Hammonton. The newcomers live in any kind of dilapidated sheds, built of odds and ends of rough lumber, sheet iron, or other available material; or an abandoned shed or an outhouse may serve for a time. The floors, walls, and inmates in many instances are unspeakably dirty; flies, filth, and intolerable odors are everywhere present, especially in hot, damp weather. A bench, a bed, a trunk, a bare table are the chief articles of furniture. The family of six or eight or more live and eat out of doors and crowd into one room to sleep. On the other hand, there are homes of the younger generation of Italians, who came here young and have lived here many years, that are models of beauty, neatness, and comfort. One house, recently built by a Sicilian-a farmer's house, erected on the site occupied by the former owner (an American) at a cost of nearly $4,000—has bathroom, hot-water heating apparatus, hard-wood floors, nicely papered walls, and is well furnished throughout. A good barn and outbuildings, and a spacious lawn with trees, shrubs, and flowers make it a farmstead as beautful and prosperous in appearance as any in the neighborhood. The family in dress, food, and manner of life cling to the old Italian customs, but they have Americanized the home. The average Italian house of two or four rooms, cheap, unattractive, often ugly, has been described. The absence of trees, grass, and flowers in the yards has much to do with the unhomelike appearance of the places. The Italians look upon a large yard as a waste of good land, and think it a waste of time and labor to keep the yard in order. The dejected appearance of the grounds on some of the old places, now in the hands of Italians, is very depressing to the passer-by. The esthetic sense seems almost entirely wanting in the average Hammonton Italian. At any rate, comforts come long after necessities, and the beautiful and artistic in many cases do not come at all.

Carpets, tablecloths, other than oilcloth, lace curtains, even papered walls, are found in comparatively few homes. One of the first demands of the Italian berry picker is a screen of mosquito netting; it is likewise one of the first steps toward comfort in the Italian home. In the middle-class Italian house one room is set aside as a "parlor." A few parlors have sofas, rocking chairs, and a center table; most are very bare. The one universal piece of furniture is the bed. It is always well bolstered up with feather mattresses, and usually has some ornamental lace covering. In this particular, one is reminded of the homes of the southern mountaineer, in which the high, homemade bedstead, piled high with feather or husk mattresses and covered with brilliant quilts, is the chief article of furniture.

One can not help noting the fact that cheap and flashy ornamentations are much less common than in the homes of the foreign city dweller. Advance in standards of living comes by imitation, and in this thrifty New England neighborhood proceeds slowly, but on substantial lines. The Italian lives much out of doors during the summer, and cooking and eating are conducted in the open air or the summer kitchen eight months of the year. In the winter the Italian is said to keep very closely within doors. Heating stoves are infrequently found, the houses being warmed by the kitchen range or cooking stove; oil heaters are sometimes used, otherwise wood is employed as fuel.

It is characteristic that the Italian housewife seems to consider cooking an incidental occupation rather than a vocation. Few have acquired a reputation as cooks. Young men choose good field workers rather than good cooks when selecting their wives. Bread is made from the best white flour, usually baked into hard, round loaves, in the characteristic brick ovens. Sometimes one oven is used by several families. Macaroni is imported from Italy chiefly, and prepared in various ways with tomatoes and other vegetables. Peas, beans, peppers, greens, dandelions, sweet potatoes in fact all kinds of vegetables are raised. Large quantities of olive oil are consumed, and olives are considered a delicacy. Meat is found once or twice a week on almost every table, but the Italians do not consume great quantities of it. Milk and butter are sparingly used, unless a cow is kept, but eggs are a staple article of diet. Pastries and preserves have little place on the food list. Fruit is very seldom canned, pickled, or preserved, and the drying of apples, pears, and peaches is almost unknown. Some canned goods are bought at the stores, but in no great quantities. Bananas and oranges are much enjoyed.

Tea, coffee, milk, and sour wine or beer are everyday beverages. Sour wine is a staple drink. In these matters changes come slowly, but it is said that the younger generation is acquiring a taste for American dishes and the school girls are learning to cook American foods in the American way.

