Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol3, 1919.djvu/277

 until 1825, when by the opening of the Erie Canal, it became the gateway from the great valley to the Atlantic States. Cleveland in the same way benefited by the opening of the Erie Canal, as did Detroit, the oldest of the western cities. Steamboats plied regularly between Milwaukee and Buffalo in the season of lake navigation. As a general rule the French and English clung to the seacost, while the German, Scandinavian and Cech pushed into agricultural states. Before an all-rail connection had been established between New York and Chicago, Buffalo was a kind of Mecca, where immigrants, journeying westward assembled. The city presented a sight one could not have seen elsewhere on this continent. Endless caravans of coaches, of lumbering moving vans, of country wagons, the latter loaded with household furniture, agricultural implements, boxes, trunks, moved through the principal thoroughfares. Immigrants with packs and baskets strapped to their backs, lounged on the sidewalks or crowded in front of lodging houses. In 1845, syssays [sic] a chronicler, 96,000 Europeans passed through the city. Boats which maintained communication with points west of Buffalo—by way of the canal, river or lake—seemed to do no other business, save the transport of immigrants and their luggage. The decks of these boats were provided with stalls for domestic animals; in appearance, these boats reminded one of nothing so much as of Noah’s Ark: their expansive decks were loaded with passengers, horses, horned cattle, vehicles and household belongings. Ordinarily, travelers journeyed from New York to Albany by water, from Albany to Buffalo by rail, from Buffalo to Detroit by a lake boat. From the latter named city to Chicago again by boat the journey lasted from five to six days. The Missouri Republican of July 20, 1849, advertises the trip from St. Louis to LaSalle, a distance of 281 miles, for $5. From LaSalle to Chicago, 100 miles, $4. From Chicago to Buffalo via Buffalo and Detroit from $5 to $8. From Buffalo to Albany by rail $9.45. From Albany to New York by boat 50 cents. Owing to the popular clamor that transportation companies overcharged immigrants, a committee was appointed in New York to investigate the alleged charges of extortion. It was claimed that immigrants were treated brutally by agents and runners, particularly those of them who were unable to speak English. Buffalo, which is the home town of one of the largest Polish settlements in America, somehow or other never appealed to Čechs. Borecký mentions by name about ten families who lived there in the mid-fifties. Even these few moved to other parts, eventually, save the Myškas or Mischkas as the name came to be spelled later.

In the following seacoast, river and lake cities the nuclei of settlements began forming in or after the fifties: New York, Baltimore, New Orleans, Buffalo, St. Louis, Dubuque, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Racine, Manitowoc and Kewaunee. Always small, the settlements in New Orleans, Buffalo, and Dubuque soon disappeared, owing partly to removal, partly to assimilation.

The first farming communities sprang up in Wisconsin. This state possessed advantages over others which strongly appealed to the Central Eulropean.The climate though severe and the winters long, was salubrious and singularly free from those frequent and unhealthy changes which prevailed further south. The soil was adaptable for the raising of maize, rye, wheat, oats, vegetables, all products with which the Čech husbandman was familiar. Moreover, there was no fear of humilating competition with negro labor. Wisconsin’s attractions were widely advertised in German and Austrian newspapers. In the aggregate, it had the largest proportion of foreign citizens. Out of a population of 305,391 in 1850, there were 106,691, or more than one out of three, born abroad. Of that number nearly 40,000 were Germans. “The state (Wisconsin) commended itself to settlers in other ways. Taxes were low; one could become a citizen within one year. Good land could be bought at $1.25 an acre and the ground of poorer quality for less price than that. The state maintained in New York City a salaried official, so called Immigration Commissioner, whose duty it was to seek to divert the flow of newcomers thither. This commissioner advertised extensively in the foreign language press, mainly German, sending besides, generous quantities of printed matter to points in Germany, Austria, Switzerland”. One of the pamphlets read: “Come! In Wisconsin all men are free and equal before the law Religious freedom is absolute and there is not the slightest connection between church and