Half a century has passed since Bohemians first crossed the ocean, and after a long and dreaded journey and much uncertainty, settled down in Chicago, which was then scarcely more than a large village on the Lake shore in the endless prairie.
To-day, Chicago is the third largest Bohemian city in the world, having about one hundred thousand Bohemians, grouped in several colonies of which "Pilsen"[1] is the largest. Originally, the Bohemians lived on Van Buren and Canal streets where now rushing business life is focused. But these settlers were accustomed to villages and small rustic towns, where they cultivated their fields and lived by their handicraft. Therefore, they soon moved from their first seats near the lake and, when the influx of Jews and Italians into their new quarters began to change the character of the settlement, they moved again. The growth of Pilsen thus began after 1870, and after thirty years shows a certain crystallization of what is typical and characteristic of Bohemian-American life. The other quarters are of more recent date and in many respects bear to Pilsen the relation of colonies to a mother land.
A marked though slight dialect, very common in Chicago, shows that a great number of the people came from the southern part of the kingdom, a district which is poorer than the central and northern parts. Nor is the education in this part as good, for poverty does not send out rays of education, though it absorbs them with craving rapidity.
The reasons for the Bohemian emigration are various. The stormy year, 1848, sent a few pioneers for the Bohemian colony; so did the wars with Italy and Prussia and the depressions that followed. Bad harvests, hailstorms and droughts have been of influence, and the disproportionate land taxes, compulsory military service, and the lack of liberty in the bureaucratic system, are certainly of moment.
The reasons for emigration must ever be strong, for the Bohemians cling to the inherited strip of land, to the cottage they were born in, to the little church on the hill, and the rattling mill on the brook. But when they decide to leave the village or town they were born in, the pain of parting gives life to a new, strong love for the new country, the unknown yet longed-for home. And they come with the intention of becoming American citizens.
Even by a conservative element, the Bohemians are considered desirable immigrants. The number of illiterates is small; in the country districts they make good farmers; they are clever hand-workers in the towns. The last is of special interest for Chicago, and is borne out by the fact that of 9,591 Bohemians who came to the United States in 1902–3, 2,609 were skilled workmen.[2] The United States census of 1900 shows that 75.8 per cent of the Bohemians live in the North-west, which is prevailingly agricultural. Of the Bohemians who came over in 1903 only 1.2 per cent were illiterate—and a proportion exceeded only by the Finnish and Scandinavian immigrants of this year.[3]
- ↑ Pilsen or Plzen lies between Halstead and Western avenues from Sixteenth street out to Twenty-second street. The Bohemians coming to Chicago stop at Pilsen before they settle down definitely. Growing industries (Packing-town) and cheap lots influence the growth of colonies, of which many have a half rural character. There are about nine colonies besides Pilsen; most of them have a Bohemian Catholic parish and a Freethinker's school.
- ↑ The proportion of skilled workmen among immigrants of 1902·3 was as follows: Irish, 3,273 out of 35,806; Poles, 3.715 out of 82.373; Slovaks, 1,389 out of 34,427.
- ↑ The Slavic immigration of 1903 shows the following percentages of illiterates: Bohemians, 1.2 per cent; Slovaks, 19.3 per cent; Poles, 27.5 per cent; Croatians and Slovens, 33.1 per cent; Lithuanians. 38.0 per cent. See, H. Schwegel, Die Einwanderung in die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika.
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