Alice Garrigue Masaryková

“ The Bohemians at home have a strong family life. A married son or daughter remains under the same roof with the aged parents, who retire into a quiet nook, where they enjoy their flaxen-haired, brown-eyed grandchildren. This trait, though modified, continues in Chicago. On a Sunday afternoon, the Eighteenth street car is filled with families, scrubbed, brushed and starched-up, bound for some festival hall to have a good time. ”

“ The once independent handworkers become foremen in great establishments, cutters in tailor shops, butchers in stock yards, workers in the lumber yards, and a great many become shopkeepers. The middle class naturally dreads the great industrial revolution and hates with equal zest trusts and trade unions. But in the trade union movement the Bohemian workman, like all other intelligent working people, takes a part. And in Chicago, the unions with a Bohemian administration (over twenty in number) have a Bohemian central body. ”

“ All the thoughts and memories of their old home, that are so dear to them, seem to be thought more easily and better in this garden of the dead, for something died within them when they left their homes. The pure memory lives as the memory of those who have left them forever and sleep under that velvety grass, under the brightest autumn leaves and the faithful asters. ”

“ It must be borne in mind that while within the last fifty years, centralization of capital and subdivision of labor have reached an unparalleled height in America, in Bohemia, the old guild system which prevailed for centuries is slowly dying off through the same process. The old settlers, who came forty years ago and filled their stores with home-made goods (in those times one tailor flourished alongside of another on Nineteenth street) look amazed on the newcomers and shake their heads: "The idea of an eight-hour day." ”

“ The first month it was over eight thousand—a number unparalleled at any other station in Chicago. Good books are needed—not to keep the Bohemians a foreign element in the city, but to give them the opportunity to develop fully their own capabilities.
Not all immigrants will learn English and the American public owes something to those quiet, old, working and loving mothers, who are such a gigantic force in the lives of the young Americans—though they remain unseen by an outsider. ”

“ The reasons for emigration must ever be strong, for the Bohemians cling to the inherited strip of land, to the cottage they were born in, to the little church on the hill, and the rattling mill on the brook. ”

“ What intense mental work it requires to distinguish the wisdom of ages crystallized into tradition from an organic prejudice—faith from superstition. Very, very few can do so much and therefore the hardship, the unevenness of the first generation of Bohemians. ”

“ Few turn to Protestantism; the majority seek the unknown harbor of free thinking. Negative destructive work is easier than positive work, and therefore we find among the Bohemians all kinds of freethinking from the dogmatic, which is compressed into the much spoken of Catechism of Freethinkers (catechism of freethinking as possible as dry water!) ”

“ A large factor in the industrial life is the fact that the Bohemians in Chicago practically have a third generation on this soil, though the first generation is still coming in. [5] Therefore, it is natural that with the great thriftiness of the people and their desire to give their children a good education, Bohemians should be found in different branches of business as well as in all professions. ”

“ Education.The school to which the rising generation goes is of special interest to the American public. Generally speaking, the Catholics send their children to parochial schools (at least for a couple of years) and the Freethinkers to public schools. There are eight Bohemian parochial schools in Chicago with almost three thousand children. Bohemian and English are taught and they are supported mostly by the parishioners. The Freethinkers have schools either on Sundays, or on Saturday and Sunday — a system which seems to me, if reformed, would answer the needs. ”

“ A marked though slight dialect, very common in Chicago, shows that a great number of the people came from the southern part of the kingdom, a district which is poorer than the central and northern parts. Nor is the education in this part as good, for poverty does not send out rays of education, though it absorbs them with craving rapidity. ”

“ The Bohemian housekeepers know how to get great results from small means, which is most valuable for the poorer class and shows in the red and glossy cheeks of the children. On the other hand, the heavy food (pork with dumplings, for instance, is very common, and with it the usual glass of beer) produces those of full forms without corresponding strength, so general among the well-to-do citizens. ”

“ The East must be slightly lighting up there; the mist lies over the town; the steps of an early walker resound within the old walls. Over the hundred-towered city the well-known outline of the castle is visible. And the East is growing lighter, lighter. ”

“ The government in Bohemia was far from popular and the very fact that the existing administration was Republican made the Bohemians willing to listen to the complaints of Democrats and even to join in these complaints. Cleveland's first administration did not change this point of view as the Democrats did not have a majority in Congress. The number of Social Democrats is growing as among other immigrant nationalities.
The Bohemians in Chicago have three daily papers. The Freethinkers have Svornost. the Catholics Narod, and Denni Hlasatel claims to be independent in questions of faith. ”

“ The simple, gentle manners of a Bohemian peasant and artisan have to undergo a period of change through the distrust accorded all strangers and the imitation of those beati possidentes that inherited their traditions and manners from other ancestors. ”

“ In the home country brewing and the making of beet sugar are two of the oldest industries, and three breweries, founded by Bohemian capital, operate in Chicago, influencing the number of saloons not exactly to the benefit of the population. ”

“ Besides the tendency to avail themselves of the unaccustomed freedom, other factors enter into the social life, such as the rivalry between the Catholics and Free thinkers, the rivalry of individuals, and the indirect economic interest. A new settler finds customers in the club or lodge he joins. ”

“ And they come with the intention of becoming American citizens.
Even by a conservative element, the Bohemians are considered desirable immigrants. The number of illiterates is small; in the country districts they make good farmers; they are clever hand-workers in the towns. The last is of special interest for Chicago, and is borne out by the fact that of 9,591 Bohemians who came to the United States in 1902–3, 2,609 were skilled workmen. [2] The United States census of 1900 shows that 75.8 per cent of the Bohemians live in the North-west, which is prevailingly agricultural. ”

“ Bad harvests, hailstorms and droughts have been of influence, and the disproportionate land taxes, compulsory military service, and the lack of liberty in the bureaucratic system, are certainly of moment. ”

“ The Bohemians coming to Chicago stop at Pilsen before they settle down definitely. Growing industries (Packing-town) and cheap lots influence the growth of colonies, of which many have a half rural character. There are about nine colonies besides Pilsen; most of them have a Bohemian Catholic parish and a Freethinker's school. ↑ The proportion of skilled workmen among immigrants of 1902·3 was as follows: Irish, 3,273 out of 35,806 ”

“ Their inward, often unconscious, store of principles and thoughts, superstitions and prejudices, has to be revised because it has been revolutionized. Sometimes the revision is swept away by the revolution. ”

“ The grandmothers received their church—no small gift in those times. It cost much enthusiasm and good will. Since that simple beginning, many activities have been at work which have resulted in the social organization—the work of individuals, of masses. ”

“ Social Life.The social life among the Bohemians is very much alive. There are dances, concerts, theatrical performances. Since the Columbian Exposition a company of professional actors has resided in Pilsen, who on Sunday evenings play before a full house in the large hall, Thalia. ”

“ These schools are supported by the mutual benefit societies, which are represented in ten committees, each of which supports one school, not only providing a teacher, but erecting the school buildings with large halls, lodges, etc. ”

“ Svornost more Republican; Narod, independent. The Socialists have a weekly Spravedenost. Furtner, the freethinkers publish, besides a daily paper, two monthly educational papers, two weeklies, one satirical, and the American which appears twice a week. The Catholic Benedictine press publishes a daily paper, a paper on agriculture every other week. The Friend of Children, a weekly, and The Catholic, twice a week. ”