <a href="#page_249">249</a></span><br /> -Hungarian Jews in second cabin, <a href="#page_351">351</a><br /> -Hungarian Protestant, the, <a href="#page_248">248</a><br /> -“Hunkies,” <a href="#page_198">198</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">looking for work, <a href="#page_213">213</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in steel mills in Penn., <a href="#page_220">220</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">with the Illinois Steel Co., <a href="#page_222">222</a></span><br /> -Huss, John, succeeded by George Washington, <a href="#page_234">234</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="I-1" id="I-1"></a>Illyrian, the, <a href="#page_180">180</a><br /> -Imagination and reality, <a href="#page_074">74</a><br /> -Immigrant of to-day, characteristics of, <a href="#page_029">29</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">expectations of, <a href="#page_062">62</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">treatment of, at Ellis Island, <a href="#page_079">79</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">types of, <a href="#page_091">91</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">not content with old conditions, <a href="#page_311">311</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">problem of, not an economic one, <a href="#page_314">314</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">economic value of, <a href="#page_318">318</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">economic effect on his own country, <a href="#page_318">318</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">religious ideas of, <a href="#page_322">322</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">amenable to religious influence, <a href="#page_326">326</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in politics, <a href="#page_330">330</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">patriotism of, <a href="#page_332">332</a></span><br /> -Immigrant societies, <a href="#page_064">64</a><br /> -Immigration, quality of, improving, <a href="#page_091">91</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">where the danger lies, <a href="#page_092">92</a></span><br /> -Immigration laws, effect on steam ship companies, <a href="#page_035">35</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">amendment to, procured by Senator Hoar, <a href="#page_085">85</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as to public charge, <a href="#page_092">92</a></span><br /> -Immigration Congress, N. Y., <a href="#page_315">315</a><br /> -Infidelity of Bohemians, <a href="#page_228">228</a><br /> -Ingersoll, Robert, influence of, <a href="#page_228">228</a>, <a href="#page_230">230</a><br /> -Inspectors at Ellis Island, <a href="#page_080">80</a><br /> -Italian movement, beginning of <a href="#page_019">19</a><a name="page_373" id="page_373"></a><br /> -Italian, the, at home, <a href="#page_028">28</a>, <a href="#page_252">252</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">characteristics of, <a href="#page_253">253</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">affected by other races, <a href="#page_253">253</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lawlessness of, <a href="#page_255">255</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">criminals, <a href="#page_255">255</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">distrust of the Church, <a href="#page_258">258</a>, <a href="#page_260">260</a></span><br /> -Italian immigrant, the, <a href="#page_262">262</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">characteristics of, <a href="#page_262">262</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">distribution of, <a href="#page_264">264</a>, <a href="#page_269">269</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in business, <a href="#page_268">268</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">competitor of the Jew, <a href="#page_271">271</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the school, <a href="#page_276">276</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the Church, <a href="#page_277">277</a></span><br /> -Italians returning in the second cabin, <a href="#page_354">354</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="J" id="J"></a>Jamestown, N. Y., Swedish colony of, <a href="#page_117">117</a>, <a href="#page_122">122</a><br /> -Jewish movement, beginning of, <a href="#page_021">21</a><br /> -Jewish world, the real, <a href="#page_133">133</a><br /> -Jews the, in the old world, <a href="#page_126">126</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">homelessness of, <a href="#page_126">126</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">distribution of, <a href="#page_127">127</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">characteristics of, <a href="#page_127">127</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Russia, <a href="#page_134">134</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">socialism of, <a href="#page_140">140</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">250th anniversary of landing in America, <a href="#page_143">143</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">charter granted to, in 1655, <a