Chapter 12 The Bohemians Tenement-house Cigarmaking
Introduction:
This chapter explores the life of immigrants from the Bohemian mountains. These people are cigar makers by trade and Roman Catholics by birth. Populating the East Side and hated by other immigrants the Bohemians were considered the lowest of the low.
Summary:
Riis starts off the chapter by explaining the relationship between the Jewish landlord and the Bohemian tenant. This relationship he compares to the serfdom of old, because the landlord is not only the landlord, but the employer as well. Despite breaking up the monotony of an almost solid German population the Bohemian lives in near isolation due to the hatred by other immigrants against him. Riis blames this hatred on the effects of the Thirty Years War, the unattractive language he speaks, pride of race, and the stigma that he is both a disturber of the peace and an enemy of organized labor. Despite this the Bohemian has proven himself the least likely criminal and the enemy of the labor union, because of his underpaid labor.
The difference between these workers and those of other races within the book is that their landlord is more often than not their employer as well. According to Riis the landlord charges excessive rents and, "devotes the rest of his energies to the paring down of wages to within a peg or two of the point where the tenant rebels in desperation". In the Bohemian family the woman is the traditional cigar maker, but in America everyone of age within the family works from dawn till dusk making the cigars seven days a week. Despite miserable work cercumstances Riis maintains that the Bohemian family often lives better than other indoor working poor.
Riis also takes us through a row of tenemants on East Tenth Street where we find varying conditions. The rent in this building is $11.75 to 12.25 dollars depending on the room, however, the landlord only pays 3.75 for a thousand cigars. A husbasnd and wife team working at maximum capacity can only make three thousand cigars a week. This still leaves them fifty cents under the lowest rent price. In the winter months, however, the tenants are only supplied with enough tobacco to make two thousand cigars, however, the rent remains unchanged. In one tenement a young boy tells Riis about the falling in ceiling in one room that they asked the landlord to fix three months prior. In most of the tenement the residence, who live in near isolation within the bohemian community, most do not speak english. Riis next delivers us to a new row of tenements where we see three children playing on the stairs, whose mother was taken to the hospital, she will never come out alive, but already another is sitting at the bench. This new worker divides with the house his earnings, which have recently been raised to $4.50 a week, due to a successful strike.
Moving once more we leave the factory tenants and move on to the home of an ex-cigar maker and his family. Having to quit his station due to consumption the family now makes less (only eight dollars a week), but their rent is less due to the tenement house being for revenue only.
This chapter explores the life of immigrants from the Bohemian mountains. These people are cigar makers by trade and Roman Catholics by birth. Populating the East Side and hated by other immigrants the Bohemians were considered the lowest of the low.
Summary:
Riis starts off the chapter by explaining the relationship between the Jewish landlord and the Bohemian tenant. This relationship he compares to the serfdom of old, because the landlord is not only the landlord, but the employer as well. Despite breaking up the monotony of an almost solid German population the Bohemian lives in near isolation due to the hatred by other immigrants against him. Riis blames this hatred on the effects of the Thirty Years War, the unattractive language he speaks, pride of race, and the stigma that he is both a disturber of the peace and an enemy of organized labor. Despite this the Bohemian has proven himself the least likely criminal and the enemy of the labor union, because of his underpaid labor.
The difference between these workers and those of other races within the book is that their landlord is more often than not their employer as well. According to Riis the landlord charges excessive rents and, "devotes the rest of his energies to the paring down of wages to within a peg or two of the point where the tenant rebels in desperation". In the Bohemian family the woman is the traditional cigar maker, but in America everyone of age within the family works from dawn till dusk making the cigars seven days a week. Despite miserable work cercumstances Riis maintains that the Bohemian family often lives better than other indoor working poor.
Riis also takes us through a row of tenemants on East Tenth Street where we find varying conditions. The rent in this building is $11.75 to 12.25 dollars depending on the room, however, the landlord only pays 3.75 for a thousand cigars. A husbasnd and wife team working at maximum capacity can only make three thousand cigars a week. This still leaves them fifty cents under the lowest rent price. In the winter months, however, the tenants are only supplied with enough tobacco to make two thousand cigars, however, the rent remains unchanged. In one tenement a young boy tells Riis about the falling in ceiling in one room that they asked the landlord to fix three months prior. In most of the tenement the residence, who live in near isolation within the bohemian community, most do not speak english. Riis next delivers us to a new row of tenements where we see three children playing on the stairs, whose mother was taken to the hospital, she will never come out alive, but already another is sitting at the bench. This new worker divides with the house his earnings, which have recently been raised to $4.50 a week, due to a successful strike.
Moving once more we leave the factory tenants and move on to the home of an ex-cigar maker and his family. Having to quit his station due to consumption the family now makes less (only eight dollars a week), but their rent is less due to the tenement house being for revenue only.
Bibliography
Riis, Jacob. How the Other Half Lives. New York: Penquin Books Ltd., 1890.
Riis, Jacob. How the Other Half Lives. New York: Penquin Books Ltd., 1890.