SLAVS
51
SLAVS
ber of branches and dialects; it is often doubtful
whether some of these subdivisions should not be in-
cluded among the Serbs. This is especially the case
in Macedonia, conseqiiently all enumerations of the
poi)ulation differ extremely from one another.
If, on the basis of earlier results, the natural annual growth of the Slavonic populations is taken as 1.4 per cent, it may be claimed that there were about 156-157 million Slavs in the year 1910. In 1900 all Slavs taken together numbered approximately 136,500.000 persons, divided thus: Russians, 94,000,- 000; Poles, 17,500,000; Lusatian Serbs, 1.50,000; Bohemians and Slovaks, O.SOO.OOO: Slovenes. 1,5()(),- 000; Serbo-Croats, 8,550,000; Bidgarians, 5,000,000. Leopold L^nard.
Slavs in America. — The Slavic races have sent large numbers of their jieople to the United States and Canada, and this immigration is coming every year in increasing numbers. The earliest immigration began beff)re the war of the States, but within the past thirty years it has become so great as quite to overshadow (he Irish and German immigration of the earlier decades. For two-thirds of that period no accurate figures of tongues and natioiialilies were kept, the immigrants being merely credited to the political governments or covmtries from which they came, but within the past twelve years more accurate data have been preserved. During the.se years (1899-1910) the total immigration into the United States has been about 10,000.000 in round numbers, and of these the Slavs have formed about 22 per cent, (actually 2,117,240), to say nothing of the increase of native-born Slavs in this country during that period, as well as the numbers of the earlier arrivals. Reliable estimates compiled from the various racial sources show that there are from five and a half to six millions of Slavs in the United States, including the native-born of Slavic parents. We are generally unaware of the.se facts, because the Slavs are less conspicuous among us than the Italians, Germans, or Jews; their languages and their history are unfamiliar and remote, besides they are not so massed in the great cities of this country.
I. Bohemians ((^ech; adjective, fesk^, Bohemian). These people ought really be called Chekh (Czech), but are named Bohemians after the aboriginal tribe of the Boii, who dwelt in Bohemia in Roman times. By a curious perversion of language, on account of various gypsies who about two centuries ago travelled westward across Bohemia and thereby came to be known in France as "Bohemians", the word Bohe- mian came into use to designate one who lived an easy, careless life, unhampered by serious responsibili- ties. Such a meaning is, however, the very antithe- sis of the serious con.servative Chekh character. The names of a few Bohemians are found in the early his- tory of the United States. August^'n Herman (1692) of Bohemia Manor, Maryland, and Bedfich Filip (Frederick Philipsc, 1702) of Philip.se Manor, Yonk- ers. New York, are the earliest. In 1848 the revolu- tionary uprisings in Austria sent many Bohemians to this country. In the eighteenth century the Mora- vian Brethren (Bohemian Brethren) had come in large numbers. The finding of gold in California in 1849-.50 attracted many more, especially as serfdom and labour dues were abolished in Bohemia at the end of 1848, which left the jieasant and workman free to travel. In 1869 and the succeeding years inmiigration was stimulated by the labour strikes in Bohemia, and on one occasion all the women work- ers of several cigar factories came over and settled in New York. About 60 per cent of the Bohemians and Moravians who have settled here are Catholics, and their churches have been fairly maintained. Their immigration during the past ten years has been 98,100, and in 1910 the number of Bohemians in the
United States, immigrants and native born, was
reckoned at 550,000. They have some 140 Bohe-
mian Cathohc churches and about 250 Bohemian
priests; their societies, schools, and general institu-
tions are active and flourishing.
II. Bulgarians (BUlgar : adjective biilgarski, Bulgarian).— This part of the Slavic race inh.abits the present Kingdom of Bulgaria, and the Turkish provinces of Eastern Rumelia, representing ancient Macedonia. Thus it happens that the Bulgarians are almost equally divided between Turkey and Bulgaria. Their ancestors were the Bolgars or Bulgars, a Finnish tribe, which conquered, inter- married, and coalesced with the Slav inhabitants, and eventually gave their name to them. The Bidgarian tongue is in many respects the nearest to the Church Slavonic, and it was the ancient Bulgarian which Sts. Cyril and Methodius arc said to have learned in order to evangelize the pagan Slavs. The modern Bulgarian language, written with Ru.ssian characters and a few additions, differs from the other Slavic languages in that it, like English, has lost nearly every inflexion, and, like Rumanian, has the peculiarity of attaching the article to the end of the word, while the other Slavic t(mgucs have no article at all. The Bulgarians who have gained their freedom from Turk- ish supremacy in the present Kingdom of Bulgaria are fairly contented; but those in Macedonia chafe bitterly against Turkish rule and form a large portion of those who emigrate to America. The Bulgarians are nearly all of the Greek Orthodox Church; there are some twenty thousand Greek Catholics, mostly in Macedonia, and about 50,000 Roman Catholics. The Greek Patriarch of Constantinople has always claimed jurisdiction over the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, and he enforced his jurisdiction until 1872, when the Bulgarian exarch was appointed to exercise supreme jurisdiction. Since that time the Bulgarians have been in a state of schism to the patriarch. They are niled in Bulgaria by a Holy Synod of their own, whilst the Bulgarian exarch, resident in Constan- tinople, is the head of the entire Bulgarian Church. He is recognized by the Russian Church, but is considered excommunicate by the Greek Patriarch, who however retained his authority over the Greek- speaking churches of Macedonia and Bulgaria.
Bulgarians came to the United States as early as 1890; but there were then only a few of them as students, mostly from Macedonia, brought hither by mission bodies to study for the Protestant ministry. The real immigration began in 1905, when it seems that the Bulgarians discovered America as a land of opportunity, stimulated probably by the Turkish and Greek persecutions then raging in Macedonia against them. The railroads and steel works in the West needed men, and several enterprising steam- ship agents brought over Macedonians and Bulga- rians in large numbers. Before 1906 there were scarcely .500 to 600 Bulgarians in the country, and these chiefly in St. Louis, Missouri. Since then they have been coming at the rate of from 8000 to 10,000 a year, until now (1911) there arc from 80,000 to 90,000 Bulgarians scattered throughout the llnited States and Can.-ida. The majority of them are emi)loycd in factories, railroads, mines, and sugar works. Granite City, Madison, and Chicago, Illi- nois; St. Louis, Mis.souri; Indianapolis, Indiana; Steelton, Penn.sylvania; Portland, Oregon, and New York City all have a considerable Bulgarian popula- tion. They also take to farming and are scattered throughout the north-west. They now (1911) have three Greek Orthodox churches in the United States, at Granite City and Madison, Illinois, and at Steelton, Pennsylvania, as well as several mission stations. Their clergy consist of one monk and two secular priests; and they also have a church at Toronto, Canada. There are no Bulgarian Catholics, either
