Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1888-03-01

The popular belief is that the immigrant
coming to New York is badly used indi-
vidual, and by the time he works his way
into this land of freedom he has been robbed
of everything he has and is cast thirsty and
penniless upon the inhospitable shores Of an
overcrowded nation. To the imagination q
fresh emigrant is the embodiment of inno-
cence, prey to every sharper and source
of revenue to any one disposed to take ad-
vantage of him This as a rule may perhaps
be accepted as having some foundation in
fact, but there are glittering exceptions and
marked divergences, that are sufficiently
prominent and sufficiently successful in their
efforts to square accounts with the natives,
to attract some attention and almost balance
the impositions put upon the arriving stran-
gers.
The classes among the immigrants made
up OF farmers and residents of the rural dis
tricts in the old country are Of course inter-
ested and pleased with everything they en-
counter in this new place; they revel in the
questionable food put before them on the
tables of the queer boarding houses run for
their reception; meat to them is luxury
they may have had but very few opportuni-
ties of enjoying, and they absorb the steaks
and outlets presented to them in wondering
and admiring haste, not questioning their
condition or fitness for the human stomach.
These people have no comparisons to make,
no precedents whereby they may govern
their opinions of things. They are ushered
suddenly into an entirely new phase of life;
their simple existence heretofore affords no
means of controlling their ideas in the pres
ba tod Of <Lo
in the immigrant localities escapes their at
tention; their eyes are filled with the large
buildings, the great ships, the gorgeous signs;
their ears hear nothing but expressions of adj
miration from their companions The dust
that blows over them and the mud through
which they tramp is noticed, if noticed at all,
merely in its practical feature as an adjunct
to agriculture and its advantages when spread
over the acres some of them titled on the
anks of the Rhine, the Rhone, the Thames
or elsewhere. The neglected houses and the
unswept rooms are familiar sights-it takes
them back in mind to the faderland, and they
feel more or less at home.
Different is it with thasa who hove l;.a "a.
the cities Of the old world. They come with
inclination to criticise. With them famili-
arity with the ways Of centers of civilization
gives them the right to comment, and the ex-
cessiveness with which they can indulge in
this marks them, in their own estimation, as
familiar with the manners of the world and
the pitfalls of its devious paths. These per-
sons are the oversmart, and their plenitude Of
confidence often leads them into troubles that
the innocence and timidity of the former
class prevent. Conspicuous among this
number are those who have nibbled at
education, who come here with an intelli-
gence that extends a short distance beyond
the ability to read and write, who indulge
in diatribes against the nation and its ideas
its principles, its government, its material
istic tenets, not in an anarchistic, but in
deprecatory, spirit. The monarchical idea
clings to them; they can no more free them
selves from it than could the natives Of that
small German principality adjoining France,
who declared that as their French neighbors
had republic, they, too, must have repub-
lie; but, 1--WE want our prince as ruler of our
republico they cried.
The most Objectionable of all immigrants
to the boarding house keeper is the Berliner,
who, hailing from one of the most important
cities in the world, and taking advantage of
the companionship of strangers, presumably
ignorant Of his humble social status at home,
affects standing he has no right to, and,
like all characters of narrow instincts and
slavisb birth, becomes obnoxiously arbitrary
and tyrannical when freed from the absolute
servitude in which he has had to serve in or
der to earn subsistence, loudly criticizes
the table, boasts of the conspicuous men at
whose board he has dined, browbeats the
walters, bullies the house servants and inn.
poses upon the landlord A favorite affecta-
ton of this class, rather unusual in immi-
grant boarding houses, is standing their
boots or shoes at the room door over night,
apparently for the single purpose of having
something to find fault about the next morn
ing, inasmueh as they remain there un-
touched and uncleaned.
The most persistent and cunning beat is
the thoroughbred Polish Jew. Nothing is
too small for him to claim, and nothing too
Insignificant for him to avoid payment for;
any excuse is considered legitimate with his
kind to warrant refusal to pay out money
for whatever they may have enjoyed the
benefit of. Quite an ordinary scheme with
them, worked after they have dined and
slept at boarding house for a week, is to
declare their positive and unswerving be-
lief in the obligation and intention of this
government to support and provide for
them for the term of eight days following
their first arrival in this country.
Nor is it lack of money with these fellows
that prompts their rascality. 1t is an inborn
and abnormal tendency to rob, and often,
when they are brought to realization of
the necessity of liquidation through the con-
yincing, though not considerate, argument
of a po,iceman's club, they fall upon their
knees, tear their hair and clothes, beat their
breasts, call upon their endless category OF
saints for protection from the ungodly rob
bers. declare their intention to kill them
selves. their children and their entire gener-
alton. and indulge in all the fantastic and
extravagant oaths peculiar and distinctive
of a slavish and hidebound people 1t IS
only after this terrible exhibition of grief,
contempt for all mankind and sell 'mmelac
tion upon the altar Of their ayarice, that
they draw from its hiding place in some cor
ner of their wretched dress the dirty, greasy,
i'll scented coin and pay up their score.
One of their favorite oaths, usually IN
dulged after the reckoning has been exacted,
is addressed to the hotel keeper, and is en-
bodied in these gentle terms: MAY the
horse be damned from whose hoofs the tai
low comes that makes the candle burr at
YOUR deathbed" When the horse IS damned
the candle is necessarily damned. IL NICK
ers. and in the darkness the devil has an OPP
nortunity to seize the soul of the cruel land
lord Is the mental argument OF the .lndlg-
nant Pole.-A. Curtis Bond IN New sorA
Star.