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 complaints as registered in Cetinje were many, and on the whole
justified. They may be classified as follows:
Cheated by Employment Agencies 80%
Cheated by Austrian boarding-house keepers 60%
Money lost by giving bribes to Irish-American
bosses who promised jobs which were never given 36%
Rough treatment by bosses 72%
Robbed by railroad crews in Montana 80%
"Shanghaied"--made drunk and railroaded
from St. Louis to Southern Kansas 15%
Robbed of money and tickets before departure
for home 40%
This represented the dark side of the experience of the Montenegrin
immigrant. The brighter side cannot so easily be classified. As with
other groups, so with those; America meant an enlargement of their
horizon. Most of them had earned money and meant to buy land; some of
them had an eye to the undeveloped mineral wealth of their country, and
two carried home enriched lives through having attended an evening
school, where they had learned to read and write some English.
All were still loyal sons of their mountain home, and only three of the
thirty in the inn meant to try their luck again.
The innkeeper thought emigration a great boon, and it was, to him; for
the emigrants all passed through Nyegusi whether they came or went, and
that meant revenue.
Externally, Cetinje, the capital, is still the same; although there the
greatest change has taken place since my last visit. Cetinje now has a
parliament, and its post-office officials have something more to do than
smoke cigarettes. Its storekeepers are enriched by the inflow of money;
the women respond to the new spirit; for a comparatively large number is
going to America, and a few have already gone. The men, especially the
old peasants, find this new spirit most trying. One of them, in a little
stone hut at Kolasin, said: "The women come home after three years'
absence and the devil has got into them. They _sit_ in my presence and
demand to eat when I do!
"What kind of country is that anyway which encourages such things? Is it
a woman's country?"
I met one woman whose son I knew in the "States." He is one of the few
that have prospered, and he means to stay. His mother's little cottage
on the outskirts of Cetinje shows plainly the influence of America.
On the walls hang many gaudy calendars, and a crayon portrait of her
son, in an elaborate frame.
"Tell me," she said, as she pointed to a bulky newspaper printed in
Scranton, Pa., and sent by her son, as a curiosity, "how many weeks does
it take them to read it?"
Her son sends her ten dollars every month, which means fifty kronen.
"Only the good Princess has so much money of her own!" the proud mother
said; and I am not so sure that even the Princess has it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account