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The original of tliis bool< is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924009912738 Cornell University Library E 184.I8M27 Sons of Italy; a social and religious stu 3 1924 009 912 738 EDITED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OS THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA SONS OF ITALY . CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING MISSION STUDY Send the proper one of the following blanks to the secretary of your denominational mission board whose address is in the "List of Mission Boards and Correspondents" at the end of this book. We expect to form a mission study class, and desire to have any Etuggestions that you can send that wiU help in lOrganizing and conducting it. Name Street and Number City or Town State Denomination Church Text-book to be used We have organized a mission study class and secured our books. Below is the enrolment. Name of City or Town State Text-book Underline auspices under which class is held: Denommation Church Y. P. Soc. Church Men Senior ^- 1"*^'™^^^*^ Name of Leader 1^°^^^'^ Y.W. Soc. Jumor Address Sunday School Name of Pastor Date of starting State Mission Class, whether Study - , . Lecture Course, Program Meet- Frequency of Meetmgs. .. ings, or Reading Circle Number of Members Does Leader desireHelps ? . Chairman, Missionary Committee, Young People's Society Address Chairman, Missionary Committee, Sunday School. Address MOXUMEXTS TO GREAT ITALIAN'S IN NEW YORK CITY ISIazzini Garibaldi Columbus Yerrazzano Yenli SONS OF ITALY A SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS STUDY OF THE ITALIANS IN AMERICA BY ANTONIO MANGANO DIRECTOR, ITAXIAN DEPARTMENT, COLGATE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY NEW YORK THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN NEW YORK CINCINNATI 1917 COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA TO MY WIFE CONTENTS CHAPTER PACK Introduction xi I. Italian Colonies in America . i II. Italian Life in Italy .... 39 III. Religious Backgrounds .... 69 IV. The Italian as a Citizen ... 97 V. Assimilating the Italian . .131 VI. Le Chiese Evangeliche (Protestant Churches) 161 VII. The Italian's Contribution to the America of To-morrow . • 195 Bibliography 223 Index . ...... 229 [vii] ILLUSTRATIONS Monuments to Great Italians in New York City Frontispiece PAGE At the Gate of the Continent ..... 4 East Side Sights 20 Map-Chart: Distribution of Italians in America by- States 28 An Italian Mining Town, Boomer, West Virginia . 36 Chart: Italian Immigration into the United States, 1856-1916 37 Native Types of Italy 52 Map-Chart: Emigration from Italy to the United States by Provinces 55 A Contrast and a Problem: Out of Rural Italy into Urban America 60 Three Typical Hill Towns of Central and Southern Italy 84 The Americanization of the Home . .100 Map-Chart: Distribution of Italians in Greater New York 104 [ix] X ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Two Streets in Providence, Rhode Island. .116 Davenport Settlement, New Haven, Connecticut . 140 The Social and Religious Center, Ensley, Alabama . 148 The Gospel of the Open Air 164 First Italian Baptist Church, Brooklyn . .172 Elm Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Toronto . 180 Grace Chapel, New York (Protestant Episcopal.) . 188 Chart: Foreign-born Population of the United States from Ten Leading Countries of Origin . 203 Admirable Types of Church Architecture for Italians 212 Map: Italia Irredenta . .216 BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION It is high time that we were getting better acquainted with these new and omnipresent neighbors of ours, cheerful and industrious sons of Italy. I scarcely know of a city, town, or industrial community in the East or Middle West that does not have an Italian colony. Here in New York we have "Little Italys" harboring from I0,000 to 100,000 souls. I know of two city blocks alone where 8,000 Italians make their home. But the East has no mortgage on these new neighbors. When in San Francisco recently, I found myself very much at home in the heart of a prospering com- munity of 20,000 Italians. Here they are, come to stay, new Americans, sharers with us in the new democracy. We have been waiting long for just such a book as this to help us better to understand the Italian, his background, his outlook in the new world, and his religious needs and aspirations, for a better understanding and a genuine sort of sympathy is the beginning of this business of living together helpfully and in the spirit of cooperation. We are fortunate in having Mr. Mangano as our inter- preter. He speaks from the standpoint of one born in Italy and who has himself traveled hopefully the way of the