iEx ICtbrtH 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
 'When you leave, please leave this hook 
 
 Because it has heen said 
 "Sver'thing comes t' him who waits 
 
 Except a loaned book." 
 
 OLD YORK LIBRARY — OLD YORK FOUNDATION 
 
 Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library 
 Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library 
 
to 
 
 3t 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/sociologyofnewyoOOjone 
 
THE 
 
 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW 
 YORK CITY BLOCK 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS JESSE JONES, B.D., A. M. 
 
 Sometime University Fellow in Sociology 
 Head of Department of Sociology and History, Hampton InttituU 
 
 SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 
 FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 IN THE 
 
 Faculty of Political Science 
 Columbia University 
 
 IRew Uorfe 
 
 10O4 
 
Offside. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Nature and Method of Investigation 7 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 The Social Population < 17 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Like Behavior 28 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Motives and Methods of Conduct 41 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Appreciation 61 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Types 75 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Practical Resemblances Q4 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 Consciousness of Kind g8 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Concerted Volition 108 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Social Organization 113 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Social Welfare 121 
 
 261] 5 
 
CHAPTER I 
 Nature and Method of Investigation 
 
 It is a commonplace to say that one can never be so 
 lonely as in a great city. Something akin to this is the 
 total ignorance of most of us as to the real character of 
 the people swarming in our tenements. Truly they are an 
 unknown quantity. Even the missionary, the pastor, and 
 the settlement-worker have but an inadequate and erroneous 
 idea of the peoples about them. Churches and settlements 
 are too much attended by those who are over-anxious to be 
 helped. So true is this that the ideas of the systematic and 
 independent visitor are often diametrically opposed to those 
 held by churches and settlements. The writer has at differ- 
 ent times been engaged as a visitor for a church, for a settle- 
 ment, and for an organization that searched independently 
 for facts concerning life in the tenement districts, and he has 
 found that the information gained in the first two instances 
 too often contradicted that gained in the third, while he 
 had every reason to believe that facts gained in the third 
 were true. It is these erroneous results based upon a study 
 of a people more or less pauperized by churches and social 
 settlements that give rise to so much pessimism in the esti- 
 mate of the tenement situation. It is the same cause that 
 leads religious and philanthropic workers to proceed on 
 wrong principles in their attempt to change the situation. 
 
 The investigations hitherto carried on have been largely 
 ineffective, owing to a lack of unity of conception in regard 
 to the matters to be learned. Aside from the fact that visi- 
 263] 7 
 
8 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [264 
 
 tation has not been systematic, and that it has not been 
 based upon a study of every family in any district under 
 investigation, the information sought has not been correl- 
 ated with any general aim to give unity to the whole or to 
 make it in any sense a complete study of the family or 
 other unit selected. 
 
 The primary aim of the present study is distinctly socio- 
 logical. Such a study in the present instance has value 
 apart from the concrete results obtained by the investigator. 
 It is an attempt to study a New York City street according 
 to a complete system of social principles. Even if the sys- 
 tem were proved to be arbitrary, the work would be more 
 valuable, the writer believes, than an unsystematic attempt, 
 however long continued, for the reason that the investigator 
 has a basis for search and an order for arranging in his 
 mind the innumerable impressions made by the unit con- 
 sidered. Without a system the study of a people is but a 
 wild-goose chase, and this, indeed, is the nature of too many 
 of the so-called sociological investigations now carried on. 
 Read the results of these investigations and you feel that 
 you have been through a mine more or less rich in infor- 
 mation. You are possibly stirred to pity or to blame by 
 the conditions described, and you may give your help ac- 
 cordingly; but when this task is accomplished the outcome 
 of the investigation is simply a conglomerate mass of facts, 
 practically useless for the future. According to the system 
 used in this dissertation we shall gather facts which may 
 be expected to substantiate or to overthrow certain theories 
 as to the manner in which well-known social forces work 
 themselves out. Thus we may hope for results of perma- 
 nent scientific value. 
 
 Further, it is hoped that this particular study has scien- 
 tific value because of the conditions under which the people 
 are living in the street under consideration. The most im- 
 
265] NATURE AND METHOD OF INVESTIGATION 
 
 9' 
 
 portant of these conditions is the extensive mingling of 
 different nationalities within a small area. This mingling- 
 is all the more interesting as it illustrates the chief conflict 
 between the two peoples now presenting the most difficult 
 problems of tenement life in New York City. I refer to 
 the conflict between the Jews and the Italians. This con- 
 flict is rich in sociological significance because these two 
 peoples are so different in their characteristics. How will 
 the conflict end? Will its result be similar to that of the 
 conflict between the Irish and the Germans? The relation 
 of these to other ethnic elements is also a matter to be 
 carefully discussed. There are other races or nationalities 
 in small numbers, as the Bohemian, the Greek, the Amer- 
 ican, and finally the negro, and the influence of the different 
 elements of the mixed population upon one another is re- 
 flected in their customs. 
 
 The chief basis for the classification of these nationalities 
 has been the mass of observations made in three system- 
 atic visitations of all the families. The first of these was 
 made in the fall of 1897, the second in the fall of 1899, 
 and the third in 1 900-1 901. Since then the street has been 
 irregularly observed and studied, and interesting facts have 
 thus been gathered that could not be obtained at the time 
 of the regular visitations. 
 
 As a secondary basis, the experience and knowledge de- 
 rived from a similar visitation of some thousands of people 
 in other parts of the city have been used. To these have 
 been added the experiences of many other persons in their 
 dealings with tenement-house populations. In thus using 
 previous knowledge as a secondary source of information 
 care has been exercised that no< preconceived characteristics 
 be ascribed to the people. The facts learned through the 
 visitation were made a determining element in the classifi- 
 cation of each family. But the secondary sources were in- 
 
10 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [ 2 66 
 
 valuable for critical analysis. A previous knowledge of the 
 people is necessary to accuracy in studying their mind and 
 character. Without it the investigator is at a loss as to 
 the manner of approach, the nature of the questions to ask, 
 and the type to expect. At the same time such knowledge 
 may become a source of error if it is carelessly permitted 
 to prejudice the mind of the student. A detailed statement 
 of the sources and of the method of work used in the 
 present instance will throw more light on the subject than 
 an extended discussion. 
 
 This investigation was made on Saturday mornings, and 
 a day or two of the following week was used to classify the 
 results. Not more than twenty families were visited in a 
 day, so as not to overburden the mind with facts. Pro- 
 vided with the blanks used by the Federation of Churches 
 the investigator knocked at the door of a tenement. Gen- 
 erally a voice from within would call out, " Come in." 
 Quite often the voice would ask, " What do you want ?" 
 And the visitor would answer, " I want to know how many 
 persons are in this family," or in more difficult cases the 
 answer was, " I am taking a sociological census," with em- 
 phasis on the last word. The door opened in all but one 
 case out of the two hundred and eleven. These people are 
 visited by so many officers and agents that they have grown 
 indifferent to all investigations. They take them as a matter 
 of course. But this investigation was a surprise to them, 
 and many were curious about it. The curiosity was soon 
 lost, in the great majority of cases, in the friendly relations 
 that arose between the visitor and the family. It was the 
 studied endeavor of the visitor to accomplish this. From 
 the Hebrews a hearty welcome was gained by ability to 
 pronounce the Talmud in the original. The visitor's cor- 
 rupt German and dark complexion were often taken by the 
 Jew as a guarantee that he was of their race. The Italians 
 
267] NATURE AND METHOD OF INVESTIGATION t % 
 
 were hardest to win. But friendliness was sometimes estab- 
 lished here also by the similarity of the appearance of the 
 visitor to the Italian type. In one instance he was asked 
 if he was an Italian priest. But usually the Italians were 
 won in a general conversation about some subject sug- 
 gested at the time, very often by the children. There was 
 no difficulty with the Irish, because the visitor could claim 
 to be a brother Celt. Besides, the Irish do not care who 
 knows about them. They fear no one. A knowledge of 
 the German language and an admiration for the German 
 character were sufficient bases for friendship with the Ger- 
 mans. 
 
 Better to show the process of investigation, the general 
 knowledge obtained, and the grounds of classification, let 
 us take a particular family. For this purpose number 18 
 will serve as a good example. The name is Cohen. The 
 family consists of father, mother, two children, aged two 
 and six, and a mother-in-law. This Hebrew family has 
 
 lived in No. — East street about two months. The 
 
 visit to them having been made on a Saturday morning, 
 all were at home except the husband. We were soon on 
 friendly terms and conversing about many things. 
 
 The husband was a tailor and had been born in New 
 York City. Mrs. Cohen was born in England. Mrs. P., 
 the wife's mother, was born in Russia, but had married a 
 Jew in Portugal, hence the Portuguese name. From Por- 
 tugal Mrs. P. and her family had moved to England, and 
 afterwards to America with a number of children, who are 
 now well situated, one daughter being married to a fairly 
 well-to-do Jew and living comfortably on Long Island. 
 These facts were learned in a conversation about a number 
 of interesting topics. Speaking of the progress of the 
 Hebrew people, the daughter and mother, supplementing 
 each other, told of the well-known movement upward from 
 
12 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [ 2 68 
 
 the lower to the upper East Side, where they now are, and 
 then to the West Side. 
 
 The visitor then introduced the subject of the morality 
 of the Hebrew people as compared with that of others, and 
 the mother gave some of her observations. In general she 
 thought the Irish very thriftless and careless, spending much 
 of their money in drink; but she had known a number of 
 instances in which some of the children had grown up to 
 be fine men and women. One instance she thought espec- 
 ially remarkable. It was that of the son of Irish parents. 
 The latter drank and wasted all their money, while the boy 
 grew up to hate drink. 
 
 On the subject of religion the conversation was particu- 
 larly interesting. The mother said that she observed the 
 ceremonies of her religion, and tried to observe Saturday 
 as the holy day. The daughter said that she no longer 
 cared for Jewish customs; that she ate what she wanted, 
 and was checked only by her mother's wishes. Then she 
 asked: "Do you think that I look like a Jew?" adding: 
 " My little girl here is not anything like a Jew." It was 
 true that there seemed to be a gradual departure from the 
 Jewish type from grandmother to granddaughter. This 
 may have been due partly to the fact that the types are more 
 marked with increasing age. But this was not entirely so. 
 It is partly due to Americanization; whether also through 
 intermarriage on the father's side or through some other 
 cause is unknown. Mrs. P. told how her landlord was 
 accustomed to come to her store and curse the Jews, little 
 thinking that she was a Jewess, until one day he found her 
 store closed on a Jewish holiday. The mother and daugh- 
 ter seemed to take pride in the absence of Jewish character- 
 istics in their features. 
 
 These matters have been recounted to show the sort of 
 material upon which the classifications of this investigation 
 
269] NATURE AND METHOD OF INVESTIGATION I3 
 
 have been based. It is readily seen that a great many facts 
 were to be obtained. Let us notice where these facts put 
 family number 18 in a scheme of mental and moral types. 
 
 Motor Reactions. A family that observes the develop- 
 ment of races and their different characteristics is not likely 
 to be either impulsive or credulous. That this family is 
 not impulsive is further shown by the self-restraint of the 
 mother on the occasion, mentioned above, when the land- 
 lord abused her people. 
 
 Type of Intellect. That this family has left the cred- 
 ulous stage, as far at least as the upper intellectual classes 
 have left it, is shown by the daughter's attitude toward the 
 Hebrew customs, in spite of the fact that the mother's in- 
 fluence was still present in their favor. 
 
 Two important questions, however, arise at this point. 
 Was the mother-in-law shown to be credulous by her belief 
 in her customs? If so, how should a family be classified 
 in which we find both the credulous and the critical ? The 
 rule followed has been to state the prevailing type and the 
 one likely to grow stronger. In this case it was not an 
 uncertain inference from the wife's position that her hus- 
 band held the same view and that both rejected the tradi- 
 tions of their parents. So to the first question, that con- 
 cerning the credulity of the mother, it may be said that in 
 this one matter she was credulous, but that her observation 
 on the general trend of affairs would lead one to put her 
 above this class; further, her attitude toward her daughter, 
 who differed from her on this point, was that of the kind- 
 est feeling. There was no trace of bitterness in the mother's 
 objection to the daughter's view. She herself seemed to 
 follow the customs more because of the weight of a long- 
 standing habit than because of belief. 
 
 Perceptions of surroundings are acute. The family is 
 quick to note the necessity for any change in its plans, any 
 
I 4 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [270 
 
 weakness in the plans of others, and all the opportunities 
 for advancement. 
 
 But few of the families in this section think for them- 
 selves. It is easier to prove the absence of this quality of 
 mind than its presence. Family number 18, nevertheless, 
 does think independently. In its carelessness as to religion 
 it may be said to be simply following a common tendency 
 amongst the Jews of the city. In this there is some truth, 
 but the manner in which this family takes the indifferent 
 attitude varies from the ordinary. The daughter and 
 her husband seem to be acting according to thought, and 
 even the mother has lost the zeal of her religion for the 
 same reason. From all appearances the daughter is obe- 
 dient to her mother; her reason indicates this to be wise, 
 but in religion the mother is influenced by the daughter. 
 
 Type of Clwracter. The four types of character are 
 the " Forceful," the " Convivial," the " Austere," and the 
 "Rationally Conscientious." 1 It is clear from many things 
 that this family is not of the forceful type. It does not rush 
 headlong into an undertaking; the physical life is entirely 
 subordinate to the mental. Tailors are not of the rough, 
 muscular class that depend upon brawn, and the husband 
 is a tailor. It is equally clear that the family is not of the 
 third type, the " austere." It is not controlled by a formal 
 set of ideas or principles so as to be severe in discipline. 
 
 There is more doubt as to whether the family is of the 
 convivial or pleasure-loving type, on the one hand, or of 
 the rationally conscientious, on the other. On the whole, 
 the evidence points to the latter. Remember that the family 
 has passed through the severe austerity of its Hebrew re- 
 ligion into another stage. This stage cannot be the con- 
 vivial, because the powers of discretion are too far devel- 
 
 1 Giddings' Inductive Sociology. 
 
2 ji] NATURE AND METHOD OF INVESTIGATION j$ 
 
 oped. Every act is weighed in the light of profit and loss, 
 and in the light of good standing and progress. While not 
 a high example of the rationally conscientious type, yet of 
 this type the family is, and its ascent from the block in 
 which it now lives will not be long distant. 
 
 Particular Traits of Character. Were I to judge the 
 Jews of the tenement district of New York City I would 
 answer the question whether they have physical courage in 
 the negative. But there is no ground for such an answer 
 concerning this family. 
 
 Magnanimity also is in doubt, because the economic prin- 
 ciple has so strong a hold upon the tenement Jew. 
 
 Rather than magnanimous, the East Side Jew is gen- 
 erous. This is particularly true of family number 18. Its 
 reception of the writer and its general attitude throughout 
 showed a generous nature. 
 
 The condition of the house and of the persons at home 
 showed that money was coming in from some one steadily at 
 work. The family is beyond doubt industrious. Further, 
 everything was in order, showing that the wife was ready 
 to do her duty. The remarks of the mother concerning her 
 store indicated that she was not given to idleness or even 
 to rest, which many persons of her age claim as their right. 
 
 It is not necessary to give reasons for assuming that the 
 family is frugal, cleanly and orderly. 
 
 As to temperance, let me recall the mother's remarks 
 concerning the drunken Irish parents and their temperate 
 son. The mother gave this illustration to represent the 
 Irish people, and a great many Germans as well, and she 
 contrasted them with her own people, who rarely are drunk- 
 ards. Further, the common sight in the Hebrew house is 
 the vichy bottle. It was so in this house. At the tenements 
 of the Irish the beer-bucket is more often in evidence. 
 
 In all my conversation I had every reason to ascribe to 
 
1 6 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [272 
 
 this family truthfulness and honesty. Persons who would 
 speak of themselves thus freely and sensibly would hardly 
 be without these virtues. Their discipline of the little girl 
 was also a sign of the high moral standing of the family, 
 and proved that she would be trained to obey her parents 
 and to respect superior age. 
 
 Compassion could be seen in the relation of every mem- 
 ber of the family toward one another. The strength and 
 extent of compassion in this instance is a subject for fur- 
 ther thought to the writer. Whom would they pity? and 
 how much would their pity amount to? are still open ques- 
 tions, both in regard to this family and to the Hebrew 
 people in general. 
 
 Such was the method used in gathering information for 
 this monograph and its classification. The method used 
 throughout has been essentially that here described in the 
 case of family number 18. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 The Social Population 
 situation 
 
 The people under consideration live on the upper East 
 Side of New York City. They occupy fourteen five-story, 
 " double-decker," or "dumb-bell," tenements. The "double- 
 decker " is built so that four families live on the floor. The 
 outer rooms are fairly well lighted by two windows on the 
 street. Sometimes even these are uncomfortably dark, on 
 account of the red bricks of the high buildings across the 
 narrow street. The middle room has only the borrowed 
 light from the first room and the inner room is usually quite 
 dark. Through the middle of the building extends a square 
 shaft, six feet by three, which is open from the top of the 
 house to the bottom. This is intended to permit air to 
 circulate through the house, but in reality it disseminates 
 disease germs, unpleasant odors, and bits of gossip among 
 the inhabitants. The lots upon which the houses are built 
 are of the usual size, 100 by 25 feet. When we under- 
 stand that four families live upon 70 to 90 per cent, of a 
 plot of this size, and that these fours are piled upon one 
 another five stories in the air, we can realize how each 
 family is limited. 
 
 In the attempt to increase the number of families to a 
 house, the block — which we shall henceforth, designate as 
 Block X — has been too solidly built up. With 70 to 90 
 per cent, of the space filled by houses overflowing with 
 people, pure air is closed out, and that within the house 
 becomes intolerable. Truly has it been said that the twenty- 
 five-foot lot is the greatest curse of New York City. This 
 273] 17 
 
1 8 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [274 
 
 condition is somewhat relieved in this section, however, by 
 the close proximity of Central Park and the East river. 
 These areas of fresh air and of natural scenery are situated 
 about three blocks away to the west and to the east of the 
 houses that we are studying. Almost all of the provisions of 
 the present tenement-house laws are lacking, for the houses 
 were built twenty years ago when the public had not yet real- 
 ized the dangers of unregulated tenement-house construction. 
 Only one house has a bath-tub, and only one has hot and 
 cold water. In most of the houses there is but one toilet- 
 room for the four families on a floor. While there is a 
 fire-escape from every floor, the amount of wood that enters 
 into the structures makes them exceedingly dangerous. 
 
 There are no large factories in the district. Tenement 
 houses with small stores on the ground floor exclude almost 
 everything else. Here and there is a public school, and 
 occasionally one sees a church. At either end of the side 
 streets are Second and Third avenues with their elevated 
 and surface cars rushing to every part of the city. The 
 traffic-filled avenues are to the people of the side streets as 
 wide streams that give them a means of traveling to their 
 work, but at the same time separate them from the people 
 across the avenue. The old Jew who proved the excellence 
 of the coat because it was made only three blocks away 
 from Fifth avenue knew that the social difference between 
 the two avenues is represented by miles. These avenues 
 not only happen to be the lines of cleavage between the 
 different economic strata, but they also bring about the sep- 
 aration of the people of the same class, and become in real- 
 ity what large rivers are to people along their banks. Par- 
 ents refuse to send their children to a school or church 
 across the avenue, but they will send them for blocks up 
 or down one side. Acquainted families taking tenements 
 on opposite sides of the avenues become in time as strangers. 
 This suggests the whole subject of city groups and distances. 
 
275] THE S0CIAL POPULATION jg 
 
 In the upper economic strata of city life local contact is 
 of comparatively little importance. Well-to-do classes can 
 avail themselves of all the means of transportation, so that 
 they meet away from their homes in clubs and churches, and 
 at one another's houses. But in the lower strata distance is 
 a vital matter, and distances are incorrectly interpreted not 
 only by the rural visitor whose nearest neighbor is " three 
 miles away across lots," but by municipal reformers. A 
 distance of two blocks is equivalent to a mile in the country 
 or small town. An institution two blocks away from its 
 people is much handicapped in its influence upon them. 
 Where the population is dense, short distances have a great 
 significance, and when these distances are across street-car 
 avenues, the separation is still more pronounced. 
 
 AGGREGATION 
 
 Density. The population of these fourteen houses varies 
 from 800 to 900 souls, divided among two hundred families. 
 The size of the family is, therefore, from four to five individ- 
 uals. The number in a house depends very largely upon the 
 janitor. Houses 209 and 235 are always filled, because the 
 landlords are present and see for themselves that each tenant 
 is comfortable in his rooms and congenial to his neighbors. 
 .While these houses have more tenants than any of the 
 others, it is not true that the tenants are more crowded. 
 Crowding is to be measured by the number of persons in 
 an apartment. From the point of view of a farmer, twenty 
 families, with an aggregate of ninety persons, living in one 
 house is an astounding fact; but in comparison with the 
 number of Italians living in one three-roomed apartment 
 the families in No. 235 are comfortable. The Italians 
 have come from Europe more recently and, being poorer, 
 are compelled to live in a more densely settled quarter. 
 Moreover, their relatives and friends in Italy are contin- 
 
20 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [276 
 
 ually coming over and temporarily living with them. The 
 Jews have moved here from down town. Their connec- 
 tions with Europe are not close. Most of their friends have 
 already settled in other parts of the city. There is no de- 
 mand to take friends into the family. The average Jewish 
 family occupying three rooms has from three to six mem- 
 bers, while the Italian family has from four to nine. 
 
 Causes of Aggregation. The Italians in this group are 
 a part of the settlement that has been growing for ten years 
 in a half circle extending west from a centre at the inter- 
 section of 110th street and the East river. They came to 
 this part of the city to be nearer to the new buildings which 
 have been erected in great numbers on the empty lots in 
 the vicinity, for most of the Italians are builders and labor- 
 ing men. The Jews began their migration about fifteen 
 years ago, at the invitation of a German garment-worker, 
 who found the carting of goods down town too unprofit- 
 able. An important contributing cause of the migration 
 of all peoples from the lower parts of the city is the desire 
 for better quarters and lower rents. 
 
 Migration, In the local arrangements of city inhabitants 
 economic welfare is of primary importance. The most deci- 
 sive index of the economic state of a family is the rent it pays. 
 The families in the corner house of a block, where the rent is 
 higher, are of a better social class. This is true also of the 
 families on Second and Third avenues as compared with 
 those of the side street. Within the economic limits there 
 are numerous groups based on social facts, such as nation- 
 ality, nature of work, and migration. The most striking 
 fact pertaining to aggregation is the great mobility of the 
 people from house to house, combined with the persistency 
 of the same nationality in each house. A study of the 
 accompanying table shows that only 50 per cent, of the 
 families live in one house over six months and that only 
 3.3 per cent, have been in the block for over five years. 
 
277] 
 
 THE SOCIAL POPULATION 
 
 'SpOJQ III 9DU9piS9}£ 
 
 to tn tn 
 u u u 
 >» >» 
 O <N <N 
 
 ^ CO d, 
 
 Residence in House the Time In- 
 dicated in Columns as Follows: 
 
 SJK9^ oz 
 
 
 *s.re9j^ Si 
 
 1 . H <M 
 
 *SJE9j^ ZI 
 
 | co rf i-i 
 
 •SJB3A 8 
 
 
 
 1 00 Tj- l-l 
 
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 'SJB3^ £ 
 
 1 in m oo 
 
 1 M N HH 
 
 
 1 (N Tf l-l 
 
 1 <n n tN 
 
 
 oo m o 
 
 1—1 
 
 •JB3 A I 
 
 co >n 
 
 N N <N 
 
 •smuoj^ g 
 
 <N O >-h 
 
 •si|;uop\[ 9 
 
 04 CO i-h 
 
 •sq;uoj^ it 
 
 0\ m 
 
 CO CO T}" 
 
 •irjuo]^ i 
 
 CO Tt" 
 
 •sjua-rej uaog-uSpjo^ 
 
 in cn On 
 
 '9aub^[ j9ipop\[ 
 
 
 •uSpjo^j j3ij}o;p\[ 
 
 vO vo m 
 
 •ujog 9A\yen U3jy\i\\j 
 
 CO 00 HH 
 
 co VO 0\ 
 «N tN tN 
 
 Foreign Born. 
 
 Residence in the U. S. 
 
 •SJB9X -{-oz 
 
 CM co Ov 
 <N CO <N 
 
 •SJB9A Si 
 
 O co in 
 <N tN vN 
 
 •SJB9j^ ZI 
 
 tN 0? 
 
 •SJB9^ 01 
 
 w 2" (° 
 
 •SJB9^ g 
 
 SI C? C? 
 
 •SJB9^ £ 
 
 0\ oo 
 tN 0< vN 
 
 *SJB9^ Z 
 
 
 •JE9 A I | 
 
 m m 
 
 l-l M 
 
 'Ap A 'N ui ujo a 
 
 O CO O 
 
 CO vN i-i 
 
 JO UJOg'3Ai;B^I 
 
 VO CO co 
 <N «N .-. 
 
 jo ujog 3Ai;b^[ 
 
 co oo in 
 
 
 00 0\ O 
 
 ^on o\ p 
 
 t-x 00 o\ 
 ^o p\ p\ 
 
22 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [278 
 
 When these houses were built, twenty years ago, they 
 were occupied by Irish and Germans, Gradually these have 
 been replaced by the Jews and Italians, and now these two 
 nationalities are fighting for the street. The process is 
 illustrative of changes in many parts of the city. The lower 
 East Side, for instance, was peopled by Irish and Germans. 
 They were driven out by an immigration of Jews. At 
 present the Italians are making great progress in their 
 colonization of the section south of Houston street and east 
 of the Bowery. 
 
