first impression of life and labour on the continent
one clear, cold morning, about the first of september, i took a train at bonar bridge, in the north of scotland, southward bound. there was a cold wind blowing, and bonar bridge is about the latitude, as i learned from looking at my atlas, of northern labrador—farther north, in fact, than i had ever in my lifetime dreamed of going.
i spent the next four or five hours looking out of a car window across the bleak, brown moors, studying the flocks of sheep and the little thatch-roofed cottages clinging to the lonesome hillsides.
three days later i was in the beautiful mountain region below dresden, on my way to prague, the capital of bohemia. in many ways conditions in the farming regions of bohemia are quite as primitive as they are among the crofters of northern scotland. there are, for example, a larger number of small farmers owning their own land in bohemia than
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there are in scotland, but the scottish crofter, although he remains a tenant on a large estate, has, at the present time, a more secure position on the soil than the man who rents his land in bohemia. in other respects the scotch highlanders, whose country i had just left, and the czechs, whose country i was just entering, are, i should say, about as different as one could well imagine.
among other things i noticed that the farming people in this part of the world do not live apart, scattered about in the open country, as they do in scotland, and as is the case everywhere in america. on the contrary, the bohemian farmers live huddled together in little villages, in the centre of the surrounding fields, from which they go out to their work in the morning and to which they return in the evening.
these different manners of settling on the soil are one of the marks by which the people in the north of europe are distinguished from those in the south. the northern people settle in widely scattered homesteads, while the southern people invariably herd together in little villages, and each individual becomes, to a great extent, dependent upon the community and loses himself in the life about him. this accounts, in large measure, for the difference
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in character of the northern and southern people. in the north the people are more independent; in the south they are more social. the northern people have more initiative; they are natural pioneers. the southern people are more docile, and get on better under the restraints and restrictions of city life. it is said, also, that this explains why it is that the people who are now coming to america from the south of europe, although most of them come from the land, do not go out into the country districts in america, but prefer to live in the cities, or, as seems to be the case with the italians, colonize the suburbs of the great cities.
another thing that interested me was the sight of women working on the land. i had not gone far on my way south from berlin before my attention was attracted by the number of women in the fields. as i proceeded southward, the number of these women labourers steadily increased until they equalled and even outnumbered the men. one of these i had an opportunity to see close at hand; she was coarsely clad, barefoot, and carried a rake over her shoulder. i had seen pictures of something like that before, but never the real thing.
outside of italy i have rarely seen men going barefoot either in the country or in the city,
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but in southern europe it seems to be the custom among the working women, and i took it as an indication of the lower position which women occupy among the people of southern europe as compared with the position that they occupy in america. i saw many barefoot women later in the course of my journey, both in the field and elsewhere. i confess, however, i was surprised to meet in vienna, austria, as i did on several occasions while i was there, women walking barefoot on the pavements in one of the most fashionable streets of the city. one day, in speaking to a native austrian, i expressed my surprise at what i had seen.
"oh, well," he replied, "they are slovaks."
how vividly this reminded me of a parallel remark with which i was familiar, "oh, well, they are negroes!"
it was the tone of this reply that caught my attention. it emphasized what i soon discovered to be another distinguishing feature of life in southern europe. everywhere i went in austria and hungary i found the people divided according to the race to which they belonged. there was one race at the top, another at the bottom, and then there were perhaps two or three other races which occupied positions relatively higher or lower in between. in most cases it was some section of the slavic
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race, of which there are some five or six different branches in the austrian empire, which was at the bottom.
several times, in my efforts to find out something about these so-called "inferior people," i made inquires about them among their more successful neighbours. in almost every case, no matter what race it happened to be to which i referred, i received the same answer. i was told that they were lazy and would not work; that they had no initiative; that they were immoral and not fitted to govern themselves. at the same time, i found them doing nearly all the really hard, disagreeable, and ill-paid labour that was being done. usually i found, also, that with fewer opportunities than the people around them, they were making progress.
i was frequently surprised at the bitterness between the races. i have heard people talk more violently, but i do not think i have heard any one say anything worse in regard to the negro than some of the statements that are made by members of one race in austria in regard to members of some other.
i reached the city of prague late at night, and awoke next morning in a world that was utterly new to me. it was not that prague looked so different from other european cities i had seen, but the language sounded more
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strange than anything else i had ever heard. i do not pretend to understand german, yet it seemed to me that there was something familiar and friendly about that language as compared with czech.
the czechs are but one of the seventeen races of austria-hungary, each one of which, with the exception of the jews, who are an exception to everything, is seeking to preserve its own language, and, if possible, compel all its neighbours to learn it. preserving its own language is not difficult in the country districts, where each race lives apart in its own village and maintains its own peculiar customs and traditions. it is more difficult in the large cities like vienna and budapest, where the different nationalities come into intimate contact with each other and with the larger european world.