href="#page_144">144</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">four groups of, <a href="#page_147">147</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">spiritual movements among, <a href="#page_151">151</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the Christian churches, <a href="#page_164">164</a>, <a href="#page_329">329</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">missions in the Ghetto, <a href="#page_166">166</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in politics, <a href="#page_167">167</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">second generation of, <a href="#page_171">171</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mutual distrust of, <a href="#page_172">172</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">racial fealty of, <a href="#page_303">303</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation to Christianity, <a href="#page_329">329</a></span><br /> -Judaism, crisis of, in America, <a href="#page_302">302</a>.<br /> -<br /> -<a name="K" id="K"></a>Kishineff, Jews from, <a href="#page_061">61</a>, <a href="#page_325">325</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="L" id="L"></a>Labour market, changes in, <a href="#page_310">310</a><br /> -Labour unions or manufacturers’ associations, <a href="#page_310">310</a><br /> -Lady of the First Cabin, The, <a href="#page_009">9</a>, <a href="#page_359">359</a><br /> -Lamprecht, Prof. K., quoted, <a href="#page_101">101</a>, <a href="#page_321">321</a><br /> -Lindsburgh, Kansas, model Swedish town, <a href="#page_122">122</a><br /> -Lithuanians, the, <a href="#page_027">27</a><br /> -Little Hungary, <a href="#page_238">238</a>, <a href="#page_305">305</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as a political school, <a href="#page_352">352</a></span><br /> -Little Russian, the, <a href="#page_182">182</a><br /> -Lodge, Henry Cabot, Senator, <a href="#page_083">83</a><br /> -Lombroso, Dr., on criminology, <a href="#page_256">256</a><br /> -Lutheran church, influence of, <a href="#page_105">105</a><br /> -Lutheran church and the Swedes, <a href="#page_118">118</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="M" id="M"></a>Magyar, <i>see</i> also Hungarian<br /> -Magyar, the, <a href="#page_027">27</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jews, <a href="#page_149">149</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Austro-Hungary, <a href="#page_241">241</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Little Hungary, <a href="#page_242">242</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">political tendencies of, <a href="#page_244">244</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">not Slavs, <a href="#page_241">241</a></span><br /> -Man at the Gate, the, <a href="#page_078">78</a><br /> -Marxian Socialism, <a href="#page_098">98</a>, <a href="#page_234">234</a><br /> -Massarik, Professor, quoted, <a href="#page_230">230</a><br /> -Materialism of Germans, <a href="#page_107">107</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Bohemians, <a href="#page_230">230</a></span><br /> -Mennonites, the, <a href="#page_094">94</a><br /> -Milwaukee, the most German city, <a href="#page_100">100</a><br /> -Minneapolis, <a href="#page_115">115</a>, <a href="#page_122">122</a><br /> -Minnesota, Swedes unpopular in, <a href="#page_117">117</a><br /> -Money sent home by immigrant, an economic gain, <a href="#page_320">320</a><br /> -Montefiore, Sir Moses, <a href="#page_131">131</a><br /> -Montenegrins, the, <a href="#page_026">26</a>, <a href="#page_180">180</a><br /> -Moravians, the, <a href="#page_096">96</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="N" id="N"></a>National Immigrant Societies, <a href="#page_064">64</a><br /> -Neglect, effect of, <a href="#page_124">124</a><br /> -Nelson, Knute, <a href="#page_117">117</a><br /> -New Britain, Conn., Polish town, <a href="#page_212">212</a><br /> -New Greece, Chicago, <a href="#page_288">288</a><br /> -New Prague, typical Bohemian town, <a href="#page_231">231</a><br /> -New Ulm, a city without a church, <a href="#page_098">98</a><a name="page_374" id="page_374"></a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="O" id="O"></a>Odessa, Jews from, <a href="#page_061">61</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="P" id="P"></a>Pastorius, Francis Daniel, <a href="#page_096">96</a><br /> -Paupers and criminals, a million a year? <a href="#page_072">72</a><br /> -Pole, the, vs. the Slovak, <a href="#page_210">210</a><br /> -Polish movement, beginning of, <a href="#page_024">24</a><br /> -Polish town, New Britain, Conn., <a href="#page_211">211</a><br /> -Political immigrants, <a href="#page_097">97</a><br /> -Political tutelage of immigrants, <a href="#page_330">330</a><br /> -Pope Pius X, <a href="#page_259">259</a><br /> -President Roosevelt and Ellis Island, <a href="#page_081">81</a><br /> -Prohibitionists, the first, <a href="#page_096">96</a><br /> -Protecting American labour, <a href="#page_309">309</a><br /> -Protestant influence on Bohemians, <a href="#page_231">231</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hungarians, <a href="#page_248">248</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Church and