The Foreigners in our Town
The "Greenhorn"
The Immigrant Family
The Peddler
Ellis Island
What America Means to the Foreigner
The Statue of Liberty
A Russian Woman
The New Girl at School
The Basement Store
A Large Family
Learning to Speak a New Language
What the Public School can Do
A Russian Brass Shop
The Factory Girl
My Childish Sports
The Refreshment Stand
On the Sea Shore
The Popcorn Man
A Home in the Tenements
Earning a Living
More about Mary Antin[9]
How Children Amuse Themselves
A Fragment of My Autobiography
An Autobiography that I Have Read
SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING
The Immigrant Family:—Have you ever seen a family that have just arrived in America from a foreign land? Tell where you saw them. How many persons were there? What were they doing? Describe each person, noting especially anything odd or picturesque in looks, dress, or behavior. Were they carrying anything? What expressions did they have on their faces? Did they seem pleased with their new surroundings? Was anyone trying to help them? Could they speak English? If possible, report a few fragments of their conversation. Did you have a chance to find out what they thought of America? Do you know what has become of them, and how they are getting along?
A Fragment of my Autobiography:—Did you, as a child, move into a strange town, or make a visit in a place entirely new to you? Tell rather briefly why you went and what preparations were made. Then give an account of your arrival. What was the first thing that impressed you? What did you do or say? What did the grown people say? Was there anything unusual about the food, or the furniture, or the dress of the people? Go on and relate your experiences, telling any incidents that you remember. Try to make your reader share the bewilderment and excitement you felt. Did anyone laugh at you, or make fun of you, or hurt your feelings? Were you glad or sorry that you had come? Finish your story by telling of your departure from the place, or of your gradually getting used to your new surroundings.
Try to recall some other experiences of your childhood. Write them out quite fully, giving space to your feelings as well as to the events.
COLLATERAL READINGS
| The Promised Land | Mary Antin |
| They Who Knock at Our Gates | " " |
| The Lie | " " |
| (Atlantic Monthly, August, 1913) | |
| Children of the Tenements | Jacob A. Riis |
| The Making of an American | " " |
| On the Trail of the Immigrant | E.A. Steiner |
| Against the Current | " " |
| The Immigrant Tide | " " |
| The Man Farthest Down | Booker T. Washington |
| Up from Slavery | " " " |
| The Woman who Toils | Marie and Mrs. John Van Vorst |
| The Long Day | Anonymous |
| Old Homes of New Americans | F.E. Clark |
| Autobiography | S.S. McClure |
| Autobiography | Theodore Roosevelt |
| A Buckeye Boyhood | W.H. Venable |
| A Tuscan Childhood | Lisa Cipriani |
| An Indian Boyhood | Charles Eastman |
| When I Was Young | Yoshio Markino |
| When I Was a Boy in Japan | Sakae Shioya |
| The Story of my Childhood | Clara Barton |
| The Story of my Boyhood and Youth | John Muir |
| The Biography of a Prairie Girl | Eleanor Gates |
| Autobiography of a Tomboy | Jeanette Gilder |
| The One I Knew Best of All | Frances Hodgson Burnett |
| The Story of my Life | Helen Keller |
| The Story of a Child | Pierre Loti |
| A New England Girlhood | Lucy Larcom |
| Autobiography | Joseph Jefferson |
| Dream Days | Kenneth Grahame |
| The Golden Age | " " |
| The Would-be-Goods | E. Nesbit |
| In the Morning Glow | Roy Rolfe Gilson |
| Chapters from a Life | Elizabeth Stuart Phelps-Ward |
Mary Antin: Outlook, 102:482, November 2, 1912; 104:473, June 28, 1913 (Portrait). Bookman, 35:419-421, June 1912.