Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/400

 386 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

tingnish them from the ordinary family group in which the wife or daughter does the housekeeping for the family and a lodger or two. Approximately 71 per cent, of the laborers given in the table below and 84 per cent, of the peddlers belong to these non-family groups, while 65 per cent, of the owners of ice-cream parlors and 75 per cent, of the restaurant keepers belong to the family groups. This shows very clearly how the system works. Like other foreigners most of the Greeks must first serve an

TABLE SHOWING OCCUPATIONS OF 956 GREEK MEN IN CHICAGO Occupations Total Occupations Total

Laborers 195 Saloon-keepers and bartenders.. 15

Peddlers 17:8 Candy stores or factories 13

Waiters and cooks 105 Barbers 12

Owners of ice-cream parlors... 83 Masons 11

Porters 79 Owners of shoe-shine parlors. . 10

Restaurant keepers 55 Printers Q

Storekeepers 41 Miscellaneous 89

Clerks 31 Not engaged in gainful occupa-

Fruit-stores 24 tion 6

apprenticeship in the gangs that do the railroad and general con- struction work for the country. But their apprenticeship is shorter than with most nationalities. A labor agent who sup- plies two or three thousand foreigners a season for this sort of work says that the Greek seldom "ships out" more than once or twice. In that time he has learned some English and has accum- ulated enough money to venture on a small commercial enter- prise for himself. He becomes a peddler, perhaps later owns a fruit-stand and finally an ice-cream parlor. By this time he is ready to send for his wife and children or some Greek woman who becomes his wife and they are able to live comfortably and happily. During the short time that he has been in Chicago the Greek has established his reputation as a shrewd business man. On Halsted Street they are already saying, "It takes a Greek to beat a Jew." Historically there is of course some reason for this. Mahaffy, an authority on ancient as well as modern Greece, says of them: "They are probably as clever