More than 80 per cent of the members of this colony own property free of debt. The farms vary in value from $1,000 to $10,000, averaging about $2,000. A large number of them bought their farms while working in the coal mines of Pennsylvania and Illinois, and after paying for them and saving a little capital moved to Arkansas. The coming of the Slovaks greatly increased land values in the locality, and it is stated that nearly every cent of their earnings is immediately invested in improvements on the farms and in live stock. Many of these families own more than 20 cows and from 5 to 10 horses and mules, as well as large numbers of hogs.

This colony forms an independent group, and visiting among themselves is almost the only form of enjoyment indulged in on account of the isolation of the colony, although the younger people occasionally hold dances. The Slovaks associate freely with the Americans in the county and in the towns when they are abroad, and no prejudice exists against them in any part of Arkansas. As a race and as farmers they are highly respected.

There are about 75 men of voting age in the colony, over 90 per cent possessing full naturalization papers. They play only a minor part in local elections, however, and very few of them have held public office. There have been several Slovak members on the county school boards, and one or two of them have held positions as road

overseers.

The Slovaks in this part of Arkansas have greatly improved conditions in agriculture. They have not introduced any new methods or crops, but they brought with them capacity for hard work and their characteristic thrift, with which they have turned the former barren prairies into a productive farming region.

BOHEMIANS ON TEXAS FARMS.

Turning again to Texas we find the State has an estimated Bohemian population, in addition to the Poles, of over 50,000, engaged principally in agriculture and scattered through 80 counties.

More than 60 per cent of these people own their property, and over 50 per cent of that number have their holdings free of debt. The majority of them entered Texas without sufficient money to purchase land at first, and have won their present prosperity by thrift and hard work.

The first Bohemians, together with a group of Serbs of the LuziceSerbian stem, settled in the State as early as 1835, before the days of the Texan Republic, in what is now Burleson County. The first permanent colony, still in existence, however, was not established until about 1853, in Fayette County. Their farms to-day vary in size from 40 to 1,000 acres, averaging about 100 acres. They are chiefly cotton growers; but, unlike the natives, they produce enough trucking stuff to supply the demands of the family and raise sufficient feed to provide for their live stock. They are on the richest cotton lands in the State, and their numbers are increasing annually.

In Texas the Bohemians farm intelligently and use the most improved implements and methods of cultivation. As a result, farm values in the localities where they are found are steadily going up. They form a group of citizens of which Texas is proud, and every effort is being made to induce greater numbers of them to settle in the State.

The real movement of Bohemians to Texas has been in progress since the early fifties, coming first direct from Europe, and later chiefly from the industrial centers of the East. The principal colonies are located in the counties of Fayette, Lavaca, Austin, Burleson, Williamson, and McLennan. Many of the settlements which have been established since 1890 are the result of a shift in population from the older colonies-the settlements on the "Panhandle" are a direct result of this tendency.

Bohemians throughout the Texas colonies send their children to the district schools. In some of the towns a parochial school is also maintained. Considering the settlements as a whole, however, school attendance is comparatively poor. A very small percentage of the children pursue their education beyond the grammar grades, although a few are found as teachers in the public schools.

As soon as they are old enough to work on the farms the larger portion of the children leave the schools and go to work on the home places. They generally remain at home until they marry. It is no doubt true that much of the success of the Bohemians in agriculture is due to this fact. Even the women in the middle classes regard it their duty to assist in the cultivation and harvest of the crops.

Possibly 90 per cent of the Bohemians in Texas are Roman Catholics, and in all towns where they are in sufficient numbers they have their own church and resident priest. Some of these churches, usually situated on the top of a hill in the rural regions, are built of brick; some of stone; but the majority are frame structures.

One very prominent rural church crowns a hilltop in the midst of a wilderness where the land as far as the eye can reach is only sparsely settled-not more than 20 farms are visible. As widely scattered as this congregation is, it furnished $15,000 in cash toward building a brick church. Some of the members of this church come a distance of over 20 miles to attend mass each Sunday.

In these colonies there is also a marked inclination for social intercourse, and the monotony of farm work is frequently broken with picnics, dances, and other social diversions. These Bohemians are fond of music and dancing. Near crossroads connecting Bohemian towns is often found a dancing pavilion. In the towns such places are also found; some of them being rather large and costly. They are built usually by public subscription, or by some club, and during the summer months dances are frequently held. Throughout the region are found orchestral bands and choruses.

Local newspapers printed and published by Bohemians in a large number of towns keep well abreast of the times and have a very marked progressive effect throughout the region.

National, State, and church holidays are all celebrated by the Bohemians. The Germans join with the Bohemians in the observance of church festal days as well as the American holidays, and such gatherings are often made the occasion of great festivity. During the summer months there are numerous social diversions in the form of picnics and open-air dances, participated in by the two races, who mingle together freely. As is well known, Texas also has a very large rural population of Germans

In all of these settlements the very best feeling exists between the Americans and Bohemians, although in many cases the Bohe

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

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

SLAVS IN SOUTH-SIDE VIRGINIA.

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

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

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

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

here and there, particularly in Surry and Sussex Counties, and a few scattering families of Lithuanians and Slovenians. All of these people are engaged in agriculture.

