The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-07-17


ty along the Battery in New
York. Casual observers see hundreds
of men with packs, blanket rolls and
valises, and they say to themselves,
More immigrants" But there is
where the casual observer makes a
mistake. Among these well-dressed
men are types of all nations, but the
majority are Russians, Poles. Swedes.
Norwegians and Slavs.
who are all these men? They seem
to be embarking instead of coming
ashore asked a passer-by of an i'm
migration bureau Inspector who had
just landed from Ellis Island.
They are tourists, officially" he
answered. in reality they are part
of the many thousands of naturalized
foreigners who are making their an
nual trips home to spend the summer
there. They will all be back again in
the fall
You see those two big, fair-haired
rlen? They are Russians from Wilma
on the Baltic. [ have met them twice
a year for ten years. They are leaving
now for the other side, as steerage
pass engers, although they are prob
ably as wealthy in worldly goods as
the average first-cabin passengers.
They are representatives OF thousands
of their countrymen, as we'll as of
many more Scandinavians, Germans
and Poles. | remember when these
two men came over twelve years ago,
because there was difficulty in getting
anybody to vouch for them They
couldn't speak word of English and
seemed to have no friends Finally
they got ashore.
Two years later | saw them again
They were taking Storage passage
home. They recognized me, and, as
they had learned English a bit, we
had quite a talk. They had saved up
two hundred dollars apiece and were
going to invest half of it in trip
home.
"'What'll you do with the other
half?' l asked.
They smiled knowingly.
You see,' they said, dis money
very much in Roosia. We buy some
new tings for de farm. Moder and
fader We have, and two other brother
and tree sister. We buy new plough
for de farm an take along. All sum
mer We work on de farm After de
harvest we come back here and work
for tree dollars de day We lif to-
gether on yum dollar de day, and save
five. Next time We go over We will
hat tree hundred dollar each Den
We buy some more tings for de farm
an work dere all summer, same as dis
year
And that's been their programme
ever since. Every spring | see them
going, with smiles aplenty on their
big, heavy faces, and good-siZed wads
in their belts. Each year | have no
ticed some little sign of increasing
prosperity. You see, they are quite
well dressed. For the last two years
they have returned to this country in
the second-class cabin. Going to Eu-
rope in the steerage is not so dis
agreeable as coming, so they go bv
steerage.
''One of these days l shall see the
last of them-they'll settle down in
Wilma. Last summer Ivan, the young
er, got married. That's the beginning
of the end. They have a big farm
there, bought and developed with
their earnings here. They have some
thing like twenty men employed on it
ignorant peasants as they themselves
were originally. They are not forty
yet, still they can already settle down
III their own country as prosperous
farmers. America will have served
them their purpose.
But you must not think that al
foreigners who return home each year
are like those two. It's strange fac
that the Russians, who hail from {
despotic country where suffrage ISM
known, are the ones who come here
only to earn enough to live we'll ii
their own country. With the Scandi
navians, who come from a country
practically as free as Our own, it i!
different. They eventually settle dowr
here, though they may first make 4!
many as dozen trips to their native
land"
This seems to be the universe
opinion among all custom house AM
immigrant bureau inspectors. 1t i
especially true of Germans 1t is no
so true of Poles and Hungarians
They, like the Russians, travel bacl
and forth for years, but the last tril
is usually eastward
In my town." said one Pole, "ther
come some time twenty of us at on
time from America. Together W.
come back, and together we work il
Bayonne, n ]. There we get tive
dollar de day for day labor in de OF
or de copper works. In de summe
dey lay off many men; that just sui
us, an we go home to harvest crop
We have each two hundred dollar
It cost one hundred to go and come