SLAVS IN AMERICA 163 



word Bohemian came into use to designate one who lived an 

 easy, careless life, unhampered by serious responsibilities. 

 Such a meaning is, however, the very antithesis of the serious 

 conservative Chekh character. The names of a few Bohemians 

 are found in the early history of the United States. Augus- 

 tyn Herman (1692), of Bohemia Manor, Maryland, and Bed- 

 rich Filip (Frederick Philipse, 1702), of Philipse Manor, Yon- 

 kers. New York, are the earliest. In 1848 the revolutionary 

 uprisings in Austria sent many Bohemians to this country. In 

 the eighteenth century the Moravian Brethren (Bohemian 

 Brethren) had come in large numbers. The finding of gold in 

 CaHfornia in 1849-50 attracted many more, especially as serf- 

 dom and labor dues were abolished in Bohemia at the end of 

 1848, which left the peasant and workman free to travel. In 

 1869 and the succeeding years immigration was stimulated by 

 the labor strikes in Bohemia, and on one occasion all the 

 women workers of several cigar factories came over and set- 

 tled in New York. About 60 per cent of the Bohemians and 

 Moravians who have settled here are Catholics, and their 

 churches have been fairly maintained. Their immigration dur- 

 ing the past ten years has been 98,100, and in 1910 the number 

 of Bohemians in the United States, immigrants and native 

 bom, was reckoned at 550,000. They have some 140 Bohe- 

 main Catholic churches and about 250 Bohemian priests ; their 

 societies, schools, and general institutions are active and flour- 

 ishing. 



11. — Bulgarians 



This part of the Slavic race inhabits the present Kingdom of 

 Bulgaria, and the Turkish provinces of Eastern Rumelia, rep- 

 resenting ancient Macedonia. Thus it happens that the Bul- 

 garians are almost equally divided between Turkey and Bul- 

 garia. Their ancestors were the Bolgars or Bulgars, a Finnish 

 tribe, which conquered, intermarried, and coalesced with the 

 Slav inhabitants, and eventually gave their name to them. The 

 Bulgarian tongue is in many respects the nearest to the Church 

 Slavonic, and it was the ancient Bulgarian which Sts. Cyril 

 and Methodius are said to have learned in order to evangelize 

 the pagan Slavs. The modern Bulgarian language, written 

 with Russian characters and a few additions, differs from the 



