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Jamaica Rises in Defense of Old King Manor House

possession position in insisted JAMAICA RISES IN DEFENSE OF OLD KING MANOR HOUSE. tu seck employment, and the following year repeat the ocean trip again. The visits of the Italians who are domiciled in New York and Brooklyn, as well as in other eities of this country, to their former homes has every year an appreciable effect on the immigration from Italy to the United States. Immigration from Italy is increasing and largely every year. Italians hear their Americanized Italian relatives tell of this El Dorado upon the occasions of their visits periodically to spend the winter in the sunny land they love. They discover that the visitors have an, apparently sufficient supply of.coin, and the idea of being able to return to their beloved country every winter to bask in the warmth of the Italian sun and revel in laziness, with wine to drink and money to spend for pleasures, is very pleasing to Proposition to Tear It Down to Build Carnegie Library Meets with Protest. bers of lalians into this country. In fact, it is believed that the bulk of the Italians that are now flocking here are brought over under contract. The officials have been of this opinion for some time, but the tracks of those engaged in the enterprise have been covered up so skillfully that it has been exceedingly difficult to get hold of the evidence necessary to secure convictions. The scheme is a big one and involves people both in Italy and in tle. United States. It may be stated on authority also HISTORIC KING MANOR HOUSE. This old building was the home of Rufus King, Revolutionary patriot and Minister to England under Washington and Jefferson. It is proposed to tear the old house down to make room for a Carnegie library at Jamaica, The proposition has raised a strong protest from the King Manor Association and residents of the old town of Jamaica. them. And as soon as they can beg or borlow, the needful amount to pay their passage in the steerage to America they come, Lay and bundle. Thus are immigration tigures increased and America made more populous year after year. Just now the Brooklyn tunnel is an attraction for Italian laborers. Such make good workmen. Padrones with plenty of Italians, strong and husky men and youths, seldom have any trouble in getting employment for them. The Italians will work longer, more faithfully and without complaint, as well as for a smaller wage, than will the people of this or any other country on the globe, it is said. Their living costs them little. Frugality has been instilled into them since birth. Through poverty they have come to comparatively unheard of wealth. A dollar or a dollar and a half a day means much to such. It puts them on a far higher plane than the best of their folk in Italy. And making money as laborers is, to them, easy. What they make is more than ample for their slender needs. Living in colonies by their own kind the cost of living is figured to a nicety. Not a penny of their moner is wasted. What they are not absolntely obliged to spend is kept. Sometimes they gamble in the hope of winning. Nearly all of the poorer classe. of Italians are great gamblers, yet they do not recklessly wager their whole savings. Officials of the United States have of late hecome alarmed over the great influx of Italians into this country. Southern Italy furnishes the greater part of the immigrants from that country. These furnish, it is said by the immigration officials, the least desirable class of immigrants, The Italians now outnumber, according to figures compiled authorities of the Immigration Bureau at Ellis Island, the immigrants from every other country in Europe, At present Italians are arriving in this country at the rate of 30,000 a month. Of these fully 90 per cent. remain in New York, Brooklyn and the other large cities along the Atlantic seaboard. Most of them engage as laborers, fruit. and peanut venders and in other cheap vocations. Complaint here and across the river, in Manhattan, against the great population of low-grade Italians increasing. They are regarded as the most dangerous class of residents in the Greater New York. Good proof exists, according to Ellis Island officials, that there is a regular padrone systemi in operation in the United States and Italy for bringing large num- THE TEUTON HEART Relic of Revolutionary Days and Once the Home of the Patriot and Statesman Rufus King. that a special agent is now abroad in search of facts that will warrant the Government in taking steps to break up, the importation of Italian workmen and punish MRS. A. 0. GRANGER. Mrs. A. O. Granger, president of the Georgia Federation of Woman's Clubs, who heads the ladies' committee co-operative with Governor Terrell in receiving the delegates to the National Conference of Charities and Corree-tion, which meets at Atlantic City on May 6. those engaged in the business. The matter is being kept confidential, for if everything were to be printed that is known about the subject it would interfere with the plans of the department. An examination of the immigration statement for the month of March shows many interesting features. It indicates that about one-third of the total immigration to the United States now is made up of Italians. Italy, including Sicily and Sardinia, sent 30,765 subjects to the United States last month, an increase of more than 5,000 over the record for the corresponding month in 1902. Austria-Hungary came next with 24,554, a gain of a trifle over 1.000 over March of the preceding year. The Russian Empire and Finland contributed 11,701 subjeets, which was a falling off of pearly 1,000 from the figures of March, 1902. The total number of deportations last month was 522 out of an aggregate immigration of 91,666. Day comes around again he is supposed to lead every procession that takes place in the hamlet where he lives. This day has also a double significance, in that it marks the annual planting of trees throughout Germany which take the place of matured trees that have been eut down for fuel. In no part of Germany is May Day more sacredly observed than in Bavaria, and it is safe to say that fully three-quarters of our Bararian population in the City of New York and natives of other provinces in the German empire who have made this city their home will be found to-day in line with May Day participants. It is an ancient custom, but it is one which fills the Teuton heart with glee and makes him feel many younger, particularly after he has enjoyed his "Mai wine." Sure to Please. Rev. Mr. Fourthly-What can I preach about next Sunday that will be most satistying to the Deacon Bluntt-Preach, about twenty minutes shorter than usual.