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(Immigrants
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FROM SOUTHIJ ASTERN EUROPE.
(Copyright, H"-i, by Frank U. Carpenter.;
ASIIINGTON, Nov. iD.-iripcclal
Correspondence of The Bee.)
The invasion of Goth and Van
dals destroyed the Humun em-
nirfv Will tlm InVMMlnn rif tha
hordes of ignorant Europeans destroy our
republic? This question in beginning to
tlr tlio minds or our sociologists. Our
Immigration la Increasing by gigantic
leaps. From the beginning of our govern
ment until now just about 28,000,000 'for
eigners have come into this country. The
time covered is about 130 yearn. During the
!ast twolvo months the immigrants num
bered 'liore than 1,000.000, which was ao per
cent more than we have' had In any. year
before. We have now In round numbers
,000,000 people, and last year we added one
foreigner to our etrery eighty souls.
It behooves us to know who these people
are, whore they come from and where they
re settling. To find out I called on Mr.
Frank P. Sargent, the commissioner gen
eral of Immigration, and asked many Ques
tions. In reply he brought out records ana
papers, and at the some time showed me
photographs recently made of some of our
new Immigrants.
Vnele Sam's Big Bite.
I asked Mr. Sargent: "Dou't you think
Uncle Bam Is biting olt more than he can
chew? A million In the raw Is a big mouth
ful. Can the country muatluuU and digest
It?"
Yes,"' replied the commissioner fceneral
of Immigration. "The teetn of our nation
are strong and the stomach capacious. If
the Immigrants are of Uie right character
nd tuey can be carried to the right lo
calities, we ahall have no trouble wliatever.
Tha chief difficulty U that many of thein
are Ignorant and that tliey show a tsudency
to congest our big cities. They are uot
like the immigrants of the first throe-quarters
of our century, who camo with the
ambition to be farm owners. They set
tled upon our homestead and other cheap
lands and scattered themselves out over
the lni ted States. Such foreigners changed
and were transformed into Americans.
Their children learned our language and
all wero quickly absorbed into the body
politic. Those immigrants caii;e from
northern lOurope, and especially from Ger
many and the United Kingdom. They
formed the bulk of our immigration until
well up into the eighties. The most of our
immigrants are uow coming from Austria
Hungary, Italy and Russia, and they are
day laborers rather than farm settlers."
A Million ew RelallT.
"All American clUacns are called the
nephew s and nieces of Undo Sam. Tell me
something about this new million of raw
Immigrants who have become our coualns
In 1!U6?" ,, ,
"Most of those Immigrant are not bad
and thy will make good members of our
national family," replied the commissioner
general of Immigration. "Still there are rare
birds among them and some are so bad that
we have shipped lO.Ooo or so back to the
countries whence they came. Take tlie
Italians. There were more of them than
there are poople In the city of -Genoa and
180,000 of them came from souuieni naiy.
There were about mono Hebrews. W.'mo
roles and a Urge number of other Russians
and Auatro-Hungariana Wo admitted over
80.000 Oermans and something lik J20.000
English. Irish and Scotch. As to our peo
ple from southeastern Europe, w-e brought
in 62,000 Slovaks. Magyars. X. 000 Cro-
ttana and Slavonians. 10.-)0 Bohemians and
Moravians and 1'iOuO Greeks."
HnndrriU nt Thunaand Can't Writ.
"How do these Immigrants compare with
those of the pjst as to lllit- racy?" 1 aked.
"Tiny contain many moro who cainut
read or write. The Inimlai -alien from
north, rn Europe from M to IN w as ex
traordinarily well e ducated. Of l!i' from
lieiiiuaik. Norway and Sweden we rarely
found or.e who could not vad and write;
only about 3 er cent vt the Scotch, I-Ish
unci l'.niflisli were illiterates and only S per
i ei.t of the Germans. In contrnst take our
'.mmifc-rants from l:i0 to la", of the Rus
sians and Ausiro-1 iungnt iuus. one limn In
very four or mure wa illl'erale, and of
the naiads 4S per cei t could not re'id or
v.-rite. TiuHng thai time c er ITil.v'n) Itsil
(ns landed lure mil more than Mi.o 0 of
lifii; were totally uneducated, our Scan-
ntvl.in ir.imigian'.s ure on the whole tha
1. nt edur-ated.