there is a region in northeastern hungary where in the course of a day's ride one may pass through, one after another, villages inhabited by as many as five different races—ruthenians, jews, roumanians, hungarians, and germans. a racial map of the dual empire shows districts in which one race predominates, but these same districts will very likely be dotted with villages in which the fragments of other races still survive, some of them, like the turks, so few in number that they are not separately counted as
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part of the population. under these circumstances travel in this part of the world is made interesting but not easy.
fortunately, i had letters of introduction to dr. albert w. clarke, head of the austrian branch of the american board of missions at prague, and he introduced me to some of his native assistants who spoke english, and kindly assisted me in finding what i most desired to see of the city and the people. through him i had an opportunity to get inside of some of the tenements in which european people live, and to see some of the working people in their homes. i did not have an opportunity to explore the parts of the city in which the very poor people live; in fact, i was told that there was nothing in prague that corresponded to the slums of our english and american cities. there is much poverty, but it is poverty of a self-respecting sort—not of those who have been defeated and gone under, but of those who have never got
i found the average bohemian workman living in two rooms and working for wages considerably less than the same kind of labour would have brought in england, and very much less than the same kind of labour would have brought in america. there is, however, very little use in comparing the wages that
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men earn unless you are able to compare all the surrounding conditions.
during my stay in prague i had an opportunity to see something close at hand of the life of the farming population. under the guidance of one of doctor clarke's assistants i drove out one day to a little village where there were a number of people who had come under the influence of the american mission in prague, and where i was assured i should find a welcome.
it was not, perhaps, the best place to get an idea of what is most characteristic in bohemian country life. i had hoped to see something of the local customs of the country people, but, though it was a holiday when i made my visit, i did not see a single peasant costume.
there are still many places in bohemia, i understand, where the people take pride in wearing the national costumes, and there are still many parts of the austrian empire where relics of the older civilization linger. indeed, i heard of places where, it is said, the peasants are still paying the old feudal dues; in other places the old unfree condition of the peasants is still continued in the form of peonage, as it may still be sometimes found in our southern states. in this case the peasants have got themselves into debt for land. they are not allowed to work off this debt, and this serves as a pretence
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for keeping them bound to the soil. but education and the growth of manufacturing industries have banished the traces of the older civilization from the greater part of bohemia.
in the village which i visited, as in most of the farming villages in this part of the world, the houses of the farmers stand in a row quite close together on either side of the street. in the rear are the quarters of the servants, the storehouses and the stables, the pig-stys and the cow-stalls, all closely connected, so that it was often a little uncertain to me where the quarters for the servants left off and those for the animals began. in fact, in some places no very definite distinction was made.
one of the most interesting places that i visited during my stay in this village was a dairy farm which was conducted by a jew. he was evidently one of those of the lower or middle class—a type one hears much of in europe—who, with very little knowledge or skill in the actual work of agriculture, have succeeded by their superior business skill in getting possession of the land and reducing the peasant to a position not much better than that of a serf. this man not only kept a dairy farm but he operated two or three brickyards besides, and had other extensive business interests in the village. although he was a man of wealth and
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intelligence, he had his dwelling in the midst of a compound around which were grouped houses for his labourers, cow-stalls, a wheelwright and blacksmith shop, places for pigs, chickens, and dogs, the whole in a condition of indescribable disorder and filth.
the greater part of the work on the farm seemed to be done by women, most of whom were barefooted or wore wooden shoes. i do not think i have seen any one wearing wooden shoes before since the days of slavery. they had remained in my mind as the symbol of poverty and degradation; but they are worn everywhere in country districts in europe. in fact, i remember in one instance, when i visited an agricultural school, finding one of the teachers working in the garden wearing wooden shoes. the people who worked on this farm all lived, as far as i could see, in one little ill-smelling and filthy room. there was no sign in the homes which i visited of those household industries for which hungarian peasants are noted, and which should help to brighten and make comfortable the simplest home.
i believe there are few plantations in our southern states where, even in the small one-room cabins, one would not find the coloured people living in more real comfort and more cleanliness than was the case here. even in
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the poorest negro cabins in the south i have found evidences that the floor was sometimes scrubbed, and usually there was a white counterpane on the bed, or some evidence of an effort to be tidy.
prague is one of the most ancient cities in europe. a thing that impressed me with the antiquity of the town was the fact that before the beginning of the christian era there was a jewish quarter in this city. prague is also one of the most modern cities in europe. within a comparatively few years large manufacturing plants have multiplied throughout the country. bohemia makes, among other things, fezzes, and sells them to turkey; raises beans, and ships them to boston.
what is most interesting is the fact that this progress has been, to a very large extent, made possible through the education of the masses of the people. the bohemians are to-day among the best educated people in europe. for example, among the immigrants who come from europe to america, 24.2 per cent. over fourteen years of age are unable to read and write. in the case of the german immigrant not more than 5.8 per cent. are unable to read or write. in the case of the bohemians the percentage of illiteracy is only 3 per cent. there is only one class of immigrants among whom the percentage
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of illiteracy is lower. among the danish immigrants it is 0.8 per cent.
