The Immigrant Tide, Its Ebb and FlowSteiner, Edward Alfred
History
The Immigrant Tide, Its Ebb and Flow
Steiner, Edward Alfred
United States -- Emigration and immigration
Another is a metal worker, and his calloused hands prove that he obeys
the Divine injunction, and earns his bread by the sweat of his brow.
The man who proposed our being made honorary members of the lodge had
entered the University of Vienna, suffered moral bankruptcy and ran away
to America. He is a cloak presser.
The man who seconded his motion is a waiter, the prodigal son of a rich
father, brought low by his iniquities; but kept from utter ruin by the
fellowship of these men.
I know the record of them all; good and bad records, like those of other
groups of men; but every one of them is now earning his daily bread and
is contributing something to the wealth and the weal of the great city.
My millionaire friend frankly confessed that he had never seen a "bunch"
of men which impressed him more favourably than these--and well they
might impress him; for they all looked like toilers. Labour had bent
their forms, parched their skin and shadowed their eyes.
It was a long meeting, until far into the night. Several times the outer
guard had announced that the _Gulyas_ was ready; but not even the odour
of its rich sauce which pervaded the building could stop the flow of
eloquence, once set in motion, or curb the eagerness with which rival
candidates battled for office.
At last the Grand Master smote his desk with his gavel for the last
time and the "meetunk" was adjourned.
In proper order and ceremoniously, we were conducted to the basement of
the _Kosher_ restaurant. The steaming _Gulyas_ was on the tables, beer
and wine awaited the thirsty guests and the banquet began even before
all the members of the Bolsover Association were fairly seated.
My companion looked askance at the bowls of _Gulyas_ with its red gravy;
but it wooed his appetite through his nostrils and he gained sufficient
courage to take a piece of the well cooked meat with its dripping sauce.
Then I saw him eat as I had not eaten of his French snails and terrapin.
The members of the Society drank their modest measures of beer and
Hungarian wine as toast followed toast.
It had been my privilege not long before to have a conference with
President Roosevelt, and as I rose to toast the chief magistrate of the
United States, I repeated a few of his trenchant sentences. "Elyen!
Elyen!" the men shouted when I mentioned his name; and when I said that
the President had expressed to me the hope that we strangers should so
live that the country which gave us "sanctuary," a place to work in and
to live in, might be proud of us--the enthusiastic "Elyens!" seemed
unending. After the banquet, the man who had successfully run for the
secretaryship invited us to come into his home, not far away. My host,
having had a taste of the East Side and wanting more, readily accepted
the invitation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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