"Where n?-e toccr 1nitni(;i uns now going,
Mr. Sernt?" I asked.
"The innjority ek the !a!g- cities and
the various f-irtmy. miuin and inil'isirlnl
i .'nt"r They are. as 1 have already nt.
l'i-?'y l. boreis. w'i h-ve come here to get
riii '!! r Job and lettei- mum. New York
fate rjic.ts iiicno l! ail any other. Tt swal
lowed up "1 per cenl or al mm one-third.
f la-it year's million. Pennsylvania, cum
n-yt with Si".fl"' and efier tliat lllln,i,
Vn-i -hivetts and h'tle N'.-W' Jersey. The
south, wiu.-'i needs labor o develoo its
f irniinf lundf . got almost uo'Mt'g, and in
f r.t sgriti Itu.al west eoniparutlvely little.
A lirtfe jiiit i f Pennsylviiiil tininlgritmn
went lutu th onal iiluea. ut.lu bad alto a
Which Uncle Sam
..A
y )
large nuinber of these immigrants.".
"But you must not think that all of these
immigrant!) are laborera," Mr. Biu-gent went
on. "There are many who eujrace In other
businesses. The Hebrews, for instance,
oftem go into merchandlning. They ar
small shopkeepers .and also tailors and
members of the clothing trades. The north
ern Italians are UFUttlly better off than
those from about Naples, and many of
them become farmers. The Germans and
BritiHh go into all sorts of trades and
enterpriHa."
Where They Go.
"I suppose i no1 of these Immigrants were
very poor?" '
r
- -..
Million Dollar Home
O9T0NV tVc, I.WIth thousands
of Arrerl"'An. gMng airoad every
year to visit tho nrt galleries of
the old world, it Is interesting to
note that Europeans who come to
B
this country often express surprise at tho.
excellence of our art collections, of which
nearly all of any consequence have been
gathered within a generation. The great .
galleries of Europe represent in many in
stances the growth of centuries, while the
really important permanent exhibitions of
worka of painting, sculpture and the ap
plied arts in this country have been made
lnce 1870. In that time so rapid ' if been
tho advance that predictions are already
heard of a day when European students
will visit American galleries for the pur
pose of becoming acquainted with some of
the most Important of the world's master
pieces. Such institutions as the Metro
politan Museum of Art in New York, the
Art institute of Chicago, the Corcoran Art
gallery In Washington and the Museum
of Pine Arts in this city have already
gained International reputation, while Phil
adelphia, through the consolidation of the
John G. Johnson, William L. Elklns and
P. A. B. Widener collections, is destined
very Bhortly to have one of the most nota
ble museums of the country. At the same
time, in smaller cities, there lias been a
similar awakening, so that the place of
100,000 Inhabitants without some kind of
art collect ion open to the public is excep
tional. While American museums have neces
sarily drawn largely upon the treasures of
the old worid In building up their collec
tions, it has remained for this country to
take the lead in providing a suitable set
ting for art treasures. A new point of
view in tho housing of the great collections
forming in this country appears in plans
which have recently been adopted in Bos
ton for a group of buildings to accommo
date the Museum of Vine Arts, founded in
1870, and situated for many yeari, past in
an ornate structure , fronting on Copley
square, hard by the famous Boston Public
Labraiy. The new museum will, It Is said,
be the most perfectly designed Institution
of its kin J In the world, for tile plans
are based upon elaborate studies made
among European and American art
museums by a special ootnniittee of ex
perts. At the same time exhaustive In
vestigations Into the proper lighting and
arrangement of objects of art have been
conducted with the aid of specialists from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
When, three years hence, removal from
the present overcrowded and unsuitable
building lias been made possible, the im
& -
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THE OMAHA
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ONE
"Yes. the majority had little or nothing;.
NevpTtlwleKH the total Hum brought In by
therr- in 1!W amounted to more than -'",-
OOO.Ouo.
"I siippie the most of that sum earn
from Uie English and Germans, did It not?"
"Tea, proportionately so. There were 50.
0Ci English and they brought about M.OOO.