 Genetic Aggregation. The statistics of births compiled 
 by the board of health are useless as a means of deter- 
 mining genetic aggregation in this block. In view of the 
 instability of the people it would be difficult to make obser- 
 vations, even if there were an accurate list of births. It 
 is certain, however, that the number of births, as also of 
 deaths, is large in comparison with that of people in the 
 higher walks of life. 
 
 DEMOTIC COMPOSITION 
 
 Age and Sex. The births for five years in Block X, using 
 such statistics as we have, indicate six more boys than girls 
 per 1,000 of the population. Up to the age of thirty years 
 there seems to be but little difference in the relative number, 
 with a possible slight excess of young women. From thirty 
 to forty the men are a distinct 'majority. After forty the 
 number of men becomes relatively smaller, until about sixty, 
 when women are in the majority. The statistics of three 
 consecutive years show that there are more living mothers 
 than fathers. During working age the number of women 
 is almost as large as that of men. As to age, the population 
 is remarkable in its proportion of young persons. The 
 number under 15 includes 40 per cent, of the community. 
 Over forty per cent, are between 20 and 45, while those 
 
279] THE S0CIAL POPULATION 23 
 
 over 45 years comprise but 6 per cent, of the whole num- 
 ber of persons in the block. These observations point 
 clearly to the urban and immigrant elements of the group. 
 The people who migrate to our shores are usually in the 
 prime of life and of the male sex. Hence the unusual pro- 
 portion of persons at the working age, and especially of men. 
 
 Nationality. The classification according to nationality 
 is so important that it merits a full table for the four years' 
 investigation. 
 
 
 Teutonic. 
 
 Celtic. 
 
 Ibero-Latin. 
 
 Slavic. 
 
 Semitic. 
 
 Year. 
 
 American. 
 
 English. 
 
 German. 
 
 Danish. 
 
 Irish. 
 
 Italian. 
 
 Greek. 
 
 Cuban. 
 
 Bohemian. 
 
 Hebrew. 
 
 97-98 
 
 21 
 
 1 
 
 31 
 
 2 
 
 26 
 
 24 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 53 
 
 98-99 
 
 22 
 
 3 
 
 17 
 
 
 12 
 
 64 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 65 
 
 99-00 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 23 
 
 67 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 7i 
 
 1895 
 
 40 
 
 
 38 
 
 1 
 
 57 
 
 38 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 62 
 
 White Families in Block X by Ethnic-Race and Nationality. 
 
 It is seen that the number of Irish and Germans left 
 over in the general movement from this quarter is a dimin- 
 ishing and fluctuating number. The Germans decreased 
 each year — 31, 17, 13 — and they will likely continue to do 
 so, because they are frugal and sufficiently determined to 
 carry out their intentions. The number of Irish has also 
 diminished — 26, 12, 23 — but it is an irregular movement. 
 The Irish desire to leave the street, but their careless 
 habits keep them back. With these two left-over nation- 
 alities are to be classed the remaining negroes. On these 
 
SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [ 2 8o 
 
 pressure to leave has been heavy. The mutual hatred 
 of the Jew and the negro is hearty. Once they sep- 
 arate they never meet again. Besides these two dominant 
 and these three " left-over " nationalities, are other nation- 
 alities, including Americans, who are merely wanderers 
 whose presence has no significance other than to indicate 
 the thriftlessness of some Americans and the misfortunes 
 of others. The two most marked movements of national- 
 ities are those of the Hebrews and the Italians. These 
 peoples are steadily increasing in numbers. The Italians 
 were the last to come in, but now they are almost as 
 numerous as the Hebrews. The struggle for the street is 
 being waged, nor is it altogether an unconscious economic 
 and social struggle. Evidence of this fact is afforded 
 by a sudden change of population in house 223. In 1897 
 and 1898 it was occupied by Italians. In 1899 the Jewish 
 landlord expelled all but two of them on the ground that 
 he wished to renovate the house. Very few alterations 
 were made and then the house was filled with Hebrews. 
 But for this change the Italians would have outnumbered 
 the Jews even in 1900. 
 
 The reason for the selection of house 223 as the point 
 of attack suggests another important phase of the situa- 
 tion. House 223 was separated from the other Italian 
 houses by house 221. The pressure to drive them out was 
 felt from both sides. The tenants of 221 harrassed the 
 landlord of 223 by complaining to the board of health 
 about his house until he cleared it of the Italians. It thus 
 appears that the arrangement of the people according to 
 houses is an important matter. Other interesting facts bear 
 on this point. The houses are numbered from Third to 
 Second avenue. House 201 is on the corner, and in nation- 
 ality is allied to the population of Third avenue. Its occu- 
 pants are Americanized Irish of the Tammany Hall kind, 
 
281] THE SOCIAL POPULATION 25 
 
 jovial and good-natured. The next four houses are be- 
 coming more and more the property of the Jews. The other 
 nationalities are gradually withdrawing. In house 209 the 
 tact of the Jewish landlady withstands the natural drift of 
 races and her house is favored with the presence of nine 
 respectable Irish families. While the number of Irish is 
 not diminishing in this house, the number of Hebrews is 
 increasing, so that before long it will go the way of the 
 other four. House 211 marks the western boundary line 
 between Jews and Italians. This and the four following 
 houses are prevailingly Italian in their population. House 
 211 is well adapted to be the point of contact of the 
 Jewish and Italian peoples, because the majority of Italians 
 in the house are of the more deliberate-minded kind, Ger- 
 man-like Italians from the north of Italy. House 221 is 
 the beginning of another section of Jewish houses. This 
 house, too, is peculiarly fitted to be the point of separation, 
 for its population is the most heterogeneous in the whole 
 block. The remaining three houses are almost exclusively 
 Jewish. Thus it is seen that the middle of the block is 
 occupied by the Italians and the ends by the Hebrews, with 
 a sprinkling of other races. 
 
 Potential Nationality. The percentage of " native- 
 born of native parents " is exceedingly small and stead- 
 ily diminishing. In 1897 there were but thirteen fam- 
 ilies out of the 212 in which the parents were of 
 this class. The next year there were but eight, and 
 the last year only five families. The number of " native- 
 born of foreign parents " was likewise a decreasing 
 series — 26 in 1897, 23 in 1899, and 13 in 1900. The 
 foreign-born parents became more and more numerous, the 
 number being 145, 172, 179, or 85 per cent, of all the 
 parents. Thus the adult population in the large majority 
 of cases is foreign. The contact of these peoples with the 
 
26 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [282 
 
 real Americans who know rural as well as urban life is 
 almost exclusively through public institutions, such as 
 schools, settlements and churches. As the table indicates, 
 these families have come to this country in a regular stream 
 extending through a period of twenty years or more. Over 
 50 per cent, of the children have been born in this country, 
 but for the most part in crowded quarters of great cities. 
 The last two facts furnish an index to the method and 
 extent of assimilation in process here. Immigrants are dis- 
 placing the native-born, but the children are educated by 
 American teachers. 
 
 Demotic Unity. The clustering of nationalities into 
 neighboring houses shows that the prevailing tendency is 
 to make national and racial ties the bond of unity in each 
 group. Only after the process of Americanization has be- 
 gun can we determine what elements will amalgamate. 
 While the Italians and Hebrews are locally nearer together 
 than others, there are no signs of union. Small as the 
 number of Irish and Germans in this community is, their 
 intermarriages are relatively numerous. It is usually the 
 case that the husband is Irish and the wife German. The 
 mixed marriages of all nationalities in 1897 numbered 18. 
 There were 20 in 1899 and 13 in 1900. Some of them are 
 so peculiar that I give one of each type : 
 
 Irish and Negro. 
 
 German and Negro. 
 
 Italian and German. 
 
 Irish and German. 
 
 French and American. 
 
 Welsh and Austrian. 
 
 Hebrew and Swede. 
 
 The community is too small to afford an adequate basis 
 for generalization on such a subject as demotic unity. 
 Nevertheless, some valuable hints have been obtained. It 
 
THE SOCIAL POPULATION 
 
 27 
 
 seems clear that one of the chief obstacles to amalgamation 
 is the misunderstanding of the American standards of wages 
 and a failure to accept them. The Irishman hates the 
 Italian because the latter is willing to work regardless of 
 the workingman's tradition. When the Italian learns the 
 American point of view these two peoples become friends, 
 and it is likely that the next generation will witness as 
 many intermarriages of Italians and Irish as now take 
 place between the Irish and the German. The probable 
 direction of amalgamation will appear more clearly in the 
 discussion of the Consciousness of Kind. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Like Behavior 
 
 Like behavior by two or more persons under given con- 
 ditions is the elemental form of social activity. In psy- 
 chological language, like behavior is a similar response by 
 two or more individuals to the same stimulus, or to com- 
 mon stimuli. By observing any peculiarities of like re- 
 sponse that characterize a population, or any local sub- 
 division of it, and any significant phases of interstimulation 
 and response among communicating minds, we begin our 
 study of its social phenomena at the beginning. 1 
 
 Each nationality has its own peculiarities of individual 
 activity and of like behavior. Consider the manner and 
 intensity of response to stimulus as seen in the Italian. It 
 is quick but irregular. Generally, or often, it seems out 
 of all proportion to the stimulus; it does not seem to cor- 
 respond to the stimulus in kind or in intensity. These 
 peculiarities account for much that we have noticed in the 
 actions of the foreign-born as we have seen them in this 
 country and as history reveals them in their own lands. 
 Likewise can be noted the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon 
 race in the close correspondence of stimulus and response. 
 
 The observations here recorded have to do not merely 
 with stimulus and response as such, but with response in 
 connection with the responses of others; the like behavior 
 of many individuals under like conditions. If response 
 
 1 The author follows the analysis and theory of Giddings' Inductive 
 Sociology. 
 
 28 [284 
 
285] LIKE BEHAVIOR 29 
 
 itself makes a great deal clear, the degree of simultaneity 
 in the responses of a group of individuals reveals still more. 
 
 In determining the simultaneity of response it is neces- 
 sary to bear in mind a number of conditions. First among 
 these are manner and frequency. 
 
 One clue is given by nationality, but it must be remem- 
 bered that nationality alone is uncertain evidence. Nation- 
 ality may be regarded as a potential responsiveness ; and it 
 is much affected by the conditions under which a family 
 lives. Length of residence in this country, associations 
 while here, and occupation have much effect upon the re- 
 sponsiveness of the various members of the family. 
 
 Next to the nationality of the family the conditions of 
 the house must be studied. The group in the house itself 
 is in a sense a distinct unit with a potential responsiveness 
 of its own. If the house is occupied largely by one nation- 
 ality, it is to be expected that the like activities of its 
 tenants will be approximately simultaneous. 
 
 The structure of the house also is important. Where 
 this is such that the conversation of one family is easily 
 overheard by other families, it is to be expected that a 
 common consciousness will arise and similarity of action 
 will develop. 
 
 Another important factor making for homogeneity is 
 found in the two persons, the landlord and the janitor, both 
 of whom contribute much to good fellowship and to a stock 
 of common ideas in the tenement-house population. 
 
 After these elements of potential responsiveness have 
 been considered, the actual stimuli reaching the subjects 
 must be noted. Throughout the tenement districts of New 
 York City there are many noises and other stimuli that are 
 everywhere the same. City officials call everywhere and 
 often, especially representatives of the board of health; so 
 do representatives of the city directory, and of the gas 
 
30 
 
 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [ 2 86 
 
 company; the landlord, the janitor, coal dealers, ice dealers, 
 peddlers of various sorts, church visitors, social reformers 
 and beggars. 
 
 Then there is a group of street stimuli everywhere to be 
 heard — grind-organs, hucksters, newsboys, letter-carriers, 
 the clanging bell of the fire-engine, of the ambulance, and 
 of the patrol-wagon. 
 
 To those who read English an important stimulus is the 
 newspaper. The New York Journal and the World very 
 largely mould the ideas of the inhabitants of the tenement 
 regions concerning public events. Although this moulding 
 is not vigorous, the influence is marked, and in some respects 
 to be commended. Sunday editions are widely read. For- 
 eigners and those who* for any reason might be inclined to 
 hold different opinions are by these papers brought to agree. 
 This is true also to a less degree of those who read papers 
 in their own languages. Many papers in foreign tongues 
 are printed by the proprietors of English editions, and the 
 news is told in substantially the same way in all. Any 
 pandering to the tastes of these people is not to be passed 
 over lightly. They desire the startling and the striking, 
 whether humorous or pathetic. Facts stated briefly and 
 often as half truths, or romantic, interesting lies, are rel- 
 ished by the large majority. Nevertheless the editor's own 
 idea becomes a common thought to his readers, and simi- 
 larity and simultaneity of thought and action are engen- 
 dered. 
 
 Yet another influence to be remembered is the activity of 
 political machines, and of various other organizations — 
 racial, industrial, reformatory and social. 
 
 The influence of the school, however, surpasses every 
 other. In the school all children are approached in the same 
 way ; the children in turn bring their school ideas and man- 
 ners to bear upon their parents. Each child transmits the 
 
28 7 ] 
 
 LIKE BEHAVIOR 
 
 31 
 
 school influence in an individual way, yet in general the 
 influence of school children upon their parents is the same, 
 and is creative of mental similarity throughout the popula- 
 tion. 
 
 In addition to these general stimuli, each section has its 
 local stimuli peculiar to that special district, such as the 
 Jewish and Italian street markets, and street singing, which 
 is more often heard* in Italian districts than elsewhere. 
 These local stimuli will be mentioned in the study of the 
 actual responses observed in the fourteen houses under con- 
 sideration. 
 
 As we have seen from the study of nationality in this block, 
 each house has distinct characteristics that separate it from 
 all others. Moreover, it was apparent that houses grouped 
 themselves naturally into three or four or possibly five sec- 
 tions. This grouping will be considered, but let us first 
 describe the houses one by one. 
 
 House 201. There are various conditions conducive to 
 simultaneous like-action in this house. The families have 
 been long in this country, all are readers of American papers, 
 and all have been subjected to most of the stimuli above 
 mentioned. Their long residence in America has made them 
 independent. Their relation to one another is more formal 
 than the relations of tenants in any of the other houses. 
 By formal is meant that they have consideration for the 
 privacy of their neighbors. They do not rush into one 
 another's houses on the slightest impulse. There is a more 
 distinct separation of families and a clearer recognition of 
 family rights. Consequently simultaneous like behavior is 
 infrequent. It is seen, however, in the relations of the 
 Irish with Irish, the janitor with all, and the baker with 
 his customers. 
 
 House 203. In this house communication and like re- 
 sponse were a little more frequent. Its occupants visited 
 
32 
 
 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [ 2 88 
 
 each other more and knew more of one another's ways and 
 work. This was especially true of the Hebrew families 
 on the third and fourth floors, and of the Irish families on 
 the fifth floor. 
 
 House 205. The janitress of 203 and 205 is a German 
 woman, the widow of an Irishman. Because of her Irish 
 name many of her Irish tenants have come into the house 
 with the mistaken notion that she is of their own nation- 
 ality. She has used no judgment whatever in the selec- 
 tion of her tenants, and owing to her carelessness on this 
 point, and also in the matter of keeping- the house clean, 
 tenants soon move out. Consequently, there is little ex- 
 change of ideas or of manners. The Jews outnumber all 
 other peoples, but they are so unlike one another that 
 there is little communication among them. From these 
 facts it is clear that the activities of this group are not 
 marked by much coincidence. 
 
 House 207. This house is more homogeneous, but its 
 tenants are often away from home at work. On the fourth 
 floor were two sisters-in-law, born in this country, of Hebrew 
 parents from Holland. They were helping each other to 
 wash dishes, and were cooperating in various ways. These 
 two families were in close communication with the neighbor 
 who lived in the front and who remained at home during 
 the day. The fourth occupant of this floor was away from 
 home working during the day. The four families were 
 Hebrew. That they were American-born was at once evi- 
 dent. They were of a lighter and gayer disposition, and 
 the maternal spirit was not so strong as in the Jewish 
 women born in Germany or in Russia. While the house 
 was neat and clean, the feeling of home was lacking. 
 Though the two couples had been married some years only 
 one child had been born. The fact that it was seven years 
 old was not without significance in view of the claim that 
 
289] LIKE BEHAVIOR ^3 
 
 Americanization and respectability are accompanied by a 
 decrease of the birth-rate. 
 
 House 200. The tenants of this house often call on one 
 another and a marked community feeling exists. The bond 
 of sympathy is strong. This can be explained chiefly by 
 the fact that the landlady, who is a Jewess of considerable 
 tact and wide sympathy, lives in the house. Her selection 
 of tenants is good, and by her wisdom she has kept them 
 here a long time. She visits them, and thus fosters social 
 sympathy and union. One nationality prevails, the house 
 being filled with Irish who' have been in America for 
 fifteen or twenty years. They are thus equally assim- 
 ilated to American ways and of very nearly the same eco- 
 nomic standing. The degree of homogeneity in this house 
 is greater than elsewhere in the block. 
 
 At the time of the several visits made here, the landlady 
 was found in some one of her tenant's rooms, or some 
 tenant was found in her apartment. Likewise, on the upper 
 floors the opposite doors were almost invariably open and 
 the families were talking with one another. The structure 
 of this house is conducive to a distribution of any report 
 or knowledge interesting to the residents. 
 
 House 211. With this number begins the row of five 
 Italian houses. The Italians are usually highly responsive 
 and sympathetic; especially is this true of the Italians now 
 in this country. Many of them know only their own lan- 
 guage and can associate only with their own people. The 
 order of precedence in their community, therefore, is deter- 
 mined by length of residence in America. A feeling of 
 dependence upon the one who knows American customs 
 best is conducive to communication and simultaneity of 
 response. 
 
 Nevertheless, though Italians prevail in house 211, re- 
 sponse there is not highly simultaneous because these par- 
 
34 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [290 
 
 ticular Italians are of two classes, the Northern and the 
 Southern; and because they are conscious that as yet the 
 house is not " theirs," that is, that their number is not 
 sufficient to establish their manners as the prevailing " hall- 
 manners," 
 
 House 213. The prevailing manners of this house, as in 
 the next three houses, are distinctively Italian. An Italian 
 widow and her son, who keeps a grocery store on the ground 
 floor, are the lease-holders and janitors. It is to the interest 
 of this family to keep the Italian spirit alive. This little 
 store brings all the families to itself and to each other. All 
 incidents of any importance throughout the house are re- 
 lated at this centre and simultaneity of response is corre- 
 spondingly marked. 
 
 House 215. There is no such social centre here as in 
 213, though the jani tress and her boy serve as interpreters 
 for a number of the families. Here was illustrated the use 
 of the air-shaft as a means of communication. The visitor 
 was on the second floor talking in ordinary tones with a 
 Cuban woman, when another woman called down from the 
 third floor and asked if the latter were in. She had evi- 
 dently heard the visitor's voice and was curious to know 
 who he was. In a few moments she came down, and still 
 further showed her curiosity by her manner. 
 
 A similar incident occurred in house 211. The visitor, 
 struggling with his imperfect Italian to ascertain the num- 
 ber of years a family on the second floor had been in Amer- 
 ica, asked: "A quanti anni in casa?" They answered: 
 " Dicesette anni." " Oh, yes," said the visitor, " seven 
 years," the first syllables being spoken so rapidly that they 
 were not noticed. When the visitor entered the rooms 
 above, on the fourth floor, the Italian woman who could 
 speak English said : " You made a mistake in the house 
 below, dicesette is seventeen years." 
 
29 1 ] LIKE BEHA VIOR 35 
 
 In another house a colored woman said : " Oh, yes, the 
 Italians are Catholics, for I saw through the air-shaft a 
 lot of candles around the coffin." 
 
 These incidents show how much each family can learn 
 of the life about it. Through the air-shaft the families 
 above and below are within hearing, while through the halls 
 four families are within fairly close communication with 
 one another. In Italian houses this is a significant fact. 
 The loud voices of the Italians carry from top to bottom. 
 This, coupled with their highly emotional temperament, 
 gives ample ground for the expectation of much simul- 
 taneity of action. Their emotions are too keen and too 
 much awake to be limited to a family. Inevitably they act 
 on the first impulse and act together. 
 
 House 21 J. The tenants here are even more completely 
 Italian in their manners than in 215, for the other national- 
 ities are represented by their weakest members. There is no 
 social centre around which they form, but they resort to the 
 janitor for assistance in understanding English. My appear- 
 ance on the floor was a signal for all the families to appear 
 and to listen to my questions. In all these Italian houses 
 it was necessary to exercise care not to excite the whole 
 house in talking to one family. Refusal in one family 
 would endanger success with all the others in the house, 
 and consent in one apartment would guarantee it in the 
 others. 
 
 House 219. Here were Italians that had just come over 
 from Europe. Naturally, these followed the example of 
 those that had been here longer, and often referred to them 
 for aid and explanation. 
 
 House 221. This group is composed of a varied lot of 
 people. Their heterogeneity, both as to nationality and pre- 
 vious condition of life, is not conducive to like action. 
 Simultaneity of behavior is by no means so frequent as in 
 
36 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [292 
 
 the more homogeneous houses. In some respects this house 
 resembles number 201. Its tenants are of higher grades 
 of life, and, as in house 201, are more formal in their rela- 
 tions. For this reason cooperation and like behavior are 
 more rare. 
 
 Furthermore, some of those that have been reduced from 
 better conditions are reticent as to their present circum- 
 stances. They keep aloof from their neighbors, merely be- 
 cause the latter are among the poor and ignorant. 
 
 House 223. When this house was filled with Italians a 
 certain family was quick to act with others, but when it was 
 left with various other nationalities now there, its behavior 
 in this respect changed. The owner and the janitor of the 
 house are Hebrews, and a majority of the new tenants are of 
 the same race. As the house is not in good repair the people 
 who have taken rooms there are of the poorer sort, and 
 consequently are more dependent and less formal, with the 
 exception of the non-Jewish element, which is very re- 
 served in its relation to the others. The Jewish element, 
 however, gives to this group some degree of simultaneity 
 in its like activities. 
 
 House 225. Here are tenants more well-to-do than those 
 of 223. They differ greatly in character and are independ- 
 ent of one another. Their actual responses to> stimuli differ 
 much, though they have long been subject to the general 
 forces tending to make them similar. 
 
 House 235. As the occupants of this house are all of 
 one nationality, and even from the same land, we might 
 expect a great similarity of action and ideas. But they have 
 imbibed more or less of Russian individualism, and so differ 
 more in their behavior than the more southern peoples do. 
 
 Our observations to this point have concerned the like 
 responses to stimuli by families on the same floor or in the 
 same house. Simultaneity of like action varies as the en- 
 
293] LIKE BEHAVI0R 37 
 
 vironment is widened or changed. A Jewish family shows 
 little tendency to act in a given way simultaneously with 
 its neighbors in an Italian house; but it may often so act 
 with more distant neighbors of its own race in the wider 
 environment of the street. On the other hand, among the 
 families of a Jewish house, or of an Italian house, simul- 
 taneous like behavior is more frequent and extensn/e than 
 it is among the families collectively of the street. 
 
 Our study of nationality has shown us that these people 
 have a tendency to gather themselves to their own kind. 
 Rarely does a family live among people entirely different 
 from itself. Even house 221, which shelters many nation- 
 alities, has nevertheless many families of one blood, and 
 the house is an exception to the rule of colonization in 
 this community. 
 
 Houses 201 and 221 are good examples of sections of 
 the city where prosperous people reside. Their tenants are 
 relatively independent of their immediate environment ; 
 nevertheless, within a wider environment their like respon- 
 siveness with their kind may be even greater than that of 
 the people here, for usually they have been in the city 
 longer, and therefore for a greater period of time have 
 been subjected to its common stimuli. The social group- 
 ings of the prosperous are not so limited by local boun- 
 daries as are those of the poor. Territorially their social 
 relationships may be most intricate, while yet as a class 
 they are subject to all the social laws of a rural community 
 or of a highly homogeneous tenement district. 
 
 The classification of these people in respect of like re- 
 sponse to stimuli is as follows : 
 
 /. Not Simultaneous. A large majority of the indi- 
 viduals composing one hundred and forty-four families do 
 not usually respond to stimuli simultaneously with their 
 neighbors. 
 
38 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [294 
 
 A small majority of the individuals composing- sixty- 
 eight families do not usually respond to stimuli simultan- 
 eously with their neighbors. 
 
 A large minority of the individuals composing three 
 families do not usually respond to stimuli simultaneously 
 with their neighbors. 
 
 2. Simultaneous. A small majority of the individuals 
 composing eleven families with great frequency respond to 
 stimuli simultaneously with neighbors. 
 
 A large minority of the individuals composing one hun- 
 dred families with great frequency respond to stimuli simul- 
 taneously with neighbors. 
 
