them, for most of the great American cities lie in this
northeastern corner of the land. Whence come these millions? From the
vast and mysterious lands of the Slavs, from Italy, from Greece, and
from the Levant.

The term Slav covers a welter of nationalities whose common ethnic
heritage has long been concealed under religious, geographical, and
political diversities and feuds. They may be divided into North Slavs,
including Bohemians, Poles, Ruthenians, Slovaks, and "Russians," and
South Slavs, including Bulgarians, Serbians and Montenegrins,
Croatians, Slovenians, and Dalmatians. As one writer on these races
says, "It is often impossible in America to distinguish these national
groups.... Yet the differences are there.... In American communities
they have their different churches societies, newspapers, and a
separate social life.... The Pole wastes no love on the Russian, nor
the Ruthenian on the Pole, and a person who acts in ignorance of these
facts, a missionary for instance, or a political boss, or a trade
union organizer, may find himself in the position of a host who
should innocently invite a Fenian from Cork County to hobnob with an
Ulster Orangeman on the ground that both were Irish."[35]

The Bohemians (including the Moravians) are the most venturesome and
the most enlightened of the great Slav family. Many of them came to
America in the seventeenth century as religious pilgrims; more came as
political refugees after 1848; and since 1870, they have come in
larger numbers, seeking better economic conditions. All told, they
numbered over 220,000, from which it may be estimated that there are
probably today half a million persons of Bohemian parentage in the
United States. Chicago alone shelters over 100,000 of these people,
and Cleveland 45,000. These immigrants as a rule own the neat,
box-like houses in which they live, where flower-pots and tiny gardens
bespeak a love of growing things, and lace curtains, carpets, and
center tables testify to the influence of an American environment. The
Bohemians are much given to clubs, lodges, and societies, which
usually have rooms over Bohemian saloons. The second generation is
prone to free thinking and has a weakness for radical socialism.

The Bohemians are assiduous readers, and illiteracy is almost unknown
among them. They support many periodicals and several thriving
publishing houses. They cling to their language with a religious
fervor. Their literature and