34o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



But to pass from the antecedents of our Jewish immigrants to 

 the immigrants themselves. Except to some extent from portions 

 of Austria and Roumania, they present little evidence of a state of 

 prosperity that would be believed to be sufficient to excite the envy of 

 the Slavic or Eoumanian peasant. In general appearance and de- 

 meanor, as well as in the degree of their physical deterioration, they 

 are in the main what might be expected from their civil status and 

 immediate environment in the particular locality whence they come. 

 But, in spite of an unprepossessing exterior and apparent contentment 

 in squalid surroundings, the consciousness and pride of belonging to a 

 superior race is always active and personal ambition is seldom extinct. 

 They and their children have given abundant evidence of the qualities 

 which have won distinction for their race in so many fields. Among 

 them may be found the same active and well-balanced minds and the 

 same tendency to concentration of energy for the accomplishment of 

 the task on hand. They have a nervous make-up that is not easily 

 susceptible to the formation of habits of body or thought, and it 

 would often appear that their mental processes were not of the western 

 order, but, after all, the Hebrew is only a more or less modified 

 Oriental still. 



So also they seem to possess to a high degree the power of divesting 

 from the bias of prejudice or self -gratification the conclusions by 

 which a course of action is governed, and to be less inclined than 

 western people to be influenced by precedent or convention in making 

 use of visible means for reaching a desired end. Like the southern 

 Italians, they have a reputation for parsimony, but whereas the Italian 

 in stinting himself and his family feels satisfaction in the thought 

 that he has added an infinitesimal amount to the fund that will lead 

 to the accomplishment of some indefinite future object, the Russian 

 Jew only looks on the increments to his assets, like an athlete's 

 medals, as evidence of contests that have been won and as an incen- 

 tive, not to further efforts to save, but to increase his capacity to 

 gain. To carry the contrast still further, the Hebrew immigrant in 

 the most unaccustomed and bewildering surroundings never abandons 

 his efforts to think for himself, and if compelled to rely upon guid- 

 ance he will be as likely to repose a limited amount of confidence in 

 a gentile stranger as in an unknown Jew. Instead of settling per- 

 sonal differences 'out of court' like the Italian, he is constantly in 

 litigation, for he can not resist the temptation to utilize the obvious 

 imperfections of our system of jurisprudence as a means of serving 

 some personal end. 



By far the majority of these immigrants have prospered. While 

 still represented in the vocations with which they are commonly 



