GREEK
745
GREEK
well-being and inlellectual development as to bo
reckoned with as one of the factors of Catholic life in
the Ignited States. Other races have also brought the
Greek Rite with them and established it where they
have settled. The advent of the Slavs into the
llnited States really commenced about 1879-1880.
Those of the Greek Rite came from the north-eastern
portion of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, where
they inhabited chiefly the northern and southern
slopes of the Carpathian Moimtains, which form the
boundary line between Galicia and Hungary. The
first of the new-comers were miners in the coal dis-
tricts. During the troublous times in Pennsylvania,
from 1871 to 1879, when the "Molly Maguires" ter-
rorized the mining districts and practically defied the
authority of the State, the various coal companies
determined to look abroad for foreign labour to re-
place their lawless workmen, and so they introduced
the Austrian Slav to the mining regions of Pennsyl-
vania. His success in wage-earning induced his coim-
trymen to follow, and the coal companies and iron-
masters of Pennsylvania were quick to avail themselves
of the new and less costly labour. This was before
any of the present contract labour laws were enacted.
The Slav was willing to work for longer hours than the
English-speaking labourer, to perform heavier work,
and to stolidl}' put up with inconveniences which his
predecessor would not brook. He came from a land
in which he had originally been a serf (serfdom was
abolished in Austria-Hungary in 1848, and in Russia
in 18(il), then a degraded poverty-stricken peasant
with hardly anything to call his own, and it was no
wonder that America seemed to offer him boundless
opportunitj' to earn a living and improve his condition.
At first he was a clieap man ; but in the course of a
very short time the Slav became not a mere pair of
strong hands, but a skilled worker, and as such he
drove out his competitors, and his success drew still
more of his countrymen across the sea. In the an-
thracite coal region of Pennsylvania there were in
1880 but some I'JOO Slavs; in 1890, over 40,000; and
in 1900, upwards of 81,000. The same proportion
holds good of the bituminous coal-mining districts and
of the iron regions in that and other states. Taking
simply the past four years (1905-1908), the immigra-
tion of the Slovaks and Ruthenians, both of the Greek
Catholic Rite, has amounted to 215,972. This leaves
out of consideration the immigration (147,675) of the
Croatians and Slavonians for the same period, though
a considerable portion of them are also of the Greek
Rite. These Slavs brought with them their Greek
Catholic rites and practices, but they were illiterate,
ignorant, the poorest of the poor, and knew nothing of
the English language. Herding together in camps
and settlements, and working like serfs at the most ex-
hausting labour, they had but little opportunity to
improve themselves or to learn the language, customs,
and ways of the Americans arountl them, while both
American antl foreign-born Catholics failed to recog-
nize in them fellow-Catholics, and so pa.s.sed them
scornfully by, and the American of the older stock and
anti-Catholic prejudices too often held them in su-
preme contempt. Yet as soon as they gathered some
little substance and formed a settled community they
sent for their clergy. When these arrived, they, too,
were often imbued with national and racial prejudices,
and knew too little of the English language and Amer-
ican ideas and customs to initiate immediately the
progress of their people, yet they created for them
churches, schools, and a branch of their native litera-
ture upon American soil, and gradually brought them
into touch with the people around them. In this they
were seconded by many educated laymen who also
followed their countrymen, and the result has been
that the Greek Rite has now been established in the
United States much more solidly and with greater
virility than it is in many of the dioceses in south-
eastern Europe. Other races and nationalities have
also established themselves besides the Slavs; and
there are in America also the Rumanians, the Syrians,
and the Italians who follow the Greek Rite. But the
people who have been foremost and most enthusiastic
in the support of and devotion to their Oriental Rite
are the so-called Ruthenians, a name u.sed to designate
the Ruthenians proper and also those Slovaks who are
their immediate neighbours. In order to understand
fully their position and relations in America, some of
their history and peculiarities should be given.
I. RuTHENiAN Gkkek CATHOLICS. — The word Ru- thenian is derived from the later Latin Ruthenia, the former name for Russia, and of course the Ruthenians might well be called Russians. Indeed, the present Ruthenians declare that they are the original Russians, and that the present Russia and Russians owe their name and nation to the accident of successful conquest and a.ssimilation. Their own name for themselves is Riisini, and it is probable that Ruthenian was merely an attempt to put this word into Latin. The word Rutheni is first found in the writings of the Polish annalist, Martinus Gallus (1190), and the Danish his- torian, Saxo Grammaticus (1203). The original word Rusini is derived from Rus, the abstract word for Russian fatherland or dwelling-place of the Slavic peo- ple; and the English word "Russian" may therefore mean a derivative from the word Rus, as denominat- ing the race, or it may mean a subject of the Russian Empire. The former is russkij, the latter rosxiiskt/, in the Russian and Ruthenian languages, and hence, while the first word is translated either as Russian or Ridhenian, it carries no special reference to the Rus- sian Empire. These people are also called " Little Russians" (an expression chiefly used for them in the Russian Empire), originally an allusion to their stature as contrasted with the Muscovites. Their language is known as Ruthenian or Little Russian, and is spoken in Northern Hungary, Galicia, Buko- wina, and in the Provinces of Volhynia, rodulia, Chelii). and Kiev in Russia. It is quite similar to the Russian laiit;iuiij;c' of the Russian Empire (sometimes called ( Irial liussian), bearing about the same relation to it as Lowland Scotch does to English, or Philt- deutsch to German, and rather closer than Portuguese does to Spanish. The Ruthenians (in Austria) and Little Russians (in Russia) use the Russian alphabet and write their language in almost the same orthog- raphy as the Great Russians of St. Petersburg and Moscow, but they pronounce it in many cases very differently, quite as the French and English might pronounce differently a word written the same in each language. This fact has led in late years to a recen- sion of theRussian alphabet in Galicia and Bukowina by the governmental authorities, and by dropping some letters and adding one or two more and then spelhng all the words just as they are pronounced, they have produced a new language at least to the eye. This is the "phonetic" alphabet and orthography, and as thus introduced it differentiates the Ruthenian lan- guage of these provinces more than ever from the Russian. The phonetic system of orthography is still fiercely opposed at home and in America, and as an Austrian governmental measm-e it is regarded by- many as an effort to detach the Ruthenians from the rest of the Russian race and in a measure to Polonize them. This battle of the reformed phonetic spelling rages as fiercely in the United States as in Austria. Indeed the Greek Catholic bishop here has found it necessary to issue his official documents in both the phonetic and the etymologic spelling (as the older form is called), .so as to meet the views of both parties. The phonetic spelling has never been introduced among the Ruthenians in Ilungarv. and their section of the language is still written in the customary form, there and in the United States. Besides the Ruthe- nians there are also the Slovaks who li\-e in Northern
