THE MAN FARTHEST DOWN BY THE SAME AUTHOR UP FROM SLAVERY: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY THE STORY OF THE NEGRO WORKING WITH THE HANDS CHARACTER BUILDING MY LARGER EDUCATION THE MAN FARTHEST DOWN A RECORD OF OBSERVATION AND STUDY IN EUROPE BY BOOKER T. WASHINGTON WITH THE COLLABORATION OF ROBERT E. PARK [Illustration: Logo] GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1912 _Copyright, 1911, by_ THE OUTLOOK COMPANY _Copyright, 1912, by_ DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY _All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian_ CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Hunting the Man Farthest Down 3 II. The Man at the Bottom in London 21 III. From Petticoat Lane to Skibo Castle 37 IV. First Impression of Life and Labour on the Continent 53 V. Politics and Races 70 VI. Strikes and Farm Labour in Italy and Hungary 86 VII. Naples and the Land of the Emigrant 105 VIII. The Labourer and the Land in Sicily 124 IX. Women and the Wine Harvest in Sicily 148 X. The Church, the People and the Mafia 166 XI. Child Labour and the Sulphur Mines 192 XII. Fiume, Budapest and the Immigrant 217 XIII. Cracow and the Polish Jew 240 XIV. A Polish Village in the Mountains 264 XV. A Russian Border Village 276 XVI. The Women Who Work in Europe 296 XVII. The Organization of Country Life in Denmark 319 XVIII. Reconstructing the Life of the Labourer in London 341 XIX. John Burns and the Man Farthest Down in London 360 XX. The Future of the Man Farthest Down 377 The Man Farthest Down CHAPTER I HUNTING THE MAN FARTHEST DOWN On the 20th of August, 1910, I sailed from New York City for Liverpool, England. I had been given a leave of absence of two months from my work at Tuskegee, on condition that I would spend that time in some way that would give me recreation and rest. Now I have found that about the only comfortable and satisfactory way for me to rest is to find some new kind of work or occupation. I determined therefore to carry out a plan I had long had in mind of making myself acquainted with the condition of the poorer and working classes in Europe, particularly in those regions from which an ever-increasing number of immigrants are coming to our country each year.