176 ANDREW J. SHIPMAN MEMORIAL 



There is no lack of priests in the Slovak country, yet the 

 practice of solemnizing the reception of the first communion 

 by the children is unknown and many other forms of Catholic 

 devotion are omitted. Even the Holy Rosary Society was dis- 

 solved, because its devotions and proceedings were conducted 

 in Slovak. The result of governmental restriction of any 

 national expression has been a complete lack of initiative on 

 the part of the Slovak priesthood, and it is needless to speak 

 of the result upon their flocks. In the eastern part of the 

 Slovak territory where there were Slovak-speaking Greek 

 Catholics, they fared slightly better in regard to the attempts 

 to make them Hungarians. There the liturgy was Slavonic 

 and the clergy who used the Magyar tongue still were in 

 close touch with their people through the offices of the Church. 

 All this pressure on the part of the authorities tended to pro- 

 duce an active Slovak emigration to America, while bad har- 

 vests and taxation also contributed. 



A few immigrants came to America in 1864 and their suc- 

 cess brought others. In the late seventies the Slovak exodus 

 was well marked, and by 1882 it was sufficiently important to 

 be investigated by the Hungarian Minister of the Interior 

 and directions given to repress it. The American immigra- 

 tion figures indicate the first important Slovak influx in 1873 

 when 1300 immigrants came from Hungary, which rose to 

 4000 in 1880 and to nearly 15,000 in 1884, most of them set- 

 tling in the mining and industrial regions of Pennsylvania. 

 At first they came from the Counties of Zemplin, Saros, 

 Szepes, and Ung, where there were also many Ruthenians. 

 They were called "Huns" or "Hunkies," and were used at 

 first to fill the places left vacant by strikers. They were very 

 poor and willing to work for little when they arrived, and 

 were accordingly hated by the members of the various unions. 

 The Slovak girls, like the Irish, mostly went into service, and 

 because they had almost no expense for living managed to 

 earn more than the men. To-day the Slovaks of x\merica are 

 beginning to possess a national culture and organization, which 

 presents a striking contrast to the cramped development of 

 their kinsmen in Hungary. Their immigration of late years 

 has ranged annually from 52,368 in 1905 to 33,416 in 1910. 

 Altogether it is estimated that there are now some 560,000 

 Slovaks in the United States, including the native born. They 



