the room. The other articles of furniture are a plain table, chairs, small stove, and cooking utensils, the whole valued at about $30. The men do their own cooking, and their food costs from $7 to $18 per month for each member of the group. Under normal conditions they have a Servian or Polish woman to keep house for them. She cooks, launders, keeps house, and buys the food, for which services she is paid $20 per month. One man speaks a little English, and has taken out his first naturalization papers. The others expect to return to Bulgaria.

GROUP 10.-SLOVAK (IMMIGRANT SECTION OF Town Proper).

This group consists of man and wife and three children. They occupy two rooms in a large rooming house, on the first floor, behind a saloon. They have no boarders. The rent is $5 per month. It costs the family for rent and food from $25 to $30 per month. The furniture is valued at $150. It consists of cook stove, three iron beds, bureau, cupboard, wardrobe, chairs, and table. The floors have no carpets. The rooms are well kept and clean. The man is 34 years old, has been here seven years, speaks English, and is naturalized. The woman is 27 years old, and has been in this country two years. They were married before coming to the United States. The children are girls, 8, 6, and 1 year old. The two oldest speak English and attend the public schools. The man is a skilled blacksmith, and belongs to a labor union.

GROUP 11.-BULGARIAN FROM MACEDONIA (HUNGARY HOLLOW).

This group of five Bulgarians pays $7 per month rent for two rooms in a Bulgarian rooming house. All sleep in one room upstairs and have a small room downstairs in which they cook. All are unskilled, none speak English, and all have been in this country only seven months. They have worked irregularly at $1.50 per day. They do their own cooking and housework and pay about $8 per month each for food. The furniture consists of one bed, 3 cots, stove, table, and chairs, valued at about $30. There is no carpet, and the rooms are badly kept and very dirty.

Group 12.—BuLGARIANS FROM BULGARIA (HUNGARY HOLLOW).

Five Bulgarians, cooking, eating, and sleeping in one room, constitute this group. They have been ten months in the United States and have worked two and one-half months in a glucose factory, at $2.08 for thirteen hours' work at night. None of them speak English, but they expect to remain in this country. They pay $8 rent, and their food costs them from $8 to $10 per month per man. They take turns at keeping house and cooking, and have their washing done by a Servian woman. The furniture consists of one bed, two cots, stove, small table (homemade), and chairs, all valued at $40.

GROUP 13.-BULGARIANS FROM MACEDONIA (HUNGARY HOLLOW).

This group consists of eleven Bulgarians living in two rooms in a Bulgarian rooming house. The rooms have two small windows. The group does its own cooking and housekeeping. Some of the men work at night and some during the day, and the night force

cooks for the day, and vice versa. They are all working at unskilled labor at a wage ranging from $1.50 to $1.75 per day. They pay $12 per month rent, and their food costs each about $7 or $8 per month. They value their furniture, which consists of four beds, two cots, stove, chairs, and benches, at $50. None of the men speak English, and all have been in the United States between eight months and a year.

GROUP 14.-BULGARIANS FROM MACEDONIA (HUNGARY HOLLOW).

These five Bulgarians, living, eating, cooking, and sleeping in one room in a large Bulgarian rooming house do their own cooking and housekeeping and pay from $7 to $8 per month each for food. They value their furniture at $30. It consists of two beds, two cots, several chairs, and a homemade cupboard and table. All the men have been in the United States about one year, and have worked in the steel mills and on railroad construction work, at $1.50 per day. None speak English, and all expect to return to Bulgaria.

CHAPTER VII.

SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS.

Tendency of immigrants to accept charity or become public charges-Honesty-Use of intoxicants-Religious indifference Money on arrival-Literacy-Conjugal condition-Visits abroad-Age classification of members of households-[Text Tables 623 to 627 and General Tables 351 to 355].

TENDENCY OF IMMIGRANTS TO ACCEPT CHARITY OR BECOME PUBLIC

CHARGES.

The inclination of the average recent immigrant in the community is to shift every charge he can upon the community or upon private charities. Their leaders also advocate and follow this policy. A number of recent aliens were discovered to be getting private relief who had ample means for their support. This tendency is not so general, however, as that exhibited in cases of sickness or death. All possible means are adopted to secure the entrance to a public hospital of the alien who is ill. In a similar way the effort is made to have a destitute countryman buried at the public expense, even though friends and leading men among them could well provide for the funeral expenses.

