The total number of emigrants from Austria between 1850-68 was 57,726; of this no less than 43,645 is Bohemia’s share. The backward districts of the southern part of the country furnished by far the heaviest quota.
Emigration to Russia from Bohemia begins to assume at this time marked proportions. Thousands are lured thither by the prospect of high wages—high, compared to wages paid in Austria. Also, by land grants offered to settlers by the Russian Government. After the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, the flow of surplus population toward America is again on the increase; in fact, the Austro-Prussian War, synchronous as it is with the end of the Civil War, marks an epoch in emigration which from that year on mounts steadily and rapidly.
After 1880 the character of emigration is seen to change noticeably. The Čechs and Germans who had been supplying the bulk of the arrivals from Austria, gradually begin to give room to a new ethnic element, the Hungarians.
Later the Jugo-Slavs follow the Hungarians and in the overshadowing figures that result, the Čech proportion becomes, by comparison, negligible.
Notwithstanding strict police regulations, advertisements, though veiled, appear here and there telling of the great opportunities in America, giving instructions how to travel and other advice. Die Constitutionelle Allgemeine Zeitunq von Boehmen (Sept. 22 , 1848) contains the advertisement of the firm of Knorr & Janssen, of Hamburg. The representative of the firm in Bohemia is Ed. Zenk of Liebenau, near Reichenberg (Liberec).
Another advertisement is that of Postschiff Verbindung London—New York. Passagiere und Auswanderer aus oest. State. The agent is G. H. Paulsen.
The same newspaper recommends to readers in its issue of Apr. 15, 1849, to purchase a book on America, bearing the title, Auf, nach America, by Fr. Jaeger.
Another announcement, printed May 31, 1849, assures the public that despite the Danish War, emigration to America via Bremen proceeds uninterruptedly.
The Pražský Večerní List lends space (in 1849) to the following advertisements:
May 22. Travelers to America are conveyed by vessels on the 15th of every month by. S. H. P. Schroeder in Bremen. Agent, C. Poppe, Prague, Koňský Trh, No. 833.
June 30. Announcement to Travelers to America. The firm of Luedering & Co., in Bremen, ships emigrants on the 1st and 15th of every month by fast going vessels. Agent. F. A. Dattelzweig, Klatovy (Klattau).
The Pražské Noviny of Sept. 16th, 1847, edited by Karel Havlíček, admonishes the readers not to emigrate. The article is obviously a reprint from the German. If the Čechs, the article argues, who contemplate going to America, work as hard at home as Americans are known to toil, they will be surprised to find America at the threshold of their door. The Politické wesnické nowiny z Čech of Sept. 11, 1849, pleads with the readers that love of the fatherland, if nothing else, should deter Čechs from emigrating. Who but adventurers dare the trip to America, anyway? Yet it is futile to try to divert the thoughts of the poor and the resolute from America.
“Reports continue to arrive from California concerning the large quantities of gold unearthed there,” write the Noviny Lípy Slovanské of Feb. 14th, 1849. “Nuggets of gold weighing as much as a pound, in some cases two, had been found. There are instances on record of immigrants making in gold digging and in trading with the Indians as much as $30,000. The average earnings of a person per day amount to $100. Fever is prevalent among the inhabitants, but it is not fatal. Clothing, food and domestic labor are very high; shirts sell at $10 a piece, beef from $1 to $2 a pound ,laundering a dozen shirts costs $6. A merchant’s clerk commands $3,000 a year”.
Writing from New York to the Prague Národni Noviny, April 3, 1849, J. Č. harps on the same favorite theme, California and its fabulous riches.
Immigrants traveled to the United States by the four ports of Hamburg, Havre, Antwerp and Bremen. So late as 1849 not a mile of railroad existed in Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee or Texas.[1] Up to 1850–55 but a small percentage of emigrants went west by railroad. They chose their homes in lake or river cities which had been benefited by canal and railroad construction. Buffalo, on Lake Erie, was of small importance
