CHAPTER XI
The Mala Vita in America
There are a million and a half of Italians in the United
States, of whom nearly six hundred thousand reside in New York
City--more than in Rome itself. Naples alone of all the
cities of Italy has so large an Italian population; while
Boston has one hundred thousand, Philadelphia one hundred
thousand, San Francisco seventy thousand, New Orleans seventy
thousand, Chicago sixty thousand, Denver twenty-five thousand,
Pittsburg twenty-five thousand, Baltimore twenty thousand, and
there are extensive colonies, often numbering as many as ten
thousand, in several other cities.
So vast a foreign-born population is bound to contain elements
of both strength and weakness. The north Italians are molto
simpatici to the American character, and many of their
national traits are singularly like our own, for they are
honest, thrifty, industrious, law-abiding and good-natured.
The Italians from the extreme south of the peninsula have
fewer of these qualities, and are apt to be ignorant, lazy,
destitute, and superstitious.
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