there is no part of the austrian empire where education is more generally diffused or where the schools are so well adapted to the actual needs of the people. in addition to the ordinary primary schools and the gymnasia (which correspond to our high schools) there are several higher institutes of technology which prepare students for industry and commerce. besides these state schools there are a large number of industrial schools that are maintained by cities or by private associations. some of these are located in the small towns and are closely connected with the local industries. sometimes they are organized by the members of the different trades and crafts as a supplement to the apprentice system. for example, in a town where the inhabitants are engaged in the clay industry, there will be found schools which give practical courses in the making of vases and crockery. in some of the larger towns commercial and industrial instruction is given in "continuation schools." in these schools girls who have learned needlework in the elementary schools will be taught sewing, dressmaking, and embroidery and lace work. there are also courses in which boys are prepared to work in the sugar-making, brewing,
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watchmaking, and other manufacturing industries.
in the two institutes of technology in prague, one of which is for bohemians and the other for germans, courses are given which prepare students to be engineers, chemists, machinists, architects, bookkeepers, etc. in connection with these courses there are also special departments where students are prepared to be master workmen in such trades as bricklaying, carpentry, cabinet-making, and stone masonry.
there is much in the life and history of the bohemian people that is especially interesting to a race or a people like the negro, that is itself struggling up to a higher and freer level of life and civilization.
up to 1848 the masses of the bohemian people were held in a condition of serfdom. until 1867 they were not allowed to emigrate from the country, and were thus held, as are the russian peasants to-day, to a certain degree, prisoners in their own country. most of the land was in the hands of the nobility, who were the descendants of foreigners who came into the country when it was conquered, a century or more before. even to-day five families own 8 per cent. of all the land in the kingdom, and one tenth of the population owns 36 per cent. of the area of the country. the emperor
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and the catholic church are also large landowners.
one of the effects of this new education and the new life that has come with it has been to make the land held in larger estates less productive than that which is divided into smaller holdings and cultivated by the men who own it.
it was interesting to me to learn that the bohemians in their own country suffer from some of the same disadvantages as the negro in the south. for example, the educational fund is divided between the races—the germans and the czechs—just as the money for education is divided in the south between the whites and the blacks, but, as is true in the south, it is not divided equally between the races.
for example, in the city of prague there is one gymnasium (school) to every 62,000 czech inhabitants, while the germans have one gymnasium for every 6,700 inhabitants. of what are called the real-schools, in which the education is more practical than that of the gymnasia, there is one for every 62,000 bohemian inhabitants, while the germans have one for every 10,000 inhabitants. for a number of years past, although the bohemians represent 70 per cent. of the population, they have received only a little more than one half of the money
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appropriated for secondary education, both in the gymnasia and the real-schools. the salaries of teachers in the elementary schools range from $155 to $400 per year; in the schools in which the german language is taught, however, teachers receive an added bonus for their services.
to overcome their disadvantages in this direction the czechs have supplemented the work of the public schools by industrial schools, which are maintained by the contributions of the people in the same way that the negroes in many parts of the south have supplemented the work of the public schools in order to increase the terms of the school year and to introduce industrial training of various sorts.
more than this, the masses of the people in bohemia are limited and restricted in all their movements in ways of which no one in america who has not passed through the hands of the immigration inspectors at ellis island has any comprehension. for example, the people of austria have had for a number of years freedom of conscience, and, in theory at least, every one is allowed to worship according to his own inclination and convictions. nevertheless, it seems to be as much a crime in austria to say anything that could be construed as disrespectful to the catholic church as it would be to insult the name of the emperor. i heard a
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story of a woman who ran a small store in which she was using copies of a catholic newspaper with which to wrap up articles which she had sold to her customers. she was warned by the police that if she continued to use this paper for that purpose she would be liable to arrest. afterward packages were found in her store which were wrapped in this paper; she was arrested and the case was carried to the highest court, but the sentence which had been imposed upon her stood, and she was compelled to serve a term in prison as punishment for this offence. it was only with the greatest difficulty, doctor clarke informed me, that he succeeded in getting permission from the government to establish a branch of the young men's christian association in prague.
i myself had some experience of these restrictions when i spoke before an audience composed largely of young bohemian workmen in the rooms of this same young men's christian association. in order that i might be permitted to make this address it was necessary to announce the subject to the officers of the government three days before i arrived in the city, and at the meeting i had the unusual experience of having my words taken down by a government official who was present to see that i did not say anything that would disturb the public peace.
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not knowing what else i could say to this audience that would interest them, i told briefly the story of my own life and of the work that we are trying to do for our students at tuskegee. i told them also that the institution (hampton institute) in which i had gained my education had been established by the same american board of missions which was responsible for the existence of the young men's christian association in bohemia.
in order that my hearers might understand what i said, it was necessary for the secretary of the association, a bohemian who spoke very good english, to translate my words sentence by sentence. in spite of these difficulties i do not think i ever spoke to an audience of labouring people who were more intelligent or more appreciative. it was a great pleasure and satisfaction to me to be able to speak to this audience. i felt, as i think they did, that we had something in common which others, perhaps, could not entirely understand, because each of us belonged to a race which, however different in other respects, was the same in this: that it was struggling upward.
