The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-04-29

LeSlie'S Monthly Tor January.
Knowing that the living truth Of the
great problem of immigration lay in
/ the midst of the human swarm rather
| than in the Interior aspect, and that
more was to be learned from the hum
BILE. hopeful immigrant than from
/ books or figures, we sought to find
| his level, to speak his tongue, and to
| broaden our knowledge by Joining a
family about to so to America. Italy
/ to-day sends four times more raw ma
/ terial for us to make Americans out
/ of than any other country. So it was
to Italy that we turned for our ext
periences. To prepare ourselves, my
wife and I went to live in the Italian
we studied the language, habits, GUS
toms Of those about us. Then We
voyaged to Naples In the steerage of
the steamship Lain, registered as
"Berto and Iniga Brandt with $50
homeward- Italians, Greeks,
Jews, Rumanians and Swiss. I hope
and believe we left every prejudice
behind.
It was only the day before we landed
! that we found in Antonio Squadr1tO
the very man we were looking for. He
4 and his father, Giovanni, were on their
way home to Sicily to "get the women
folks When they heard our mission
4 they were enchanted and begged us to
20 home with them without mo-
4 ment's delay. So we went to their
home at Gualtieri -Sicamino, a mass Of
stone-built plaster-covered houses
9 with a uniformity. of architecture
I which hardly allows one to distinguish
b public buildings stores or churches
4 from private houses, and the whole is
4 piled up against the face of lofty hill
4 Nearly all villages in southern Italy
are on the hilltops or the hill slopes,
hot n
l 1000 years ago, "the land that can be
cultivated with ease should not be
4 numbered with habitations." The gen
/ eral plan was identical with that of
\ dozens of other villages we had visited,
a street or two circling the base of the
hill, one or two tiny squares bare as
4 new-laid eggs, then a succession OF
4 zig-zag ways toward the top of the hill
I-Ways-they are not streets, because
in some places they are not more than
three feet wide, and one-thlrd OF the
\ climb the ascent is so sharp that stone
it was 500 years ago.
The town was beautiful, with its
4 white walls and dark-tiled roofs, a
3 rose-haze over it from the sinking sun,
empowered in the clustering hills
dark-green with vineyards and olive
% and lemon orchards, with the white
belt of the torrente below, and leading
l. to the town from all directions ribbon
,e footpaths, along which came donkeys
Is panier-laden, little f1ocks of milkgoats
g. stoop shOuldered men bearing their
ID long bladed hoes and spear-shaped
spades, and erect women with brilliant
l. colored skirts, and with waterjars, bas-
Is kets,, paniers or bundles on their
n, heads. = y: 5s# 3iat
a. At the squadrito home a kindly OLD
our our p pppe = ~ ga shout ane
ne something told me this was Antonio:
lis mother. We were ushered into. {
v large. cool. windoWless room with {
ed red-tiled floor and bare, white walls
e. and along them rows and rows o
lis hand made rush bottom chairs. There
SO must have been forty Of them, and i
a. seemed to augur well for the size o
a the family; but we learned later tina
Is. the chairs stood there ready for tn
nd throng of neighbors who came night:
an to hear Antonio tell the marvels Q
s. America and to laugh over hi
nd prodigious yarns of buildings twent
nd stories high. Nightly they woul'
he shake their heads and laugh, and the
X Antonio would say: Just wait till M
re American friends come and you ca
~. ask them
of Poor Mrs squadrito W was ALMOST sstc be
rid upon her, the absence Of all othe
7ill members of the family in the vinegar
east Of the town, the nightly excite
the doors behind us, were too niue
for her and she fastened to show U
lc- into an upper room and to par OF
the crowd.
me- In ten seconds she had brought
IN flask of fine old Marsha, in thirt
ne. more a plate of sugared cakes, in fit
a heaping basket Of several sorts {
grapes, fresh figs, pears, apples, etc
and it was with difficulty she could
restrained from bringing more. Swift
footed small boys had sped to brln
In Antonio and others OF the 1aIf11Ay.
One Immigrants Success.
ISL Let me say word or two jul
{ here Of the Squadrito family TT
Giovanni Squadrito at 55 is hale ar
hearty. the father Of ten healthy chi
CT dren, vet his second son, Antonio,
&C the head the family Five yea
.es. ago Antonio, at the age of 20. can
DIS to America, and began work IN
has barber shop in Connecticut. He WI
ion a well-built, handsome young fello'
md with talent for the mandolin, ar
on despite a thick layer of self-estee
well nailed on, his cleverness, tact al
air business acumen have been suffice
ide to net him a barber shop In Stonin
led ton, Conn.,, with four chairs doing
ich fine business, $4,000 in the ban
big membership in the zForesters, Roy
400 Arcanun, BARRIERS union, and sever
on social clubs, an American wife, II
adj widow of a wha1er captain, who oW!
it's town property to the value Of $50
eat 900, and a thoro grasp Of Amerlc;