(ti), whereas nearly us ninny Magyurs
brought leH than I70n.ix. The 5n.0 Irish
hart almost a million and a half, while the
more than double as many Jews had only
about t300,00o more. The SO.'V) Germans
brought In fc!.000,l'l, and more than double
as muny southern Itiiliiuis had not as luuoli.
Altogether there wove less than 112, 'NM)
immigrants who had tto or more each, and
about 6S0.00O who had les than that
amount. The balance wore children who
had none at all."
Brought Twenty-Five Million Dollar.
"What is the cause of this great increa?e
In our immigration, Mr. Commissioner Gen
eral?" "
"It is largely clue to the era of prosper
ity which this country Is now having and'
the great demand for labor arising there
from. If you will look over a taM" show
ing the ripe and full of our immigration
since our beginning as an Independent
government you will see that we have a
bl? influx of foreigners when times: are
good, but that the How stops when they
mense treasures iu keeping of the museum
Will be housed as art collections never
were before, and entirely In a way to make
them most accessible to the American pub-
The modern art museum is much more
than a collection of puinling and sculpture
gathered a random. It covets ao wido a
rang..', both In time and place, that Its
collections become an c.pltomo of ancient
and modern civilization as revealed in urt.
There are objects, lor example, in tho
Boston museum which were faanionad when
the ancient civilisation in the valley of toe
Nile was still at its dawn. Visitors soo
stutuettos in limestone and wood which
were carved and painted nearly 3,000 years
before tho birth of Christ. Of later date
is a recent accession, the aarcopuogua uf
King Tbothuies I, who lived from li-W to
1615 B. C. The great stone, one of tho
first to be so used, winch was hollowed
out to receive his remuins and was cov
ered with quaint carving, was found in
lV'Z-i In tho tomb of hia daughter, Queen
liaishepsut, in the valley of tho Kings at
Thebes.
Nearly everybody Is, in a way, familiar
with Egyptian art us seen In the architec
ture of temples and burial places. Less
familiar are other evidences of the skill
of the Egyptians. Included in the Boston
collection Is a gazelle skin robe, myster
iously and wonderfully wrought, that has
been surmised to ba an earlier form of
the ephud of the Bible, a gurment which
has heretofore puzzled the learned. At
first glance tho robe neems to be made of
woven meshes, but closer inspection shows
114 main portion to consist of a single
gazelle, skin, the effect of the meshes being
obtained by piercing the Interior with
minute cuts, about forty to the inch and
perhaps a hundred thousand in total num
ber. Nearly 3,600 years have come and
gone since an Egyptian artisan made from
this skin a fabric almost as delicate as
lace work, yet the fragile hair still clings
to several spots missed by the workman's
knife and very few of the meshes ure
broken.
The Egyptian department of the museum
had its beginnings In 1872, when Mr. C.
Granville Way presented a number of in
teresting antiquities, and since that time
has been In steady process of develop-,
nient until It has become so large that in
the present building only a limited num
ber of the possessions can be shown. Many
of the objects, such aa two great mastabas
or stono tombs, have necessarily been
stored outside the building. Ample provi
sion for the pxoper display of such works
SUNDAY BEE: DECEMBER
is Adopting Into Our National Family
I
EMIGRANT FAMILY RECENTLY LANDEIi
become bad. Inched, imiinui al ion Is one
of tlie best of thermometers to test our
financial condition. From the beginning
up to 18.'i5 the rise ttas comparatively
steady. Then came the panic of 1S57 and
the civil war. and the number of immi
grants fell from over 400,000 to less than
100.000 per annum. As the war closed tha
stream rose and gradually approached
500.0011, when the ptmlc: of 1 S 7o sent it
down HCHin. It rose to almost 00,000 in
1S82. and (lien, because oC another hard
tiliKts season, again dropped, to fall still
f ui tlier down after 1S93. The present In
crease began with 1831'. when It was little
over 200,000. The Immigrants we ad
mitted In 1905 were 1,020, 4HS. If we
should have a season of financial troubles
I have no doubt our Immigration would at
onre fall off and that we should lose many
of the men who are coming now."
Contract Ijtbor,
not muny " of our Immigrants
"Are
brought in by Die owners of mines and
factories? Are they not furnished with
money and imported 111 violation of our
lavs as to contract labor?"