The Slavs in this colony have taken up land in many instances long neglected and regarded as "worn-out land" and have turned the places into valuable producing farms. They follow practically the same crop scheme as practiced by the native farmers, their principal crops being peanuts, corn, and tobacco. Over 90 per cent are proprietors and operate their own farms. Although they compose less than 3 per cent of the total rural population of the south-side counties, and not more than 15 per cent of that of Prince George County, their presence is easily noticed.

SLAVS IN PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY.

In Prince George County, which alone has about 1,200 Slavs, of which possibly 40 per cent are Bohemians and the rest Slovaks, the largest foreign population of any of the counties in the group, is found the highest percentage of improved land. This is true in face of the fact that no more than 69 per cent of the total land area of the county is in farm lands. For instance, the improved farm lands compose just a little over 48 per cent of the county's total farm area, while in none of the other south-side counties does the proportion exceed 38 per cent. It is also interesting to note in this connection that the population per square mile is only 27, the total population in 1910 being less than 8,000, of which 58 per cent were negroes.

In this same county more than half of the Slavish males of voting age are fully naturalized, while a large percentage of the other half hold first papers. No record of a criminal prosecution having been brought against a Slav exists in Prince George County, and only one or two minor judgments have been docketed against members of the colony.

Illiteracy among males of voting age in the county was reported by the Thirteenth Census of the United States to be higher among the native-born whites than among the Slavish foreign born, the percentage being 7.1 for the former and only 5 for the foreignborn Slavs. This is significant in view of the predominancy of Slovaks in the county. Illiteracy among the negroes was reported at higher than 46 per cent.

This same report shows that of the total number of children in the county 6 to 14 years old, inclusive, only about 65 per cent attend school. Of the Slavish children, however, 74 per cent attend the public schools as compared with 73 per cent of the native white children of native parentage. Only 60 per cent of the negro children are in school. In addition to this, the public-school teachers in the county report that the Slavish children exhibit a more marked tendency to advance than any other group of children in the schools.

Another unusual feature found among the Slavs in Prince George County is the predominancy of protestantism. Considering the large number of Slovaks this is extremely interesting. There are three Protestant congregations in the county and only one Roman Catholic. The latter has possibly no more than 250 adherents, while the combined Protestant congregations include about 800 persons. Among

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the Protestants, the Congregational Church has a following of about 500 and is the largest Congregational pastorate in the State of Virginia. There is also a large Presbyterian congregation of about 200, and a Lutheran Church with about half this number. Here and there are also found a few families of Slavs who are Methodists.

PRIDE OF RACE AMONG SLAVS IN VIRGINIA.

Recently the people of Petersburg and vicinity were suddenly made aware of the maturity of the south-side Virginia colony by a prompt and publicly expressed resentment of a possibly unintentional slur cast at the Slavs by a visiting speaker who was understood to class the Slavs as undesirable immigrants for the South. This incident, with almost lightning rapidity, solidified the several Slavish elements in the colony, and their leaders immediately demanded recognition of their fitness as agricultural settlers. The response to this demand was highly flattering to the Slavs and remarkable for the promptness and forcefulness with which it was made.

In a public statement issued by one of the prominent members of the Bohemian colony in Prince George County, a member of the county school board, it was asserted that

This slur at the Slavs is certainly undeserved as is evidenced by their character, industry, and their acceptableness which are demonstrated beyond contradiction by the local immigrant colony, which is composed, be it known, almost entirely of Bohemians and Slovaks (both Slavish people).

Continuing, the statement argued:

These people have been coming to the local counties for the past 25 years; they have taken up farms abandoned by native Virginians and have brought them to a very high degree of cultivation and productiveness; they hold an envied reputation for honesty and good citizenship-there is not a merchant in Petersburg who will not attest to their strict integrity in all business and financial transactions.

More than this, they have been recognized by the native Virginians. In Prince George County, for example, a Bohemian born in Europe was recently elected a member of the board of county commissioners, while other members of the colony hold important public offices.

Leading southern economists, among others, are now contending that the problems of immigration, as far as the South is concerned at the present time, are those of an internal redistribution rather than an assisted foreign immigration. The speaker, judging from his statements, apparently does not hold this view; and he utterly fails to take into consideration the primary cause underlying the movement of immigrants to this country, the labor element in the industrial organization of the North and the Middle West, and the life ambition of the Slavish people in America—a people who are lovers of the land, and whose life object is to be landowners.

What the South needs more than an increased railroad traffic is the redevelopment in the breasts of her people of loyalty to the high ideals of right, individual liberty, and the honorableness of unselfish, constructive public service. The new citizens who come to live in the South must respond to these ideals. They must come to be southerners, and in being southerners, to be truly Americans; they must come, accepting established institutions; and must join in the national life of the South as home makers and as guardians of the integrity of the white race.

By actual demonstration the Bohemians and their Slavish brothers have proved that with proper treatment, and when accepted as men at a man's worth, they can measure up to these requirements.

The Index-Appeal, the leading daily newspaper at Petersburg, promptly replied editorially to this strongly worded and highly idealistic statement under date of January 25, 1914, in part as follows:

What a pity it is that the speaker at the meeting held here yesterday had not talked with one or two of the business men of Petersburg regarding the Slavs. He would