The old women cling to foreign garments and manner of dress. The bare feet and the kerchief-covered heads of the women are the most striking points of divergence from American ways. The older women do not dress neatly. They wear bright-colored shawls, handkerchiefs, and dresses. One notices the earrings, particularly on holiday occasions. Hats are infrequently worn by the women of the first generation, but cheap ready-made wrappers of every imaginable hue-yellow being prominent are apparently very popular. Both men and women wear coarse shoes, or none at all, when at work. The men are dressed very much like American workmen in the field or at market. On holidays they wear cheap ready-made suits. The brilliant colors of the ties and shirts of the young men are often very striking.

The second generation, both boys and girls, dress not very differently but perhaps more cheaply, and sometimes with less taste than their American companions. In the summer the younger children are very scantily clad. The school and the factory do much to improve the ideals of the young in the material and manner of dress; and as one mingles with a great multitude of young people of many races and neighborhoods on a festive occasion, he is frequently at a loss to pick out the Italian young people from the Americans or those of other races. In matter of dress the young are being rapidly Ameri

canized.

The women and girls do much work out of doors. They seem to enjoy the outside life, and comparatively few take much care of the house. As much as possible of the necessary housework is carried on out of doors. Washing, baking, preparing meals in the summer are all done in the open air. The care of the poultry, the cow, the pig, and the garden is part of the women's work. Besides this she hoes, weeds, plants, gathers grapes, picks berries, and does every sort of

@ Bulletin No. 70, United States Bureau of Labor, p. 511.

out-door work, except digging or driving the horses. The babies take care of themselves very largely, but seem to be as healthy as they are dirty and happy. They roll around in the dirt, and seem to be able to eat almost anything and thrive on it. One can not help feeling that the little ones are too much neglected, and that the infant mortality would not be so high if their mothers, who seem very affectionate, would give them more intelligent attention.

In general, it may be said that while the Italians at Hammonton began with a low standard of living, they have made a marked advance since coming; that the permanent residents improve in ideals and manner of life year by year; that the second generation differs very little from non-Italians of the same industrial class; and that the contrast between them and the transient Italian berry pickers from Philadelphia is very favorable to the Hammonton rural settlement.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR OUTSIDE EMPLOYMENT.

That there is ample opportunity for labor both in agriculture and in several industries in Hammonton is readily seen by the number of laborers that come in each year for seasonal occupations and by noting the list of industrial establishments which demand Italian labor. There are four principal occupations and five firms in Hammonton and Winslow Junction that employ Italian laborers. The table gives the number and sex of those so employed.

TABLE 31.-Italians employed in certain typical industries, classified by number and sez

a Not reported.

Statistics from Bulletin No. 70, United States Bureau of Labor, 1907.

The largest number of Italians is employed by the pressed brick company, commonly called the "brickyards," situated at Winslow Junction, about 3 miles from Hammonton. Practically all are classed as unskilled day laborers, and receive wages of $1.40 or $1.50 per day. Many of them have small lots of ground or little farms, frequently 5 miles or more from the yards, to which they return every night. Some have been with the company for eighteen or nineteen years, but perhaps most of them use this occupation to supplement the income from their farms until they can make a living from them. Formerly the employers were much annoyed by the irregularity of these laborers, who wished to work in the yards only when there was no work at home. Now, it is a rule of the company to hire no one who will not agree to work steadily during the entire year. Notwithstanding the rule that no one can leave except on a certificate from a

doctor, there are some defections at berry-picking time, the deserters trusting that the foreman will need men badly enough to take them on again in the fall.

The foremen prefer Italians to Poles, and Americans to either. Among these men are many recent arrivals from Sicily, Calabria, and Naples; they are rather quarrelsome and frequently fight among themselves. They can not manage horses, and almost none rise to positions of skill or responsibility.

The shoe factories employ about 50 Italians, nearly all young people, the girls ranging from 15 to 20 years or more, mostly American born, and the young men from 14 to 20, the majority of them born in Italy.

The girls begin at $3 a week, and after two years or more earn $4.50 to $6. Occasionally a girl is able to earn $7 or a little more weekly. The boys begin at $2.75 to $3 a week, and some of those now working came in when 12 or 13 years of age. In one factory the highest rate of wages received by any Italian was $12 a week; 40 per cent received less than $5 a week; 30 per cent from $5 to $6; 10 per cent more than $6 and less than $10. Some boys who had worked for four years for the company were getting less than $5 weekly.

