The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1898-02-26
THE TROUBLESOME HUNS
Their unsiQhtly and Unru1y Colo
hies in Pennsylvania.



A recent number Of the American
Magazfae Of Civics contains m interest
ing article on the Pennsylvania Huns
by w. r. Gibbons. These troublesome
residents of the Keystone state are not
genuine Magyars, not, strictly speak
ing, OF the Hungarian race, bat Slavs,
like Ruasaans and Poles. Their hrst
Introduction il Pcnnsylvania was the
work OF employing corporations, which
imported them to cheaper labor. The
law soon interposed . barrier against
this importation, but the immigration
Of Huns was not interrupted. The
wages they get in Pennsylvania, al
though too ANAL for Americans to live
on, are greater than they receive ut
home, 20 they continue to arrive. Coal
miners meet them In New York and
offer them work in Pennsylvania.
Mr.. Gibbons cites the census tables,
showing that at the latest enumeration
Pennsylvania contained 24,o01 Huns,
and the United States but 81 ,425. The
PcnnsylvaniA Huns are mostly collected
In the comparatively small anthracite
coal regions of the Wyoming and
Schuyllilt valleys. A single county.
Lucerne, contained in 1890 rs many
Huns as the entire state of Ohio. Since
1890, despite hard times and the return
of many immigrants to their own coun-
try, the number of Huns has largely in
creased.
The mining towns where these peo-
pie live are like the slums Of our great
cities. The streets are filled with gar
bage, and riots. often resulting in homi-
cides, arc expected on the Sunday after
every pay day. OF course most OF the
original Inhabitants have left. They
did not stand upon the order of their
going, but got out with dispatch. In some
towns only . few voters remain. The
murder of Hun by one of his own race
creates no demand for justice in the
minds of his surviving countrymen. ''It
the survivors be approached" says Mr..
Gibbons, "and urged to call in the law
they will grunt expressively and re-
mark with more or less distinctness:
Dead Hungari no good" Indeed, m
ordinary murder passes almost with
out comment"
But these people are not incapable OF
learning some lessons in the school Of
experience. They have been cheated
and blackmailed outrageous1y by dis
honest officials at the mines and BY
English-speaking miners, but they have
gotten their eyes open at last and arr
extremely alert. They have learned
the art OF saloon keeping and, they are
getting into politics. Mr.. Gibbons say.
that already in some communities there
is "the shadow Of the coming Hun
garian political boss" SIN every lis,
of honorary vice presidents at the great
political meetings prominent places arr
given the men bearing such names al
Arsenius Tsrnoievitch or Kubo Zlotlor
zinski" Huns have been made post
masters in some places and have begun
to elect their own justices of the peace
1t is noted as hopeful indication tina
they have begun to leave the compan.
houses and the boarding houses and Il
establish themselves in homes OF thei
own. Some of them have grown rich
that is, rich for Huns
The second generation is not, in Mr.
| Gibbons opinion, an improvement OF
the first. He states that the immi
grants, with few exceptions, could rea'
| their own language. but that thei
| children are taken from school and pu
to work before they have made mucl
| progress in rudimentary education
Few of them 60 to the public school
and there is slim attendance at tn
parochial schools. These are the newt
able results Of the great reduction O
wages in the coal and coke regions
Almost every evil is productive Q
some good. The Huns are better of i
Pennsylvania than they were in thei
own country. But it will strike tn
general reader that Pennsylvania ha
paid, is paying aud will long cor
tinue to pay heavy price for tn
betterment of the Huns condition
Washington Post