the Italians, <a href="#page_281">281</a></span><br /> -Public charge, a, <a href="#page_068">68</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="R" id="R"></a>Rabbinism, power of, <a href="#page_146">146</a><br /> -Rabbis of the Ghetto, <a href="#page_162">162</a><br /> -Race movement of Eastern Europe, <a href="#page_016">16</a><br /> -Races, difficulty of distinguishing between, <a href="#page_294">294</a><br /> -Racial characteristics, changes in, <a href="#page_294">294</a><br /> -Racial fealty of Jews, <a href="#page_303">303</a><br /> -Religions, national, <a href="#page_322">322</a><br /> -Religious atmosphere of America, <a href="#page_321">321</a><br /> -Religious ideas of immigrants, <a href="#page_322">322</a><br /> -Republicans, Democrats and “Inepenny,” <a href="#page_345">345</a><br /> -Restriction Immigration League, <a href="#page_296">296</a><br /> -Returned immigrant, influence at home, <a href="#page_339">339</a><br /> -Roman displaced by Slav, <a href="#page_018">18</a><br /> -Roman Catholic, <i>see</i> also Catholic<br /> -Roman Catholic Church, influence on Germans, <a href="#page_105">105</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the Slav, <a href="#page_204">204</a></span><br /> -Roman Catholic immigrants, <a href="#page_322">322</a><br /> -Roosevelt, President, and Ellis Island, <a href="#page_081">81</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to, of Senator Hoar, <a href="#page_084">84</a></span><br /> -Russian Jews, <a href="#page_150">150</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">characteristics of, <a href="#page_173">173</a></span><br /> -Russian refugees, <a href="#page_057">57</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="S" id="S"></a>Saloon-keepers in second cabin, <a href="#page_349">349</a><br /> -Scandinavian immigrant, the, <a href="#page_112">112</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">characteristics of, <a href="#page_113">113</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">distribution of, <a href="#page_114">114</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">second generation of, <a href="#page_113">113</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">considered unreliable, <a href="#page_117">117</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">town of Lindsburgh, Kansas, <a href="#page_122">122</a></span><br /> -Schurz, Carl, <a href="#page_097">97</a><br /> -Schwenkfelders, the, <a href="#page_096">96</a><br /> -Secret societies of Italy, <a href="#page_256">256</a><br /> -Sephardic Congregations, <a href="#page_145">145</a><br /> -Servant girl, as she returns, <a href="#page_337">337</a><br /> -Servians, the, <a href="#page_026">26</a>, <a href="#page_180">180</a>, <a href="#page_212">212</a><br /> -Shylock vs. Daniel Deronda, <a href="#page_130">130</a><br /> -Silverman, Dr. Joseph, <a href="#page_143">143</a><br /> -Slav at home, the, <a href="#page_020">20</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">distribution of, <a href="#page_179">179</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">characteristics of, <a href="#page_180">180</a>, <a href="#page_183">183</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">blood revenge still practiced, <a href="#page_185">185</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">treatment of women, <a href="#page_187">187</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">love of music, <a href="#page_189">189</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">religious feeling of, <a href="#page_195">195</a></span><br /> -Slavic immigrant, the, <a href="#page_198">198</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Slovak, <a href="#page_198">198</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Pole, <a href="#page_198">198</a>, <a href="#page_210">210</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Bohemian, <a href="#page_225">225</a></span><br /> -Slavic literature, <a href="#page_194">194</a><br /> -Slovak movement, the, <a href="#page_025">25</a><br /> -Slovak, the, <a href="#page_180">180</a>, <a href="#page_191">191</a>, <a href="#page_200">200</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in politics, <a href="#page_206">206</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">entertainments, <a href="#page_207">207</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as a type, <a href="#page_301">301</a></span><br /> -Slovenes, the, <a href="#page_026">26</a>, <a href="#page_181">181</a><br /> -Slums in the, Americans or foreigners, <a href="#page_316">316</a><br /> -Socialism of Germans, <a href="#page_098">98</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Jews, <a href="#page_140">140</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Bohemians, <a href="#page_234">234</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Italians, <a href="#page_257">257</a></span><br /> -Social nose or social heart, <a href="#page_012">12</a><br /> -Social Democracy, and the Magyars, <a href="#page_243">243</a><a name="page_375" id="page_375"></a><br /> -Social Democrats in the Ghetto, <a href="#page_167">167</a><br /> -Social Labour Jews, <a href="#page_169">169</a><br /> -South Chicago, steel mills of, <a href="#page_222">222</a><br /> -Spanish