 A small minority of the individuals composing fifty-nine 
 families with great frequency respond to stimuli simul- 
 taneously with neighbors. 
 
 The total of one hundred and forty-four families which 
 show little activity in common with immediate neighbors is 
 a natural one in a community that is so mobile and so 
 heterogeneous as this is. Moreover, many of them are so 
 continuously employed in the daytime that there is little 
 opportunity for association except at night. With many 
 there is a sort of pride that they do not " interfere with 
 their neighbors." This may be a result of bitter experi- 
 ence, or of observation of quarrels between neighbors. 
 Time and again have efforts to learn of neighbors on the 
 part of the visitor been met with conscious superiority. 
 " I don't have nothin' to do with my neighbors," or " I 
 don't interfere with nobody's business " are expressions 
 often used. These families were conscious that the less 
 they communicated with their neighbors the happier they 
 were. It can easily be realized that with four families on 
 a floor artificial separations must be rigid if quarrelling is 
 to be avoided. The Americanized families understand this. 
 
 The families that were not so rigid in their relations 
 
LIKE BEHAVIOR 39 
 
 were people whose economic conditions were similar, and 
 who were of the same nationality in the majority of in- 
 stances, and sometimes related by blood or by marriage. 
 Immigrants that depended upon the friends that had come 
 before, and janitors and the owners of small stores on the 
 ground floor were also of this number. The latter were 
 in and out of all the houses for one reason and another. 
 These families, if living on the same floor, had their doors 
 open and talked from apartment to apartment; or one 
 family was in the apartment of another. The men played 
 cards or drank together in the evening. The children 
 played in the hall. 
 
 The eleven families that displayed the greatest simul- 
 taneity of like action comprised two sisters-in-law who did 
 most of their work together; two married sisters living on 
 different floors who ate their midday meal together and 
 assisted each other in their work; two families in which 
 both husbands and both wives went out to work during 
 the day, and left the mother-in-law to care for the children 
 of both families; and others more or less closely related. 
 
 The 100 families that showed a somewhat less degree 
 of simultaneity of like action included janitors, store- 
 keepers and peddlers. A large majority of this number was 
 made up of friendly families on the same floors, especially 
 in the Italian houses, where the people are so aflame with 
 feeling that their activities fairly melt into one mass. 
 
 Having determined in some measure the degree of simul- 
 taneous like response in each house, it is important to know 
 the simultaneity of like behavior in the community as a 
 whole. What stimuli appeal to the whole neighborhood, 
 and in what degree does it respond? 
 
 Most of the stimuli common to city life appeal to this 
 whole community, but the responses differ much in the 
 various sections of the block. We have observed the grad- 
 
 295] 
 
4 o 
 
 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [296 
 
 ual diminution of the number of nationalities and the in- 
 creasing prominence of two, the Italian and the Hebrew. 
 The homogeneity of a community is increased through the 
 influence of a common environment, and through the in- 
 troduction of like individuals and a removal of the unlike. 
 Usually environment is the stronger influence, but in this 
 community the segregation of nationalities counts for more. 
 This subject will be considered at length elsewhere. Here 
 it is enough to say that at present the race differences of 
 Italians from Hebrews in a measure resist the assimilat- 
 ing influence of environment. 
 
 Nevertheless, the remarkable number of like stimuli strik- 
 ing the nerves of these people will produce results in time. 
 Even though they may change their residence, their en- 
 vironment is not greatly altered. Prosperity takes them 
 gradually to better localities, but a new place of residence 
 is usually selected because their own people are there. To 
 them city life is full of variety and change. As a matter 
 of fact there is no existence so monotonous as life in a ten- 
 ement. True, tenement-dwellers see many sights and hear 
 many sounds and are influenced by many persons each day 
 of their lives, but each day the stimuli are the same; in 
 winter, summer, spring, and autumn. And the people that 
 they meet occasionally are very much like those to whom 
 they are accustomed. There is little time for individual 
 development, and so, while 1 now the elements composing 
 this people are immensely different in character and in 
 mind, assimilation is inevitable. Appreciation of one an- 
 other will increase; intermarriage and blending of char- 
 acteristics will follow, and similarity of behavior will be 
 greater. The Italian will become less impulsive in his re- 
 sponses and the German less phlegmatic. 
 
! 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 Motives and Methods of Conduct 
 
 In their totality responses to stimuli are the sum 
 of animate activity, including all voluntary conduct. 
 According to> the inherited qualities of the various ele- 
 ments that make up a population, the circumstances of 
 their lives, and the stimuli that most frequently act upon 
 them, do the motives and the methods of their conduct also 
 vary. A brief survey of these methods and motives, as 
 revealed in the human life of the group that we are here 
 studying, will throw light upon the phenomena that we 
 have further on to- examine, namely: the Types of Intel- 
 lect, of Character, and of Mind in its Totality, the Con- 
 sciousness of Kind, the Concerted Volition, the Social 
 Organization and the resulting Social Welfare. 
 
 The term motive is ambiguous. There is a general ten- 
 dency to confuse it with cause, in explanation of human 
 activity. For instance, so many actions of the people under 
 consideration arise from necessity that there seem to be 
 but few opportunities for choice arising from motive. 
 Many are near the economic margin of existence. They 
 have landed in this large city with little capital, and have 
 been forced to take up any kind of work that offered. It 
 would seem that in their cases the necessity for food and 
 shelter would exclude all choice from their lives. Yet 
 even in this community every individual is compelled in a 
 degree to choose, and to choose wisely or fail. The physi- 
 cal constitution of every foreigner that lands upon our 
 297] 41 
 
42 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [298 
 
 shores forces him to look about and find that in which he 
 can find a degree of pleasure and a measure of success. 
 The Jew whose life has been spent upon the marts of Lon- 
 don or Berlin would die of physical exhaustion and dis- 
 content were he to become a hod-carrier. He avoids the 
 builders and chooses to learn of American life in the tailor- 
 shops and in the markets. 
 
 In this study, then, we are concerned with those motives 
 of each family that cause the several members to prefer 
 one sort of activity rather than another; with the reasons 
 why they participate in certain pleasures and not in others, 
 and with the stimuli that operate in their choice of certain 
 occupations to the exclusion of others. 
 
 Motives of Appreciation 
 
 We begin with an account of motives that are revealed 
 in that subjective side of all practical activity which in 
 Professor Giddings' sociological system is called apprecia- 
 tion. This is the mind's grasp and estimate of the sur- 
 roundings in which it finds itself, blended with feelings of 
 liking or of disliking. It is the process of getting used to 
 the world in which one lives. " The process consists partly 
 in acquiring knowledge. With the knowledge, however, is 
 mixed a great deal of liking and disliking. With every 
 act of learning some degree of preferential feeling is com- 
 bined. In a rough way every person and everything that 
 is brought into the widening circle of acquaintance is val- 
 ued, and is assigned a place in a scale of values." 
 
 The motives of appreciation are pains and pleasures of 
 one and another kind. The motives that have been ob- 
 served and recorded in this study are the pleasures that 
 appeal in various degrees to the people whose elementary 
 mental processes have been described in the foregoing chap- 
 ter. We have asked what pleasures are preferred and why. 
 
299] MOTIVES AND METHODS OF CONDUCT 43 
 
 These pleasures may psychologically be classified as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 1. Pleasures of Physical Activity, Receptive Sensation 
 and Simple Ideation. 
 
 2. Pleasures of Sense, Idea and Emotion. 
 
 3. Pleasures of Emotion and Belief. 
 
 4. Pleasures of Thought. 
 
 Classification of the families of our community in ac- 
 cordance with these gradations of pleasure is the beginning 
 of their arrangement under the types of Character and of 
 Mind. The evidence offered here will, therefore, be re- 
 ferred to in later chapters, since all elements of mind are 
 so closely related that a fact proved concerning one con- 
 tributes to the understanding of all. 
 
 Pleasures of Thought. Few families in this block have 
 an intellectual interest in their environment. Emotion en- 
 ters so strongly into some apparently intellectual motives 
 that it is difficult to be certain whether in any given in- 
 stance we have to do with emotion or with intellect. For 
 instance, family 155 has its front room decorated with 
 pictures. For the best one the husband said that he paid 
 twenty-five dollars. The picture is a fairly good oil paint- 
 ing of an ocean-liner plowing her way through the waves 
 of mid-ocean. The expenditure of so large a sum of 
 money for a picture is unusual among families in this 
 region, and is in itself an indication of something more 
 than mere emotion. The good taste displayed in the selec- 
 tion of the picture is proof of some degree of critical judg- 
 ment, and an increasing appreciation was shown by the 
 husband's remark that he would not take fifty dollars for 
 it now. In this family the husband is of French-German 
 parentage and the wife is an intelligent Irishwoman. 
 
 Family 158 includes a brother and sister past middle 
 age. The sister is skilled in various kinds of fancy work 
 
SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [300 
 
 and takes a keen interest in oil painting, which she studied 
 when the family was in better financial condition. Here 
 also is a clear case of a degree of aesthetic pleasure. 
 
 Tenement 219 has a case of critical, though limited, 
 interest in art. Its occupant is a woman who lives by her- 
 self and who, like family 158, is of the ' 1 cast down" 
 class — i. e., one that has been pushed down from some 
 higher stratum of society. She has a fairly thorough knowl- 
 edge of music, both vocal and instrumental. Owing to 
 her straitened circumstances her pleasures are eccentric. 
 Her constant companions are a white rat and a large cat. 
 These two animals are much attached to her and to each 
 other. At present the woman is concerned about the rat 
 because it sometimes falls into convulsions, due, as a doctor 
 told her, to " consumption." These eccentricities would 
 seem to bear out the common observation that it is either 
 the dullest or the most sensitive persons that are most likely 
 under the stress of life to lose self-control and mental bal- 
 ance. Here is an example of a highly sensitive woman just 
 able to keep herself within the bounds of sanity. 
 
 In addition to those persons that are unable to satisfy 
 their highest aesthetic desires are those others who, climb- 
 ing up the social ladder, are reaching out for intellectual 
 pleasures. House 235 offers instances. The younger occu- 
 pants, urged on by the older ones, who feel their deficien- 
 cies, are engaging in the study of music and literature. 
 Some families have pianos, upon which the children take 
 lessons twice a week at fifty cents a lesson. They use the 
 libraries frequently and show a real interest in good liter- 
 ature. 
 
 The better theatres appeal to a few of these families, 
 and a criticism of certain plays by one of the Jewish girls 
 was intelligent. 
 
 Pleasures of Emotion and Belief. These pleasures are 
 
3 oi] MOTIVES AND METHODS OF CONDUCT 
 
 most general among- those who still retain a degree of 
 loyalty to the church. They are chiefly to> be found among 
 Roman Catholics but there are also a few Hebrews whose 
 loyalty amounts to a pleasure in belief. There is not one 
 family, however, whose pleasure in belief could be classed 
 as intense. The tendency to religious beliefs is not strong. 
 Few families are greatly controlled by religious principles. 
 The beliefs most persistent among them, when once they 
 gain foothold, are those of the socialistic type. The ideal 
 of the socialist promises so great a relief from the oppres- 
 sive industrial conditions under which wage-earners are 
 living that this appeal is often more alluring than any that 
 the church has to offer. But there are very few out-and- 
 out socialists in this community. 
 
 Pleasures of Sense, or of Sense, Idea and Emotion (in 
 combination) are the prevailing pleasures of the block. 
 
 By pleasures of sense are meant those that appeal largely 
 to the physical nature — pleasures of appetite and of bodily 
 feeling. Pleasures of combined sense, idea and emotion 
 are those nervous and mental activities that are sufficiently 
 intense to be exciting, but not immediately exhausting. 
 They have various stimuli. The rhythm of music, the 
 bright colors of pictures, unusual sounds or> sights, start- 
 ling statements, the uncertainty of chance, conflict, with 
 an exciting uncertainty as to> the result, are examples. 
 
 Of all the different amusements possible to tenement- 
 dwellers there is none that appeals to both sense and emo- 
 tion so strongly as dancing, especially dancing as conducted 
 on the East Side, to the wild music of blaring cornet and 
 loud-beaten drum, with rattling sounds from a guitar and 
 mandolin. While the completeness with which the dance 
 combines the two elements of sense and emotion is the chief 
 reason for its preeminence as a social pleasure in this neigh- 
 borhood, there are other reasons also, such as inexpensive- 
 ness and the fact that many different classes can participate. 
 
46 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [302 
 
 Games of chance are very popular. This street has one 
 policy shop on the ground floor of 217. According to a 
 colored woman who has lived a long time in the block, 
 there is little doubt that most of the boys in the street know 
 about the place. That this woman herself is familiar with 
 it indicates that it is widely known, for she is half a block 
 away from it, and there is no sign by which it can be iden- 
 tified. When the visitor knocked at the door he was totally 
 unaware of the nature of the place. The young man who 
 came out in response to the knock was better dressed than 
 the people of the neighborhood. Upon being asked why 
 he lived among such poor people, he answered in a very 
 humble tone that he was just starting out in life. 
 
 This shop is opened at about half-past six in the morning, 
 in time to catch men on their way to work. The charges 
 are two cents for a " gig," three for a " saddle," and five 
 for a " combination." These terms, " gig," " saddle " and 
 " combination," denote varying degrees of chance of win- 
 ning money prizes in the general drawing, which, in some 
 mysterious manner, is supposed to be done in New Orleans 
 or in Mexico. 
 
 There is scarcely a nationality that does not indulge in 
 this form of gambling, but the Italians are probably the 
 most addicted to it. 
 
 In house parties, such as those given at the Settlement, 
 games with the element of chance and excitement in them 
 are a never-failing source of enjoyment. Another requisite 
 of any game is that it make little demand upon thought. 
 Card-playing is common, but the games most popular are 
 the easy ones. Especially is this true among the Italians, 
 as is well illustrated by the remark of one of them : " I 
 don't like pinocle; it keeps your head down too long." 
 This attitude regarding amusements is characteristic of the 
 East Side. Continuity of attention and concentration of 
 
303] MOTIVES AND METHODS OF CONDUCT 4 ~ 
 
 efTort are intolerable there. This fact should influence the 
 whole of the work of education and culture on the East 
 Side. 
 
 The entertainments that appeal to these people are for 
 the most part made up of buffoonery, burlesque, and in- 
 anities in general. There are various appeals to the 
 pathetic side, however — songs concerning childhood scenes, 
 recollections of the old home, love of mother, and descrip- 
 tions of heroic deeds, conveyed to the audience by means 
 of stereopticon views, in song, or by dramatic sketches. 
 
 Next to the dancing-hall, the saloon is probably the 
 greatest centre of amusement and social life. The saloons, 
 however, entertain only the male population, and do not, 
 therefore, appeal to the entire community. But the fact 
 that the>- are open nearly all the time, and not merely on 
 certain evenings, increases the relative influence of the 
 saloons. This is further widened by what is termed in the 
 community " rushing the growler." The carrying of 
 buckets of beer into the tenement-house is a frequent occur- 
 rence. The social drinking of beer, and of a wine that 
 families make for themselves, is a large factor in the daily 
 life of these people. 
 
 The religious sen-ices upon which many persons of each 
 nationality are. of course, in constant attendance, appeal 
 largely to the emotions. The Italians, however, seem to 
 delight more in their holiday fireworks, the burning of 
 powder and candles with loud noises and flashing flames, 
 than they do in any church sen-ice. One priest said of 
 them that in their July celebration the}* burn $3,000 in 
 useless smoke, and supply their priest with enough candles 
 for a year; while they will not give more than S200 for 
 real service. 
 
 The Jews assemble in their synagogues and take great 
 pleasure in listening to the weekly chanting by the rabbi. 
 
48 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [304 
 
 This man stands in the middle of the room, swaying- back- 
 ward and forward, the audience doing likewise, and so the 
 more completely giving itself up to his control, both bodily 
 and in feeling. 
 
 Elementary Pleasures. Pleasures of physical activity, 
 receptive sensation and simple ideation include muscular 
 activity, mere satisfaction of physical appetites, and ele- 
 mentary mental processes, such as assertion of convictions, 
 commanding, obeying, enduring, daring, and fearing. 
 
 The managers of the music halls and continued perform- 
 ances show their complete knowledge of their clientele in 
 that they never fail to introduce feats of physical prowess. 
 So accurate is their estimate that a fairly good idea of the 
 relation of the emotional to the physical pleasures of the 
 neighborhood can be obtained from the proportion in 
 which these are combined in the average East Side vaude- 
 ville show. 
 
 Gymnasiums never fail to attract large crowds. But 
 even here we see the leaning towards emotional pleasures. 
 This is shown in the preference for boxing and wrestling, 
 which are preeminently interesting because chance and ex- 
 citement enter so strongly into them. The champion in 
 these contests is the hero of the community, especially of 
 that part which delights in physical pleasure. Mere phys- 
 ical strength in itself, or even strength displayed in the 
 exercise of routine labor, has little attraction. 
 
 The proportion of the community preferring each of 
 these four general classes of pleasures is as follows : In 
 38 families the dominant motives of appreciation are the 
 most elementary pleasures, and this is true of individual 
 members in 73 other families. In 170 families the dom- 
 inant motives of appreciation are pleasures of sense, idea 
 and emotion, and this is true of individual members of 33 
 other families. In six families the dominant motives of 
 
MOTIVES AND METHODS OF CONDUCT 
 
 appreciation are pleasures of emotion and belief, and these 
 are subordinate motives in individual members of 84 other 
 families. In no case are pleasures of thought clearly pre- 
 dominant, though they enter as subordinate motives into 
 the conduct of a few individuals. 
 
 In the foregoing paragraphs we have attempted merely 
 to set forth those motives that were found to operate in 
 general in this people's appreciation of their social and 
 material environment, and which are correlated with types 
 of emotional nature and of intellect. A few words more 
 will suffice to set forth all that can be said on the 
 economic and moral motives that are correlated with types 
 of disposition and of character. 
 
 MOTIVES OF UTILIZATION 
 
 A large majority of the families in this block are in- 
 fluenced by the sense of appetite in their search and de- 
 mand for food and pleasures. These people are so 
 frugal and industrious that but few are urged on by the 
 motive of absolute need. Some in full health, strong of 
 body and active in spirit are moved by a sense of power 
 and a passion to exercise it. A few are controlled by 
 rational desire, indicated by their struggles for the educa- 
 tion of their children in the courses in music, and in 
 art. The majority of these are of Jewish families. 
 
 Making the distribution somewhat more precise, we can 
 say, with a close approach to accuracy, that in thirteen 
 families dwelling in this block the dominant economic 
 motive is need, and that it is a subordinate motive in 29 
 families; that appetite is the dominant economic motive 
 in 181 families, and a subordinate motive in 12; that love 
 of power is the dominant economic motive in 2 families 
 and a subordinate motive in 110 families, and that rational 
 desire is the dominant economic motive in 2 families, and 
 a subordinate motive in 22 families. 
 
SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [306 
 
 MOTIVES OF CHARACTERIZATION 
 
 The dominant moral motive of an ordinary intelli- 
 gent person, not too much controlled by religious man- 
 dates is, more or less unconsciously, the desire for com- 
 plete development. This is more true, however, of the 
 deliberative individual than of the impulsive. The latter 
 is likely to be controlled by new desires, and when 
 neglected desires rise into power, he rushes into ex- 
 cesses. American manners, dress, industrial conditions, 
 al/ give rise to new desires in the heart of the immi- 
 grant, and many families in this block have been classified 
 as largely dominated by them. But the largest proportion 
 is classified with those that are controlled by the authority 
 of the integral personality. This is an unconscious yearn- 
 ing for complete development along all lines — physical, 
 mental, and moral. The Jews, with their calculating and 
 discriminating disposition, form a large part of this class. 
 They are generally obedient to the demands of the larger 
 life. They are careful of their bodies and of their minds. 
 They hasten to obtain all available things that contribute to 
 their development. Very few families in this block have 
 any conception of proportion in life, and none has been 
 recorded as chiefly dominated by this Platonic motive. 
 
 The record of observation on this subject is as follows: 
 In one family only, hitherto-neglected desires, reasserting 
 their power, are the dominant moral motive; in five fami- 
 lies they are a subordinate motive. In 58 families new 
 desires are the dominant, in 132 families they are a sub- 
 ordinate moral motive. In 150 families a sense of the 
 authority of an integral personality, a larger life, is the 
 dominant, in 58 families it is a subordinate moral motive. 
 
307] MOTIVES AND METHODS OF CONDUCT 5I 
 
 Methods of Appreciation 
 
 From this survey of the motives of conduct we turn to 
 a consideration of its methods. And first we have to ob- 
 serve those purely subjective methods that are modes of 
 approach or of reception, whereby the mind grasps and 
 estimates the world about it, and allows itself to like or 
 to dislike. These are the methods of appreciation, and their 
 gradations correspond to those gradations of the motives 
 of appreciation that have been set forth, and to gradations 
 of emotional and intellectual development, to be dealt with 
 later on. 
 
 Methods of appreciation are of four general groups. 
 They are here arranged in an ascending series. 
 
 The simplest is that of instinctive response to stimulus. 
 No one can escape this recognition of his environment. 
 There is in a sense an intrusion of the environment upon 
 the individual responding, though he himself is not con- 
 scious of either stimulus or response. 
 
 When the individual displays an interest in affairs about 
 him, and desires to know more concerning them, he hj&s 
 arrived at another state of appreciation, whose method is 
 that of curious inspection. 
 
 When this general interest takes a specific form and 
 preference is manifested, he may be said to have reached 
 a state of preferential attention. 
 
 But the highest point of appreciation is not reached until 
 the method of critical inspection is adopted. At this period 
 the individual is eager to learn about all things, but he 
 arrives at conclusions only after a critical examination 
 which involves comparison and analysis. 
 
 One of the important indications relied on for purposes 
 of classification under these four heads has been the man- 
 ner of response to questions put by the visitor at the time 
 of investigation. If the family answered without any ap- 
 
5 2 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [308 
 
 pearar.ce of curiosity, it was taken as strong evidence that 
 its relation to its neighbors would lack that cordial interest 
 which leads to acquaintance The friendships of such a 
 family grow only through the advances of others. If its 
 members were curious and asked questions, a tendency 
 toward the second method — that of curious inspection — 
 was held to be present. But the case was never rested at 
 this point. Other evidence was sought, that the classifica- 
 tion might not be too hastily made. If the family showed 
 a keen interest in any special phase of the investigation it 
 was assumed that a preferential attention prevailed. The 
 attitude toward this investigation was, however, not always 
 natural, and seldom ever so at first. This fact has been 
 taken into consideration in determining the method of ap- 
 preciation assigned in each case. There are obvious reasons, 
 however, why the novelty of the investigation should be all 
 the better test of curiosity and preferential attention. If, 
 in spite of the novelty, no curiosity was revealed, the clas- 
 sification was not dirncult to make. On the other hand, 
 this very novelty might arouse some natures to an un- 
 natural degree of curiosity. So that in making the final 
 classification many other facts had to be considered. The 
 most important of these were national characteristics, the 
 effect of occupation upon the mind, the conditions of resi- 
 dence, and the ambition and personal interest — emotional 
 or otherwise — of each individual. 
 
 In 86 families instinctive response to stimulus was found 
 to be the dominant method of appreciation, and in 93 fami- 
 lies it was judged to be an important subordinate method. 
 
 The families of this group are ignorant, although a large 
 majority of them have. been for some time in this country. 
 This seems a strange condition, but it will be understood 
 when it is explained that many persons in this class were 
 found to be deficient in natural ability, or very old, or to 
 
309] MOTIVES AND METHODS OF CONDUCT 53 
 
 belong among those unfortunates that have missed oppor- 
 tunities to advance in life. 
 
 A reference to the wretched condition of the Irish on 
 the lower West Side, from Bleecker street down to the 
 Battery, will make the composition of this group more 
 clear. In the West Side district the general standard of 
 life and the type of mind are much lower than on the East 
 Side, though the people of the East Side have more re- 
 cently come to this country. The explanation is that a 
 process of selection has taken place, the more thrifty hav- 
 ing left the lower West Side and gone to better sections, 
 leaving the dull behind to work when they must and eat 
 when they can. The deficiency of ambition in the original 
 endowment of these drones becomes more marked with 
 time, while their natural carelessness asserts itself with in- 
 creasing frequency, until the}- take no interest in anything 
 and care only that they exist. 
 
 This decline of interest in life is due to several causes. 
 Some of these people are naturally indifferent to their sur- 
 roundings so long as their few desires are satisfied. 
 
 To this class belongs the group now under consideration 
 in our investigation. They have been on the upper East 
 Side section of the city, see-sawing between 125th and 
 1 ooth streets from ten to twenty-five years. Everything 
 about them has become commonplace and they are content 
 to move on in the same old rut. When " times are lively " 
 the men work, and, if the wage be good, better rooms are 
 sought or more beer is drunk. When the " times are bad " 
 they live on, sometimes in daily expectation of ejection 
 from their apartments, availing themselves of every make- 
 shift possible in a large city like this, such as odd jobs, 
 help from various charitable institutions, church aid, credit 
 with the neighboring tradesmen, borrowing, and moving 
 from house to house to avoid paying rent. 
 