HONESTY.

One of the most striking qualities of all the races is their simplicity and honesty. They trust each other in pecuniary matters in a way that is amazing to an American, incurring debts without giving any evidence and intrusting their savings to the safe-keeping of business enterprises of their fellow-countrymen without demanding acknowledgment. This quality, as may be readily seen, affords a rich field for exploitation and questionable practices by the less scrupulous among the recent immigrants. They are not slow to take advantage of it, and the steamship agent, the labor agent, the immigrant banker, and business man reap immense profits from the credulity of their fellow-country men. In many cases they not only exact an exorbitant charge for the services rendered or the commodities supplied, but go further and rob him of all his savings. This was illustrated recently in one place by the failure of a number of so-called bankers to return money committed to their charge, and also by the bankruptcy of a mercantile house which had secured its capital-about $40,000—in small amounts from the savings of the laborers. These men, who were mostly Bulgarians, had entrusted the various sums to their countrymen without requiring any evidence of the transaction, and when the mercantile house failed they could scarcely avoid losing all their savings (the case is now pending) because they had no proof that they had invested anything in the enterprise.

There seems to be a tendency among the more intelligent and educated immigrants to exploit their more ignorant countrymen. After they have acquired a knowledge of the English language and have become acquainted with the customs of the country, they are naturally called upon to act as advisers to and representatives of their countrymen, and instead of using their attainments and knowledge for the profit and welfare of the members of their own race, the almost universal tendency is for the more educated foreigners to take advantage of his countrymen's ignorance and faith.

USE OF INTOXICANTS.

The Bulgarians, Roumanians, and Servians use beer and other intoxicants in a temperate way. The Magyar, Austrian-Servian, and Croatian tend to frequent saloons and drink beer and other intoxicants intemperately. The Austrian-Servians when under the influence of liquor fight, and are the principal factors in causing trouble and disorder.

RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE.

The recent immigrants as a group take little interest in church work or attendance upon church worship. This disinclination, or rather indifference or lack of inclination toward religious matters, grows out of the fact, it is stated, that most of the recent races to come to this community were alienated from their churches during the struggles for liberty in their native countries." A further explanation is made to the effect that the alien churches are closely connected with and receive a large measure of support from the State in southern and eastern Europe, and that where transplanted to this country and separated from the State they are at a loss in handling the new situation and tend to become unreasonable in their exactions and thus alienate the people.

MONEY ON ARRIVAL.

As a rule the immigrant on his arrival in the community has in his possession from $10 to $20 in money. The usual amount each man has is about $15.

LITERACY.

The table next presented shows, by sex and by general nativity and race of individual, the literacy of persons 10 years of age or over in the households studied.

a See p. 47, Bulgarians at Home.

TABLE 623.—Per cent of persons 10 years of age or over who read and per cent who read and write, by sex and general nativity and race of individual.

(STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS.)

[This table includes only races with 40 or more persons reporting. The totals, however, are for all races.]

The preceding table shows a higher degree of literacy among the Magyar males than among, the Bulgarian males, 91.1 per.cent of the former as compared with 68.3 per cent of the latter being able to read. Too few females are reported by the Bulgarians for computation of percentages, but 92.6 per cent of the Magyar females are able to read. In all cases, with the exception of a slight falling off in the proportion of Bulgarian males, the same proportion of each race can both read and write as are able to read.

It will be observed in the schedules that literacy, or illiteracy, is often peculiar to groups as a whole. This is accounted for by the fact that each group is usually composed of men from the same village. If the village was favorable to the establishment of a secret school, the whole group is literate. If not, as in a garrisoned town, the whole group is illiterate.

The relation between period of residence and literacy is set forth in the following table, which shows, by years in the United States and race of individual, the percentage of foreign-born persons 10 years of age or over, in the households studied, who read and the percentage who read and write.

TABLE 624.-Per cent of foreign-born persons 10 years of age or over who read and per cent who read and write, by years in the United States and race of individual.

(STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS.)

[By years in the United States is meant years since first arrival in the United States. This table includes only races with 40 or more persons reporting. The total, however, is for all foreign-born.]

C