Jews, <a href="#page_147">147</a><br /> -Steamship companies, responsibility of, <a href="#page_076">76</a><br /> -Steerage, the, from the quarter-deck, <a href="#page_010">10</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conditions in, <a href="#page_035">35</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vs. second cabin, <a href="#page_036">36</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">should be abolished, <a href="#page_037">37</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accommodations, English best, <a href="#page_038">38</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">vs. the slum, <a href="#page_041">41</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">songs, <a href="#page_042">42</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">comradeship of, <a href="#page_043">43</a>, <a href="#page_050">50</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">amusements of, <a href="#page_051">51</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">question of, <a href="#page_053">53</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">shadows of the past, <a href="#page_053">53</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">polyglot sermon in, <a href="#page_062">62</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and anarchy, <a href="#page_077">77</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fellowship of, on return voyage, <a href="#page_334">334</a>;</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">self-assertive on return, <a href="#page_335">335</a></span><br /> -“Stomach Jews” vs. “Soul Jews,” <a href="#page_328">328</a><br /> -Stratified society in first cabin, <a href="#page_362">362</a><br /> -Strikes by foreigners, <a href="#page_311">311</a><br /> -<i>Svornost</i>, Bohemian infidel paper, <a href="#page_228">228</a>, <a href="#page_232">232</a><br /> -Swedes, <i>see</i> Scandinavians<br /> -Syrian children, story of, <a href="#page_082">82</a><br /> -Syrians, the, <a href="#page_028">28</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="T" id="T"></a>Tragedy of the deported, <a href="#page_065">65</a>, <a href="#page_066">66</a>, <a href="#page_068">68-72</a>, <a href="#page_082">82</a>, <a href="#page_092">92</a><br /> -Tucker, President, quoted, <a href="#page_326">326</a><br /> -Tunkers, the, <a href="#page_096">96</a><br /> -Turner Societies, <a href="#page_106">106</a>, <a href="#page_230">230</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="U" id="U"></a>University Settlement, the, <a href="#page_164">164</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="V-1" id="V-1"></a>Vanderbilt vs. Vogelstein, <a href="#page_361">361</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="W" id="W"></a>Watchorn, Robert, Commissioner, Ellis Island, <a href="#page_081">81</a>;<br /> -<span style="margin-left: 1em;">secures reforms, <a href="#page_086">86</a></span><br /> -Wends, the, <a href="#page_180">180</a><br /> -West Side vs. Ghetto, <a href="#page_014">14</a><br /> -Williams, William, Commissioner at Ellis Island, <a href="#page_081">81</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="Y" id="Y"></a>Yiddish, the, <a href="#page_156">156</a><br /> -<br /> -<a name="Z" id="Z"></a>Zionistic movement, <a href="#page_141">141</a><br /> -Zionist leader, Theodore Hertzl, <a href="#page_298">298</a><br /> -</p> - -<p><a name="page_376" id="page_376"></a></p> - -<p><a name="page_377" id="page_377"></a></p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="cb">SOCIOLOGICAL</p> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<p><i>HAROLD BEGBIE</i></p> - -<p class="cb">The Crisis of Morals</p> - -<p>“The Weakest Link.” 12mo, cloth, net 75c.</p> - -<p>“Here is a strong plea for social purity and a call for earnest effort -to educate and lead the world into purer life. The author of “Twice-Born -Men” has a clear conception of the fact that divine grace is needed to -change human hearts and to make this a new world. The book is a strong -plea for a clean life for both men and women.”—<i>Herald and Presbyter.</i></p> - -<p><i>ERNEST GORDON</i></p> - -<p class="cb">The Anti-Alcohol Movement in Europe</p> - -<p>Illustrated, 8vo, cloth, net $1.50.</p> - -<p>The mayor of Seattle, Wash. (George F. Cotterill) says: “I cannot urge -too strongly that every effort be made toward the widest distribution of -this book as the greatest single contribution that can be made toward -greater prohibition progress in America.”</p> - -<p><i>L. H. HAMMOND</i></p> - -<p class="cb">In Black and White</p> - -<p>An Interpretation of Life in the South. Illustrated, cloth, net $1.25.</p> - -<p>“A valuable, optimistic study of the problem of work among the colored -people in the South. The author studies the Southern negro in his -social, civic, and domestic relations. The ever increasing multitude of -those who are eager to solve the problem of the negro, will find in this -book much that is extremely helpful and suggestive.”—<i>Christian -Observer.</i></p> - -<p><i>FRANK TRACY CARLTON</i></p> - -<p><i>Prof. of History and Economics Albion College, Mich.</i></p> - -<p class="cb">The Industrial Situation</p> - -<p>12mo, cloth, net 75c.</p> - -<p>“A useful little book on ‘The Industrial Situation.’ Dr. Carlton gives a -survey of conditions as they existed prior to the era of modern -industrialism and treats the economic and industrial developments of our -own time in a concise and enlightening way, giving brief expositions of -such topics as ‘Women and Children in Industry,’ ‘Industry and the -School System,’ etc.”—<i>Review of Reviews.</i></p> - -<p class="cb"><i>IMMIGRANTS IN THE MAKING</i></p> - -<p>Each, illustrated, 12mo, paper, net 25c.</p> - -<p><b>The Bohemians.</b> By <span class="smcap">Edith Fowler Chase</span>.</p> - -<p><b>The Italians.</b> By <span class="smcap">Sarah Gertrude Pomeroy</span>.</p> - -<p>The purpose of this series is to give, in compact form, the history, -life, and character of people whose worse sides alone are usually -displayed upon their arrival in this country. Other volumes, on the -Syrians, the people of the Balkans, etc., are in preparation.<a name="page_378" id="page_378"></a></p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="cb">HOME MISSIONS, RESCUE WORK, Etc.</p> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<p><i>HON. FRANCIS LEUPP</i> <i>Former U. S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs</i></p> - -<p class="cb"><b>In Red Man’s Land</b> <b>A Story of the American Indian</b></p> - -<p><i>Home Mission Study Course.</i> Illustrated, 16mo, paper, net 30c; cloth, -net 50c.</p> - -<p>“Packed full of information and common sense. The author knows his -subject thoroughly and treats it intelligently and sympathetically. To -know the Indian better, read this little book.”—<i>Missions.</i></p> - -<p><i>LIVINGSTON F. JONES</i></p> - -<p class="cb"><b>A Study of the Thlingets of Alaska</b></p> - -<p>Illustrated, 8vo, cloth, net $1.50.</p> - -<p>Charles L. Thompson, Sec’y Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian -Church, says:</p> - -<p>“The twenty-one years which the Rev. Livingston F. Jones spent as a -missionary in Alaska gave him peculiar fitness for a study of the -Thlingets of Alaska. He covers the ground on their history, their -language, their social life and industries, their customs, superstitions -and characters in a clear and informing way. This book will be a -valuable addition to the literature of the Territory.”</p> - -<p><i>MARTHA S. GIELOW</i> <i>Author of “Uncle Sam,” etc.</i></p> - -<p class="cb"><b>Old Andy the Moonshiner</b></p> - -<p>Illustrated, 12mo, boards, net 50c.</p> - -<p>Old Andy the Moonshiner, wrinkled and lovable, “Maw,” and “Sary,” -faithful types all, of the illiterate whites of the Appalachian -Mountains, speak eloquently from these pages of this little volume of -the need there is for remedying a state of things which is a stigma to -the country, and a menace to her future welfare.</p> - -<p><i>AGNES L. PALMER</i></p> - -<p class="cb"><b>The Salvage of Men</b></p> - -<p>Stories of Humanity Touched by Divinity. 12mo, cloth, net $1.00.</p> - -<p>“The stories are taken from the work of the Salvation Army and embrace a -number of the classes of society to which that organization renders its -witness to Christ as the Saviour of sinners. As one reads he is -impressed anew with the fact that ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to -save sinners,’ not the respectable sinners, but the chief of sinners.” -—<i>Christian Observer.</i></p> - -<p><i>REV. FREDERIC J. BAYLIS</i></p> - -<p class="cb"><b>From the Bread-Line to the Pulpit</b></p> - -<p>12mo, paper, net 35c.</p> - -<p>“A brief but wonderful story of a man’s downfall, his rescue and his -recovery. His experiences were such as even few reformed men pass -through.”—<i>Methodist Protestant.</i><a name="page_379" id="page_379"></a></p> - -<p><i>REV. GILBERT I. WILSON</i></p> - -<p class="cb"><b>Good Bird, the Indian</b></p> - -<p><i>Home Mission Junior Study Course.</i> Illustrated, 16mo, boards, net 40c; -paper, net 25c.</p> - -<p>Who wouldn’t like to sit down by an old Indian and hear from his lips -the story of his life and the lives of the people? Certainly every -American boy or girl would, and that is just what is offered to the -fortunate boys and girls who use this either as a text book in their -Home Missionary Societies, or as their very own book.</p> - -<p><i>GEORGE EDWARD HAWES</i></p> - -<p class="cb"><b>The Fresh Air Child</b></p> - -<p>12mo, cloth, net 50c.</p> - -<p>This simple little tale will carry the sure appeal of unprotected and -unparented childhood to the heart of the reader. As a campaign document -in the interests of fresh air and better homes for the stifled and -abandoned children of our great cities, it will make an irresistible and -most effective appeal.</p> - -<p><i>CHARLES LINCOLN WHITE</i></p> - -<p class="cb"><b>Prince and Uncle Billy</b></p> - -<p><i>A First Reader in Home Missions.</i> 16mo, cloth, net 50c, or net 75c.</p> - -<p>“Prince” is a pony, once owned by the Indians, and “Uncle Billy” an old -horse, used formerly by a frontier missionary on his preaching journeys. -These too, and many other animals tell missionary stories and other -incidents of their earlier lives.</p> - -<p><i>MARY LANE DWIGHT</i></p> - -<p class="cb"><b>Children of Labrador</b></p> - -<p>Illustrated, 16mo, cloth, net 60c.