54 
 
 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [ 3IO 
 
 But there are individuals of this class whose intellect 
 and emotions have been dulled by hardship and depriva- 
 tion. Such a family is No. — . This family came from 
 England. The husband is an able-bodied stone-mason, who 
 works whenever he can. But since the day of his marriage 
 he seems to have been unfortunate. Eight children have 
 been born to the family, one of whom is living, a one- 
 legged boy of eight, who is bright and full of mischief. 
 The story of sickness, death and privation, which has been 
 the lot of the family, is a sad one. The woman, of sor- 
 rowful countenance and untidy appearance, may be seen 
 in her rooms brooding over the past. The father spends 
 his days on a street-corner, near a saloon, smoking his 
 pipe. The corner which he selects is not the one nearest 
 his home, but two blocks above, where the people are of his 
 kind. Near this corner the boy also spends most of his time, 
 getting about upon one leg and a crutch almost as rapidly 
 as other boys. His ability to care for himself in a fight, 
 in " shooting craps," or in games, is a fair indication of 
 natural ability which has been stunted in the parents. 
 
 The approximate number of families whose response to 
 stimuli is mainly instinctive is 23. These families have 
 little regard for the state of things about them. They are 
 self-centered and rarely visit their neighbors. Sixty-three 
 other families learn of the condition of neighborhood affairs 
 only as some unusual event compels their attention. To 
 a less extent the same is true of 93 other families. 
 
 In 109 families curious inspection is the dominant 
 method of appreciation, and in 90 more it is an important 
 subordinate method. 
 
 Curious inspection is the habit of both the Italians and 
 the Hebrews, though these two races display their interest 
 in different ways. Emotional people are usually thought 
 to be curious, but this is not always true. The Irish are 
 
3 i i] MOTIVES AND METHODS OF CONDUCT 55 
 
 emotional, but they are heedless as to what is going on 
 about them. The curiosity of the Italians and the Jews 
 manifests itself in their consciousness of others and in a keen 
 desire to know about them. The Italians are the latest 
 arrivals in these cramped tenements. They have come 
 from a land of sunshine to a land of climatic extremes, and to 
 a city government of alternating laxity and legal restraint. 
 Their curiosity often expends itself in acts of disorder and 
 law-breaking, prompted by the desire to see how far they 
 can go in this land of the free. 
 
 Jewish curiosity is not so apparent in a crowd as it is 
 in response to questions. " For vat you vant to know?" 
 they ask of the detective and of all who come to ask them 
 anything that they do not understand. The Jew usually 
 manifests a higher form of curiosity than that of the 
 Italians. 
 
 While curiosity is the usual attitude toward the en- 
 vironment, it is yet less intense than one would expect. 
 It is at first a source of considerable surprise that these 
 people, who have been several times questioned at some 
 length, rarely recognize the questioner on the street. Very 
 few of them have ever spoken to him or showed any signs 
 that they recognize him though he has often met them, 
 and has even stared at them with the intention of arrest- 
 ing their attention. Very few of them, in fact, remem- 
 bered, even when he was in their house, that he had been 
 there before. This is partly due to the frequency of in- 
 vestigations in the tenement district. So many impressions 
 are made that their minds are confused. But this is not 
 all. In various ways they have been narrowed in their 
 interests. The stress of life has diminished their sense of 
 curiosity. This conclusion is, then, to be taken as a cor- 
 rection of the first estimate made concerning the strength 
 of this method of appreciation. 
 
56 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [3^ 
 
 Thirty-two families evince the degree of curiosity to be 
 expected of those who have settled in a new country. 
 
 In 77 more families curiosity is nearly as strong, but 
 many of these have been long enough in this part of the 
 city for things to have become commonplace to them, while 
 others show but little interest in their neighbors. 
 
 Through education and easier conditions 74 families are 
 gradually awakening to a wider appreciation, though most 
 of their time must be spent in mere drudgery. 
 
 For 16 families life is nearly all work, and curiosity t 
 though manifested, is correspondingly low. 
 
 Preferential attention is a dominant method of ap- 
 preciation in only three families. It is a subordinate 
 method in 50. 
 
 Preferential attention is largely dependent upon economic 
 prosperity. As a rule, those families that are comfortably 
 supplied with the necessaries of life, whose occupations 
 leave them physical and mental energy to devote to other 
 things, are more or less able to develop preferences. At 
 this stage those members of the family who work begin to 
 be particular in their selection of an occupation, while 
 each individual chooses his pleasures and associates with 
 some degree of discrimination. The totals given above 
 show that such persons are not numerous in this com- 
 munity. Three families only gave evidence of distinct pref- 
 erences. The individuals comprising them were above the 
 average in ability. In fact, they were not of any class 
 found on this street. The man of the family first visited 
 showed a keen interest in political affairs. It required long 
 argument to prove to him that this investigation was not 
 connected with a political scheme. In the course of the 
 discussion he revealed a number of preferences. In the 
 second family visited the man of the house was a profes- 
 sional gambler, and his attention was centered in his occu- 
 
313] MOTIVES AND METHODS OF CONDUCT 57 
 
 pation. The third family was composed of a brother and 
 sister — born in Canada — who had very firm convictions as 
 to their manner of life and occupation. 
 
 In a sense, preferential attention is a step in the develop- 
 ment of the dogmatic-emotional type of mind. In the 
 account of that type in a subsequent chapter mention will 
 be made of some strong preferences displayed by the Jews. 
 These may be taken as a correction of the totals given 
 above. 
 
 No examples were found in this investigation that could 
 with certainty be recorded as instances of appreciation 
 through critical inspection. 
 
 Methods of Utilization 
 
 The methods whereby men utilize their environment, 
 adapting it to their needs, and making both inanimate 
 things and their fellow-beings serve their wants are: 
 attack; instigation, and the response thereto in imitation; 
 direction, largely by means of the mental power of a strong 
 will to impress a weak one; and, lastly, invention. 
 
 People living in a city block are commonly above the 
 rude methods of attack whereby brutes and savages gain 
 a livelihood. Yet a measure of it is sometimes seen in 
 connection with other forces. The lower classes of labor- 
 ers engaged in the simplest and roughest work of handling 
 material in the raw state seem at times to exist by mere 
 brute force. 
 
 The imitative instinct prevails. The foreign-born fol- 
 low the example of those who have been in the country 
 longer, and, being of the lower economic strata, they look 
 for methods of procedure to those who have attained a 
 position which they hope to reach. The directive method 
 is often seen in the house into which the immigrants enter. 
 The naturalized elements take on a directive attitude toward 
 
58 
 
 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [3^ 
 
 the new-comers, and use them for their own profit. But 
 it is not those that are directive in this rather artificial 
 sense that are here recorded as such, but rather those who 
 are naturally leaders, strong- and commanding in mind 
 or body. 
 
 In 18 families those more brutal methods of utilization 
 that approximate closely to savage attack were obvious 
 enough to indicate that they would dominate economic con- 
 duct, but for the restraints of a civilized environment. In 
 86 families these methods, still apparent, were further sub- 
 ordinated. In 174 families imitation is the dominant eco- 
 nomic method, and in 17 others an important subordinate 
 method. In six families direction of others asserts itself 
 as the dominant method, and in 27 families as a subor- 
 dinate method. 
 
 Methods of Characterization 
 
 By the practical activity of characterization is meant the 
 adjustment of the individual to his environment, which 
 becomes necessary when he can no further adapt the en- 
 vironment to himself, and the resulting moulding of char- 
 acter. The methods of characterization are: persistence, 
 accommodation, self-denial, and self-control. 
 
 In a community largely composed of immigrants, accom- 
 modation is naturally the prevailing mode of characteriza- 
 tion. The conditions about them are strange, and they 
 must adapt their mode of life to them. Their relation to 
 the landlords, the employers, the government, and the people 
 about them, have little in common with corresponding re- 
 lations in their native land. It is likely that the Russian 
 Jews find the greatest differences between their new life 
 and the old. Life " within the pale" to which the Jew in 
 Russia is limited and the freedom in this country are at 
 opposite extremes. Within the pale the individual Jew 
 
315] MOTIVES AND METHODS OF CONDUCT 59 
 
 is perfectly free from the direct action of the government. 
 Government oppression falls upon the community as a whole, 
 and the individual is not conscious of it as coming from the 
 government, but as an act of Providence which cannot be 
 avoided. The Jews' impression of American freedom is at 
 first very peculiar. They are confused by it. In Russia 
 they could dress and worship as they pleased; here they 
 find that they must conform to the American customs or 
 be the object of unpleasant ridicule. The government deals 
 directly with the individual, and in our larger cities munic- 
 ipal control often seems paternal to them. They conclude 
 that the freedom which they sought is not here. Through 
 the process of accommodation they gradually take up our 
 customs and the real meaning of our institutions dawna 
 upon them. 
 
 The Jew is ever ready to adopt the best in the system of 
 others in oredr to be successful. Even his reputed per- 
 sistence in religion gives way to accommodation for the 
 sake of more useful ends. His desire for superiority, in 
 whatever realm he chooses, is the motive of all his activi- 
 ties; for this he accommodates his own manners to those 
 of others, for this he denies himself. His natural inclina- 
 tions are controlled to suit the end which he wishes to 
 accomplish. 
 
 The Irish and American families of this block are either 
 of the higher class in which self-control prevails, or of that 
 in which accommodation is the method of characterization. 
 Too often it is the latter, for they are willing to accept 
 conditions as they are rather than to struggle, deny them- 
 selves, and attain to better conditions. This is especially 
 true of the " left-over " class, which has been deserted by 
 the more ambitious Irish and American families. The 
 accommodation of these people is different from that of 
 the Jews, in that the latter act consciously and for a pur- 
 
60 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [3^ 
 
 pose while the former act unconsciously, merely resigning 
 themselves to the new conditions forced upon them. 
 
 The persistent class is composed of the conservative ele- 
 ment of the community, and of the ignorant and dull, but 
 thrifty, people. The old people and a portion of every 
 nationality in the block possess persistency of purpose. The 
 severe economic pressure of life in a large city forces many 
 of these families to a mode of action different from the 
 natural. The Italian, by nature volatile and unsteady, under 
 the stress of circumstances becomes persistent and self- 
 denying in his endeavors for success. The most remark- 
 able instance of accommodation seen in this block is that 
 furnished by the cooperative plan of living adopted by sev- 
 eral Italian families. Independently of one another four 
 groups of two or three families each ate all their meals in 
 common. They had undoubtedly chosen this manner of 
 living in order to succeed under the new conditions found 
 in this country. 
 
 In 21 families mere persistence was found to be the 
 dominant method of accommodation, and in 121 more fam- 
 ilies a subordinate method. In 149 families accommodation 
 was the dominant, and in 51 families a subordinate method. 
 In 43 families self-denial was the dominant, an'd in 62 fam- 
 ilies a subordinate method. In 27 families self-control was 
 the dominant, and in 22 families a subordinate method. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Appreciation 
 
 Given some aptitude for like response, and certain 
 motives of habitual conduct, manifesting" themselves in cer- 
 tain habitual ways, the first condition of further socializa- 
 tion is knowledge. The individuals whose local relations 
 are favorable to union must be acquainted in order to know 
 whether or not they can combine. Knowledge with sym- 
 pathy are the elements of appreciation; and appreciation is 
 of varying degrees, determined by range of experience — 
 by a narrower or a wider contact with mankind and with 
 the world. It is, then, the object of this chapter to deter- 
 mine the appreciation of the various groups in the com- 
 munity under consideration. This investigation resolved 
 itself into such questions as: (i) How strongly do you 
 prefer your own nationality — the people who speak your 
 mother tongue, who believe in your religion, and follow 
 your national customs? (2) Do you like any people be- 
 sides these? Are they people whom you have come to 
 know intimately? or (3) is there a wider group, as the 
 American people, that you have come to know in a general 
 way and to admire? (4) Does your interest go beyond 
 this to humanity everywhere? 
 
 The answers to these questions reveal the four degrees 
 of appreciation possible to such a heterogeneous group as 
 may be found in a cosmopolitan city like New York. The 
 pursuit of this investigation in a highly-mixed community 
 317] 61 
 
62 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [3^ 
 
 is of intense interest, and yet one fears lest the complexity 
 of it all may baffle complete and accurate description. 
 
 In Block X there are all sorts and conditions of men 
 living on one side of a block only one hundred and fifty 
 yards long. Those who are accustomed to rural life would 
 expect a wide appreciation in such a population, while those 
 from the higher class of apartments in the larger cities 
 would not be surprised to learn that there was not as 
 much as in a rural community. But neither the country- 
 man nor a member of any other city class knows much 
 about the conditions that exist in the East Side tenement 
 district, and this is not strange when the number of factors 
 entering into its life is considered. It becomes necessary, 
 in consideration of this complexity, to study each group 
 separately. 
 
 House 201. It is already understood that the people of 
 this house form a group by themselves. Their appreciation 
 is representative of that which a majority of prosperous 
 Americans of the so-called working class reveal. Being of 
 this large class, which is itself heterogeneous, their appre- 
 ciation is at least as wide as the limits of the class. They 
 admire the nation and all decent people within it, however 
 much they may vary in race and linguistic origin. Their 
 faith in Americans extends beyond their own experience. 
 Even though they have not seen the many phases of Amer- 
 ican life, the fact that one is an American is sufficient 
 cause for them to defend his actions and sympathize with 
 his mode of life. 
 
 The American people themselves are broad in their sym- 
 pathies. The Americanized immigrant has added these 
 sympathies to his own wider experiences acquired in dif- 
 ferent lands. The curtain that so often hides the rest of 
 the world from homogeneous peoples is torn away. Once 
 men of any nationality catch a glimpse of another people, 
 they are ready to believe in all. 
 
 •i 
 
319] APPRECIATION 63 
 
 But though the people of this house have with one ex- 
 ception undergone this experience, and all have traveled 
 widely, their appreciation, while in its discrimination of 
 kind it is almost of the highest degree, is not perfect. 
 They do not appreciate a foreign class in its entirety on 
 account of prejudices, and an inability to overlook super- 
 ficial differences. For instance, there are many persons in 
 the community near to them whom these families do not 
 know and with whom they do not sympathize. This is 
 largely due to evident economic differences and to the for- 
 mality which has been mentioned so often in connection 
 with this house. They have a general idea of the life of 
 the Italians about them, and on general grounds they sym- 
 pathize with it, but they cannot understand it fully because 
 so many of the Italian customs differ radically from their 
 own. 
 
 Their relations with the Jews also illustrate the extent 
 or the intensity of the average American appreciation of 
 that race. They perceive that the Jews are industrious and 
 frugal. They are aware of the great passion of the race 
 for economic advancement and of the law-abiding character 
 of the Jew, but the home life of the Hebrew, and much of 
 his social life, they do not know. This lack of understand- 
 ing is responsible for many misconceptions of the Jewish 
 people. Such knowledge as is had, however, is ground for 
 some degree of sympathy. 
 
 The appreciation of this group, then, is that developed 
 by an acquaintance with American character, widened in 
 this instance by the original knowledge of a foreign race, 
 but limited by the formality of apartment-house life and 
 by the differences in economic standards among its people. 
 
 House 203. Most of the families in this group are in 
 the same class as those in House 201, but their knowledge 
 is not so broad, and two of them really belong to the class 
 
6 4 
 
 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [320 
 
 below, in which the experience of the individual is limited 
 by propinquity. These two families, though they have lived 
 in heterogeneous communities a long time, have sought their 
 own people so persistently that they have not yet learned 
 to know the nationalities about them. Race prejudices still 
 control them. 
 
 The other families, all foreigners, have advanced rapidly. 
 The Bohemian saloon-keeper had become well acquainted 
 with his mixed patrons. One Jewish family had become 
 Protestant, and maintained that the Christian people care 
 for their parents as well as the Hebrews do. An Irish 
 woman who lived next to an Italian family had begun to 
 understand these neighbors, and to believe that all nations 
 had " some good and some bad " in them. 
 
 House 205. Here we have two instances of the narrow- 
 est experience and the lowest degree of appreciation. One 
 is that of an Irishman of the historic name of Fitzgerald, 
 a disconsolate, aged peasant, who spoke of himself as hav- 
 ing been " dragged to this unfortunate counthry," enticed 
 by his son from the open fields and fresh air of his Emerald 
 Isle to pine away amidst a confused mass of furniture — 
 beds, tables, chairs, baby-carriage, cooking utensils, and 
 what not — in a rear division of a New York City double- 
 decker tenement. 
 
 The other instance was that of an old Jewish woman. 
 With her wig askew, she cautiously opened the door, and 
 in suspicious tones, accompanied by the yelping of her dog, 
 demanded, " For vat you vant to know it?" She had been 
 in Russia, Germany, London, and was now in America, but 
 in each place she had sought her own people. Even in this 
 house she was dissatisfied because the Jews were not suffi- 
 ciently orthodox. The Irish she hated. " I don't like the 
 Irish," she said, " I vant to go back down town." 
 
 But these were exceptional individuals. The younger 
 
32 1 ] APPRECIATION 65 
 
 members of the respective families had a wider outlook, 
 and many other families in this house might be graded as 
 medium in degree of appreciation. The large majority, 
 however, must be placed in the " low," but not " lowest " 
 class. The people of a low degree of appreciation are those 
 that have faith only in such groups outside of their own 
 circle as they have actually met and found similar to them- 
 selves. They are not able, as those of the next higher 
 grade are, to generalize or to allow for marked differences 
 of language, religion, or customs. 
 
 This " low " grade, which is predominant also in House 
 207, is composed chiefly of Jews that have been much in 
 touch with Gentiles in business relations, but who, owing 
 to the narrowness of their lives and a strong prejudice, 
 have made but few friends, and have not otherwise widened 
 their acquaintance. 
 
 The families in these two houses that are thought to 
 possess a " high " degree of appreciation include those, 
 both Jew and Gentile, who, broad-spirited and generous in 
 disposition and keen of perception, have looked about them 
 and have comprehended their environment. 
 
 House 209. Appreciation in this group resembles that in 
 House 201. A majority of its tenants are generous Irish 
 families that have added to their European experiences a 
 knowledge of the various tenement classes among which 
 they have lived. Formality has not kept them away from 
 other nationalities to the same extent as is the case with 
 the families of House 201. This fact explains two differ- 
 ences between this house and 201, namely: a broader ap- 
 preciation manifested by some of its families, and the pres- 
 ence in the group of some families whose appreciation is 
 low and limited. 
 
 The geniality of the landlady, who has been mentioned 
 before, has contributed much to a broadening of sympathies 
 
66 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [322 
 
 among the families of the house. Through her tact people 
 of different nationality and disposition manage to live in 
 peace and to attain to a considerable degree of acquaintance. 
 
 House 211. The peculiar affinity of the Italian for the 
 German which was shown to exist in this house is the basis 
 of an especially wide appreciation. The Italians here have 
 been long enough in America to have had a rather wide 
 experience. They have met many classes and have learned 
 much about them. Most of them have a fair idea of the 
 American character, so that they widen their sympathies to 
 unseen groups on the basis of this conception. 
 
 Nevertheless, a majority of these families have little ac- 
 quaintance beyond the limits of their own nationality. 
 Some of them have been in the district but a short time 
 and others are reserved in disposition. 
 
 Finally, the lowest and the highest degrees of apprecia- 
 tion are represented by one family each. Family 59 is 
 from southern Italy, and its members do not speak Eng- 
 lish. It has had little opportunity to learn of other nation- 
 alities and is devoted to its own people, its language, re- 
 ligion, and customs. 
 
 Family 58 is composed of mother and child. The mother, 
 deceived in love, is obliged to work morning and night to 
 support her child. She is a bright young Swiss-German 
 woman of generous spirit and quick perception. She has 
 traveled widely and has lived for some years near people 
 of various nationalities. All these facts, together with the 
 humility of spirit which her misfortune has brought her, 
 have made her peculiarly wide in her sympathies and her 
 understanding of others. 
 
 Houses 213-219. Here are many Italians, that cannot 
 speak English. Potentially they are highly appreciative, 
 that is, they are neither crabbed and narrow by nature, nor 
 are they wholly surrounded by people so entirely different 
 
323] APPRECIATION 67 
 
 from themselves that toleration and even pleasure in 
 social intercourse might not be developed. Such a cluster- 
 ing of the same nationality as we see in this set of houses 
 is not conducive to the broadening of appreciation. At 
 present there is not another nationality in New York City 
 so given to aggregation as the Italian. For this reason 
 there is scarcely another nationality that so thoroughly 
 stamps as foreign the district which it occupies. 
 
 Moreover, many of the Italians, if not the majority of 
 them, have come from the rural districts of Italy, and con- 
 sequently their sphere of observation has been limited. This 
 fact, together with their brief period of residence in Amer- 
 ica and their continual association with one another, results 
 in much ignorance of American ways and manners. 
 
 This ignorance is clearly shown in their attitude toward 
 all authority, law and order, an attitude of continual sus- 
 picion. In January, 1901, when the smallpox was thought 
 to be almost completely under control, Little Italy was 
 suddenly found to have a number of cases. Then followed 
 confusion and turmoil as the Italians began to' try to de- 
 ceive the authorities. A like state of affairs was observed 
 in occasional instances among other nationalities, notably 
 in the case of an Irish patrolman not far from Little Italy ; 
 but nowhere was the excitement, opposition and deception 
 so general as in this region. 
 
 The dawning of appreciation usually comes through ex- 
 periences in connection with wages. The demand for 
 " twelve and half centa an hour " is made early. The pas- 
 sion for saving money also is soon developed. Again, the 
 Italians coach one another in ways of escaping the toils of 
 the immigration officer. If sickness or want, calling for 
 charity, befall a family before the first year in this country 
 is ended the family must by law be sent back to Europe. 
 So well do the Italians know their rights on this point, 
 
68 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [324 
 
 however, that those who wish to commit their children to 
 charitable institutions wait until the very first day of the 
 second year of their residence. 
 
 Gradually their suspicions are allayed, and those who 
 have been in America about five years speak with some 
 assurance and trust. They learn to substitute processes of 
 law for the use of the stilletto in settling their disputes. 
 
 This change is effected much more quickly in country 
 districts than in the city. The history of Italian colonies 
 in rural districts is that first its members resort to the stil- 
 letto to end disputes with their own people or with Amer- 
 icans; that later they resort in flocks to the courts, but that 
 only gradually, as the struggle for existence becomes less 
 severe, are they really found to be deliberate in their rela- 
 tions with one another and enlightened regarding the 
 strangers among whom they live. 
 
 In the city law and order are too often represented by 
 gruff and ignorant officials who have no 1 time to deal 
 patiently. In the country the way of law and order is 
 brought to the consciousness of the foreign-born by the 
 quiet, patient, slow-going country-folk, who give them time 
 to realize what the purpose of it all is. 
 
 Next to appreciation of a new economic position is that 
 which is awakened in the immigrants by the political bosses. 
 Through them they soon become aware of the coarse and 
 selfish plans of the political machine. It is a long time 
 before they realize the meaning of the real political and 
 governmental system of the United States. The clearest 
 idea of it reaches them through the school children. To 
 the few that read, the newspapers contribute something in 
 this direction. 
 
 As they advance in understanding of American life the 
 Italians longest in this country draw away from the Italian 
 settlements, especially from those sections where the new- 
 comers live. 
 
325] APPRECIATION 
 
 The appreciation of a large majority of the four groups 
 immediately under consideration is of the second degree 
 in our scheme of grading. All the men and many of the 
 women touch various phases of the life about them as they 
 pursue their work. The children at school come into even 
 closer contact with the American ideal than their parents 
 can. Through these two influences these Italians, in a com- 
 paratively short time, come into various relations with 
 people outside their own nationality. But this acquaintance 
 is not such as to enable them to generalize their observa- 
 tions or to broaden their sympathies beyond the local boun- 
 daries. Propinquity limits their appreciation. 
 
 Many, however, are attaining to the next higher degree. 
 These not only know people of other nationalities, and have 
 an idea of their immediate environment, but they have an 
 outlook beyond the locality in which they live. They com- 
 prehend in some measure the American customs, both of 
 their neighborhood and wherever such customs prevail. 
 
 There is also a small minority in these houses that have 
 no sympathy with or understanding of surrounding people. 
 It is composed of those who have recently left their native 
 land; those who are old, and those who, through stubborn- 
 ness or lack of opportunity, fail to come in touch with their 
 new surroundings. 
 
 Houses 221-225. The experience of the tenants in these 
 houses has been relatively wide. This fact, together with 
 an intelligence superior to the average of the community, 
 has enabled them to understand something of the many 
 situations in which they have found themselves. Never- 
 theless, they would not live in houses occupied by the Ital- 
 ians of the neighborhood for the reason that the Italians 
 seem to them to be poor, ignorant and dirty. If they were 
 Americanized and somewhat refined Italians would be ac- 
 ceptable as neighbors, in the same sense as the other nation- 
 alities are, namely, the formal sense. 
 
jO SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [326 
 
 Length of time in America, superior knowledge, sym- 
 pathy, toleration, and the fact that a large proportion are 
 native-born all contribute to make the appreciation of the 
 occupants of these houses relatively high. 
 