"It seems natural to think so," said the
commissioner general of immigration, "but
It is difficult to prove it. Take, for instance,
such a esse as frequently occurs in which
100 men. more or less, each supplied with
the same amount, of money, start at tlie
for American Art Collections
has, of course, .been made tn the plans
for the new home of the Institution.
Together with tho treasures discovered
in excavations on the banks of tho Nile
aro others which represent the art of China
and Japan from early times to the present.
Tho collections of Chinese, and Japanese
art which the Museum of Fine Arts has iu
its keeping are equalled only in the im
perial museums of Japan, while the collec
tion of Japanese pottery, made by Prof.
Edward S. Morse, is more completely rep
resentative of the pottery of the Island
kingdom than the acquisitions of all the
other museums of the world combined. The
Japanese, who at the time of tho recent
war with Russia overran and took pos
session of Corea, the hermit kingdom, were
studying modes- of artistic expression moro
than 1,000 years ago under the tutelage of
the now despised Coroanti. Thus the Japa
nese potter derived certain methods of
technique from these people and for that
reason there haa beun Included in the Japa
nese collections a small collection of
Corean pottery, the objects ranging in age
from l,0uu years and more to the present
time.
In the cabinets devoted to Chinese and
Japanese art are objects which are of
unique i nip ill or interest. Thus among the
Ames gifts Is the celebrated Fel-Tsui Jade
tree, a present made to Emperor Tung Che
when he ascended the throne in the eight
eenth century and by him given to Chung
How, minister te Russia. A flask-shaped
Jade, said to be tho largest single piece In
the world, is mounted upon a pugoda of
pure gold and bears a tree of twisted gold
branches and leaves of Jado of various
colors. ,
Several of tlie paintings in the Chinese
and Japanese departments are as Important
in oriental urt as to many Raphaels, Tltians
and Rembrandts would be in a collection
of European paintings. Back in the year
1118 Chinkai, a celebrated Japanese monk
painter, repaired a painting which was then
4c0 years old. Chinkai placed an inscription
upon the picture stating that he had re
can museums have often been obliged to
puired it, and it Is through this inscription
that he has been introduced to the art
lovers of the America of the twentieth
century. This little picture, painted a
dozen centuries ago, is extremely valuable,
for Japunese paintings of the eighth cen
tury are rare, there beintr, perhaps, only a
dozen extant, besides certain wall paintings.
It is half a millennium older than the re
vival of European paintings in Italy. Some
time after the monk Chinkai had repaired
the old picture a set of three rolls was
paiuleii dupiullug battle scenes of the lleijl
2. 1K6.
(
fmmi
f ! -nr.1:!
i ' ; ,,si,j1tt!'a u
Same time from one small community In
Furoe for the same liort of tile L'niteJ
States, and upon landing all make their
way to one locality, where tha) go to wo lit
for one factory or railroad would you not
think that those men were Imported under
contract? We do, but we find It almost
Impossible to prevent It. Indeed, I have
little doubt but that much labor Is Im
ported that way. This may be the case
with the southern Italians, who are largely
winked here by contract after they land,
with padrones in charge."
I niinljrrsntii Should Be Seattererf.
"Would It not be far letler for the coun
try, Mr. Sargent, If these people could be
Mattered throughout the United States?"
"Very much so, and I am dolnir nil I can
toward that end. Inleed, I think it would
pav the national government and the livli
viduttl states to institute measures whweby
the immigrants miglit he induced to ko
where they will do thee most good for them
selves and the country. This work snould
begin in the locxlitlcs from which the Im
migrants come. As it is now the Immi
grants who coiiKost our big cities have
gone there because their friends, who are
laboring in America have written them.
Tl'ey go where their friends are and do not
know that there are better locations else
where. They expect to find good lobs and
big pay waiting for them the moment they
era, and one of these, known as the Kelon
roll, has come Into tho keeping of the Mu-.
seum of Fine Art", the other two being
owned respectively by the mikado and by
Baron Iwasakl of Toklo. In Buddhist
scu I pui re the museum Is rich, and out of
many examples one muy especially be se
lected, a beautiful example of Japanese art
dating back to the eighth century, a bronze
statuette of Kwannon, angel of mercy.