</p> - -<p>It is hard to picture a more delightful addition to “The Children’s -Missionary Series” than this vivid story of Dr. Grenfell’s land. Its -simplicity and clearness appeals to children, yet grown-ups will be -equally fascinated in its descriptions of the children of the Eskimos -and fishermen of this barren land, so pathetically described by an old -native as “wonderful bleak and dreary.”</p> - -<p class="c"><i>Earlier Volumes in The Children’s Missionary Series</i></p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td><b>Children of Africa</b></td><td><b>Children of India</b></td><td><b>Children of Egypt</b></td></tr> -<tr><td> James M. Baird</td> -<td> Janet Harvey Kelman</td> -<td> Miss L. Crowther</td></tr> -<tr><td><b>Children of Arabia</b></td> -<td><b>Children of Ceylon</b></td -><td><b>Children of Persia</b></td></tr> -<tr><td> John C. Young</td> -<td> Thomas Moscrop</td><td>Mrs. Napier Malcolm</td></tr> -<tr><td><b>Children of China</b></td><td><b>Children of Jamaica</b></td><td>Children of Japan</td></tr> -<tr><td> C. Campbell Brown</td> -<td> Isabel C. Maclean</td><td> Janet Harvey Kelman</td></tr> -</table> - -<p><a name="page_380" id="page_380"></a></p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="cb">BIOGRAPHY</p> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<p><i>EDWARD A. STEINER</i> <i>Author of “On the Trail of the Immigrant”</i></p> - -<p class="c"><b>From Alien to Citizen</b></p> - -<p>The Story of My Life in America. Illustrated, 8vo, net $1.50.</p> - -<p>In this wonderfully interesting book we see Professor Steiner evolving -from boyhood in a far-off Hungarian town, into an immigrant to the West; -then, year by year, undergoing experiences, the story of which is -conducive to a better understanding of what the alien has to endure in -order to gradually adjust himself to American conditions and -institutions. Real life is portrayed first among the racial wrongs and -hatred of southern Europe, then in the steerage of the ocean liner; in -New York, Princeton, Pittsburgh, and cities further west. Through and in -it all, we see Professor Steiner, pressing ever forward and upward to -the position of opportunity and influence he occupies to-day.</p> - -<p><i>H. ROSWELL BATES</i></p> - -<p class="c"><b>The Life of H. Roswell Bates</b></p> - -<p>A Biographical Sketch by S. RALPH HARLOW. With Portraits. 12mo, cloth, -net $1.00.</p> - -<p>The author of this short “Life” knew Roswell Bates from his early years, -and presents a satisfying picture of the man as he really was; at work -and play; laboring, spending himself for others, giving of his best to -“Spring Street,” on the lower west side of New York, and going to his -rest before he reached his prime, yet with a great life-work well and -nobly done.</p> - -<p><i>HERRICK JOHNSON, D.D.</i></p> - -<p class="c"><b>Herrick Johnson</b></p> - -<p>An Appreciative Memoir by Rev. Charles E. Robinson, D.D. With Three -Portraits. Cloth, net $1.25.</p> - -<p>A faithful and convincing survey of the life and life-work of one of the -great, formative figures of American Presbyterianism. Dr. Robinson -enjoyed an almost life-long friendship with his subject, and is thereby -enabled to present a satisfying picture of Herrick Johnson as student, -pastor, seminary professor, and church statesman, such as no mere -biographer could possibly have furnished.</p> - -<p><i>RAY STRACHEY</i></p> - -<p class="c"><b>A Quaker Grandmother</b>: Hannah Whitall Smith</p> - -<p><i>Reminiscences of the author of “The Christian’s Secret of a Happy -Life”</i></p> - -<p>Illustrated, 16mo, cloth, net $1.00.</p> - -<p>Hannah Whitall Smith was one of the great formative, religious -influences of her time. She was a philanthropist, a mother in Israel, a -spiritual guide. Yet it is with none of these things that the present -sketch has to do. It depicts her in simple relations of life only—that -of a grandmother to her grandchildren.<a name="page_381" id="page_381"></a></p> - -<p><i>MRS. E. M. WHITTEMORE</i></p> - -<p class="c">Delia, the Blue Bird of Mulberry Bend</p> - -<p>Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net 75c.; paper, net 35c.</p> - -<p>A new and revised edition of the heart-searching story of spiritual ruin -and rescue already circulated in many tongues and lands, told by the -founder of the Door of Hope Mission.</p> - -<p><i>MADAME GUYON</i></p> - -<p class="c">Life of Madam Guyon</p> - -<p>8vo, cloth, net $2.00.</p> - -<p>The life, religious opinions and experience of Madame de la Mothe Guyon, -together with an account of the personal history of Fenelon, Archbishop -of Cambray. By Thomas C. Upham. New edition, with detailed Table of -Contents and an Introduction by Prof. W. R. Inge.</p> - -<p><i>PAUL SEIPPEL</i></p> - -<p class="c">A Huguenot Saint of the Twentieth Century</p> - -<p>The Life of Adèle Kamm. Translated from the French by Olive Wyon. With -Portrait. Net $1.25.</p> - -<p>A short biography which imparts more wisdom on the problem of suffering -than a whole shelf-full of treatises. It is an account of the brief, -pain-racked life of a sweet-souled follower of Jesus who passed from -earth in 1911, at the age of twenty-five. Into the last six years of the -life of this little Swiss girl were crowded experiences of God’s -presence and of human need, of Divine support and of self-dedicatory -usefulness for others, such as would have done honor to even a long -life.