 House 235. The homogeneity of this group would seem 
 to imply that those who compose it are clannish and dis- 
 regardful of all people other than those of their own nation- 
 ality. There is some truth in the inference. But their 
 long residence in various sections of the East Side, and 
 their power of observation have not been for nought. While 
 they prefer their own people, they have not failed to learn 
 from other peoples. The selection of this completely Jew- 
 ish house as the place of their residence is not the least 
 important result of their observations. Many of them have 
 lived with all sorts of people, and have then deliberately 
 chosen to live here. And so*, while some of them have not 
 yet acquired sufficient knowledge to understand peoples dif- 
 ferent from themselves or to see anything of good in their 
 actions, a majority sympathize with the American spirit, 
 and, to a considerable extent, possess it. 
 
 This account of each house group has revealed the form 
 and degree of appreciation peculiar to each section of 
 Block X. There are certain general facts and special in- 
 stances, not applicable to any particular section, together 
 with explanatory remarks, that should now be recorded. 
 
 The rapid broadening of appreciation in the immigrant 
 population is, on the whole, astonishing. It is surprising 
 how very narrow the sympathies of most of our foreign- 
 born have been in their native lands. The following in- 
 stances will illustrate: 
 
 An Irish girl, twenty-seven years of age, a servant in 
 New York City for four years, revisited her home the third 
 summer. On the steamer she heard all sorts of remarks 
 about the Irish from the different nationalities represented, 
 
327] APPRECIATION yi 
 
 such as : " Those from Londonderry are no good," or 
 " Those from Kilkenny are all right." But after being in 
 America for a time she had " found that there are good 
 and bad among all people." 
 
 The experience of a Swedish girl was similar. When 
 she first landed she flatly refused to work with Irish girls, 
 but now she likes all nationalities, and especially the Irish. 
 It is a frequent remark of immigrants, when speaking of 
 people of other nationalities whom they respect, but for 
 whom they have no special affection, that " all people have 
 good and bad." If, through ignorance or distaste, they do 
 not like a certain nationality, they usually state the fact 
 with emphasis. 
 
 The lines of original prejudice, which even subdivide 
 nationalities into sections, are further illustrated by the 
 testimony of another Irish girl : 
 
 Ulster, she said, is Protestant, and it is not liked by 
 Munster, Leinster, or Connaught. Counties are not preju- 
 diced, but provinces are. Waterford and Cork, she ad- 
 mitted, were distasteful to her, and she added that Water- 
 ford people could not agree with other Irish, even when 
 they were Catholics. 
 
 Similar divisions of seemingly homogeneous populations 
 might be cited from any part of Europe, and even from 
 some parts of this country. When our immigrants leave 
 their native sections and enter strange groups, especially 
 such a heterogeneous assembly as New York City, peculiar 
 changes occur. At first they gather about the groups of 
 their own nationality — each little nation to itself — as the 
 families from northern Italy in House 211 did. Later on 
 they find either that these are the most congenial groups, 
 as House 235 did, or they may discover a people of another 
 nationality quite like their own, as the Swedish girl men- 
 tioned above did, or the people of some other nationality 
 
72 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [328 
 
 may attract them more than their own, as happened with 
 the Italians in House 211. 
 
 Appreciation, then, makes all sorts of discoveries, and 
 there follow all sorts of combinations, but the real basis of 
 them all is the consciousness of kind. 
 
 Appreciation is not limited to an understanding of peoples, 
 though this is the experience most new to the immigrant. 
 The physical environment also has to be mastered before 
 the immigrant can wisely venture upon his way in the new 
 land. The necessity of getting work and earning money 
 soon brings him in touch with the labor situation. While 
 he is learning he struggles blindly on, doing the best that 
 he can. The problem of living is a very stern reality. The 
 necessity for a different food from that to which he has 
 been accustomed is not understood at first. Italians learn 
 to eat the proper amount of meat only after they have been 
 here some time and find themselves unable to cope with 
 the arduous conditions of work and of weather to which 
 they are subjected. The high death-rate among them is 
 partly due to a diet too* exclusively vegetable to supply 
 necessary nutrition. The testimony of a rent-collector is 
 interesting, who said that he had often noticed two or more 
 Italians eating, one all the cabbage and the other all the 
 meat. When he had ventured to ask the steak-eater why 
 he did not " divy up with his pard," the Italian replied : 
 " He just coma over — no* lika beef — he damma fool." 
 
 In natural aptness to grasp the environment the Jew is 
 probably superior to all other nationalities. Especially is 
 this true of him in New York. The city has been his 
 home for centuries and he is thoroughly accustomed to* its 
 ways. The Jews have a great advantage over all but the 
 English-speaking people, in that they speak German, the 
 language second in importance as a means of communica- 
 tion in New York City. 
 
329] ' APPRECIATION 73 
 
 The greatest single agency for developing appreciation 
 is the public school. The average number of public school 
 children from Block X is 200. Their influence in a popu- 
 lation of about 900 persons is therefore important. 
 
 Summaries and totals may now be presented. 
 
 1. Loivest. Two families in Block X show the lowest 
 degree of appreciation, and so also do individual members 
 of 28 other families. 
 
 These are families whose experience has been bounded 
 almost entirely by acquaintance with their own people. 
 Necessity or narrow-mindedness has shut out the world be- 
 yond the range of blood relationship. Thus the Sicilians 
 are friendly only with Sicilians ; the Irish of Connaught 
 do not care for the Irish of Leinster; the German Jew 
 curses his brother from Russia. 
 
 2. Low. Eighty-one families show a low degree of ap- 
 preciation and so also do individual members of 77 other 
 families. 
 
 These are the families that are in process of naturaliza- 
 tion. Their knowledge extends beyond the limits of blood- 
 kinship, but it is not sufficiently wide to enable them to 
 generalize concerning other nationalities or classes. Their 
 preferences are limited by the direct knowledge of people 
 and conditions that make up their environment. 
 
 3. High. One hundred and eighteen families show a 
 high degree of appreciation and so also do individual mem- 
 bers of 49 other families. 
 
 In these families naturalization is well under way. 
 Sixty-two of them are completely Americanized. They 
 have begun to realize the essential elements of the Amer- 
 ican ideal. 
 
 4. Highest. Ten families understand and appreciate not 
 only those of their own kith and kin, not only those whom 
 they know by actual contact, or whose activities they know 
 
74 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [330 
 
 to be controlled by the American spirit, but also the human 
 race the wide world over. For instance, the mother of 
 one family has visited her home in Switzerland once or 
 twice. The relations of Protestants and Catholics in her 
 own city of Zurich are familiar to her, and, though a 
 Roman Catholic, she is possessed of so generous a spirit 
 that she has much regard for Protestants. The mother of 
 another family comes from good old Pennsylvania stock, 
 and is a second cousin of one of the greatest Hebrew 
 scholars of the world. She has read the newspapers widely 
 and many good books. The family has been in touch with 
 many nationalities. With its inherited instincts and bright 
 disposition it is not surprising that this family should show 
 some degree of interest in world activities, and that it 
 should be capable of appreciating humanity in general. 
 
 The relative strength of the four degrees of apprecia- 
 tion in this community should be of interest to the student 
 curious to know the relation of these families to their en- 
 vironment, to the patriot eager to learn the extent to which 
 these people comprehend the American people and Amer- 
 ican institutions, and to the altruist who desires to deter- 
 mine the probable progress of a social group in its estimate 
 of social activities. 
 
 The more or less naturalized families are the strongest 
 class, and it is more numerous than any other. This fact 
 should be the cause of much encouragement to those who 
 have been complaining that instead of "digesting its immi- 
 grants, the nation is dying." 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Types 
 
 Habitual modes of like response to common stimuli, 
 varying motives and methods of conduct, and varying de- 
 grees of appreciation are creative of certain more com- 
 posite products that, in their turn, become determining fac- 
 tors of social phenomena, including the possibilities of co- 
 operation. Among these products are certain types of 
 Emotional Nature and of Intellect, of Disposition and of 
 Character, and certain broad Types of Mind in General. 
 Approximately accurate classifications of the tenement-house 
 dwellers in Block X in accordance with these respective 
 types have been possible. 
 
 TYPES OF EMOTIONAL NATURE 
 
 A majority of the dwellers in Block X belong to an 
 emotional type that may be called the Joyous-Sanguine. 
 
 A certain degree of joyousness, that is to say, a capabil- 
 ity of rejoicing upon very slight and simple provocation, 
 and in spite of the hardships of their lives, is the prevail- 
 ing emotional state of these people. This state is to be dis- 
 tinguished from cheerfulness, Relatively few of these fam- 
 ilies are habitually bright and cheerful. This minority is 
 composed of the Americans, Irish and Italians that are 
 prosperous. The joyous majority are not always happy, 
 but their natural tendencies are towards happiness when 
 conditions are reasonably favorable. 
 
 Morose natures are exceptional, and most of these are 
 33i] 75 
 
ye SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [332 
 
 persons who, because of old age or physical weakness, are 
 completely discouraged by their misfortunes. Among them, 
 however, are a few Hebrews whose natures seem always to 
 have been gloomy. 
 
 The Italians on occasion exhibit fear, anger, jealousy, 
 and hatred. Their fear is largely due to their inability to 
 understand American ways and their continual dread of 
 officers. They cannot free themselves from the attitude 
 toward officers that has developed in their native land. 
 
 A majority of this community are sanguine in temper- 
 ament. The very fact that they have come to this country 
 with exceedingly small resources is evidence enough of this. 
 Their hopefulness is really their principal capital. There 
 is scarcely a family in the group that has not suffered very- 
 trying misfortunes, but all have been buoyed up by their 
 sanguine temperament. 
 
 The few choleric temperaments include certain quarrel- 
 some Italians who have suffered more reverses than they 
 could endure, but who have not yet given up the struggle 
 and become melancholic. 
 
 The melancholic minority is very small and is composed 
 chiefly of Hebrews. Other nationalities, however, contrib- 
 ute individuals that have broken down in health and in spirit. 
 
 INTELLECTIVE TYPES 
 
 Very few individuals in this community are capable 
 either of scepticism or of balanced judgment. A majority 
 are credulous and many are suspicious, especially among 
 the Hebrews and the Italians. 
 
 Credulity was oftenest revealed by a complete faith in 
 strangers. A common belief in the fortune or misfortune 
 foretold by cards indicated both credulity and superstition. 
 
 Superstition is somewhat less common than credulity, 
 however. The Jew has the Mesusa upon his door-post and 
 
333] TYPES 77 
 
 the Italian hangs his beads at the head of his bed and a 
 holy picture on the wall at his feet. In one house super- 
 stition was used to accomplish a practical end through the 
 medium of the much condemned " chain-letter." A type- 
 written letter of this kind had been mailed in an open en- 
 velope with a one-cent stamp. It requested each person to 
 send twenty-five cents to the minister or priest, and also the 
 name and the address of three friends. As a reward for 
 doing this, the letter carefully explained that the enclosed 
 aluminium heart-shaped medal with a cross upon it was 
 blessed, and promised that the three friends, when their 
 names were received, should receive similar medals. 
 
 Belief, in a majority of these people, is objectively de- 
 termined by external suggestion. In comparatively few is 
 it internally determined by emotion, mood or temperament, 
 and in very few objectively, by evidence. 
 
 The reasoning of a majority is of the conjectural type, 
 being little more than guess-work. Very few reason spec- 
 ulatively and none, so far as discovered, inductively. 
 
 TYPES OF DISPOSITION 
 
 What has been said of the methods of utilization applies 
 equally well to the classification according to disposition. 
 The Irish form the larger proportion of the aggressive. 
 The Jews contribute largely to the instigative and imitative 
 type. Many of them have the understanding to be directive 
 but they lack the virile aggressiveness necessary to direc- 
 tive power. The majority of Italians are divided between 
 the two lower types. The creative type, as manifested in 
 the entrepreneur who assumes responsibility, is not repre- 
 sented. 
 
 The totals are as follows : Ten families are in disposition 
 of the merely aggressive type, and so also are individual 
 members of in other families. Two hundred and one 
 
78 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [334 
 
 families are instigative or imitative in disposition, and so 
 also are individual members of 9 other families. Thirty- 
 one families are directive or domineering in disposition, 
 and so also are individual members of 59 other families. 
 
 TYPES OF CHARACTER 
 
 The great difficulty that the ordinary observer of human 
 nature has to deal with in the study of types of character 
 is the seemingly countless variety he encounters. Nor is 
 he sure which of the many possible principles of classifica- 
 tion should be adopted. An application of any principle 
 chosen, however, will test its fitness. The chief argument 
 in favor of the one here followed is that it presents the 
 steps which the individual has taken in his evolution to 
 the highest state. 
 
 In the development of a rational mind man did not 
 thereby lose the instinctive and the emotional elements of 
 his nature. In the first stages of human society life was 
 simple. Man was but one grade above the animal. Muscles 
 were strengthened in the struggle for existence, and pleas- 
 ure was found chiefly in muscular contests. There was but 
 one type of character — the forceful. 
 
 With the development of material resources there came 
 time for ease and pleasure. With the increase of wealth 
 arose social classes and a new character type appeared — 
 the convivial. Then pleasures more emotional and less 
 arduous in their nature than muscular activities, were 
 selected. 
 
 As the sense of responsibility arose individuals here and 
 there, reacting against convivial excess, began to take ex- 
 treme positions upon questions of pleasurable indulgence. 
 Impetuous dispositions, awakened to a sense of duty, could 
 not stop short of severe self- sacrifice and rigorous disci- 
 pline. The austere type of character emerged. 
 
335] 
 
 TYPES 
 
 79 
 
 Extreme types, however, are never stable, and in the 
 course of time a counter-reaction produced the type which 
 judges all conduct by broad, rational standards. This is 
 the rationally conscientious type. 
 
 Evidence upon which to assign any family to one of 
 these types was not hard to obtain. Occupation is often 
 an important indication, and so also is nationality. A 
 glance at the types in each house will enable us to connect 
 them with various other facts also. 
 
 House 201. Of the five families in this house three are 
 on the whole of the forceful type. Casual observation of 
 other houses in the adjacent streets would lead one to> ex- 
 pect a preponderance of this class in the neighborhood. 
 Two of the three families are Irish and one is German. 
 The occupations of the fathers are respectively those of 
 iron-worker, compositor, and baker. 
 
 The prevailing type, however, in this house, as in others, 
 is the convivial. The occupations of all heads of families 
 except the iron-worker clearly point toward an easier means 
 of livelihood than that generally followed by the forceful. 
 The occupation of one is that of a musician. Last year 
 there was an actor in this house. The father of the jani- 
 tress had been a dancing-master of wide reputation in 
 this section. The favorite pleasures, such as card-playing, 
 dancing, music, all add to the probable accuracy of our 
 classification. On Sunday night the men can often be seen 
 playing cards, and sometimes drinking beer, in each other's 
 apartments. 
 
 In one family the austere type has appeared. The danc- 
 ing-master has attained to old age, and both he and his 
 wife are undergoing a reaction from the gaiety of their 
 younger days. The daughters, who were lively, are now 
 rather burdened by their duties as janitress and dress- 
 maker and the care of their aged parents. 
 
80 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [336 
 
 The rationally conscientious typei is represented by in- 
 dividuals in another family. These are Americans. The 
 father is a musician, and he has sought rational companion- 
 ship. He takes a keen interest in political conditions and 
 put pointed questions to the visitor concerning- this inves- 
 tigation. 
 
 Houses 203-205-207-209. The forceful type is well 
 represented in these four houses, a fact largely explained 
 by the presence of Irish tenants. The pleasure-loving class 
 predominates, however, and it is correlated with the char- 
 acteristics of the Jewish tenants, who here outnumber all 
 others. 
 
 Houses 211-210. These are Italian groups. The im- 
 pulsive disposition of the Italians and the intensity of their 
 feelings would lead us to place them in or near the con- 
 vivial type. But hard labor has wrought a change in many 
 of them. Twenty-four families in these houses may be 
 classed as forceful and the type is represented in forty 
 others. Seventy families may be classed as convivial and 
 the type is represented in fourteen others. Two families 
 may be classed as austere and the type is represented in 
 three others. 
 
 Houses 221-235. These houses are tenanted largely by 
 Jews. Seven families here may be classed as forceful and 
 the type is represented in twenty others. Fifty-nine fami- 
 lies may be classed as convivial and the type is represented 
 in eight others. One family is austere and the type is rep- 
 resented in nine others. 
 
 Let us now present the results for the block as a whole: 
 1. The Forceful. Forty-six families may be classed as 
 forceful and the type is represented in seventy-seven others. 
 These are the people who are strenuous and daring. They 
 are strong of body and rely chiefly upon their muscles, 
 both for protection and for their livelihood. Their work 
 
337] TYPES Si 
 
 is a struggle with soil, rock, iron and wood in large quan- 
 tities. They are cellar-diggers, hod-carriers and rock-bias^ 
 ters. Many are engaged in dangerous occupations. Some 
 are scaffolders, boatmen, railroad employees and drivers. 
 In such occupations men can hardly be classified as other- 
 wise than forceful. In the case of other trades or occupa- 
 tions, such as painting, bricklaying, carpentry, plumbing 
 and washing, other evidence was taken into consideration. 
 No family was classified merely by the occupation of its 
 members. The majority of the washer- women were ranked 
 as forceful characters because of their coarse, robust, and 
 masculine ways, but some of them were of a very different 
 type. The personal appearance, the manner of speech, the 
 kind and arrangement of furniture, were carefully consid- 
 ered. Very important also were the pleasures indulged in. 
 No topic was closer to the hearts of these people than 
 the prize-fight. The children in many of the families could 
 give the characteristic position of each of the great pugilists, 
 and the rules were known even to the smallest detail. 
 Horse-play was the delight of both parents and children. 
 
 The nationalities contributing to this type are chiefly the 
 Irish, the German, and the Italian. 
 
 2. The Convivial. One hundred and seventy-five fami- 
 lies may be classed as convivial, and the type is represented 
 in thirty-five others. Here are to be found the tailors, fur- 
 riers, peddlers, store-keepers, clerks, bakers, and tobacco- 
 workers. By disposition those engaged in these trades pre- 
 fer the less strenuous kinds of work and they are better 
 adapted to them. 
 
 In this type are found those who in their love of ease 
 live in dirty houses and are content with ragged clothes. 
 Others take pleasure in good things to eat and to drink. 
 Their money is spent for luxuries of the table. Still others 
 delight in fine clothes and well-furnished rooms. Their 
 
82 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [338 
 
 pleasures resemble their occupations. They appeal to the 
 emotions. Theatre-going, dancing, table-games, gambling, 
 novel reading, calling, and gossiping are their chief means 
 of amusement. 
 
 All nationalities are represented in this type, and espec- 
 ially the Jews. The occupations mentioned are filled largely 
 by them and they will work at no others. As a rule they 
 are not enthusiastic over athletics ; their spare time is spent 
 in calling upon one another, in parties and in dances. 
 
 3. The Austere. Four families may be classed as aus- 
 tere, and the type is represented in nine others. One of 
 the first four is a Jewish family still under the influence 
 of religion. Its ideals are those of self-sacrifice. In labor 
 all its members are diligent and persevering. 
 
 The other three families of the first four are composed 
 of aged people driven to austerity by the hard circumstances 
 of their lives. In their youth they may have been of a 
 different type; but now, in the evening of life, their path 
 is one of self-denial. Two of these three families are Cath- 
 olics, who look upon their hard lot as so much of the 
 " good works " necessary to obtain happiness hereafter. 
 One family, an aged soldier and his wife, neglected by their 
 children, impelled by their love for each other, have re- 
 solved to endure that they may not be separated in their 
 old age. They belong to a Protestant church. 
 
 4. The Ration-ally Conscientious. This type is repre- 
 sented in eight families. With two others, they have 
 already been described as belonging to the highest class in 
 their appreciation of their environment. 
 
 Certain traits of character are found in each type: 
 (1) Courageous. One hundred and fifty-five families 
 may be classed as courageous, and the virtue of courage is 
 manifested by individuals in fifty-five other families. 
 
 The display of courage varies widely according to the 
 
339] TYPES 83 
 
 type of the individual. The mere physical courage of the 
 forceful man is the usual basis of this virtue everywhere. 
 The least courageous type is the convivial. 
 
 It is by no means easy to determine the courage of a 
 family, and the numbers given do not mean that there are 
 only so many families possessing this quality, but rather 
 that there are so many. In some of the others it was im- 
 possible to determine, and they were accordingly omitted. 
 In all cases the basis of judgment was the visit to the 
 family and the various conditions observed there. The 
 courageous were often discerned through their straight- 
 forward answers to all questions, through comments upon 
 the Spanish war, and especially through their attitude to- 
 wards the visitor when they thought him to be enumerat- 
 ing young men fitted for military service. Occupation also 
 is an indication. 
 
 (2) Magnanimous. Fifty-five families may be classed 
 as magnanimous, and in thirty others this virtue is repre- 
 sented by individual members. Evidence of the magnan- 
 imity of a family was difficult to obtain. There was rarely 
 an occasion to display this quality. A number of general 
 facts, however, tend to substantiate the estimate here given. 
 The intelligence of these people is not of the degree that 
 would make them large-hearted. Their view of affairs is 
 usually very narrow. They lack the wide knowledge that 
 is necessary 7 to a wide sympathy. Their associations and 
 material environment work against the increase of trust. 
 Magnanimity requires a deep understanding of human 
 nature or a wide experience with people in a sphere where 
 competition is not so keen as it is in the tenement district. 
 
 The families here set down as magnanimous showed their 
 possession of this quality through a display of sympathy 
 in directions where mere generosity would not be a suffi- 
 cient cause. These families, in estimating the worth of 
 
84 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [340 
 
 their neighbors, were charitable toward weakness, giving 
 reasons for differences and explaining failures. The same 
 large-heartedness was evident in their care for distant rela- 
 tives and in their sympathy for those in trouble anywhere. 
 
 (3) Generous. One hundred and forty-one families 
 may be classed as generous, and in seven others this virtue 
 was displayed by individual members. By the " gener- 
 ous " are meant those who show a kindness when appealed 
 to by something at hand — a person in a pitiable condition, 
 or one attractive in appearance, or in some way interesting. 
 These people are impulsively generous to each other in 
 times of need. When a point of common interest between 
 the visitor and the family had been reached, it was easy to 
 see whether the family was generous or not. The relation 
 of the parents to the children and of the family to their 
 neighbors was an important indication. 
 
 (4) Industrious. One hundred and ninety-one families 
 were regularly industrious, and so also were individual 
 members of nine other families. Twelve families were 
 irregularly industrious, and so also were individual mem- 
 bers of forty-eight other families. This estimate is based 
 on the numbers known to be at work, the condition of the 
 houses and the general attitude towards labor as shown in 
 conversation. 
 
 (5) Frugal. One hundred and ninety-one families may 
 be classed as frugal, and so also may be individual mem- 
 bers of sixteen other families. A comparison of income 
 with the general appearance of the family and its apartment 
 was the basis of this estimate. 
 
 (6) Cleanly. One hundred and eighty families were 
 cleanly, and twenty-eight individuals in other families were 
 so classed. Sixty-six families were neat and orderly, and 
 individual members of one hundred other families were so 
 classed. 
 
34 I] TYPES 85 
 
 (7) Temperate. Eighty-three families may be classed 
 as temperate, and so also may be individual members of 
 twenty other families. It is not to be understood that all 
 families not included in this estimate are intemperate, but 
 that they are either so or doubtful. The mere use of beer 
 or other alcoholic drink as an article of diet was not re- 
 garded as a sufficient mark of intemperance. 
 
 (8) Truthful. Two hundred families are classed as 
 truthful, and so also are individuals in nine other families. 
 Two hundred and six families are classed as honest, and 
 so also are individuals in six other families. 
 
 Both of these qualities are difficult to ascertain. The 
 truthfulness of answers was taken as one basis of judg- 
 ment. The general impression received from conversation 
 was another. A comparison of what they said with what 
 they could and likely would do, gave some light. The 
 testimony of the janitress could sometimes be depended 
 upon. The terms truthful and honest as here used signify 
 that the families so rated are truthful and honest under 
 ordinary circumstances, or when not influenced by outside 
 forces. If their employment depended upon a certain 
 amount of lying or dishonesty, it is feared that they would 
 feel themselves forced to yield. The temptation would be 
 more than they could stand. The happiness and even the 
 livelihood of the family sometimes depends upon a depar- 
 ture from these two virtues. The families, therefore, are 
 put down as honest and truthful if it is felt that under 
 fair conditions they would be so. 
 
 (9) Compassionate. Two hundred and nine families 
 are classed as compassionate, and so also are individual 
 members of two other families. The number of old people 
 cared for by these families was a striking proof of com- 
 passion. The sympathy for the Boers as a down-trodden 
 people was very strong. Many were much moved by 
 
86 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [342 
 
 accounts of men killed in the war. There is no avenue to 
 their hearts more open than this one of sympathy. 
 
 TYPES OF MIND IN GENERAL 
 
 Instinct, emotion, intellect, disposition, and character are 
 but differentiations or varying manifestations of mind in 
 its totality. According to the kinds, qualities and strengths 
 of these manifestations, and their relative proportions, do 
 we discover types of mind in general. 
 
 In the lowest type instincts are strong, ideas are ele- 
 mentary, intellectual processes hardly get beyond percep- 
 tion, and the organism responds almost automatically to 
 stimuli, either external or the internal stimuli of idea and 
 feeling. This is the Ideo-Motor mind. 
 