-Kansas City Journal. said: "Aunt must be in the 100th Reader." Little Chronicle. The "Reader" as the Unit of Progress When her aunt went to college, our little girl The selection of the King Manor House in King's Park, Jamaica, L. I., as a library site has aroused a storm of indige nant protest among the citizens of Jamaica. The building is cherished among the people of the place in which it has stood for about 250 years as the sole local monument to the days of the Revolution and its illustrious occupant who fought on the American side in the struggle for freedom. Indignation meetings are being talked about and it appears certain that a vigorous appeal will be made to the Board. of Estimate and Apportionment by Jamaica men and women, when the proper time comes, for the selection of another site for the proposed new library for Jamaica. It is plainly to be seen, also, that the alleged manner of the choice has had not a little to do with inciting the indignation of the people. Many months ago, when Jamaica people were led, through some mistaken belief, to understand that, unless the place furnished a site for n, Cornetie library, it would, receive no appropriation of money for a library, a meeting of the Jamaica Citizens' Association was called to consider the serious question. A committee was appointed, of which Dr. Archibald C. MeLachlan, principal of the Jamaica State Normal School, was and still is chairman, to ascertain the feeling of the people regarding the matter. As it was. necessary for some, one or some organization to take the initiative in the premises, the committee, under authority from the association, and laboring under the mistaken belief that the library would be lost if a free site should not be provided, prepared and signed a petition to the city authorities, asking that a Carnegie library be erected on the King's Park property, which lelongs to New York city. The petition was circulated and freely signed. Nothing was accomplished by the petition and the matter lay dormant until very recently. Alanson T. Briggs, of - No. 32 Wall street, Manhattan, representing the Carnegie library interests and, it is understood, the Controller's office, visited Jamaica, and spent some time looking about for a suitable place for the location of a library. He was informed of the stand the Citizens' Association had taken some time before, and as he favored a plan whereby Jamaica may or may not get a library equal in value to the proposed Carnegie. libraty, and may be euchred out of any library at all, he visited the Citizens' Association at its last meeting to unfold the plan. But Jay Humphrey, a lawyer of Jamaica, to bring the matter formally before the association, offered a resolution favoring the King Manor House as a site for a library. It should be understood. that a library built as an addition to the King Manor House through the cutting off of the rear wings, will not be a Carnegie library. Moreover, the people of Jamaica must, aecording to the proposal of Briggs, petition the city to appropriate $20,000 for the erection of a library building on the King's Park' property, thus throwing aside their right to the $30,000 said to be Jamaien's proportion of the money set apart for Carnegie libraries in Queens borough. Of course, the eity could not be compelled to appropriate twenty cents for a library, and the members of the Jamacia Citizens' Association saw that point. There was a lively discussion in which Briggs wan the only man present who favored the plan he proposed. He was excessively zealous in keeping the matter quiet, and especially in requesting the reporters present not to connect his name with the discussion or to indicate that the proposal came in any way from him. The association referred the investigation of the whole matter to the Library Committee, of which mention has proviously been made, and tabled the resolution upon motion of its introducer, Mr. Humphrey. The day following the meeting Dr. Frye of Long Island City, chairman of the Carnegie Library Committee of the Borough of Queens, visited Jamaica and sought Dr. McLaghlin at the Normal School. He also sought out Mr. Fosdick, another prominent member of the Library Committee, and asked them if it were true that the people of Jamaica were overwhelmingly in favor of the selection of the King's Park property as a library site. Seeing their surprise, he stated that Mr. Briggs had telephoned him that morning, stating that he had attended a meeting of the Jamaica Citizens' Association the previous evening and that the people of Jamaica were overwhelmingly in favor of the selection of the site named. Dr. Frye, wha. is an enthusiastic lover of Revolutionary and other ancient relics, was diflicult to convince and did not promise his active co-operation in securing the selection of the site as requested to do by Mr. Brigen Instead, he went to Jamaica and put the question plainly before the persons named, They related to him the antagonism exhibited in the meeting of the evening before, resulting in the tabling of the resolution upon motion of the man wha had offered it, and expressed the strong hope that the venerated spot would not be selected. Borough President Cassidy, President Fornes of the Board of Aldermen and Mr. Briggs visited Jamaica that day, among other places, and the selection of the King Manor House as a site for a eity library was made the day following. themselves as only the people of that race know. how: They interfere with nobody and want nobody to interfere with them. Wherever they may be to-day they will sing the old songs of Germany and drink their Mai wine. In the old country the day is one of great reverence, and in the small hamlets, where most of the people are peasants and make their livelihood from a farm or small vineyard, it is no nacommon occurrence to see the populace go to the village minister's house and present him with baskets of eggs. Of course, this eustom is not in rogue in this country. The May celebration takes its place, and in the thickly populated Tentonie sections of the Eastern Distriet today there will be found a dearth of population. It is, therefore, no wonder when the old-time German is asked what hey thinks of May Day, when he will reptf: "On that day I feel as if I am in paradise hecause it recalls to my mind my boyhood days when in the Fatherland I helped to drive the winter man away and was one of the boys who cut off the effigy's head." In some parts of Germany where the day is as sacred at the present time as it was 500 years ago, many games are carried out, and the man who comes out a winner is bailed as the May King, and until May • of existed. (Continued on Page 19)

Article from 03 May 1903The Brooklyn Citizen(Brooklyn, NY)

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