The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-02-27

1 witted; all are severcy y logical As
 a class they are emotional, magma | tive fond of music and art. They are honest saving, industrious, temperate ] and SO exceptionally moral that two
 years ago the secretary of the Ital- | ian Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco was able to boast Ahat the police of that city had never yet found an Italian woman of evil character. So far from being a scum of Italy's paupers and criminals, our Italian inn migrants are the very flower of her peasantry. They bring healthy bod ies and a prodigious will to work. They have an intense love for their fatherland, and a fondness for old customs; and both are deepened by the hostility they meet and the gloom Of the tenements they are forced to in habit. The sunshine. the simplicity, the happiness of the old outdoor ways are gone, and often you will hear she words, "there Is no pleasure ill life
 here.' But yet they come, driven from a land of starvation to a land Of plen-
 ty. Each year about one-thfrd of
 the great host Of ind uStrial recruits
 from Italy, breaking up as 1t lands
 into little groups of twos and threes,
 and invading the tenements almost un- noticed, settles in the different co O.
 nies of New York. This is mighty,
 of the Italian spirit and tradition.
 But there are limits to the building
 of an Italian city on American soil,
 New York tenement houses are not
 adapted to life as it is organized in
 the hill villages of Italy, and
 change has come over every re alton or
 life. The crowded living IS strange
 and depressing; instead of work ac-
 companied by song in orangeries and
 vineyards, there is silent toll in the
 canons af a city street; instead Of the
 iere, there is the rough force of the
 New York policeman to represent au-
 There is the diminished importance
 fT1 If
 set ways, there Is different eating ana
 drinking, sleeping and waking. A
 different life breeds different habits,
 and different habits, with Amerlcan m surroundings, effect a radical change in
 the man. It is difficult for the Amer
 ican to realize this.
 Refractory though the grown-up inn
 migrant may often be to the spirit
 of our republic, the children almost
 immediately become Americans. Through these children the common
 school is leavening the whole mass
 Like the Italians, the Irish and the
 Germans had to meet distrust and
 abuse when they came to do the work
 of the rough day-laoorer- Ine ter
 TOTS and excesses of native American
 ism and Know-Nothin giSnP came and
 went, but the prejudice remained Yet the Irish and Germans furnished good raw material for citizenship and quick ly responded to American influences They dug eel ars and carried bricks and mortar; they severed, graded, ana paved the streets and built the rail roads. Then, slowly, the number Of skilled mechanics among them lncreas- ed. Many acquired a competence ana took a position of some dignity in the community, and Irish and Germans moved up a little in the social scale. They were held lq greater respect when, In the dark days of the Ctvil War, we saw that they yielded to none in self-sacrificing devotion to the frv Thousands of GSTmanS fought for the Union besides those who served under sigel; Thousanos , or
 Irishmen died for .6l9 the csnse Dta46 DHsf6es }. Dutch" and Mick began to go out of fashion as nicknames and the seV- enties had not passed before It was often said among the common peop.e mans or Irish and natives WeHe usual ly happy marriages.
 From the very bottom, Italians are climbing up the same rungs of the same social and industrial ladder. But it is still a secret that they are being gradually turned into Americans; and for all it's evils, the city colony IS a wonderful help in the process. The close contact of American surround ings eventually destroys the foreign life and spirit, and of this New York gives proof. Only two poor. frag- tant German and Irish colonies that were nourishing in this city twenty five or thirty years ago; while the ancient sett' ed Pennsylvania Dutch, thanks to their isolation, are not yet fully merged in the great citizen body. And so, in the city colony, Italians are becoming Americans. Leg ons Of them, who never intended to remain here when they landed, have cast Tn their lot definitely with us; and those who have already become American ized, but no others, are beginning to intermarry with our people. The mass of them are still laborers, toiling like ants in adding to the wealth of the country, but thousands are succeeding in many branches of trade and manu- facture. The names of Italians en- gagged in business in the United States fill a special directory listing 120 Ooo names In New York they have S1lO,- GOO 900 invested in business, and $5O,- OOO 900 in our state savings banks. Their real estate holdings and bank deposits aggregate enormous totals Their second generation is already crowding into all the professions, and we have Italian teachers, dentists, ar chitects. engineers, doctors, lawyers and judges. teriaI success is their loyalty to the na- l tion of their adoption. Yet with this goes an undying love for their na- l tive land. There are many types 1 of these new citizens. I have in | mind an Italian banker who will serve l for one. His Americanism is enthu- 1 siastic and breezily Western. He has paid many visits to the land of his | birth, and delights in its music, art, and literature. He finds an almost sacred inspiration in the giories of it's history Beginning in extreme pow erty, by his own unaided efforts he has secured education and wealth; by his services to the city and state in teem Perhaps no other Italian has achieved SO brilEant a success.