</p> - -<p><i>WILLIAM A. SUNDAY, D.D.</i></p> - -<p class="c">The Real Billy Sunday</p> - -<p>By <span class="smcap">Elijah (“Ram’s Horn”) BROWN</span>. Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.00.</p> - -<p>“This volume is prepared by a gifted writer who has long been a personal -friend of Mr. Sunday’s, and who was for many years his associate in -evangelistic labors. It begins with his birth in an early Iowa log cabin -and follows him down to the present. It tells the story of his early -experiences, his baseball associations, his conversion and his work in -successive meetings. It is a wonderful story, delightful almost -overpowering as a narrative of the grace of God, and full of the most -interesting facts and incidents. No one who reads it will find a dull -page in it, nor will he ever question whether the day of revivals has -passed.”—<i>Herald and Presbyter.</i><a name="page_382" id="page_382"></a></p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="cb">EARLIER WORKS IN DEMAND</p> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<p><i>MARTHA S. GIELOW</i></p> - -<p class="c"><b>Uncle Sam</b></p> - -<p>A Story of the Mountaineers. Illustrated, net 50c.</p> - -<p>“Mrs. Gielow has written ‘Mammy’s Reminiscences,’ ‘Old Plantation Days’ -and ‘Old Andy the Moonshiner,’ in addition to ‘Uncle Sam,’ and the wide -circulation of these stories has accomplished much toward procuring -interest and aid for the cause.”—Book News.</p> - -<p>EDWARD A. STEINER <i>Author of “On the Trail of the Immigrant”</i></p> - -<p class="c"><b>The Parable of the Cherries</b></p> - -<p>12mo, boards, net 50c.</p> - -<p>“The little book is truly a call to larger brotherhood by one who has -devoted his life to informing us toward the stranger within our -gates.”—<i>N. Y. Times.</i></p> - -<p><i>JOHN BUNYAN</i></p> - -<p class="c"><b>The Pilgrim’s Progress</b></p> - -<p>New Pilgrim Edition. 12mo, cloth, decorated, net 50c.</p> - -<p>A popular reprint of the standard “Puritan” edition, acknowledged to be -without a superior in point of accuracy and faithfulness to the latest -revisions by Bunyan himself. With eight of the celebrated Copping -illustrations—clear type, annotated.</p> - -<p><i>I. T. THURSTON</i> <i>Author of “The Bishop’s Shadow,” etc.</i></p> - -<p class="c"><b>The Torch Bearer</b></p> - -<p>A Camp Fire Girl’s Story. Illustrated, net $1.00.</p> - -<p>“A story of Camp Fire life both in the city meetings and in active camp -in the country, it shows with graphic clearness what this great movement -will mean to thousands of girls. The author has made this appeal the -underlying burden of the narrative, all the more poignant because it is -made without any attempt at effort. An interesting tale for not only the -initiated but the uninitiated as well.”—Washington Times.</p> - -<p><i>MARY STEWART</i> <i>Author of “Tell Me a True Story,” etc.</i></p> - -<p class="c"><b>The Shepherd of Us All</b></p> - -<p>Stories of the Christ Retold for Children. Illustrated, net $1.25.</p> - -<p>“The book goes into the enticing realms of fairy lore. A shepherd with a -magic flute leads the way. Then come adventures in plenty. All the -favorites, even unto the giants, are found, and there is not a word to -keep the most nervous youngster from sleeping as do the -just.”—<i>Baltimore Sun.</i><a name="page_383" id="page_383"></a></p> - -<p class="c"><i>WAYNE WHIPPLE</i></p> - -<p class="c">The Story-Life of the Son of Man</p> - -<p>8vo, illustrated, net $2.50.</p> - -<p>“A literary mosaic, consisting of quotations from a great number of -writers concerning all the events of the Gospels. The sub-title -accurately describes its contents. That sub-title is ‘Nearly a thousand -stories from sacred and secular sources in a continuous and complete -chronicle of the earth life of the Saviour.’ The book was prepared for -the general reader, but will be valuable to minister, teacher and -student. There are many full-page engravings from historic paintings and -sacred originals, some reproduced for the first time.”—<i>Christian -Observer.</i></p> - -<p><i>GAIUS GLENN ATKINS, D.D.</i></p> - -<p class="c">Pilgrims of the Lonely Road</p> - -<p>12mo, cloth, net $1.50.</p> - -<p>“A rare book for its style, its theme and the richness of its insight. -Seldom is seen a book of more exquisite grace of diction—happy -surprises of phrase, and lovely lengths of haunting prose to delight the -eye. Each of the great pilgrim’s studies is followed step by step along -the lonely way of the soul in its quest of light, toward the common goal -of all—union with the eternal.”—<i>Chicago Record-Herald.</i></p> - -<p><i>S. D. GORDON</i></p> - -<p class="c">Quiet Talks on Following The Christ</p> - -<p>12mo, cloth, net 75c.</p> - -<p>“This volume is well calculated to aid in Christian life, to give -strength, courage and light on difficult problems. It grips one’s very -life, brings one face to face with God’s word, ways of understanding it -and, even its every day application. It is plain, clear, direct, no -confusion of dark sentences.”—<i>Bapt. Observer.</i></p> - -<p><i>G. CAMPBELL MORGAN, D.D.</i></p> - -<p class="c">The Teaching of Christ</p> - -<p>A Companion Volume to “The Crises of The Christ.” 8vo, cloth, net $1.50.