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 mians have literally driven the Americans out of town. They have always offered the Americans a good price for their lands, however, and the Americans have been willing enough to move. No prejudice exists against immigration here, which is a powerful factor assisting in the rapid assimilation of the Slavs and the progress of the Texas colonies.

This success of the Bohemians on Texas farms has been the result almost exclusively of intelligent citizenship and a persistent and proper use of the soil. There has been practically no outside employment or development of supplementary industries. They exercise the right of suffrage intelligently and honestly, and have held public office in the counties and under the State. They have introduced diversified farming in the cotton belt, and have demonstrated that the farms can be made self-supporting outside of the money crop; and, as has been demonstrated time and again, they can, under the same conditions, raise a larger crop from a given area than the native farmers.

What may be termed the south-side Virginia colony of Slavs is centered around the city of Petersburg in southeast Virginia, chiefly in the county of Prince George. This county, together with the counties of Dinwiddie and Chesterfield, contains the bulk of the Slavish farmers in Virginia. The colony was begun more than 25 years ago by a few Bohemian and Slovak families from the industrial and mining communities of western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, who were seeking agricultural homes. These early settlers came to Virginia with little money, without friends, but stimulated by the desire to make homes for themselves on the fertile lands of the upper James.

Life, however, was not all roses in Virginia for these first settlers. They were not known in the region, nor were they recognized at their true worth. They did not possess the easy credit they command today, nor—the even more valuable asset—the confidence of the native residents. They had to struggle against heavy odds. Gradually, by sheer pluck, good behavior, unbounded energy, and by hard work, they have won the recognition of the native Virginians. To-day the colony enjoys the full confidence of the people of southeast Virginia, and in the city of Petersburg and their respective counties they are very highly regarded.

Slavs they are, every one of them; Slavs, however, who are proud of their origin, and who are zealous in their efforts to command the respect of their fellow citizens—Slavs who are loyal, patriotic Americans. They are respectful of the traditions of the old South, and are eager, active builders of the new South. On all sides they enjoy the confidence of and command the respect of the Virginians—they are foster children of the Republic who are growing into the fullness of true citizenship under the care of the old mother State.

In the whole colony, which is represented to a certain extent in all of the so-called nine south-side counties, including Amelia, Brunswick, Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Greensville, Nottoway, Prince George, Surry, and Sussex, there are possibly as many as 3,000 Slavs. Slovaks predominate, and, it is interesting to note, they hold a place equally as high as the Bohemians. There are a few Russian Poles