immigrant. Mr. Mangano's plea is for intimate, friendly, first-hand contact with the Italian, especially in the early stages of his progress in this country. He knows what this means. It was the kindly interest of the pastor and people of a Baptist church in a Long Island community that stirred the heart of this Italian lad to the privileges and opportuni- [xi] xii BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION ties of the Christian life. After four years at Colgate Academy and a year at Colgate University, he completed his college work at Brown University and was graduated in the class of 1899 with honors. Then he went back to Italy for a year to revive his boyhood memories and to study the language. Upon his return to America he completed his theological studies at Union Seminary, New York, from which he was graduated in 1903, at the same time receiving the degree of master of arts from Columbia University. He made a second trip to Italy, and a third return for the special purpose of studying Italian emigration. The results of his studies were presented in a series of five articles in the Survey (1908). After a pastorate of three years at the First Italian Baptist Church of Brooklyn, Mr. Mangano was made Professor-in-charge of the Italian Department of Colgate Theological Seminary, located in Brooklyn, in which position he continues. The incidents in the lives of Italians mentioned in the following pages are all true, having come under Mr. Mangano's direct observation during his many years of work among his countrymen. And all of this I have set down by way of introduction, that the reader may better appreciate the vantage point which Mr. Mangano enjoys. He is himself a true son of Italy, a loyal American citizen, a devoted and resourceful servant of the Christ and his church. William P. Shriver. New York, June I, 1917. I ITALIAN COLONIES IN AMERICA ; Alien assimilation depends largely upon American attitude. in- Nothing is so perilous in a democracy as ignorance and difference. We build a Chinese wall of exclusiveness around ourselves, our churches, and our communities, and then blame the foreigner for not forcing his way within. —Howard B. Grose, Aliens or Amertcansi THE ITALIAN BOOTBLACK What right divine gives me the kingly place O'er him, my youthful subject bending low? Strive as I may, not mine his thoughts to know, Only to watch with what unconscious grace (Each flashing gesture telltale of his race) His eager hands fly swiftly to and fro. Soft-syllabled his alien accents flow; He lifts his eyes; at last I see his face. No menial soul bows in that gaze to me; Out of such depths the pallid Florentine Saw down to hell, looked up to paradise; Lorenzo's orbs are his that darkly shine A nation's history is in these eyes. Thy pathos and thy promise, Italy! —The late George H. Bottome, Vicar of Grace Chapel, in A Vicar's Poems. The alien in our midst is too elusive a subject for satisfactory study. He changes too rapidly. But yesterday he was a solid citizen in his particular village of Sicily or Roumania, of a piece with his ancestral background, surrounded by friends, apparently rooted in his native soil. To-day he is adrift in a foreign world, mute, helpless, and tragically ridiculous—a soul in purgatory, a human creature cut from its moorings, the most pitiable sight to be met on the earth. To-morrow? Who knows? —M. E. Ravage, in Harper's Monthly, March, 1917. I ITALIAN COLONIES IN AMERICA First Impressions Tommaso was nine years old when he landed at Ellis Island, and very cold and inaccessible the big city seemed. Domenick, who had been his traveling companion, had strangely disappeared, so he had no one to speak for him and he looked in timid bewilderment at the officials who questioned him. Where were father and mother? He had expected to see them as soon as the ship landed, and now the old woman told him the inspector said no one had called for a little boy ; he would have to stay all night, per- haps many nights, and then go back all the way to Italy. The little fellow threw himself on the floor in a torrent of tears. If only he could find Domenick. True, the man had been very unkind to' him on the voyage, yet he had promised to take him to his father; why didn't he come and keep his word? What would this new country be like? Tommaso lived over all the momentous events of the past month. First the latter from babbo (papa) in America, saying that he had found work in a tailor shop and mama and he had a home again and wanted their little boy with them. Nonna (grandma) was to send him back with Domenick, babbo's friend. Domenick made many trips to Italy, because he was an agent of a big shipping line that made it easy for people to come to America.

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