of a month I
found she had not left those rooms from the moment she entered them, and
that she worked, Sundays included, fourteen hours a day. She was a mere
child, at that. The Italian woman is not a good housekeeper, but she is
a homemaker; she does not fret; dirt, disorder, noise, company, never
disturb her. She must share everything with those about her. She cooks
one meal a day and that at night. Pot or pan may be placed in the
middle of the table and each may help himself from it, but the food is
what her husband wants.

[Sidenote: Family Cooeperation]

"Together they will wash the dishes or he will take the baby out. The
mother, who has sewed all day, will wash till midnight, while the
husband sits dozing, smoking, talking. But he hangs out the clothes.
They work together, these Italian husbands and wives. Their wants are
the barren necessaries of life; shelter, food, clothing to cover
nakedness. The children's clothes are washed when they go to bed. Life
is reduced to its lowest terms. They can move as silently as do the
Arabs and do so in the night watches. But they are rarely penniless;
they have a little fund always in the bank. They put their young
children in institutions from weaning-time until they are old enough to
work, then bring them home to swell the family income. Recently a
father, whose children had thus been cared for by the state, bought a
three-story tenement. This is typical thrift. There was never a day when
all the children of school age were in school. School was a prison house
to most of them. There was not room for them, even if they wanted to go.

[Sidenote: City Neglect]

"The streets in which the Italians live are the most neglected. It is
claimed that cleanliness is impossible where the Italian lives. The
truth is that preparation for cleanliness in our foreign colonies is
wholly inadequate. The police despise the Italian except for his voting
power. He feels the contempt, but with the wisdom of his race he keeps
his crimes foreign, and defies this department more successfully than
the public generally knows. He is a peaceable citizen in spite of the
peculiar race crimes which startle the public. The criminals are as one
to a thousand of these people. On Sundays watch these colonies. The
streets are literally packed with crowds from house line to house line,
as far as the eye can see, but not a policeman in sight, nor occasion
for one. Laughter, song, discussion, exchange of epit