 The next higher type is Ideo-Emotional. Imagination 
 now plays a considerable role and response to stimulus 
 often takes the form of a volatile emotionalism. 
 
 When one idea, or set of ideas, such as a religious belief 
 or other conviction, controls the mind so that it becomes 
 intolerant of any beliefs but its own, the type is Dogmatic- 
 Emotional. 
 
 When finally the mind is capable of careful reasoning 
 and weighing of evidence, the emotions and all specific 
 ideas being under subjection, the mental type may be called 
 the Critically-Intellectual. 1 
 
 1 Professor Giddings names and illustrates these types as follows : 
 " In some individuals a forceful character, an aggressive disposition, 
 intellect of low grade, and strong emotion are combined wjth a prompt 
 and persistent motor activity. This type we shall call the Ideo- 
 Motor. In other individuals a convivial character, an instigative dis- 
 position, an imaginative intellect, prone to reason from analogy, a 
 weak but persistent and usually good-natured emotion, are combined 
 with motor reactions that are usually intermittent and of less prompt- 
 ness than in the ideo-motor type. This type we shall call the Ideo- 
 Emotional. In individuals of a third sort an austere character and 
 a domineering disposition are combined with dogmatism of belief, 
 
343] 
 
 TYPES 
 
 87 
 
 As the reader will anticipate, only a few families of the 
 dogmatic-emotional type and none of the critically-intellec- 
 tual were found in Block X. Before the totals of classifi- 
 cation are presented it may be well to mention some of the 
 traits and actions habitually manifested by the ideo-motor, 
 ideo-emotional and dogmatic-emotional families, and cer- 
 tain testimonies of other observers besides the present 
 writer in regard to them, as an indication of the evidences 
 upon which the classification is based. 
 
 The impulsive family often reveals itself as such by the 
 manner of shouting " Come in." This " Come in " was 
 often followed either by ready answers without demand of 
 whys and wherefores in the case of the Irish tenants, or by 
 an inexplicable and sudden attempt to end the investigation 
 in the case of the Italians. 
 
 Usually the Irish shouted " Come in," and fell into con- 
 versation, in which they unconsciously told all about them- 
 selves and their neighbors, if the visitor cared to direct the 
 conversation that way. Only a show of interest and en- 
 thusiasm on the part of the visitor was necessary to con- 
 tinue the conversation indefinitely. 
 
 On the other hand, the impulsive nature of the Italians 
 made the introduction to a family very difficult. They 
 were often found to be as much opposed to being questioned 
 as the Irish were careless in the matter. Sometimes an 
 attempt to close the door would immediately follow the 
 first question or there would be a flat refusal to answer it. 
 In other cases the news of the visitor's presence would fly 
 
 strong emotion, and intermittent activity. This type may be named 
 the Dogmatic-Emotional. In a fourth kind of individuals all the 
 emotional and motor processes are dominated by a critical intellect, 
 and even disposition and character are intellectually controlled. This 
 type we may call the Critically-Intellectual." Inductive Sociology, 
 P- 63. 
 
88 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [344 
 
 from top to bottom of a house, and presently two or three 
 families would congregate in the halls, talking at the top 
 of their voices. In almost every Italian family the entrance 
 of the visitor was followed by some show of excitement — 
 a rush of blood to the face, a general appearance of ner- 
 vousness, or excited questioning of one another in the 
 Italian language. 
 
 The manner of controlling children on such occasions 
 was often a good indication of the type of mind. Indeed, 
 the children themselves often betrayed the impulsive mother 
 in a way that was obviously embarrassing to her. 
 
 The arrangement of the house shows in many ways 
 whether or not a person takes thought before acting. The 
 impulsive are not systematic in anything. They are always 
 on the move, if they are not too lazy. The house may be 
 clean, but it is not usually orderly. So also in the estimate 
 of their neighbors the impulsive are as likely to err in 
 generosity of judgment as in severity. They usually jump 
 at conclusions, reasoning from certain things last observed 
 in the manner of a neighbor. 
 
 As has been hinted, a majority of the impulsive families 
 in this section are Irish and Italian. Observation of like 
 characteristics in these same nationalities in other parts of 
 the city may be had from other sources. 
 
 The testimony of hospital officials concerning the Irish 
 is that if things are not satisfactory to an Irishman he will 
 leave, or attempt to leave the hospital on the moment. It 
 is also said that the Irish when sober endure pain with 
 much fortitude; but that when intoxicated they " shout and 
 kick at a great rate " if they are made to endure even a 
 little. 
 
 The Italians are reputed to endure pain even more im- 
 patiently. 
 
 Firemen have given some interesting testimony bearing 
 
345] TYPES 89 
 
 on the relative self-control of nationalities. They agree 
 that the most excitable of all peoples are the Italians. The 
 smallest fire will throw them into the greatest confusion 
 and disorder. All power of thought seems to be lost. 
 They are capable only of muscular action. They throw 
 their trunks and furniture down the stairs and themselves 
 out of the windows. In Italian tenements it is always ex- 
 pected that the hallways will be blocked with trunks, 
 often having nothing of value in them. 
 
 The Irish, on the other hand, are likely to go to the 
 extreme of indifference. Captain Dougherty, of the 104th 
 Street Fire Department, tells of an incident in which an 
 Irishman was going about in his shirt-sleeves on an upper 
 floor while another floor was on fire. He knew of the fire, 
 but thought that there was no special need of haste until 
 the firemen hurried him out. 
 
 The absence of any intellectual control in the lower strata 
 of these nationalities is further illustrated in the difficulty 
 with which they bring their muscular systems under dis- 
 cipline. For instance, it has been noticed by kindergarten 
 teachers that Italian children have much trouble in learn- 
 ing to march. They rush at it impulsively, without the 
 help even of imitation to guide their movements. 
 
 Not less than motor proclivities, the ideo-emotional traits 
 have abundant objective manifestation among these people. 
 
 The street-singers and organ-grinders of the Italian com- 
 munities know that their pathetic songs will fill their pockets 
 with pennies. Above the noise of elevated trains and trol- 
 ley-cars at each end of the block and the shouting of the 
 produce-men about him, the mournful notes of the street- 
 singer will reach the hearts of his countrymen, and the 
 intermezzo from " Cavalleria Rusticana " or an air from 
 " II Trovatore " brings him many a nickel. 
 
 Conversation about their childhood days or the reading 
 
go SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [346 
 
 of a poem about certain Italian towns affects the Italians 
 deeply. They are a sentimental people. Even their re- 
 ligion is largely a matter of sentiment. The best English 
 word that one of the Italian women could find to 1 describe 
 her church was " nice." With emotion in her voice, she 
 described the Catholic Church as a " nice church." Their 
 patron saint is an object of much adoration, but even this 
 saint may suffer from a sudden turn of feeling and his 
 image be dashed to pieces, to be replaced some day by 
 another. 
 
 Sudden changes of mind are characteristic. It is chiefly 
 in this respect that the emotion of the Italian differs from 
 that of the Hebrew. The Italian is demonstrative; the 
 Hebrew makes comparatively few physical signs. His feel- 
 ing, however, is often deeper and more enduring. 
 
 In times of excitement or danger the Jews, like other 
 people, are emotional, but they do not entirely lose self- 
 control. They may trample on one another in escaping 
 from a burning building, as happened in one of the Chicago 
 Yiddish theatres in January, 1901, but even in such ex- 
 citement the mothers showed remarkable presence of mind 
 in throwing their children to> those nearer the exit. Even 
 more remarkable is the case related in the New York Herald 
 of a Jew with a child in his arms who, seeing a runaway 
 horse about to dash over him, tossed the babe to safety. 
 
 The dogmatic emotional minds reveal themselves chiefly 
 in their attitude upon religious matters, in their economic 
 conduct, and in their relation to* socialistic and other agi- 
 tations. 
 
 A majority of the people in Block X have been at some 
 time in their lives under strong religious convictions, but 
 these have been to a great extent broken down, and " be- 
 lievers " have been converted into " thinkers." 
 
 The process is illustrated in the departure of the reformed 
 Jews from everything orthodox, the doffing of wigs and 
 
347] 
 
 TYPES 
 
 91 
 
 long beards, and the dropping-off of many of the older 
 customs. The orthodox control their lives according to 
 their faith. They display intense feeling against any in- 
 fraction of its commands. 
 
 A diminution of religious ardor is plainly noticeable also 
 in the Irish of this community, who, next to the Jews, are 
 said to form the largest class of non-church-goers, though 
 the falling-off from church attendance is general among all 
 the nationalities here represented. 
 
 This transformation, however, is not always a broaden- 
 ing one. The type of mind is not greatly changed. The 
 higher intellectual processes have not subordinated the lower 
 ones. Emotion still predominates. The change is objec- 
 tive only. The discussion of social and economic problems 
 in the local socialist meetings claims more and more atten- 
 tion. The controlling idea, not the habit of intolerance, is 
 changed. 
 
 Among the Jews and Germans the substitution of dog- 
 matic and irrational socialistic schemes for traditional re- 
 ligious beliefs is a common occurrence throughout the city. 
 The doctrines of the anarchist also claim a good deal of 
 attention in certain Italian neighborhoods. 
 
 The economic situation is, after all, the one of vital im- 
 portance to all these families. The question of wages is 
 one in which they are compelled to be interested. It is 
 their first duty to "exist," then to "get along," and last 
 of all to consider their mental and moral development. 
 
 The storekeeper, the local street- vender and the janitor 
 each selects his friends, his pleasures and his political party 
 with an eye to business. 
 
 Especially is this true of the Jews. The conclusion has 
 been reached, after a careful investigation, that the control- 
 ling principle in the life of the Jews of the upper East Side 
 is not religion, but the desire " to get along " and to pros- 
 per in every sense of the word. The East Side Jew may 
 
92 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [348 
 
 be of the old orthodox type, he may be in the Reformed 
 Synagogue, or he may be a member of the Ethical Culture 
 Society, but in any case it is the tremendous strength of 
 the economic motive that distinguishes him, from other 
 men. From the young child to the aged grandparent this 
 motive asserts itself continually. At the Penny Provident 
 Bank the older brother or sister takes out a book and de- 
 posits a cent for the two-weeks-old baby. The parent sends 
 his five children regularly to the bank, each with a little 
 money, because this teaches them to save. Other peoples 
 also sometimes deposit money for very young children, but 
 not with the systematic persistency of the Jews. 
 
 The Italian, like the Jew, is aggressive in his desire for 
 economic standing, so aggressive, indeed, that he chops to 
 pieces the stairs of his tenement in order to have firewood. 
 But this is the desperation of an immigrant trying to obtain 
 a foothold in a new country ; and it has been true of most 
 immigrants destitute of material means when they first 
 landed. The determination of the Jews, on the other hand, 
 to attain a good economic standing is conscious, dogged 
 and ever dominant. Almost all of them seem to know that 
 the way of the prosperous is up the East Side and then 
 across the Harlem until finally they " arrive " on the West 
 Side. Their every plan and every effort are bent to achieve 
 this goal. 
 
 The classification of the families in Block X in terms of 
 numerical estimates of the relative strength of the different 
 types of mind, based on the evidences above indicated, and 
 careful observations of each family, is as follows : 
 
 Ideo-Motor. Thirty-eight families are of the ideo-motor 
 type, and so also are individual members of seventy-three 
 other families. Most of these are Italians and Irish. They 
 are engaged in the lower forms of physical labor, and their 
 exhausting work leaves them little energy for emotional 
 pleasures or for thought. 
 
349] TYPES 93 
 
 Ideo-Emotional. One hundred and seventy families are 
 of the ideo-emotional type, and so also are individual mem- 
 bers of thirty-three other families. 
 
 These families are highly imaginative and much given 
 to nervous excitement and to pleasures of chance. Tears 
 and laughter are equally near the surface. Feeling is easily 
 aroused. Appeal to reason has little or no effect upon them. 
 To reach this class at all it is necessary to mix the truth 
 well with pathos or humor. The speaker who would be 
 successful in addressing them must himself show much 
 feeling and make liberal use of shibboleths and symbols, 
 which arouse the emotions of his particular audience. 
 
 That such a large majority in this tenement community 
 should be of this emotional type is a fact that should be 
 viewed seriously by all who are interested in the welfare 
 of the social classes here represented. These are the fami- 
 lies, together with those of the motor type, that make pos- 
 sible dangerous panics and frenzied mobs. This is the 
 element that demagogues control for their own purposes. 
 And this is the soil in which fakes of every kind, religious 
 and others, take root and flourish. 
 
 To modify and develop this type into something higher 
 is one of the all-important functions of our educational in- 
 stitutions. The power of the school is nowhere more clearly 
 seen than in its effect upon an emotional community. Much 
 of superstition is bound to give place before the enlighten- 
 ment that the school creates. Common-sense and reason, 
 awakened in the younger minds by the school, will at 
 length begin to dominate. 
 
 Dogmatic-Emotional. Six families are of the dogmatic- 
 emotional type, and so also are individual members of 
 eighty-four other families. A majority of these families 
 are Jews. 
 
 There are no families in Block X that can with certainty 
 be classed as critically-intellectual. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Practical Resemblances 
 
 Not less potent than differences or resemblances of men- 
 tal type, as determining causes of the relations that human 
 beings sustain to one another in society, are certain prac- 
 tical differences and resemblances, consisting of diversities 
 or similarities of mental acquisitions, ideas, beliefs, and 
 modes of conduct. Chiefly important among these are 
 diversities or agreements in language and ability to read 
 and write, in religious beliefs and worship, in occupations, 
 and in political preferences. 
 
 These practical differences and resemblances as mani- 
 fested in Block X admit of relatively precise statement in 
 brief terms. 
 
 Knowledge of English. The Italians are the latest arri- 
 vals from abroad and are a majority of those that speak 
 no English. The German-speaking Hebrews learn the Eng- 
 lish language more rapidly than the Italians. 
 
 Twenty per cent, of all persons over five years of age 
 dwelling in Block X are unable to speak English. A 
 majority of these are adults that have been in this country 
 less than eight years. An additional 35 per cent, speak 
 but very little English, barely enough to ask the simplest 
 questions. 
 
 Illiteracy. Forty-seven per cent, of all persons ten years 
 of age and over dwelling in Block X are unable to read or 
 write any language. Most of these are the same persons 
 94 [350 
 
35i] 
 
 PRACTICAL RESEMBLANCES 
 
 95 
 
 that cannot speak English or that speak it with great diffi- 
 culty. The predominant nationality among the illiterate is 
 the Italian, and the Hebrew ranks second. Women show 
 the greatest degree of illiteracy both in their own language 
 and in English. 
 
 Of the fifty-three per cent, that read and write, the num- 
 ber of those that habitually read is very small. 
 
 Religious Preference. The religious life of this com- 
 munity is not active, and the figures given below indicate 
 a nominal rather than a real preference. A majority of 
 the people are so occupied with efforts to obtain food, 
 clothing and shelter that they have no energy for active 
 religious interests. Many of them, moreover, manifest a 
 desire to shirk social responsibilities to which they have 
 been subject in their native lands, a desire often observed 
 in people that are taking up life anew in crowded urban 
 centres, where it is difficult to develop a true community 
 spirit. 
 
 The religious life of the Italians is spasmodic, and is 
 stimulated chiefly by religious celebrations that appeal to 
 the dramatic instinct, or by some calamity that befalls the 
 individual or his friends. The Hebrew devotion to his 
 church is intermittent, and closely related to its annual fes- 
 tivals. The American Catholic and the American Protes- 
 tant are irregular, both in their church attendance and in 
 their religious interest. 
 
 While the statistics indicate merely nominal preferences 
 on the part of a majority of these people, there is a minority 
 of families that are faithful to all their church obligations 
 and are, beyond doubt, of a strongly religious disposition. 
 
9 6 
 
 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK 
 
 STATISTICS OF RELIGIOUS PREFERENCE 
 
 Year. Catholic. Protestant. Hebrew. 
 
 1897-1898 Irish 32 
 
 Italian 23 
 
 American. ... 24 
 
 79 35 53 
 
 1898-1899 Irish 22 
 
 Italian 63 
 
 American. ... 23 
 
 108 18 68 
 
 1899-1900 Irish 24 
 
 Italian 68 
 
 American. ... 18 
 
 no 24 67 
 
 Occupations. Of the 317 men, women and children 
 dwelling in Block X who are industrially employed, 3 per 
 cent, are engaged in work that is strenuous and dangerous, 
 demanding daring and fortitude; 22 per cent, are employed 
 in hard work demanding diligent and self-denying effort; 
 54 per cent, are occupied in work that is easy, though re- 
 quiring continued toil, while the employment of 17 per cent, 
 is both easy and intermittent. Only 2 per cent, are engaged 
 in nominal occupations that are conducive to> idleness. 
 
 Of the same total 74 per cent, are men and boys; 57 per 
 cent, are fathers of families. The sons are 17 per cent.; 
 the mothers 14 per cent.; the daughters 12 per cent. 
 
 No evidence of child labor was discovered. It is pos- 
 sible that some children were employed, but the number is 
 believed to be small. 
 
 Political Preference. Only a small minority of these 
 people are really interested in political issues. The major- 
 ity, who vote for Tammany, do so because of the strong 
 
353] 
 
 PRACTICAL RESEMBLANCES 
 
 97 
 
 influence and the persuasive power of the Tammany organ- 
 ization. These men are dragged into line by the political 
 bosses rather than by the exercise of any natural preference. 
 
 The very small minority that prefer the other parties are 
 genuinely interested in some political or social question, 
 and their preference is decided by their interest. The 
 Citizens' Union voter is usually seeking a change in the 
 municipal situation, clean streets, public baths, or police 
 protection. The socialist is awaiting the millenium of 
 higher wages and a better distribution of wealth. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Consciousness of Kind 
 
 The differences and resemblances observed among the 
 people of Block X, and set forth in the foregoing- pages, 
 are consciously realized by these tenement-dwellers them- 
 selves to a less degree than such differences and resem- 
 blances would be realized among a more intelligent popu- 
 lation. Yet there is an unmistakable consciousness of kind 
 here, and its elementary — sometimes almost primitive — 
 manifestations are significant of the genesis of those social 
 forces that create cooperation and organization and main- 
 tain social bonds. We will note some of these manifesta- 
 tions as observed from house to house. 
 
 House 201. A general consciousness of kind through- 
 out this group of six families is unmistakable. Economic 
 influences have had much to do with their selection. They 
 have desired better apartments than those in the middle of 
 the block, and their ability to pay a higher rent has en- 
 abled them to satisfy their desire. Within these economic 
 limitations, however, there has been room for selection based 
 on a consciousness of kind. A comparison of this house 
 with No. 235 at the other end of the street is significant. 
 Why is it that house 201 for the last five years, and pos- 
 sibly longer, has in many changes of tenants always re- 
 tained a majority of American-born families, while house 
 235 has come to be completely Jewish in its population? 
 
 If is not due to the influence of the landlord of No. 201, 
 who thinks the Jews excellent tenants, but rather to the 
 
 [354 
 
355] CONSCIOUSNESS OF KIND gg 
 
 fact that the house has been occupied by prosperous Amer- 
 icans, who have been able to withstand the demand of for- 
 eigners for apartments. They have desired to remain in 
 this part of the community because as yet there is a large 
 percentage of Irish and German-Americans along this sec- 
 tion of Third avenue. On the other hand, house 235 is 
 near Second avenue, which is much more given over to 
 Jews and Italians. Moreover, it has been owned by Jews 
 for about eight years, and relatives of the landlord have 
 been living there. They naturally have preferred Jews to 
 other people, and, being in control, they have had their 
 way. These influences are clearly those of the conscious- 
 ness of kind. 
 
 The same force creates groups within groups. It was 
 observed that the Irish tenants were more cordial towards 
 one another than towards other nationalities. The jani- 
 tress, born of native parents of Irish descent, finds the 
 majority of the families congenial, while the American- 
 born German baker is not so enthusiastic about his house 
 neighbors. 
 
 Houses 203-205. A majority of the tenants in these 
 two houses are Jews, but acquaintance is not general. 
 There are evidences, however, of a certain consciousness 
 of kind in each house. The Cohens have established their 
 store in house 205, and have been successful in business 
 because the Jews here have resorted to them. The Bohemian 
 saloon-keeper in house 203 has been replaced by a Jew 
 largely because of race instinct. 
 
 The few Irish tenants will not long remain. When 
 asked about their relation to the Jews, they generally re- 
 ply, " Oh, I pass them the time of day, and that's all." 
 The Irish families gave some interesting and valuable evi- 
 dence upon the consciousness of kind. Two of them are 
 " left-overs " in the social exodus, stragglers kept back by 
 
IOO SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [356 
 
 economic forces. Though they have been in this neigh- 
 borhood the greater part of twenty years, they have not 
 been here continuously. Waves of economic prosperity have 
 carried them to better sections for a time, but they have 
 come back again. 
 
 Mrs. C. had lived with Italians and liked them, but the 
 smell of garlic in their cooking was intolerable. Mrs. H. 
 had never lived with Italians but had the usual prejudice 
 against them. 
 
 For twenty-five years these two women have been liv- 
 ing under similar conditions and they are warm friends. 
 Mrs, H. is very often in the house of Mrs. C. and they 
 exchange many favors in the course of a day, while at 
 night their husbands play cards and share their beer. Both 
 men are painters, and often work on the same job, helping 
 each other to get new jobs. They take long rides or walks 
 together to< their work. 
 
 There was another Irish family in house 205 whose testi- 
 mony is worth recording. This family had entered the 
 house under the impression that the janitress, the widow 
 of an Irishman, was an Irish woman. " Yes," said the 
 wife, " I thought she was Irish, but her name fooled us. 
 She is a German, and I don't like her at all." 
 
 With this Irish testimony it is well to* compare the words 
 of an Italian woman in 213, whose family had been in 
 America twenty-five years. The husband was a blaster and 
 the wife washed for the neighbors. She said : " Yes, the 
 Germans and the Irish and Italians drink beer, but the 
 Germans and Italians never drink together. The Italians 
 and Irish often have a good time together. The Irish call 
 the Italians 'guineas,' and the Italians call the Irish 'micks/ 
 but they don't mind that." Another Italian said : " Me no 
 like Northern peoples — too slow, too little emotion." Con- 
 cerning the Americans he added : " American people for 
 money, money, money; no like very much." 
 
357] 
 
 CONSCIOUSNESS OF KIND 
 
 101 
 
 Nine of the sixteen families here are Jews, and Jewish 
 customs predominate in the house. Their relations with 
 one another are cordial. They are all aware of the fact 
 that their own people are in the majority. 
 
 The Italian saloon on the ground floor did not prosper. 
 The saloon-keeper is continually complaining of the lack 
 of business. He cannot get nearer to the Italian group two 
 houses away because the law does not permit him to place 
 his saloon in such close proximity to the public school, 
 which is situated between Nos. 225 and 235. He feels 
 keenly the absence of the consciousness of kind which, in 
 districts like this, is a chief factor in the support of a 
 tenement-house saloon. 
 
 House 209. The tenants here were Irish and Jews. 
 Most of the Irish were of the type which occupies the top 
 floor of 203. In fact, there was a Collins on this top floor 
 related to the one in 203. They were also of the " left- 
 overs " in the general exodus of the Irish from this street. 
 They had lived under similar conditions for the greater 
 part of their lives. They were in almost complete posses- 
 sion of the three upper floors of the house. They were 
 much in one another's rooms, and the opposite doors of 
 different apartments were open, so that conversation could 
 easily be carried on. Two 1 of the families were related, 
 and the daughter of one was assisting in the house-work 
 of the other. 
 
 The extent of communication and the warmth of the 
 fellowship among these Irish contrasted sharply with the 
 habits of the Hebrews in the house. There was much less 
 visiting among the Jewish families. 
 
 House 211. The first persons questioned in this house 
 gave striking testimony to the power of the consciousness 
 of kind. They were a mother and a daughter named Cri- 
 mona, from the province of Cremona in Italy, who had the 
 
SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [358 
 
 round faces and other characteristics of the broad-headed 
 Alpine stock. They resembled the small, dark southern 
 Germans or the Jews of Hungary. They mentioned the 
 fact that they were often taken for Germans or Jews, and 
 the daughter of eighteen said that her intimate friend for 
 the last five years had been a German girl. At first, she 
 said, her friends had been Italian girls, but as they quar- 
 reled with her so often, she much preferred the German. 
 When it is remembered that Cremona is a town of Lom- 
 bardy, not far from the foothills of the Alps on the north- 
 ern side of the valley of the Po, where the Alpine stock is 
 well represented, this instinctive preference of these Cre- 
 mona women for their ethnic kindred over the people of 
 their nationality and language is not without significance. 
 
 The only Italian families in the house whom the mother 
 and daughter thought " nice " were taller than the major- 
 ity of Italians, and, like the Crimoni, were more deliberate 
 in their actions. Upon inquiry, it was found that they too 
 had come from northern Italy not far from the town of 
 Cremona. 
 