It Is especially to tho collection of original
works of Greek art contained in tho Mu
seum of Fine Arts that the visitor's at
tention should be directed. Owing to the
difficulty of getting original works Ameri
presiint Greek art through the medium of
plaster casts and other reproductions. The
wide popularity of casts and the almost
total absence of original works has caused
many persons to form a delinite but false
idea of Greek art, the more subtle quali
ties of which cannot be studied in repro
duction. In view of these facts it is a subject of
congratulation that so many phiuies of
Greek art may be studied' la Boston by
moans of original collections of the first
rank both for comprehensiveness and
beauty. In the United States this collec
tion is quite unupproached. A very great
sphere of usefulness for such a collection
is found In the illustrations it furnishes
at first hand for the studies of school and
college students and teachers. Many of
the text books now In use oould adequately
be Illustrated by objects selected from the
Museum of Fine Arts alone.
The specimens of the minor arts of
Greece are of an exceptionally high grade.
This is especially true of Greek vnsea and
terra cotta statuettes, gems and coins,
usually scantily, if at all, represented In
our museums. Yet the importance of
Greek vases in art is altogether excep
tional. Not only do thy give us a great
part of our information concerning the
whole course of palnticg and the decorative
I'XHMsHKl' 11 iK TILA IT i 'K GEnK'Jl-:
IV TIIK .Mf'fKl'M ill-' 1-IVF. Alllrt
.V AtUi-NUlO.NS aKL. Cvl'ULd l'
pWi4S)J,',V','ti
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M
TWO UTTLB
lancr'iii New York. They often fall into the
hands of employment agencies and are mis
led. "The national government might present
the opportunities offered by different sec
tions of the United States to would-be Im
migrants abroad and also have bureaus of
information at our chief port to show
them where to go upon landing. The stales
which so much need immigrants should
send agents to forelsn countries to drum
up the best olisses of settlers, and they
might publish their Inducements In the
latiirnitge of the countries from where the
immigrants come. Knch such state should
have a reoresentntive at New York to meet
Immigrants as they land at Ellis island
arts in Greece, but It Is to them that every
investigator and tenc-her In every branch
of Greek studies must turn for informa
tion and illustration. Prof. Furtwangler
of Munich, perhaps the foremost historian
of classical art, has stated in a published
letter: "The collection of Greek vases at
Boston is worthy of comparison with many
of the famous collections of Europe, such
as that of the Vatican, especially in its
examples of the finest period of Greek vase
painting, of which, it has specimens of the
choicest kind and of the greatest value;
the collection of ancient goldsmiths' work
contains four pieces of the very first qual
ity, each of them quite unique, all products
of the KTentest period of art and of ex
ceptional perfection." In the same letter
he says, referring to a life-size terra cotta
head of a Roman: "It is without a blem
ish and its like is not to be found In any
museum of Europe. The collection of mar
bles Is also extremely choice."
Among the marbles thus referred to
three In particular ahould be noticed. The
first Is a head of Homer, the only one in
this country of these portrait heads which
have come down from antiquity. It is
belloved by many critics to outrank even
the famous head in Naples, which high
school students are familiar with In text
books. This head reveals great beauty of
workmanship and It is probably only a
question of time before it will replace th
Nales head in our text books and so be
come familiar to a constantly Increasing
number of students. The second, marble is
a colossal head of Zenus, found in Asia
finor, and which may have been worked
by Athenian sculptors employed on the
famous tomb of Mausolos (from whose
name we derive the word niausoIeumiV, To
us. however. Its chief interest lies in the
fact that it Is a copy, and the only on
now known In sculpture, of the head of
(Continued on Page Eleven.)
WASHINGTON. HV GH.IiKKT H'll'ART,
AT liv&l u. A IU. OTHER iTl'ART
'Uild.
HOLLANDERS.
and he could if he would take them to se
an exhibition of tlie products of his stat
yn show nearby. Such men as were espe
cially desirable as settlors might be helped
on their way.
"Today the south is suffering from a
labor famine," continued Mr. Sargent.