</p> - -<p>“One does not read far before he is amazed at the clear and logical -grasp Dr. Morgan has upon divine truths. Could a copy of this book, with -its marvelous insight, its straightforwardness, its masterly appeal, be -placed in the hands of our church leaders, it would go far toward -negativing the spiritual barrenness of destructive criticism. Here is a -work that may profitably occupy a prominent place in the minister’s -library.”—<i>Augsburg Teacher.</i></p> - -<p><i>ZEPHINE HUMPHREY</i></p> - -<p class="c">The Edge Of the Woods And Other Papers</p> - -<p>12mo, cloth, net $1.25.</p> - -<p>“Sane optimism, an appreciation of the beautiful and a delicate humor -pervades the book which is one for lovers of real literature to -enjoy.”—<i>Pittsburgh Post.</i><a name="page_384" id="page_384"></a></p> - -<p><i>CHARLES G. TRUMBULL</i></p> - -<p class="c"><b>Anthony Comstock, Fighter</b></p> - -<p>Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.25.</p> - -<p>“Probably there is no man on this continent to-day who hat done more to -clean things up than Mr. Comstock has, or shown more splendid courage -and endurance in the doing of it. It is a splendid story, that will not -only inspire its readers, but will send many a man out himself for the -good cause of cleanness and righteousness in the land.”—<i>Christian -Guardian.</i></p> - -<p><i>FRANK J. CANNON—DR. GEORGE L. KNAPP</i></p> - -<p class="c"><b>Brigham Young and His Mormon Empire</b></p> - -<p>Illustrated, 8vo, cloth, net $1.50.</p> - -<p>“Senator Cannon was born a Mormon, but has since seen light. -Nevertheless, his story of Brigham Young’s life is not a polemic. Born -in a Puritan home, endowed with a forceful personality and a gift for -administration, Brigham Young is one of the most picturesque characters -in our American life, and his biography reads like a chapter in the life -of an ancient patriarch, a modern politician and a business promoter all -rolled together.”—<i>Congregationalist.</i></p> - -<p><i>CLARA E. LAUGHLIN</i> <i>Author of “Everybody’s Lonesome”</i></p> - -<p class="c"><b>The Work-A-Day Girl</b></p> - -<p>A Study of Present Day Conditions. Illustrated, 12mo, cloth, net $1.50.</p> - -<p>“Sociologically considered, this is a most important work, written by a -woman who has personally investigated the conditions she recites. Her -knowledge, bought by years of service, proves that environment alone is -not responsible for the perils of unguarded girlhood. For that reason -the book appeals individually to all who come in touch with the workaday -girl, and teaches that whether or not we be our brother’s keeper, there -is no doubt as to our responsibility toward our little sister of -toil.”—<i>Washington Evening Star.</i></p> - -<p><i>FREDERIC J. HASKIN</i> <i>Author of “The American Government”</i></p> - -<p class="c">The Immigrant: An Asset and a Liability 12mo, cloth, net $1.25.</p> - -<p>“Persons are asking how they may best do their duty and their whole duty -to those coming to our shores. This book is a valuable light on the -subject. It is full of facts and it is a capable and conscientious study -as to the meaning of the facts. Any thoughtful person will find here -much valuable material for study and the book is calculated to do much -good.”—<i>Herald and Presbyter.</i><a name="page_385" id="page_385"></a></p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="" -style="padding:2%;border:2px dotted gray;"> -<tr><th align="center">Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:</th></tr> -<tr><td align="center">the <span class="errata">announcment</span>=> the announcment {pg 16}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">in prone <span class="errata">fight</span>=> in prone flight {pg 27}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">rough <span class="errata">rock throne</span>=> rough rock-throne {pg 27}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">the perishing of <span class="errata">Pharoah’s</span> horsemen=> the perishing of Pharaoh’s horsemen {pg 56}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">heard that I had been in Bialistok, <span class="errata">Kishinef</span>=> heard that I had been in Bialistok, Kishineff {pg 61}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">gentle <span class="errata">mein</span>=> gentle mien {pg 159}</td></tr> -<tr><td align="center">“Little Italy” <span class="errata">at once</span>=> “Little Italy” at least once {pg 271}</td></tr> -</table> - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="cb">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The Dutch West India Company.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> This group is receiving scarcely any additions through -emigration.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The decrease of German emigration has had its effect in -lessening the numbers of this group.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> “Immigration,” p. 128, Prescott F. Hall.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> The special agent of the Department of Agriculture.</p></div> -</div> - -<hr class="full" /> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's On the Trail of The Immigrant, by Edward A. 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