Telegram-herald., 1890-07-26

1hils e sho.s Nss srk 80 have groEa
nearly l5 per esat- n population since
i<,0 sheds ns lizhg, zs far as the aver
sxy citizen Is concerned. sn the sls-
meats that have entered iAto tAis Es-
Hlarkable lasrssss. By sad by. probably
nsaths hence. shea Com missioner
Portsr's clerks have haishsd tsbalasiRg
tns aE~isldy na.s II statistics th4t
haze poured Ia upon them at washing
ton for weeks. We nay learn soEstning
a.oat Is. Til then, this P0lygl0t ns-
troDolis. whieh has been doabling its
hulk like = huge snosbali. oaly u
isnt al snow by good dsAi, will have
10 be patisRs.
There l.. howsvsr, one nan IN New
York Who ean lee la noot OF hsat On
this sabisot, aud who has done more 10
roll al0ag shs growing ball OF p0pals
ti0n than any sthsr individual in Unels
Sans domain. George Starr Is the
senior and the oldest living Commits
sioner OF Inmi grafton At the port OF New
York he e4n tell just how the ball has
grown ever since l547, when the tide Of
immigration began, uatil asw, when the
arrivals from al countries avsrazs
nearly 500, 90 year. Commissioner
Starr has prepared the following re-
mArkably Interesting review Of the
Immigration siacs 1880, exclusively for
Mis- oorrsspoadsnee. aud as it possesses
an interest for sfi parts Of the Union,
i've IL in full.
The N.tlOsai census which 10 now ap-
proachiag com Plstion viii show a very
Args Increase in the Numbers Of eiti-
tens OF foreign birth. Probably 80 Of
birth or parentszs. In the city of Nsw
York tho percentage Is nearly ols-third,
while Chicago and other Western cities
will show even q larger proportion.
Daring the past ten years more than
three and half millions Europeans
have emerged from the big gate at Cas-
tie Garden aRd tarnsd their wondering
faces westward. AZ least half million
have entered the United States at other
polnts. OF thess newcomers more than
q million, or = third Of the whole num-
Der, have been Germans, sad the Faith
srland furnishes 8 constantly increas-
ing percentage OF the immigration.
Next comes the Irish, who number
about $50, 900, followed closely the
swarthy Italians with 800, 900, aud the
light-haired Sesndinavisns with 200, 000
d. The balance is composed of rspresen-
tatives Of almost every race upon the
face Of the earth
There are many interesting features
OF immigration which do not appear in
the columns Of statistics as they are
published from time to time. The era
sf unprecedented prosperity which set
Ia after the close of our civil war
started q human tide flowing across the
Atlantic in a volume never before wit
messed in any migration of peoples.
This led TO abuses, and into this current
were pitched the lame, the halt and the
bIind-the dregs of Europe. This rem
dsred necessary restrictive Legislation,
which has tended to purify the un-
wholesome stream and improve tbs
quality OF migration.
''Of the undesirable classes which
were east upon our shores, the most OBJ.
jectionabls were the Slovack mine la
.borers who were brought hithsr by the
FennsylVania Goal Barons" before the
passage Of the Alien Contract Labor
laws, the Italians who were ihveigled
w interruptions agents of steamship
liaes, and the Bohemian cigsrmakers,
who, TO the nambor OF 50. 900, were
trougat 10 New York previous TO 1885
under contract to the cigar factories.
These abuses have now been suppressed,
AID the result has been an improve
ment in the standard of the immigrant.
The most Objectionable people now
arriving here are the Polish Hebrews.
Nearly all Of them are unskilled tail
ors, who are employed b. the New York
"sweatersr They are wretchsdly des-
titute. and are driven from POLAND by
the Russians because their presence
there Ia obnoxious. They arrive here
without money and almost without
clothing. their few belongings having
in most cases been sold or pawned to
furnish them with food during their
long voyage The friends who come
before send them passage money, and
later on they themselves send for their
families one or two members coming
az a time during the winter months.
when fares ar low, until the whole
dock is qusrtered in some New York
tenement These taiiors almost invsri-
ably remain in New York few years
The more thrifty and ambitious, after
sccumulatinS little capital be-
cone the small merchants who form
distinctive feature of Western and
Southern towns. A few Of these He
brsws are peddlers, who find their way
into the Eastern and Middle States,
rarely going far westward
The Slovack 20 20 Pennsylvsnia 20
work az helpers in the mines. They
are always contract laborsrs. bat the
matter il managed 80 skilfully that the
law l. not openly violated. These peo-
ple are misersbly poor and filthy in
their hsbits
The labor laws stopped The influx Of
cigar makers in 1926 aud diminish Il
the number OF Bohsmians. Those who
come now are artisans OF farm labor ers
snd many = 80 the West.
''Thare IA = noticeable improvement in
the character Of orr Italian population.
Those who came dozen yesrs ego vers
largely OF the criminal elssses-ban3its
snd robbers Who were In Involuntary
exile These have either tarnsd their
energies 70 honest industries or sons
elsewhere Leaving ont the criminals.
the ister arrivals are not much better
than thsir predscessors, butthe second
trirpe.sf-those who have returned q
italy md brcuzhs their families here
have besn greatly changed. Their In
proved domestic condition. their cen
ts.+ rfth Americana and their pros
a~-r~aafT raFfrr