The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1884-07-16
THE ALLEGED HUNGARIANS.
Sketches Of the People Who nre Disturbing
the Labor Markets OF Pennsylvania,

A letter to the Philadelphia Press
says: If stranger expresses any notion
that the so-called Hungarian miners will
presently become good citizens and de-
mand rs much wages as any other work.
men, he is told to go SEQ the manner in
which they live and then Judge if there
is any possibility of making civilized
Americans Of them. / made n tour
among their homes, or novels, in CON-
pany with the Board Of Health officials
and the police authorities. Their object
was to ascertain the number of people in
each house and limit it to what sanitary
requirements would allow. After going
through some fifty of these packed and
squalid tenements the result was in some
degree pathetic, and in u much larger
proportion disgusting. The shanties are
small frame structures, generally twelve
by twenty-four feet in dimensions, two
stories high and occasionally having n
garnet into which man Of moderate
stature would have to crawl.
In such noisome holes twenty or
twenty-five men and women would be
HlOWtu uNuN. luttt VI louf VI llNS III
bed, they were huddled together, with
out the slightest regard for the most
ordinary properties of life. Dirty as
their outer clothing appears when seen
on the street, it is almost respectable in
comparison with their undergarments
and the foul rags in which they wrap
themselves upon their beds. Vermin
crawled about everywhere, but these
people seemed to be case-hardened
against their attacks. Their skins were
grimcd with dirt, and looked rs il they
might have been strangers to soap and
water for many n day; indeed, was
told that about the last thing n Hun
garian thought of was of washing HIM
self.
In almost every house M intensely hot
stove helped TO poison the atmosphere,
and it is mystery why these robust
people, who came mostly from n noun
tain country, should desire such ex-
traordinary heat. Every window was
tightly closed and, what with the heat,
the fumes of sulphur from the coal, the
exhalation of the sleepers, the absence
of any ventilation and the smell of the
clothing and of the decayed food, it was
impossible to endure the stencil for more
than two or three moments before seek
ing the outside mir.
With any imperturable patience they
would merely raise their heads as the
police officer pried among them with his
stick and lantern, gaze about in dumb.
affrighted fashion and turn over to sleep
again. Stalwart as most of them are,
their surroundings would appear to
render them peculiarly liable to scor-
butte diseases. This is true not only
of their houses but of their food. II
took me some time to discover one great
cause of the terrible smell. AT last ]
found in n chest beside hot stove q
huge shinbone of beef in n very much
decayed condition. II belonged to q
lodger, who had been cutting the meat
from it as he needed it, and it made no
difference to him what its condition was.
Elsewhere we found the cheapest kind
of sailed meats, and it is this kind of
stuff that the Hungarians live upon.
Yet they make excellent light bread in
huge loaves, weighing five or six pounds
each, and it is their one wholesome
article of food.