Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/404

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THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

peddlers. They were all unmarried between 20 and 30 years old. They earned on an average $10 a week and paid $30 a month rent for the barn and the rooms above it. The rooms were unfurnished and dirty. The men slept on mattresses on the floor. This was often the condition in which groups of ped- dlers were found but there were some exceptions. In one group twenty-two men lived together. They had rented five of the six apartments in the flat building. Ten of these men were laborers who worked for the Rock Island and received from

TABLE SHOWING RENTS PAID BY GREEKS OF CHICAGO

Family Groups

Non-Family Groups

^, /. For living-rooms only

31 46 43 36

7

S

12

3

10

S

25

7 8

II. For store and living-rooms or room

3

III. For barn and living-rooms over bam

8

Number paying over $40 per month

IV. Number owning their ouni homes

2 4

Total

198

loS

$10 to $12 per week and eleven were peddlers who estimated their weekly profits at $9. Each one of the men paid $4 a week which went toward the payment of rent, food, and the wages of the man who was cook and general caretaker of the group. With one exception all of these men were under thirty and they were all unmarried. The flats were kept clean and the men lived comfortably. Often the owner of a restaurant, a fruit- store or a shoe-shine parlor furnished his employees board and room. For example, the owner of a restaurant had a nine-room flat where eight waiters, who worked for him and were paid from $6 to $10 a week lived with him. The house was com- fortably furnished and clean. All of the men were unmarried and between twenty and thirty years of age. In another group were five laborers who paid $12 a month for a four-room rear house. These young men came from Tripolis. One of them had been here three years and was able to read and write English.