"Nevertheless, of the million who ctunn in
last, year only 4S4 per cent went south of
Mason and Dixon's line. Maryland, West
Virginia and Florida each received only
about 9.UU0 and Louisiana 6,000. Texas
could use hundreds of thousands of settlors,
but It got only 4.000 out of that million.
Tennessee did not get S00 and Kentucky
still less. What should be done is to divert
the streams of immigration, if possible, to
different ports. Why should not Louisiana
and Texas havo Immigrants landing at
New Orleans and Galveston instead of New
York?"
fr
Dealing; In Immigration.
"I suppose one of the great forces causing
emigration from Europe is the steamships?"
"Yes. They make from t20 to !0 out of
'each man they bring across the Atlantic,
and some single steamers carry 1,000 or
more at a time. This means receiving from
fcio.OOO to tiO.OnO from that source for a sin
gle voyage. Every steamship company has
its agents scattered throughout Europe
drumming up such custom. School teach
ers and local preachers may receive a
small per cent of the passage money for
each person they induce to go abroad, and
there are also runners in eastern and south
ern Europe who go from city to city and
from village to village for this- purpose.
They tell fairy tales about the proseprlty
of tho many immigrants now la America
and of the opportunities, we offer to ullens.
It Is by such means that paupers and dis
eased persons are Induced to make tha
journey, only to find that they ar shipped
back upon landing.
"As to the Importation of undetrirubl
characters," the commissioner general con
tinued, "that Is largely prevented now by
our law. We make each steamer pay (100
fine for every person brought to our shores
who docs not correspond with the regula
tions of admission, and at tho same time
we force the companlos to carry persons
back free of charge. Tlie result la a steam
ship company will sometimes refuse to tak
an immigrant without he deposits $100 with
it to cover the danger of his fine."
Oar Pan per Immiarrants.
"But do we not admit many paupers Into
this country?"
"We try to prevent It." said Mr. Sar
gent. "And we do send many such back
to Europe. Last year just about 1,000 wer
refused admission and mora than 2,000 wer
kept out because they had contagious dis
eases. As It is now a large proportion of
the Inmates of our penal and charitable
Institutions are foreigners. We have mor
than 44.000 aliens in such places, and of
these about 40,000 ar over 21 years old.
The most of thein came in through New
York, although they are scattered all over
the country. As it is now more Uian 24
per cent of all the members of such Institu
tions are of foreign birth and more than
11 per cent have never been naturalized.
Russians Com in to America.
"Are the Russian troubles affecting oue
Immigration?"
"Yes. We have had a big Increase from
that part of tho world, and If the troubles
continue we will have more. We got lli.otO
from Russia and Finland in I'M and about
l&tj.Ou) last year, showing an Increase of
Just about 4O,0u0. The increase in our num
ber of Hebrews 1 largely due to the trou
bles in Russia. We got Uo.'W of Uu.m last
-ar."
Clilurtr ( lieu l.anor.
' How about the Chinese, Mr. Sargent T
Are not they unjustly kept out?"
"I think not. They are udmitted accord,
lug to lay and the laws are fairly enforciid.
Both our government and that of th em
pire of China want to keep lhie laborers
out of tho United Stales. Nevertheless, lb
conditions are such that it Ik difficult to do
so. It costs us more to guard this class
of improper immigrants thnn almost uny
other. The Chinese who wishes to com
here is usually able to command the best
legul advice to help liiin, he cau secui
witnesses to testify to anything and can
tempt smugglers by the payment of large
sums of money. He is backed by organiza
tions which are ready to help him to ul-'
most any extent, and it is difficult to keep
him out. It is not true that the Chines
have been insulted by our Immigration
officers, and It is not true that we trc.it
I hem unfairly In any way. W merely
c arry out the law."
"How many Chinese came in last year?"
"Lcbs than 'J J"), and we sent back 2'A
under the Cliiness exclusion act."
"What kind of Chinese can com Into th
I'nlted States'.''"
"Hie treaty provides for the admission of
merchants, teachers, students mid travel
eis., and the courts have said that th
wives and children of merchants may also
be admitted. Wo had more than xj
Chinese who asked permission as tner
chants 1U ear and about JJ were ad
luitted ." t RANK U. CAKPENTiLW. ,