The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-03-09
THE CzECHs OF NEW YORK.
A Queer People and Their Very Pc
culiar Habits.
From the New YorA World.


outside world as Bohemia 1t is fertile and
populous, but under the peculiar laws
which make up Austrian jurisprudence it
suffers from a poverty and degradation
which is unknown to any other province of
! the empire. AS consequence they emil
CRATE. A few go south to Trieste, and
thence by Mediterranean steamers come to
this city. The majority go north along the
line of the Rhine river and embark for the
New World via Hamburg and Bremen.
The people of this land call themselves
Czechs (Which in English is pronounced as
if written checks). They are OF Slavonlc
origin, and are more Russian than leutonlc
| Ill character. Their language to day is
double, nearly all speaking a Bavarian-
GERMAN, while a few speak dialect that
seems to combine the idioms Of the leu
tonic, Slavonic and Hungarian tongues. On
! the west they speak in the Bavarian dialect,
| while on the south they express thought III
a mixed language which battles description.
! Ii religion they are ultras, one large faction
| being radical CalvanistS and another equally
! large being deYoteeS OF the Roman Cathonc
! faith. Every man. woman and child IN
! Bohemia has heard of the wealth of the
| United States and desires to share IN the
success of the new world. They put by pen
MES until they have accumulated $40 or 500,
a fortune in their little balliwlcks, and come
across the Atlantic Many, it must be ad-
mtted, come over under contracts from
coal barons and railroad contra ctors. he
| 81 a day seems a fortune to men who are
accustomed to work for % and 30 cents per
diem. When they arrive they are received
! by relatives aud friends at Castle Garden
and taken to the Czech quarter, on the east
side of New York.
| Their life here is miserable in the ex-
| IRENE. They lodge in cheap boarding
1 oil Gatayhn
| Most of these establishments are apart
ments in tenement or a floor in the regu-
| lation three or four-Story house of New
| York. The board rs are all lodged in the
same room. Instead of a bed they have a
| low footrest, which does duty for pillow,
blanket spread upon the floor, and a
| cotton-lined coverlet to go over them when
| they lie down after hard days work In
! a room on Avenue B, near Eleventh street,
measuring not more than 20 feet long and
| 10 wide, seven Czech boarders sleep nightly.
| When the World reporter entered their
| quarters at midnight they were arranged
| exactly like spoons in a presentatit case,
or like sardines in box. Their living ex-
penses are small. Lodging, such as has
| been described costs 81 a week. Their food
| they generally buy in the numberless
restaurants with which the neighborhOod
| abounds The breakfasts consist of bowl
| of coffee made from the cheapest Rio, and
| from what are known as sweepings, huge
chunk of brown bread a substance not like
the Boston article but maize from coarse
rye -four, wheat bran, salt and yeast, and
| small piece of boiled meat or fish. Its cost
| varies from l0c. to zoe.
There is no lunch. The dinner includes a
soup thin as water containing floating pieces
of boiled dough or sliced vegetables, frag-
| ment of sodden meat, two potatoes, an I'M
| savOry cheese cake or tart and bowl of
coffee with the regulation bread. Its value
defends upon the style of the place, ard
runs from 15c to 25c. At times a goulash
| replaces the meat. This is a stew somewhat
like the familiar New England potpie, but
more palatable and better cooked. Other
substitutes are the wiener schnitzel or veal
outlet deprived of bone and gliStle. and
Dreaded like a SaddlerOck in first-claSs
oyster house, wiener back-huehne, which
is either lean chicken Dreaded and fried or
veal cut into the counterfeit presentment
of fowls and cooked accordingly
bockmiSheS sauer braten, very delic-
ious beef a LG mode, with every vege-
table in the market and sauce that reeks
with onions, garlic and spices. At times
the restaurateur presents his guests with a
salad such as Demonico never knew. 1t is
served on a long platt + and resembles a
horticultural show. From end to end and
side to side run lines of chopped celery, di-
One is filled with Said made from her
ring, a second with one from potatoes a
third with one from beets, a fourth from
cucumbers, a fifth from carrots, a sixth
from bread and seventh from b ct scraps
The dish, though very inexpensive, is at
tractive to eye, palate and nostril, and is
welcomed with cheers whenever it is served
to the Bohemian patrons of the restaurant.
In industrial matters the Czech has a hard
lot. He is usually an agricultural laborer,
with little or no education or knowledge OF
the world. He has difficulty i'll learning
English, and therefore throws himself upon
the tender mercies of some contractor.
This parsonage, an outgrowth of the past
decade, represents mcdern civilization in
its worst phases He hires out his fellow
countrymen at 81 or 81 so day to some
mining or railroad corporation or to the
public works of our great cities. For this
he receives a stated commission, payable
weekly i'll instruments or a percentage upon
tn monthly wages of his compatriot In
one case an Avenue & contractor has 200
miners working under great Pennsylvania
corporation at 81 day each, which he re-
ceived from its cashier, while he was pay
ing his men 81 % apiece.
Many of them learn cigar-making and
make up the wretched tenement-house CT
gar-maIerS of the east side. The misery OF
this class cannot be conceived. The work
is so hard, the conditions imposed by the
rich manufacturers so bloodless and oner-
Gus that hardly one makes decent living.
The vast Majority are in debt to their gro
Ger, butcher, baker, Druggist aud doctor
They are never in debt to their
landlord, as their horrible apartments are
owned 10y their employers and their exorbi-
tant rent is deducted from their earnings
on their payday. A man, assisted by his
wife and children, working fourteen hours
a day, seven days each week, can make pos
sibly SIC. He averages Sl4. Out of this he
pays his rent, from $40 to SIC per month,
for pitiable apartment Of three rooms,
aud on the remainder keeps body and soul
together.
The result of this infamous condition can
hardly be described in the columns of the
World. The ildren are sent out to pick
up butts, "sojers, dry leaves, with which
to make the cigars. The manufacturers
give 100 pounds of tobacco TO the Bohem-
ians and demand in return from 102 to 105
pounds of cigars to compensate for the in
creased weight due to the moistening and
the pasting The allowance exceeds the
fact, aud the Bohemian is compelled TO use
substitutes to make up for the deficiency.
The children collect the necessary material,
knowing too well for what il is intended.
Add to this the miserable apartment whic h
compels man, wife, children, relatives,
boarderS and guests TO occupy the same
room or two rooms, and the result can be
| readily imagined.