Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1902-06-02
NUMBER II.

bands and wives. l knew one very
pretty little italian woman whose hus-
band was a shoemaker. She was per
fectly correct in her lite, but she
would look at, and even smile at,
every good-looking man she saw. The
shoemaker used to thrash her for this
once week regularly. Yet once The
complained to me tnat her husband
loved her no longer, as he had not
beaten her for three weeks! She
thought that she could no longer pro
woke his jealousy, and, therefore, he
must have ceased to love her
Women do the Work.
''But know one Italian woman who
has got Americanized out OF this
amiable attitude. Some Italian me1
will not work, but let their wives ana
children support them. Her husband
was one of this kind, and she had
taken in washing for years, while he
did nothing. One day she was an
jured by a street car. We brought
suit for her, and, as she had clear
case, she got judgment. She said to
me the other day that as soon as | pet
the money for her she will go back to
Italy where she had lit of property.
She could go and live on that farm,
and the money received from the rail
road company would support her there
for the rest of her life. Il.
=" But what about your husband?' l
asked.
oh, indeed she said, I'll rot
take him along. I'll slip away AID
leave him, and he'll never get the
money to follow me. I've worked ior
him all these years, and I'm, tired of
it,
II SO admired her grit that I'm
going to help her carry out her plan,
for it was all / could do to make the
man go to work after she was injured,
although we got him a job He
seemed = to think that now his wife
could no longer support him, it was
cur business to do so.
THE Italians are very suspicious,
and they don't like to let you take
the children away for a picnic or
day in the country. They're not alone
in that, though. The Russian
Hebrews are the same. They don't
want their children to learn too much
English. Perhaps one can't blame
them for that for as soon as the chill
Gren know English we'll they turn up
their noses at the old folk as i'm
migrants, while they themselves a-e
Americans It's a fact, too, that AS
soon as the children get American
lied the old folks fail to keep them
under the same discipline they have
done heretofore. In the old country,
the children remain under paren,a
discipline till they marry, turning
their earnings into the family eX
They will spend their money on dress
and amusements instead. If you &C.
mark to the average tenement house
mother Of foreign birth that her chill
dren are good to her, she VIII say.
"'Oh, yes, they're pretty GOOD for
American children
'That phrase American children is
very common among the foreign-boIn
and bred, to designate their children
when they have escaped from he
bonds of parental control.
syrians Dislike Hats.
1.-THE Syrian mothers draw the line
at a hat for their daughters. She no
good to me any more, they will say;
she wear hat
italian women of the poorer class
are all known by their first names.
| have been to a house and asked for
Mrs. Botticeli,' perhaps. and found
no one that knew her. If l had asked
for Marie, or Carmencita or Fran
! cesca, they would have known imme-
diately. Again when they, under
stand perfectly we'll, every face Will
remain blank. No one will ever have
heard of the person I am seeking until
[ drop a casual remark that | have
come to bring some money to ner.'
Instantly the atmosphere clears, and
everybody is ready to escort me to
her rooms. The suspicion of the
Italians led them to think that I mast
have come to collect rent Or some
thing else from the poor woman.
''The finest thing about the very
poor-the thing that goes far to re-
Geem their faults and make all other
classes seem small beside them--is
, their wonderful kindness to one an
other. They will share their last LOAF
with the hungry. and if one Of them
is playing in hard luck, all the rest
will help. In proportion to their
means, they give ten times as much
as the greatest millionaire on earth"