New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1921-08-10
L AMILY OF SIX
FROM BOHEMIA
Mr.. AND MRS. JOSEPH SINGER.
AND CHILDREN ARRIVE il
AT NIcoLLET.
HELD AT CASTLE GARDEN A
WEEK. PLEASANT TRIP
ACROSS OCEAN.

Mr.. and Mrs. Joseph Singer and their
four children, Barbara, aged %, John,
l3, Joseph, 10, and Anna, T.; arrived
at the farm home Of the former
brother, John Singer, near Nicollet,
Wednesday night, from Honositz,
Kreis Pilsen, Bezirk Miles,: Bohmia,i
Bohemia, Austria, which place they
left July 6 to come to America and by
dint of hard work and industry to
establish home in this land of promise.
They visited New Ulm friends with
members of the John Singer family,
Sunday, and representative of the
Review was given a pleasant interview
with the newcomers, who had many
things to relate about conditions in
their native land and the experiences
on their trip to the United States.
Enroute Nearly a Month.
AS stated above, the Joseph Singer
family left their native village of
Honositz in Bohemia, July 6, and, ac-
tcordingly were enroute to Nicollet a
month, lacking three days. They ar
rived at Mankato Wednesday and
would have been obliged to wait there
until the next day for a train to
Nicollet, but the depot agent at Man
kato telephoned Mr.. Singers brother,
telling him of their safe arrival there,
and a son motored over to get them.
None of the family was sick minute
on the ocean trip, although many Of
their fellow passengers, Of which there
were 1,200,' were more or less indis-
posed, most of them suffering from sea-
sickness.
Much Red Tape.
The newcomers had to run the
gauntlet of a great deal Of red tape,
even before they were allowed to leave
their native village. Their first stop
was at Prague, the capital of Bohemia,
where they were obliged to secure the
necessary papers and go through the
formalities required of all emigrants
Upon securing their passports and
having them vised by the American
consul, who charged them 8, 600 crowns
for his services, they continued to
Hamburg, the Northern German sea-
port, where they embarked on the
American steamer NJ ount Clay, the
former German warship Albert, which
was turned over to the United States
by the terms of the Allied peace
treaty. The trip from Honositz to
Hamburg cost 10000 crowns for the
family Of six.
Crown of Little Value.
Before proceeding farther with this
narrative, it might be well to stats
that the Austrian crown, which had a
normal pre-war value of about Is
cents, is practically worthless today
as one can purchase 600 Of them fol
la single American dollar. While il
costs small fortune to travel from
Austria to the United States at this
time, figured in Austrian crowns, the
fare is not staggering, if feckoned il
United States dollars and cents. AND
still, it required a snug 81, 040.55 te
pay for the Joseph Singer family's
steamship passage and railroad fare
from Hamburg to Nicollet. These
figures also include a total Of $1O(
landing money for the six persons
which was returned to them just al
they were boarding the train in New
York City Tor Minnesota.
One instance Of the low value Of ar
! Austrian crown was related to thu
writer by Mr.. Singer, who stated thai
a certain brewer in Bohemia had usee
paper crowns Currency as labels OF
his beer bottles, as they were cheaper
than regular labels ordinarily used fol
this purpose. Mrs. Singer showed tn.
Review scribe one Of these bits o
paper money (they are necessarily
small owing to the high cost Of paper
no doubt). 1t was a one-croWn bill
and the ink used in printing thesword
zone crown in each Of the half-doze1
different languages in vogue in tina,
vari-tongued little country, which nov
fofms part and parcel Of the nev
republic Of Checho- Slovakia, probabl,
represented a goodly portion of tn,
4 value Of a crown, to say nothing Of fth
| cost Of paper and printing.
Detained Abroad and Here.
q Their stay at Prague, Bohemia, 70
the purpose of going through the re-
& Itape of the emigration laws, consume
two days and they were again detaine
, at Hamburg, Germany, for six day.
as the number Of emigrants far e.
ceeded the permissible quota. III
latter fact was also the cause Of the
being held at Castle Garden, New Yorl
. lfor seven days, before being perinitte
lOoatiaued on page 81