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
The shopkeepers throughout the whole immigrant territory rejoice. Their
stock is increased by many varieties of goods; for the peasant now wants
the best there is in the market, often useless luxuries, to be sure;
but while he may spend his money "for that which is not meat," he wants
to spend, and that means effort, than which the Slavs as a race need
nothing more for their social and political salvation.
Their advance is strikingly illustrated by the following examples.
The B. Brothers of Vienna are manufacturers of neckties. On a recent
visit to their establishment I met some buyers from Hungary, one of
whom, when the salesman showed him the class of goods which he had been
in the habit of buying, highly coloured, stiff bows of cheap cotton,
said:
"We have no use for such stuff. This is the tie we want," and he pulled
out an American tie of rather fine quality and the latest pattern.
I had to promise the head of the firm of B. Brothers to put him in touch
with an American haberdasher's journal, so that he may keep himself
informed as to our styles.
Partly to test the influence of immigration in the remotest region of
Hungary and partly to satisfy my craving for a certain kind of candy, I
visited a little village hidden away in the Carpathians, where neither
steam nor electricity has yet obtruded itself. There in a certain store,
I bought my very first sweets, and although I have since tasted the
delicacies of many civilizations, the lingering flavour of that first
candy still seems the most delicious, and its taste has never left my
palate. It was hard, highly coloured and usually exposed to flies and
dust; but it was my first love, and my first pennies were sacrificed to
it; so I was eager to revel in its delights again.
I went to that village in the spirit of one who goes on a pilgrimage,
and as one seeks one's favourite shrine so did I seek that little store.
My palate's memory led me to the very door; but in front of it, forcing
itself upon my candy-hungry gaze, was a penny in the slot machine, out
of which, in response to two Hungarian Filers, came dropping a stick of
genuine American chewing-gum. It is needless to say that my primitive,
highly-coloured candy was no more. In its place were caramels and
buttercups very much like those I had left behind me in the United
States.
Now I do not mean to imply that chewing-gum and caramels have any social
or ethical bearing upon my subject; but they do prove that the old order
changes and that the new has been brought in by the immigrant. Still
within the sphere of the economic, yet having large ethical value, is
the fact that the returned immigrant brings gold, not only in his pocket
but in his teeth. I certainly never realized the far-reaching social and
ethical value of the dentist until I saw the contrast between the
returned immigrant, especially the contrast between his wife and
daughter and the women who had remained at home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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