 Houses 213-215-217-219. The customs of one nation- 
 ality — the Italian — dominate all others in these houses. 
 Undoubtedly an economic motive led the Italians to this 
 street, but after they came a consciousness of kind attracted 
 them to particular floors in certain houses. As their num- 
 ber increased they obtained complete possession of these 
 houses, and since that time an Italian rarely enters any 
 other house. This is due not only to their preference for 
 their own people, but also to their strong antipathy towards 
 other nationalities. This mental attitude, however, is not 
 due entirely to a perception of mental differences and re- 
 semblances. The other nationalities have been longer in 
 America and are, to some extent, assimilated. They have 
 often attained to a relatively high prosperity. They do 
 
359] 
 
 CONSCIOUSNESS OF KIND 
 
 103 
 
 not like to receive into their own tenement-house groups 
 those families that are so near the economic margin of 
 subsistence that they are willing to resort to any kind of 
 work, to live in any sort of way, and to chop the stair- 
 bannisters for fuel. On the other hand, the Italian immi- 
 grants, being unable to< talk with English-speaking nation- 
 alities or with Germans, are compelled to seek people who 
 speak their own language. 
 
 There are four Jewish families, six negro families, a 
 Cuban, a Greek, and a Bohemian family in these houses, 
 whose relations with the Italian element are of interest. 
 
 Two of the Jewish families are in the clothing trade, 
 and their relation to the Italians is simply that of business. 
 The other two families expressed their hatred of both 
 Italians and negroes and their intention of moving away 
 from them. This they did a few weeks later, going to 
 house 223, which had been vacated by the Italians. 
 
 The negro, Cuban, and Greek families remained in the 
 house with the Italians. Their relations seemed to be cor- 
 dial and they spoke in high terms of one another. It was 
 also interesting to observe the relations of a white Amer- 
 ican family to* a negro family in one of these Italian groups. 
 The intimate friend of Mrs. C, who- was of mixed ances- 
 try, namely, Cuban, Indian and negro, was Mrs, W., a 
 white woman who lived on a different floor. This was 
 not a mere chance acquaintance, but another instance of the 
 selection of the nearest kind, for Mrs. C.'s characteristics 
 were predominantly those of the white race, and she did 
 not associate with negroes. 
 
 House 22 3. In 1897 this house was occupied exclusively 
 by Italians, with the exception of the Irish janitor. In 1899 
 there were fourteen Italians, one Irish- American, one negro, 
 and two Greeks. Of the population that has replaced them 
 seven are Jews, three are Irish, two are Americans, two are 
 
104 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [360 
 
 Italians, one is English, and one is Swedish. Conscious- 
 ness of kind exists to a limited degree among the first 
 seven and is growing stronger as they become better ac- 
 quainted. The landlord and the janitress are Jews. The 
 store-keeper has wisely selected a house in which her own 
 people prevail. The two Americans, as also the Swede and 
 Englishman, learned of the rooms through the newspaper. 
 Each of them is dissatisfied, and none of them will be here 
 long. One Italian is the last of the former group, and he 
 said that he intended to move very soon. The incoming 
 Italian family has been in this country seventeen years and 
 is somewhat Americanized. 
 
 House 225. Consciousness of kind is more evident in 
 this house than in 223, because one nationality prevails and 
 the period of residence and acquaintance is longer. The 
 occupants of the ground floor front are in business, depend- 
 ing for success upon the patronage of their own people. 
 Three of the four, who are not Jews, live on the fifth floor 
 apart. These three include one German, one Austrian, and 
 one Irish-German family. The Irish husband in the last 
 family said : " Oh, most people think no one is right un- 
 less he is like themselves. I like the Italians, only they 
 underwork us a little." 
 
 The relations of an Austrian woman in this house to an 
 Italian family in house 217 are interesting. The Austrian 
 woman has seen better days. She speaks German and 
 gives her nationality as German. But her whole disposi- 
 tion is like that of an Italian, though somewhat less emo- 
 tional and impulsive. Her pleasures are, however, strongly 
 emotional. In addition to German and English, she also 
 speaks Italian and French, a proof that she has associated 
 much with those people, for she learned the languages by 
 hearing them spoken. 
 
 Family No. 113 of house 217 is composed of Italians 
 
CONSCIOUSNESS OF KIND 
 
 who have been long in this country, the husband thirty- 
 seven years and the wife twenty years. They speak good 
 English and in most respects are Americanized. So dif- 
 ferent are they from the other Italians of this group that 
 they are not held in good esteem by them. It is only their 
 extreme poverty that keeps them here. To the extent that 
 they have been Americanized they have lost some of the 
 Italian impulsiveness, so 1 that they resemble the northern 
 Italian or the Austro-Italian disposition. 
 
 Knowing the similarity of the Austrian woman's dis- 
 position to that of family 113, and at the same time 
 bearing in mind the distance between them, one being in 
 house 217 and the other in 225, the writer was surprised 
 to learn that in spite of this distance and the difference in 
 nationality, the two* families were friendly, and that family 
 113 had brought the woman from 225 to the Union Settle- 
 ment to display her talents as a musician. 
 
 House 235. The tenants here are Russian Jews. The 
 landlady, who is an American Jewess, has a wide circle of 
 friends, and through them is enabled to have her house 
 well known. In 1898 there were four Gentile families in 
 the house. In 1899 there was but one; now the house is 
 completely Jewish — the only house in the community of 
 one nationality. 
 
 While the consciousness of kind is strong in this group 
 it is different from that exhibited by the Italians. These 
 people are more deliberate and have more individuality. 
 There is much visiting from room to room, but this social 
 intercourse is not to be compared with that in houses 213 
 to 219. The mothers with their children were often seen 
 going to the park together. 4 
 
 In the history of each house in Block X the power of 
 the consciousness of kind has clearly been seen. Racial 
 affinity, often the limit of a consciousness of kind, has sev- 
 
Io6 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [362 
 
 eral times been disregarded. Even color lines have failed 
 to keep like dispositions apart. Strong economic forces 
 have entered the community and scattered all purely social 
 groups to the four winds; but after the storm, quietly but 
 certainly, like has attracted like, and the house has grad- 
 ually filled with a homogeneous group. This is the history 
 of every house, and where heterogeneity exists the process 
 continues. 
 
 In the earlier periods of his residence in this country the 
 foreigner feels that only those are like him who speak his 
 own language and who have come from his native land. 
 This is especially true of the Italians. The accompanying 
 table clearly reveals the consciousness of kind. 
 
 Italian Element in Each House Each Year. 
 
 Years. 
 
 211 
 
 213 
 
 215 
 
 217 
 
 219 
 
 223 
 
 1895 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 10 
 
 1897- 1 898 
 
 I 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 1 898- 1 899 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 11 
 
 9 
 
 14 
 
 1899-1900 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 15 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 The testimony of this steady and swift aggregation of 
 like individuals is unmistakable. It must be remembered, 
 too, that when Italians enter a house the Jews gradually 
 move out, and if a negro enters anywhere it is into an 
 Italian house. This may be explained by the general an- 
 tipathy of whites to live with blacks, except the whites of 
 the lower economic classes. There is possibly some weight 
 to be given to the fact that the Italians are not as yet 
 sufficiently prosperous to be independent, and so to assert 
 their feelings completely; but this is a subordinate influence 
 in most of these houses, for some of the negro families 
 who were here before either the Jews or the Italians came, 
 expressed their regret at seeing Jews come into the street, 
 while they lived on good terms with the Italians. 
 
363] 
 
 CONSCIOUSNESS OF KIND 
 
 107 
 
 A tendency towards homogeneity has been observed in 
 the Jewish groups also. These changes, while not so rapid 
 as among the Italians, are not less certain. 
 
 Hebrew Element in Each House Each Year 
 Years. 201 203 205 207 2og 211 213 215 217 219 221 223 225 235 
 
 1897- 1898 — 272261 3273— 3 15 
 
 1898- 1899 — 3 6 12 4 4 2 2 — 7 4 — 4 17 
 
 1899- 1900 — 3775321 12578 20 
 
 This table shows a steady increase of Jews in the corner 
 houses, leaving the Italians in the centre. The cause of 
 this cannot be found in difference of rent or of anything 
 in the construction of the house, though both of these facts 
 are often important factors. The rent and the structure 
 of the majority of the houses are almost the same. Be- 
 sides, Jews have been seen to replace Italians and vice 
 versa in the same house. The cause can be found only in 
 the desire of like individuals to be together. This funda- 
 mental cause is not alone in producing these groups, nor 
 does it work unhindered. Sometimes with, and sometimes 
 in spite of other forces, it gradually brings order out of 
 the urban chaos. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Concerted Volition 
 
 It could not be expected that in a population so hetero- 
 geneous as that of Block X, dwelling- under the conditions 
 of tenement-house life, much cooperation of family with 
 family, or of like-minded individuals with one another 
 irrespective of kinship, could arise within the narrow limits 
 of this aggregation itself. Most of the men and many of 
 the women of the block are engaged in cooperative activi- 
 ties^ — of pleasure, religion, industry, or politics — but their 
 associates are gathered from a wide East Side area, and 
 to some extent from all quarters of the city. Few examples, 
 therefore, can be recorded of spontaneous cooperation within 
 the block itself and limited to its own dwellers. These few, 
 however, are so far indicative of the origins of concerted 
 volition in its elementary forms as to be of some slight 
 sociological value. 
 
 The simplest ones, naturally, are certain housekeeping 
 arrangements. 
 
 In house 207 were two families in which the husbands 
 were brothers — Jews born in New York City. The wives 
 were not related, but were born in New York City of Jew- 
 ish parents that had come from Holland. The blood rela- 
 tionship of the two brothers was the first social bond be- 
 tween these families, but the Dutch ancestry and a simi- 
 larity of customs, tastes and dispositions in the wives were 
 no small factors. At the time of our first visit the wives 
 were both in one house, washing the dishes. It was learned 
 108 [364 
 
36 5 ] 
 
 CONCERTED VOLITION 
 
 109 
 
 that they cooperated in most of the work of the two house- 
 holds. The families enjoyed various forms of amusement 
 together in the evening and in other leisure hours. 
 
 Families 65 and 66 in house 211 live in two apart- 
 ments joined into one, making six rooms altogether. Fam- 
 ily 65 is that of the parents of the wife of family 66. 
 All of the members of the first-named family are bread- 
 winners except a boy eight years old. Family 66 includes 
 the daughter, her husband and two children, and also 
 the husband's brother and sister, and a boarder, all of 
 whom do outside work except the mother and the two 
 children. During the day there is no one at home but the 
 young mother and her two babies. She does most of the 
 housework for both families, especially the managing of 
 household affairs. All wages in family 65 are paid to the 
 father; members of family 66 pay a regular sum each week 
 to the father of family 65. He then gives to the manager 
 of the house, his married daughter, as much money as she 
 requires to pay all bills. To the members of his own 
 family he gives a little pocket-money, and the members of 
 the other family have the balance after paying their board. 
 Meals are eaten at one table, and there is almost complete 
 cooperation in other affairs as well. 
 
 In the same house families 69 and 70, less closely united 
 than families 65 and 66, cooperate to a great extent. 
 Family 70 is composed of the parents of the wife of 
 family 69. These families have joined their apartments. 
 The daughter was formerly living in a much better place, 
 and could well afford to do so for her husband earns high 
 wages, but she wished to be near her mother, and at the 
 same time to be saving money. 
 
 These examples are fairly typical of many that could be 
 adduced of a certain tendency to revert to the collective or 
 " compound " housekeeping of primitive life under con- 
 ditions of poverty in the tenement districts. 
 
HO SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [366 
 
 On a somewhat broader scale concerted volition is seen 
 in a frequent cooperation in pleasures, especially among 
 the Irish. The quick and sincere sympathy of the Irish 
 disposition often brushes aside the ordinary rules of 
 formality, and they come together spontaneously in some 
 kind of joviality. 
 
 This disposition of the Irish, and the business qualities 
 of the Jews, often make possible also a degree of purely 
 economic cooperation between these races. Its usual mani- 
 festation is seen in the relations of a Jewish landlord or 
 landlady to Irish tenants. In house 209, for example, an 
 Irish woman remarked of the landlady : " Oh, yes, she's a 
 Jew woman; but she's very nice for all that." It is the 
 ability of the " Jew woman " to make herself pleasant that 
 appeals to the Irish. The Irish rarely go into the apart- 
 ments of the landlady, but she goes very often into those 
 of the Irish. This formality on the part of the tenants is 
 not at all due to a consciousness that the landlady is supe- 
 rior. There is no such feeling. These advances are made 
 by the landlady with the particular object of keeping all 
 on good terms with herself and with each other. Such 
 association has but a slight tendency toward real social in- 
 tercourse. That such cooperation may become permanent 
 and genuine the mere economic motive must be strength- 
 ened by motives that are inherent in the disposition of the 
 individuals themselves. This kind of cooperation as it 
 now exists is therefore artificial, and is not permanent, be- 
 cause it is not based in that consciousness of kind which is 
 the only genuine bond of social fellowship and of endur- 
 ing cooperation. 
 
 Among the Italians many families make wine in the 
 summer, and wine-drinking is the occasion of many social 
 winter gatherings, in which there is also singing and the 
 playing of the easier games of cards. 
 
367] CONCERTED VOLITION m 
 
 A concerted volition of yet wider extent is sometimes 
 called forth by a sensational event, and especially by calam- 
 ity or misfortune. It is the testimony of ambulance-sur- 
 geons that they can scarcely reach their patients in an 
 Italian district because the neighbors have gathered about 
 to offer sympathy and aid. In times of trouble, especially 
 of sickness or death, the Italians are most generous in 
 assisting one another. Detectives looking for the cause of 
 a crime are met by a solid wall of blank smiles and shrug- 
 ging shoulders. 
 
 Of concerted action of a more definite and effective kind, 
 and on a fairly large scale, one example may be given. 
 This was the evacuation of house 223 in September, 1900, 
 by the Italians. This house was leased by an Italian and 
 was one of the first occupied by his countrymen. Its pop- 
 ulation in 1899 included fourteen Italians, one Irish- Amer- 
 ican, one negro, and two Greek families. The houses on each 
 side of it were occupied by highly heterogeneous groups, 
 in which Jews and Americans predominated. House 223 
 was, therefore, separated from the other Italian houses. 
 The feeling of opposition on the part of houses 221 and 
 225 towards house 223 steadily increased. Pressure was 
 finally brought to bear upon the landlord through the board 
 of health. The board ordered the house calcimined. This 
 sanitary measure was necessary, though not more so than 
 in other Italian houses on the other side of 221. The land- 
 lord ordered the lease-holder to calcimine, but he could not 
 afford to do it and sold his lease back to the landlord at a 
 sacrifice. It was but a few days until almost all the Italians 
 moved out. 
 
 The presence of Italian lease-holders and Italian store- 
 keepers in each of the four houses occupied by Italian ten- 
 ants is another instance of concerted volition arising from 
 consciousness of kind. These lease-holders have usually no 
 
112 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [368 
 
 capital worth mentioning. They may have scraped to- 
 gether fifty or a hundred dollars to begin with, but this 
 sum is so large a one to them that they are not willing to 
 run any risks with it. In undertaking to sub-let a house 
 they have great confidence in the affinity of their people for 
 each other. This is true also of the Italian store-keepers. 
 They venture into business where they perceive that they 
 can count on the cooperation of their own countrymen, and 
 a common antagonism to the Jews. The Italian grocer, 
 for instance, depends for his success upon his ability to 
 cater intelligently to his Italian customers, which he knows 
 he can do more successfully than members of another 
 nationality. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Social Organization 
 
 Within the narrow limits of the group under consid- 
 eration the forms of social organization are very simple. 
 No function of government is delegated to it. No public 
 or incorporated organization devotes its energies exclusively 
 to these families. 
 
 Social Composition. The ordinary conception of an 
 urban population is that of a large aggregation of indi- 
 viduals that are independent of one another in most re- 
 spects. The bonds of acquaintance and relationship usually 
 found in the village are not supposed to exist in the city. 
 The fonnal relations of families living in apartments and 
 houses occupied by the middle and upper classes is respon- 
 sible for this idea. The majority of these people seem to 
 be entirely indifferent to their neighbors. It is known, of 
 course, that every city has sections for the wealthy and quar- 
 ters for the poor, and that the poor quarters include some 
 districts almost exclusively occupied by recently arrived 
 immigrants. But the perfect stratification and classifica- 
 tion of peoples brought about by the same social and eco- 
 nomic forces that arrange the village group are rarely ap- 
 parent to the casual observer of city conditions. 
 
 This classification reveals two arrangements : that in which 
 the group is limited to certain well-defined localities and 
 that in which the group is independent of locality, its mem- 
 bers being scattered in various parts of the city. The latter 
 grouping is formed through a common interest in the same 
 369] 113 
 
II 4 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [370 
 
 organization. The acquaintance grows by communication 
 concerning the matters pertaining to these interests, and is 
 continued by the calls of one family on the other. In these 
 groups it may happen that a family does not even have an 
 acquaintance in the block in which it lives. 
 
 Block X, of course, belongs to the arrangement accord- 
 ing to locality. The preceding chapters have shown that 
 each of the houses being studied is occupied by a distinct 
 set, which, through frequent changes in composition, re- 
 tains the same characteristics. The fourteen houses in the 
 street do not belong to one ethnic group; they are parts of 
 various large ethnic settlements in the vicinity. Each 
 , house, with its fifteen to twenty families, bears the same 
 relation to its ethnic group as that o<f the middle-class 
 family to its social circle without local boundaries. The 
 five Italian houses in this block form one segment of the 
 large settlement of Italians across Second avenue. In the 
 same way the Jews are closely related to Hebrew groups 
 in neighboring blocks; while the Irish in the houses near 
 Third avenue are but the overflow from that street. To 
 use a political figure, the houses may be likened to villages 
 and the larger groups to counties. It might then be said 
 that the Irish village of house 201 belonged to the county 
 along Third avenue; that the Italian village of houses 211 
 to 219 belonged to the Italian county east of Second avenue 
 and extending from I02d to 114th street. 
 
 In this discussion, however, it is not necessary to con- 
 sider the larger groupings. The simpler social relations 
 of the people in a given tenement are generally limited to 
 the house itself or to similar houses within the fourteen. 
 They form component groups as truly as the ordinary vil- 
 lage in a rural district. The centre of the group is the 
 landlord or his representative, the janitor. If the janitor 
 is a weak individual, who is more a servant than an over- 
 
37i] 
 
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 
 
 "5 
 
 seer of the house, the store-keeper or some old resident of 
 pleasing but strong personality becomes the group leader. 
 Within the house-groups are smaller organizations of re- 
 lated families, but usually of families of the same nation- 
 ality. 
 
 Two interesting facts regarding the family life of this 
 community are analogous to facts of ethnic society, and 
 may be recorded at this point. The first relates to mixed 
 marriages. In 1898 there were eighteen marriages be- 
 tween individuals of different nationalities; in 1899, twenty; 
 in 1900, thirteen. These mixed marriages of civil society 
 may be likened to the exogamous marriages of ethnic soci- 
 eties. They follow the weakening of racial prejudices and 
 hasten assimilation. The other fact is the tendency of 
 immigrants to gather about the family of the wife rather 
 than about that of the husband, showing a slight trace of 
 the metronymic order of ethnic society. It was found that 
 there were twenty-six parents and forty-two relatives of 
 wives living with their respective families, while only eleven 
 parents and twenty-six relatives of husbands were counted. 
 In two instances the husband, with his wife and children, 
 were living with the wife's parents on much the same basis 
 as the unmarried children. The wife's father received a 
 share of all wages, from which sum the expenses of the 
 house were paid. 
 
 Social Constitution. Owing to the heterogeneity of this 
 small community, the discussion of organizations formed 
 for special purposes must extend to organizations drawing 
 membership from the vicinity as well as from Block X. 
 No organization of any importance would find a sufficient 
 number of like-minded people in these houses alone to 
 make its existence worth while. 
 
 The most important cultural institutions of the district 
 are the churches. These are of the Roman Catholic, the 
 
Il6 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [372 
 
 Hebrew, and various Protestant denominations. But their 
 influence seems not to be so great as it was formerly. The 
 evidence of religious feeling is spasmodic. It is to be 
 found in faith in some relic, or in temporary attendance 
 upon church service in times of trial, rather than in any 
 regularity of church worship. The paraphernalia of the 
 church often decorate the walls of a tenement and some of 
 the people are ready to defend their faith, but constant 
 attendance upon the services of the church seems to have 
 disappeared. Even the Roman Catholics are surprisingly 
 indifferent. A striking fact regarding the members of 
 churches having saints' days and other holidays is the great 
 interest which even the most indifferent take in these events. 
 However careless a Jew may be throughout the year, on 
 his church holidays he puts aside all work, dresses in his 
 best clothes, and spares neither himself nor his pocket-book 
 in fulfilling his duty to the synagogue. Likewise the Ital- 
 ian, on his saints' days, spends enough money in fireworks 
 tp supply the church with candles for a year. 
 
 The presence of the respective churches in the neighbor- 
 hood is due to different causes, while the church govern- 
 ment has much to do with its hold upon these people. The 
 Roman Catholic church was placed in the district by the 
 authority of those who are rulers in the diocese. Money 
 was obtained from the people of the vicinity by subscrip- 
 tion, by the selling of tickets to various entertainments, 
 card parties, and amateur plays, and added to by contribu- 
 tions from the wealthy contractors of the city. As every- 
 body knows, the church government is a strong hierarchy, 
 in which the people are completely passive. They are sub- 
 jects to be governed by the will of the priests. In the 
 religious services the appeal to feeling is stronger than that 
 tp the reason. Forms are used which mystify the people 
 and inspire in them a sense of fear. The habit of obedience 
 
373] 
 
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 
 
 117 
 
 to authority is cultivated more than that of deliberation. 
 Such forms of government and worship seem to be more 
 effective with these people than a democratic church gov- 
 ernment and a more rational faith. The Catholic Church 
 is, consciously or unconsciously, wise in clinging to these 
 forms in its work among these people. Its mistake, which 
 hinders social development, lies in the excessive use of alt 
 these signs of authority and in its appeal solely to emotion. 
 As a rule, this church is unwilling to modify its methods 
 in order to accustom its people to a deliberative form of 
 government and to a less mystical religion. Several mem- 
 bers of the priesthood of this district, however, show a 
 toleration that is already reflected in the membership. 
 
 The Protestant churches also were founded by people 
 outside of this section, much less money having been con- 
 tributed toward their establishment by those in the neigh- 
 borhood than was the case with the Catholic churches, but 
 they have a much smaller membership. 
 
 In establishing the synagogue, the initiative is generally 
 taken by the people to be benefited. When a clothing manu- 
 facturer, still living in this district, invited a group of 
 Jews of the lower East Side to move to- the upper East 
 Side, the chief condition of moving was that the German 
 clothier should provide a synagogue. This he did, and the 
 people elected trustees and hired a rabbi. But it was not 
 long, according to the clothier, before he learned that one 
 trustee, more enterprising than the others, had confiscated 
 the paraphernalia and was charging every one an admission 
 fee, which the trustee used according to his own pleasure. 
 When the wrong was righted the synagogue was properly 
 established, and many of the people attended the services on 
 Saturday and worked in the clothing shops on Sunday and 
 the remaining week days. The Jewish study of the Tal- 
 mud is an intellectual exercise of value. The religious ser- 
 
Il8 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [374 
 
 vice of the Hebrews, like that of the Catholic Church, has 
 many forms that are beautiful in their signification, and the 
 general effect upon the people is to cultivate an emotional 
 devotion rather than a reasonable understanding of their 
 faith. The cantor leads the congregation in a chant full 
 of musical cadences, to whose rhythm the swaying bodies 
 of its members respond. 
 
 All this, however, is rapidly losing its power of inspira- 
 tion for the younger Jews. Only where parental authority 
 and filial respect are supreme does any large majority of 
 the young men and women adhere to the orthodox Jewish 
 faith. Their intellectual development demands a form of 
 religion that appeals to reason, yet they are not ready for 
 an abolition of emotional forms. Ethical culture appeals 
 to them because it is neither Catholic nor Protestant, but 
 it does not satisfy their religious instincts. A majority of 
 people expect religion to include emotional forms, but in 
 the ethical-culture movement these seem to be lacking. 
 The success of the reform synagogue should be far greater 
 than tkat of the ethical-culture movement, but it cannot 
 be complete until the present generation has forgotten the 
 beauty of the majestic and soul-stirring prayers uttered in 
 the rugged words of the original Hebrew and the devo- 
 tion of the parents to the orthodox forms omitted by re- 
 formed Judaism. 
 
 Religious societies are but one product of the desire of 
 the Jew for organization. There are all sorts of societies 
 among them, from the club organized by a boy in order 
 that he may be president of it to an association for the 
 attainment of universal peace. This organizing spirit is 
 characteristic of the whole race; it is almost a craze. The 
 young boy wants a literary club, and the girl wants a liter- 
 ary and social club. At the next stage they desire to form 
 a " charity society," in which they intend to sew and to 
 
375] 
 
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 
 
 HQ 
 
 give help to the poor. The last and highest form of 
 spontaneous organization here is the " mutual benefit soci- 
 ety." It is difficult to determine exactly what is the origin 
 of this organizing passion. One factor in its causation is 
 a desire to be united with some body that may obtain recog- 
 nition. This desire in many instances is vanity pure and 
 simple. The most remarkable thing about all these asso- 
 ciations is the interaction of the strong individuality of 
 the Jew with the social instincts necessary to form a good 
 society. In most cases the individuality seems to triumph. 
 In the prevalent form of organization only the secretary 
 and treasurer are permanent officers, and the chairman is 
 elected at each meeting. Throughout the lower East Side 
 there are many associations that are merely impromptu 
 assemblies, their favorite meeting-place being some cafe, 
 where acquaintances come together over their glasses of 
 Russian tea to discuss topics relating to their trades or 
 professions. Each cafe is frequented by its own group — \ 
 here the actors, there the playwrights, there the physicians. 
 