The factories run throughout the year and frequently work overtime. Here, as in the brickyard, there is likely to be demoralization in the shop during the berry picking season, but the companies try to eliminate the transient element as far as possible. The wages are low, and except in instances where the boys show an aptitude for some particular task and ascend to the rank of skilled workmen they drop out and become farmers for themselves when they arrive at maturity. Some go into other occupations, and, as was noted, a few become fairly skilled shoemakers.

The glass works employ about 30 Italian hands, boys and girls. The first employees in this factory were Americans, and there is said to be a little prejudice on the part of the Americans, who are the skilled laborers, against them. The Italians do the rough and dirty work for the most part. The wages are fairly good for the men, ranging from $10 to $25 a week. Much of the work is piecework. Some workers earn more than $30 a week. A few Italian girls are employed. They receive about the same as in the shoe factory, from $3 to $6 a week. In most glass works in this section few or no Italians are employed. They are willing to do the rough and dirty work, such as polishing, and this alone gives them a place on the force.

The stocking factory has been running since early in the nineties, and has always employed Italian girls, albeit at low wages. In 1905, out of the 55 employees, there were 50 Italian girls. They enter as early as the law allows, but few remain after arriving at the age of 18 or 19 years, probably because the wages are low, not averaging more than $4 to $4.50 a week.

On the farms there is always plenty of work during the summer; and in berry season every available person, young or old, male or female, is sought for as an employee in the berry fields. The earnings are better than in the factories, and all enjoy the outdoor work and the free companionship.

The Italians, both of the first and second generation, make good workers, but the newcomers are slow, ignorant, and awkward. They become more apt as time goes on, but their ignorance of English is to

some extent a handicap, and it is seldom that a gang of Italians ever equal the average American in quickness or skill. They are moreover somewhat unreliable. They go away when they are needed at home or can get better wages. Leaving the factory to pick berries is an example of this disposition. They give no more service than is required, and soon learn to adopt the slowest rate of work that will be accepted. These are, however, not peculiarly Italian characteristics. They do all the railroad work, and large gangs are employed in the winter, all the digging of every kind where mere muscle is required, and all sorts of dirty or filthy jobs that no other laborer wishes to do. In short, they are almost the sole dependence for unskilled manual day labor in and about Hammonton. Few of the girls become house servants, but some find employment as clerks or office girls in Hammonton or elsewhere-these are American born. There are several laundresses and washerwomen among the older

women.

A number of Italians are in business for themselves in Hammonton. The saloons are nearly all in Italian hands; there are two large stores operated by Italians, an Italian drug store, an ice factory, a pool room, a fairly good hotel, a number of small grocery stores (out of the business center), two barber shops, a saddlery, and a few small shops of various sorts.

Three of the commission agents buying farm produce are Italians, two of them being Hammonton young men. Two or three men act as padrones and supply berry pickers for the farmers at Hammonton and Port Norris. There is a large contractor and builder of Italian origin-a man universally respected-several carpenters, painters, plumber's apprentices, bakers, a blacksmith, and a freight agent. A number of clerks in the stores are Italians; a bank clerk has been mentioned earlier in the report. Many of the younger men are entering clerical or commercial work or are learning trades of some sort. A larger percentage of them cling to the farm than would be found of American boys in an American rural community, but there is beginning a movement toward town and industrial occupations, where the compensation is regular and sure and the hours of labor fixed.

SOCIAL LIFE.

There are few organized recreative enterprises among the Italians. The Catholic Church and two beneficial societies are the auspices under which some of the stated social enterprises are given.

The Mutuo Soccorso is a beneficial society of about 185 members. The members pay dues of 50 cents a month and in return receive $6 a week sick benefits, and at death a death benefit of $30 to $50 is paid. This is the most powerful and influential of the Italian organ:zations. The society owns property assessed at $600-lot and building.

The Société di San Paula has about 40 members, and is organized on the same principle as the first mentioned, but there are no death benefits. It resembles a religious organization and seems to have less authority than the other. Many Italians do not belong to either Both of these organizations include a family membership. Both give occasional receptions and one or two dances or balls each

one.

year.