EMIGRATION TO AMERICA AN INDUSTRY 



1097 



wistfully, "but mother is mother," he 

 added, with conviction. 



He thought that if he could work at his 

 trade ten years in America he could save 

 in that time $2,000 and with it return 

 and buy a farm in his native land. 



From Castrogiovanni one sees tower- 

 ing fifty miles to the eastward the cone 

 of Mount .Etna, rising out of the valley 

 of Catania symmetrical and majestic. 

 One who would know Sicily should not 

 neglect a visit to its slopes, whose vol- 

 canic soil, fresh from the inwards of the 

 earth, grows the finest grapes of the 

 island. 



Everywhere you go among its splendid 

 people, if merely to ask a direction or say 

 good afternoon, you must stop and drink 

 of their proffered wine, and you will con- 

 clude that you have again come to the 

 wrong place to look for thieves and cut- 

 throats. 



From Sicily I passed up into Calabria, 

 the most southerly division of the penin- 

 sula, the heel of the boot of which Sicily 

 constitutes the toe, and, although it is 

 geographically nearer Naples and the 

 northern centers than the island below 

 it, it is in fact the most isolated part of 

 the kingdom. Communication through- 

 out it is most difficult because of the lofty 

 and rugged peaks of the southern Apen- 

 nines, while there are few steamships and 

 fewer railroads. 



Figures compiled by the Italian gov- 

 ernment show that for the three years 

 1905-1907 emigration from Calabria 

 averaged annually 394 persons for every 

 10,000 inhabitants — greater proportion- 

 ally than from any other part of the 

 kingdom. Of these, 385 crossed the At- 

 lantic, and, although there are no statis- 

 tics to show how many went to South and 

 how many to North America, it is known 

 that practically all the Calabrian emigra- 

 tion comes to this country. 



Calabria is a region unknown to the 

 tourist, and yet, without knowledge of 

 Italian, an English-speaking man might 

 get along better there than elsewhere in 

 Italy because of the great number of 

 emigrants returned from America with a 

 fair knowledge of its language. These 



one meets with most, not in the larger 

 cities, but in the villages, because the 

 population of the last is made up almost 

 entirely of agricultural laborers, and it is 

 from this class that emigrants are made. 



Take, for instance, the little village of 

 Settingiano, a hill town which I visited 

 one day from Catanzaro. The first man 

 I met I addressed in Italian, but, after a 

 sentence or two in that language, he di- 

 vined my nationality and answered me 

 in excellent English. After that it seemed 

 to me that I must be back in America 

 so far as the men went, so many of them 

 came up and talked to me in English. 



With the women it was otherwise. 

 They were Italian of the primitive sort. 

 All dressed in the beautiful old Calabrian 

 costume and walked barefoot through the 

 streets, carrying their big water casks to 

 and from the fountains on their heads 

 as if they had stepped out of another 

 century. 



That day at Settingiano was one of the 

 pleasantest of my Italian experiences. 

 Probably I was the first American who 

 had ever visited the town and, interested 

 as I was in what I saw, I was less a 

 spectator than an exhibition. The people 

 turned out to see me as in an American 

 village they would for a circus, followed 

 me about, and, in a friendly if curious 

 spirit, tried to make my visit agreeable. 

 By happy chance there was a wedding, 

 which I was invited to attend, and, when 

 I left to catch a train back to Catanzaro, 

 four boys insisted on accompanying me a 

 mile to the station, while one of them 

 stopped at his home on the way and 

 picked me an immense bunch of flowers 

 from his garden. 



I suspect my visit gave an impetus to 

 American emigration in that town such 

 as it never had before, but if so prepos- 

 sessing and kindly a people should move 

 their village over tomorrow, bag and 

 baggage, I imagine we would be better 

 rather than worse off for the arrival. 

 All of the returned emigrants that I 

 talked with said they were back in the 

 old country only for a time and expected 

 to go to the United States again when 

 times improved. 