 The other cultural organizations exerting influence on 
 the population of Block X are the schools of various kinds. 
 In the education of these peoples the work of the public 
 school in promoting cleanliness, not to speak of other good 
 habits, is of the greatest importance. The chief defect of 
 all the schools is the inability of officers and teachers to 
 understand the different types of nationality and to supply 
 the needs of. each type. Whether the scheme of discipline 
 is conducive to self-control depends very largely on the 
 teacher. Some teachers handle their pupils so as to de- 
 velop independence; others manage them so that they 
 always require a boss to direct them. 
 
 Of the Hebrew school, or chedar, there is little good to 
 be said. The one near this district is held in a badly-ven- 
 tilated, dirty room, in which an old man compels the pale- 
 
120 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [376 
 
 faced boys to cram their minds with Hebrew prayers. This 
 school may inculcate a habit of obedience, but it does so 
 at the expense of proper mental development. 
 
 Economic associations are represented in Block X by 
 members of trades unions and of mutual-benefit associa- 
 tions. These organizations engage the interest of many 
 men that no longer care for the church. The type of 
 union man prevailing in this group is, however, one re- 
 quiring a strong incentive to any kind of concerted action. 
 Only in the face of great distress will such men unite in 
 any scheme. A minority, such as is found in house 201, 
 is of a different sort and often takes part in meetings that 
 are highly deliberative. Not long ago one of these men 
 successfully presided over the meetings of an important 
 organization during the most stormy part of its existence. 
 
 The political organizations of these people are almost 
 invariably a part of a machine. The boss of the district 
 dictates the policy of the majority. The minority, not thus 
 enslaved, is composed of socialists, so controlled by their 
 idea as not to brook another master, and of a few other 
 individuals of sufficient intelligence and character to with- 
 stand the boss. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 Social Welfare 
 
 The natural conclusion of this study is an account of 
 the social welfare. The social well-being of a people is 
 variously interpreted. Some emphasize economic prosper- 
 ity, and form their opinion according to the family wealth; 
 others rate the community by its allegiance to certain re- 
 ligious tenets; and others according to the general morality 
 and education of the group. All of these are important fac- 
 tors of the social welfare, but they are all subordinate to 
 one end, namely, the development of personality. In this 
 community, where residence is usually so brief, it is diffi- 
 cult to determine individual changes. The testimony of 
 those that have known this street for many years, how- 
 ever, points to a distinct improvement within the last ten 
 years. Street fights and drunken brawls are much less fre- 
 quent than formerly. This change is due in part to the sub- 
 stitution of hard-working Italians and industrious Hebrews 
 for the pugnacious Irishmen and lager-loving Germans of 
 the "left-over" class. This is indicated by a comparison of 
 this population with a similar " left-over " class in other 
 parts of the city. The superiority of the recent immigrant 
 to the " left-over " class of Americans wherever found 
 leads some observers to maintain that the immigrant child 
 is inferior to his parent. While this may be true of those 
 nationalities that have come from healthful, rural condi- 
 tions to live under the adverse influences of tenement life, 
 it is not generally true, and the impression to the contrary 
 377] 121 
 
122 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [378 
 
 is obtained from a comparison of the immigrant, laboring 
 under the goad of fear in a new country, with a class that 
 remains after the best of its kindred have been sorted out 
 and drawn into better conditions. If this is not true, we 
 must admit that the institutional relations into which the 
 immigrant enters in New York City are even worse than 
 those of Europe. 
 
 PUBLIC UTILITIES 
 
 A discussion of public utilities includes some account of 
 the institutional relations which affect the social welfare. 
 First of these are the conditions of life in a tenement-house. 
 
 Tenement-house Life. Much has been said of late about 
 badly-constructed tenements. Though the actual suffering 
 and discomfort are sometimes exaggerated, the far-reach- 
 ing effect of unsanitary conditions upon tenement-dwellers 
 is never over-stated. The establishment of a public de- 
 partment for the supervision of the construction and gen- 
 eral condition of these houses is one of the most important 
 altruistic movements of New York City. 
 
 The houses under consideration have not the usual de- 
 fects of tenements, for the reason that this block is still 
 open at the rear. It is also relieved by the breezes which 
 circulate between the East river and Central Park, only 
 seven blocks apart. Both park and river are places of 
 recreation to which the people can escape from the monot- 
 ony and darkness of their homes. In spite of these com- 
 paratively favorable conditions, however, the vitality of the 
 group is affected by cramped quarters, the absence of ven- 
 tilation, the spread of contagious diseases, and insufficient 
 rest and recreation. 
 
 Of greater significance from the sociological point of 
 view is the herding together of numbers of the same nation- 
 ality. This is the tendency in rural districts as well, but 
 
379] 
 
 SOCIAL WELFARE 
 
 123 
 
 there the herding is not so compact and the clannish spirit 
 is not so well maintained. Country people take time to 
 acquaint themselves with the strangers among them, pub- 
 lic officials have more patience, the scheming politician is 
 more easily detected. The general effect of tenement-house 
 life, under these conditions of ethnic segregation, is to re- 
 tard the assimilation of immigrants to American ways and 
 to expose them to the wiles of unprincipled politicians and 
 tradesmen. Crowded together into adjacent houses, the 
 necessity and the wisdom of learning the English language, 
 and their rights as American citizens, dawn upon them 
 very slowly. They thus become the prey of the instalment 
 dealer and of every shrewd rascal that comes along. Their 
 dependence upon leaders, who have been chosen for their 
 knowledge of English rather than for their integrity, ren- 
 ders them the pliant tools of the political boss. This per- 
 son is often the only man of influence that understands 
 their trials and is willing to help them. The average Amer- 
 ican knows little about them. To him they are a mass of 
 people that occasionally fight with stillettos, always break 
 the laws of the American Sunday, and sometimes cast the 
 deciding vote in municipal elections. 
 
 Peace and Order. The degree of security and justice 
 enjoyed by the population of this city block is in striking 
 contrast with that observed in rural districts. The disad- 
 vantages of these people have partly been explained. Juve- 
 nile criminals often harass the children, and sometimes prey 
 upon the property of adults. The Irish policeman, whose 
 beat circumscribes several thousands of the " sneaking 
 dagoes " and of the despised " sheenys," has little time to 
 be patient with them. The judge, however honest, cannot 
 well understand the cases brought before him, and injus- 
 tice is often wrought. This largely accounts for the num- 
 ber of stilletto fights in the tenement districts. It is not 
 
124 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [380 
 
 to be inferred from these remarks that these evils affect a 
 majority of the people. Only a very small minority have 
 any occasion to refer to the police or to the court. 
 
 Economic Welfare. Relatively to* their economic con- 
 dition when they arrive in this country, these families are 
 advancing rapidly, though often only by tremendous strug- 
 gles and great sacrifices of home life and family affection. 
 As they leave Ellis Island and set forth for the crowded 
 district of their own people their possessions can almost be 
 tied up in a big bandanna or two. Under the direction of 
 a friend or relative they find opportunity to work — the Jew 
 in a clothing or cigar factory, the Italian in a cigar fac- 
 tory or to' labor with the " shubble." It is impossible to 
 obtain exact statistics as to wages. The common daily 
 wage of the men and women of this district averaged a 
 dollar and a half, and the weekly wage nine to twelve dol- 
 lars. The Jews obtain higher wages than the Italians. 
 Their ability and foresight enable them to earn more 
 money by a given expenditure of effort than any other 
 people. Comparatively few of their children go out to 
 work. It is quite otherwise in the Italian families. They 
 are as thrifty and as frugal, but they have not the ability 
 of the Jews. They are, consequently, almost compelled to 
 send every one to< work who can possibly add a few pen- 
 nies to the family income. This necessity has often caused 
 Italian families to cooperate in the housekeeping, leaving 
 an old grandmother at home to look after the younger chil- 
 dren of two families, A very much larger proportion of 
 Italian women and children go out to work than of any 
 other nationality. They are nearer the economic margin 
 than any other people. It is only by the most strenuous 
 efforts that many of them are able to live in any degree; of 
 comfort ; but they are not averse to work of any kind, and 
 therefore they usually get on. 
 
SOCIAL WELFARE 
 
 125 
 
 Culture. The education of the adults of this commun- 
 ity is limited. Only a small minority of the parents can 
 read English and but a small majority of them can read 
 their own language. The young people almost without ex- 
 ception read and write English. The native-born have 
 usually attended the elementary grades of the public schools 
 and a few of them hold diplomas of graduation from 
 grammar schools. In the acquirement of education the 
 Jews excel. Their desire for education is almost a pas- 
 sion. The success of the public schools in disseminating 
 knowledge among the younger generation is remarkable. 
 The free-lecture system extends the benefit of the school 
 system to the adults, and the night schools make it pos- 
 sible for the working boys and girls to continue their edu- 
 cation even through the high school courses. 
 
 Next to the schools in influence ranks the newspaper. 
 The Journal or the World enters every home in which 
 there is an adult who can read English, and the foreign 
 editions enter the other homes. The general effect of 
 school and newspaper is to dispel many illusions and super- 
 stitions that have been brought over in the folklore of 
 Europe, to acquaint the people with the resources and man- 
 ners of this country, and to enable them to use their ener- 
 gies and possessions to better advantage. 
 
 SOCIAL PERSONALITY 
 
 The personal characteristics, already discussed in the 
 analysis of the Social Mind, are reviewed here in their re^ 
 lation to the social welfare of the community. 
 
 Vitality. It is evident from the description of tenement- 
 house life and from the density of the population in this 
 district that conditions are not favorable to high vitality. 
 As compared with rural people, these are pale and thin. 
 The improvement which two weeks of country air and rest 
 
126 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [382 
 
 work in the appearance of the children is an indication of 
 the disadvantages under which they live. While the num- 
 ber of vigorous and healthy young men is surprising, the 
 proportion of such is far below that of the better parts of 
 the city, and still smaller than in rural communities. 
 
 In addition to general causes of physical inferiority in 
 this block there are contributing causes that affect only 
 certain nationalities. The Italians suffer from the complete 
 change of habit to which they are subjected in America. 
 The vegetable diet, to which they are accustomed in Italy, 
 does not fit them for arduous labor and severe climatic 
 changes. Their inability to succeed in commercial under- 
 takings and their immediate needs compel them to engage 
 in work that calls for the strength of much heavier men. 
 They exhaust themselves, and their energy is often com- 
 pletely drained by carrying heavy burdens. The Irishmen 
 and the Germans, on the other hand, are adapted to hard 
 manual labor, and in consequence they prosper and in- 
 crease in energy with their toil. 
 
 The Jewish people are in strange contrast to all the 
 others. Their vitality seems great, but their physical 
 measurements are below the normal. As a matter of fact 
 their vitality is not so great as it seems. The low rate of 
 mortality among them is due to care in the selection of 
 occupation and to foresight in all the affairs of life. The 
 deficiency in physical measurements is a more accurate 
 index of their condition than the mortality statistics, as a 
 close acquaintance with the people proves. Neither their 
 occupations nor their pleasures tend to increase their 
 physical vitality. While so many of the Italians are over- 
 come by the severity of their physical exertions, the Jews, 
 are weakened by the sedentary character of their occupa- 
 tions. Their favorite pleasures, as we have seen, are usually 
 of the passive and emotional kinds, such as theatre-going, 
 
SOCIAL WELFARE 
 
 127 
 
 dancing, banquets, and the passive observation of athletic 
 games. In this respect they are in contrast to Americans, 
 Irish, and even Italians, who take delight in active partici- 
 pation in physical sport. 
 
 Mentality. In mental ability the Jewish people are 
 easily first in this community. Their experience in busi- 
 ness sharpens the intellect and develops shrewdness. While 
 many of the adults cannot read or write, their questions 
 and their understanding of affairs in general indicate in- 
 telligence. The younger people are not only most eager 
 for education, but even in their recreations they tend to- 
 ward intellectual activity, debating clubs and literary soci- 
 eties being preferred by them to bowling-alleys and gym- 
 nasiums. 
 
 While the Italians are not mentally dull, they are lack- 
 ing in power of attention and in concentration. They are 
 quick to observe superficial relations, but they will not 
 often go far enough to learn the deeper significance of facts. 
 Their attention wanders and vacillates. This is true of all 
 tenement people, but not generally to the extent that it is 
 of the Italians. The Irish mind lacks power of attention, 
 but it has a brilliancy which is rarely found in the Italian. 
 The redeeming feature of the Italian mind, however, is its 
 vivacity. 
 
 Morality. There are not over six families in this group 
 of 212 which would be considered immoral, either by a 
 rural community or by a tenement group. The standard 
 of morality is not high, but it is good in view of the pre- 
 vailing conditions of life in crowded districts and the ex- 
 posure to temptations of all kinds. These hard-working 
 people have not time to be immoral. The Italians rise early 
 in the morning, work hard all day, and go to bed early at 
 night. The Jews here are unmolested by the depraved 
 parasitical creatures that are to be found in some parts of 
 
128 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [384 
 
 the lower East Side. The disturbing elements are usually 
 the " left-over " Irish, who sometimes indulge in gay car- 
 nivals with the beer-bucket and the whiskey-bottle. In the 
 absence of a long-standing community spirit, public opinion 
 is not an effective means of control and rectitude is main- 
 tained chiefly by unconscious habit. Knowledge of gen- 
 eral affairs is too limited to awaken a social conscience, and 
 the besetting weakness of these people is their inability to 
 carry out good intentions. 
 
 Sociality. The degree and kind of sociality differ with 
 each nationality. The Italians are overflowing with sym- 
 pathy. They are quick to cooperate in helpful movements. 
 They have a strong social instinct, and unconsciously de- 
 vote themselves to the support of the socially good and to 
 the condemnation of the bad. In order to further the com- 
 mon good they are willing to lay aside their own interests. 
 The Irish are like the Italians in possessing a strong social 
 instinct. With this they combine strength of will and self- 
 assertion, qualities which make them the natural leaders of 
 the masses. 
 
 The Jews are the individualistic element of the com- 
 munity. In their social efforts they seem to be conscious 
 only of themselves. They are often deficient in social in- 
 stinct ; they do not always see the necessity of " give and 
 take " in association. They take pleasure in companion- 
 ship, but the bond of sympathy is not sufficiently strong to 
 hold them together except for pleasure or gain. 
 
 The truly social man instinctively reseats an infringe- 
 ment of proper social relations even though it be at a great 
 personal cost. His social pride does not permit him to let 
 the act pass unnoticed. The inclination of the Irishman 
 and of the Italian to fight on the least provocation is not 
 entirely due to a combative nature. In part it springs from 
 a strong social instinct, which feels wrong keenly, and 
 
385] SOCIAL WELFARE 1 29 
 
 would feel the social reproach more keenly, if he were not 
 man enough to resent imposition. A less social being would 
 rather suffer a slight inconvenience and let social reproach 
 be heaped upon his head, to save himself further trouble, 
 reasoning that it is not wise to " cut off your nose to spite 
 your face." Notwithstanding the seeming irritability of 
 the Irishman and of the Italian, this willingness on their 
 part to defend the social order at personal cost is creative 
 of social bonds. 
 
 THE INTERACTION OF SOCIETY AND PERSONALITY 
 
 Reaction of Personality on Institutions. A consequence 
 of the ignorance and dependence of these immigrant people 
 is, naturally, the development of the machine system in 
 politics with a boss to dictate policy. A dictator seems to 
 be necessary to every successful organization on the upper 
 East Side. The vacillating disposition of the Italians gives 
 an uncertain character to the societies that they form. They 
 act in an impulsive manner, alternately praising and con- 
 demning, with little show of deliberation. The individual- 
 istic character of the Jew is distinctly reflected in his organ- 
 izations. They are not large; leadership is not strongly 
 emphasized; argument, discussion and disagreement are 
 matters of course. The Irish, with their qualities of leader- 
 ship and their strong social instincts, form societies in 
 which " the machine system " is always to be observed. 
 
 The dependence and the ignorance of these people fur- 
 thermore preclude much influence upon the institutions to 
 which they belong. They are pliable material to be used 
 for much harm or for much good according to the nature 
 of the institution. The most noteworthy effect of a com- 
 munity of this kind upon American life in general is its 
 infusion into that life of foreign ideas and manners, and 
 its tendency thereby to modify Anglo-Saxon habits. 
 
130 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [386 
 
 Reaction of Institutions on Personality. The hope of 
 developing an American type in this community lies almost 
 entirely in American institutions. 
 
 The organizations formed by the people themselves, for 
 their own purposes, usually perpetuate some foreign cus- 
 tom. The effect of the housing in tenements has been de- 
 scribed as developing sameness and mediocrity. In the in- 
 dustrial realm the strict limitation to one branch of a trade, 
 with no opportunity for recreation, tends to an abnormal 
 development in one direction. A large majority are indif- 
 ferent to political rights. Civic rights are usually realized 
 only when the political boss appeals to them in some per- 
 sonal way and makes them blind adherents to his party. 
 Thus political institutions and privileges, which should 
 awaken patriotism, independence, and the best impulses of 
 human nature, cultivate the mean and the sordid. Direct 
 contact with municipal departments is fortunately limited 
 to a minority of these people, for the influence is not usually 
 good. The effect of domineering and despotic officials upon 
 ignorant people is the destruction of independence and the 
 increase of fear. Their spontaneity and originality are seri- 
 ously checked by hasty and thoughtless interference with 
 their activities. It is evident, therefore, that uplifting and 
 assimilating work must be done chiefly by agencies created 
 with the avowed purpose of bettering the neighborhood. 
 The most effective of these agencies are the public schools, 
 the churches and the settlements. 
 
 Public Sclwols. The wonderful work of the schools in 
 assimilating the foreign population has been mentioned in 
 a previous chapter. Here the youth learns something of 
 American history and the cost of the privileges which he 
 now enjoys. He acquires the elements of knowledge neces- 
 sary to transact business. And the teacher unconsciously 
 imparts some of his own characteristics to the child. If 
 
387] SOCIAL WELFARE j^i 
 
 he is of the vigorous American type the child acquires all 
 the more of the American disposition. But there is little 
 conscious effort to develop the ideal American or Anglo- 
 Saxon character, for the teachers have not analyzed it. 
 Furthermore, public school teachers are so occupied with 
 their schedule duties that they have little time to study 
 individual defects in the personality of the children. Con- 
 sequently, such extreme types as the Jews and the Italians 
 are educated in an almost identical manner. The nervous, 
 flitting, uncertain little Italian receives the same treatment 
 as the steady, persevering, plodding little Jew. The re- 
 ceptivity of the latter in intellectual affairs is taken as an 
 index of the course that he needs. His individualism is 
 given as much opportunity as the interests of the school 
 will permit, and often more. His apathy toward physical 
 development is disregarded. Thus the characteristics which 
 are already too prominent are still further cultivated. 
 
 Churches. The influence of the churches in this com- 
 munity is exceedingly small. That which they do exert is 
 largely in the direction of the natural tendency of the 
 people. Churches usually devote themselves to their propa- 
 ganda, regardless of personal qualities, except in so far as 
 they strive to correct the more obvious moral faults in the 
 domestic relations. The institutional church will be con- 
 sidered in connection with settlements. 
 
 There remains an immense work for the church to do. 
 This can be accomplished by efforts along two lines. First, 
 the minister should acquaint himself with the physical state 
 and the personal characteristics of his people, and should 
 strive to elevate them in these respects. His sermons should 
 be directed upon their immediate needs and defects. What 
 has been said of the inability of the school teacher to un- 
 derstand the departure of an individual from the American 
 type applies equally to the preacher. He does little to en- 
 
! 3 2 SOCIOLOGY OF A NEW YORK CITY BLOCK [388 
 
 lighten his people as to the characteristics of an ideal citi- 
 zen. Secondly, the church should take more energetic 
 measures to lessen the worship of the materialistic and to 
 exalt the spiritual element in life. The narrow existence 
 of the tenement-dweller and his severe struggle for advance- 
 ment shut out his view of the aesthetic and the spiritual. 
 
 Settlements. Of the institutions at present exerting in- 
 fluence upon tenement peoples, social settlements and kin- 
 dred institutions seem to be the best adapted to promote 
 the social welfare. Almost all other organizations fail to 
 take into account the needs of the district. The settlement 
 is perfectly free to follow the course that a study of the 
 neighborhood indicates to be wise. Settlement- workers are 
 supposed to dwell in a neighborhood, to protect it from in- 
 justice, to form an environment conducive to the highest 
 development of the individual, and to cultivate the elements 
 of character and disposition necessary to the complex Amer- 
 ican type. But there are few, if any, settlements that fill 
 the requirements of this conception. Many of them are 
 conducted by kind-hearted people whose primary aim seems 
 to be to make people comfortable, regardless of any per- 
 manent effect upon individual character. A few settlements 
 devote themselves to efforts to remedy the injustice to 
 which tenement districts are subjected at the hands of un- 
 scrupulous merchants and unprincipled city officials. Others 
 endeavor to give the individual an opportunity to cultivate 
 his better self. There is a tendency of settlements also, as 
 of other institutions, toward inflexibility. Settlement organ- 
 izers often adopt the methods of other institutions rather than 
 adapt themselves to the conditions discovered in their neigh- 
 borhood. Certain activities, as those of the kindergarten, 
 the library, clubs, and penny-provident banks, are thought 
 essential to all. The method of conducting these activities 
 and the selection of other lines of work is left to the whim 
 
389] SOCIAL WELFARE ^3 
 
 of the manager or managers. Very few of the activities 
 reveal a consideration of the character of the individuals 
 making up the community. The original conception of the 
 settlement, as a ministration to the poor and to the needy 
 both in body and in soul, does not permit so wide a de- 
 parture from the methods of work that are adapted to the 
 tenement-house community. 
 
 Workers that have not studied the economic and social 
 situation are controlled by quick sympathy. They are in- 
 fluenced by immediate distress and are content if they re- 
 lieve it. They yield to a constant temptation to adopt 
 palliative measures rather than remedial, because the re- 
 sults of palliative efforts are more evident, the people are 
 better pleased, and the patrons are more favorably im- 
 pressed. But the student, looking beneath the surface, seeks 
 to put in motion the more indirect forces that tend to 
 better general conditions. 
 
 Settlement work, as conducted to-day, even at its best, 
 fails to perform an important function. Its defense of 
 oppressed neighborhoods in civic affairs is good; its estab- 
 lishment of a centre of friendly influence in dependent com- 
 munities is of great advantage to society at large; its culti- 
 vation of the good and the beautiful in dark and unpleasant 
 districts is worthy of all praise. Yet its duty to the com- 
 munity is not complete until it studies the prevailing traits 
 of mind and of character and then establishes the activities 
 necessary to the transformation of the individual to the 
 American type. In the community under consideration 
 there is great need of this assimilating process. Every pos- 
 sible agency should be used to change the numerous for- 
 eign types into the Anglo-Saxon ideal. The impulsiveness 
 of the Italian must be curbed. The extreme individualism 
 of the Jew must be modified. The shiftlessness of the Irish 
 must give way to perseverance and frugality. And all must 
 be shown the value of the spiritual in life. 
 
VITA. 
 
 The writer of this dissertation was born at Llanfach- 
 raeth, Wales, in 1873. His undergraduate study was pur- 
 sued at Washington and Lee University and at Marietta 
 College, where he was graduated with the degree of B. A. 
 in 1897. He continued his studies at Columbia University 
 and at the Union Theological Seminary. From Columbia 
 he received the degree of M. A. in 1899. His thesis was 
 a study of the " Social Phases of Education in the Ele- 
 mentary Schools," a study based upon his experience as a 
 teacher and upon investigations of elementary schools and 
 the preparation of teachers. After completing the honor 
 course in Union Seminary he received the degree of B. D. 
 in 1900. In that year he was awarded the Fellowship in 
 Sociology at Columbia University, and the following year 
 was spent in a study of sociological methods of investiga- 
 tion and in their application to the investigation of an 
 urban community. After completing his studies at Colum- 
 bia, he became acting-headworker of the University Settle- 
 ment of New York City. While holding this position he 
 edited the annual report of the settlement for 1902, a col- 
 lection of brief monographs on urban conditions. For 
 three years he was principal of a public school, and for 
 two years was teacher of economics and history in a sec- 
 ondary school. During vacations and in connection with 
 his university work he has been employed for brief periods 
 of time by the Charity Organization Society and the Fed- 
 eration of Churches of New York City, and by the United 
 
 i35 
 
136 
 
 VITA 
 
 States Census Bureau. He is now in charge of the socio- 
 logical work at Hampton Institute and is making a special 
 study of the negro problem, on which he has written a brief 
 article which appeared in the Brooklyn Eagle for March 
 7, 1903. His work in Columbia University was pursued 
 chiefly under Professors Giddings, Mayo-Smith, Seligman, 
 and Clark.