It is not surprising that excesses exist in a town which offers so
little opportunity for wholesome recreation, and whose leaders have
failed to realize any obligation toward the newcomers. The Carnegie
Library represents the only considerable effort to reach them. The
clubs are open to the Slavs. Aside from a class in English, however,
they are not adapted to non-English speaking people. Even the Slavic
books which the library bought for their benefit are seldom used. I
found that a number of the influential Slavs in Homestead did not
know that these books were in the library; therefore I judge that one
reason why they are not used is a lack of proper advertising. That
the building is on the hill away from their homes, that it has an
imposing entrance which makes the working man hesitate to enter, and
that certain forms must be gone through before books can be secured,
or the club joined,--these things have doubtless acted as deterrent
influences. However desirous the management of the library may be to
reach them, the Slav's ignorance of our language and customs will keep
many from ever getting inside. If a library is really to reach the
foreign population, it must not wait for them to come to it; it must
go to them. A simple reading room opening right into the courts where
the people live, where they could drop in after the day's work, find
newspapers and books in their own tongue, and where the Americanized
Slav could reach his newly-come brethren, teaching them both English
and citizenship, would become an important center of influence.
For though these people are in many respects aliens, they are not
unwilling to accept American standards. The quickness, for example,
with which the women adopt our dress, reveals an adaptability which
might find expression in more important ways. That they are glad when
they can afford it, to have really attractive homes, is shown by these
pictures. They are the homes of two families from the same place in the
old country, one a newcomer, the other one of the "oldest inhabitants"
of the Slavic community.
[Illustration: A CONTRAST--II.
_Photograph by Lewis W. Hine._