USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume I > Part 74
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These Germanisms have been severely criticized by teachers and others, but there have been those who have deemed them as pardonable as the Josh Whitcomb Yankee dialeet which obtains in sections of New England, or the negro dialects of the South. Happily the German tinge given their English by the Milwaukee children has practically been eliminated.
The Dutch comedian as he has appeared on the American stage, exaggerated in figure, dress and speech, never gave offense to those of German birth or descent. In fact. they enjoyed the burlesque upon their Teutonie brother with the rest of the audience.
An interesting, yet not altogether a desirable, type of immigrant was he who came from a well situated family in Germany, frequently from one bear- ing a distinguished title. lle was the black sheep of the family whose mem- bers ridded themselves of him by sending him to America. By sending him this distance they had the assurance that he would never accumulate enough money to make the return trip.
Frequently this type floundered about aimlessly and became a burden upon his countrymen. Sometimes he would degenerate into a shabby genteel or develop into a sliek adventurer. Sometimes expedieney as well as neces- sity drove him into becoming a barkeeper, waiter or piano player in concert saloon. Occasionally, owing to the unsympathetic rebuff's and the gruff ad- vice of his countrymen, he would follow a more honorable occupation by be- coming a musician, cigarmaker or newspaper reporter.
For a time his title, which might be Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Graf von Pumpernickel, would secure him promisenous cash loans, free meals and plenty of free beer. Not infrequently he sought a favorable marriage connection.
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The hand of a girl, whose parents were plebeians in Germany and who had through industry and thrift accumulated a competence in this country, was acceptable, providing the prospective father-in-law was inclined to keep a titled son-in-law in funds. These marriages occurred occasionally but seldom proved satisfactory.
The average German entertained for years, after his arrival here, a long- ing to return to his native land. Gradually this desire wore down until he was contented to remain until the end of his days. He realized that his material advantages and those of his family were better here than ever could be hoped for in the old country, and his desire to return did not extend be- yond a mere visit to old home seenes.
There were, of course, the exceptional few who, notwithstanding their own material prosperity, railed against the country of their adoption. They had enjoyed the blessing of a free country, acquired a song fortune, and had every reason to be grateful. Yet they held that this was a country of "hmm- bug and schwindel," and not fit for good people to live in. They held that German statesmanship was a paragon of honor and efficiency while American statesmanship was selfish, tricky and dishonest.
Men of this type were not taken seriously. Their inconsistency was too apparent. If perchance one of them made a visit to Germany he was usually glad to return to his American home again. The old country home was not what it had been in years before. Old friends had died, and the people were still poor and restricted in their views, while the people in America were bet- ter off and on the whole more intelligent, more progressive, more prosperous. "Yes, my native village is the same old place," was the usual statement, "but somehow things are changed. Everything looks smaller, more miserable and less attractive. I wouldn't care to live there again."
The true answer was that nothing had changed. The Germany of 1880 provided better for its people than did the Germany of 1840. The real change was found in the standards, views and ideals of the German-American who had gone back to visit his native country. He had unconsciously become an American and had only awakened to that fact when in maturer years he con- trasted his native with his adopted country.
In the carlier period of the city's history the Irish-Americans celebrated Saint Patrick's Day with festive street parades about the city during which they braved inelement March weather so common in this region. Sometimes they encountered snowstorms, while the streets were usually icy or wet. Be- ginning with the '80s the parades were abandoned. Thereafter the observanee of the Patron Saint's Day was confined to halls where the exercises assumed an educational character.
In scanning old newspaper files one will note that during the '70s and '80s the editors liberally indulged in alliterative headlines. Here are some of them : "Municipal Melange," "Erin's Evils," "Foaming Fluid," "Female Freedom," "Flattering Figures," "Fuel Famine," "Play People," "Frivolous and False," "Senatorial Squabbles," "Blaine and Britain," "Counting the Cost," "Plots and Plotters," "Boer Brawn," "Life's Liberties," "Crime
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Calendar." "Farmers Forming," "Alexander's Ashes, " "Badger Beacons," etc.
Equality and Social Caste. In Europe the activities of men are almost wholly determined by caste and tradition. The boy follows the trade of his father: the mechanic associates only with his fellow mechanics. Professional, business and official careers run in families for generations.
While the immigrant found himself freed from old world restrictions, and with new opportunities before him, he realized his educational limitations. Hle was obliged to follow the calling for which he had been trained. But, he was quick in appreciating the fact that the son need not necessarily become a shoemaker because the father was a shoemaker. The father stood ready to accord his son a better education than he himself had enjoyed, an opportunity which would have been denied to him under old world conditions. Thus, many splendid professional and business men have sprung out of working- men's families.
The immigrants who tore themselves from old world traditions, with its restrictions and evils of easte and class distinctions, came to this country with somewhat liberal conceptions of social as well as political equality. They breathed to the full the atmosphere of freedom in a new land, and rejoiced in the thought that "'one man is as good as the next man." They made no allow- ance for the inequalities of breeding, culture and social refinements.
An interesting incident, which brought social distinctions into sharp con- trast with each other and developed opposite conceptions in taste and form, transpired in the later '40s. Up to this time the Germans conducted their dances with a sort of provincial freedom. The males appeared on the dance floor in shirt sleeves, hats on their heads, and pipes in their mouths. whirled their partners through waltzes and polkas, stamped their feet and yodled in Bavarian Schuhplatth fashion.
There proved to be those who did not relish this form of terpsichorean amusement, and concluded to arrange a subscription ball of their own. The best hall in town was hired and the male guests were to appear in frock coats, white ties and gloves. Sixty couples had signified their acceptance to this exclusive affair.
Now followed a storm of opposition. Aristocracy was asserting itself. The leveling spirit of democracy was in danger. The one faction dubbed the other as "die Geschwollenen." The objectors were designated as the "grüne Deutschen."
It so happened that the "swell" ball was set for the same night when the "popular" dance had been arranged for. This was deemed an added affront on the part of the aristocrats who "wore spectacles on their impudent noses." When a brickbat came through the window into the plebeian dance hall the elimax was reached. A committee was sent to the ball room of the aristocrats a few blocks down the street to make a vigorous protest.
The confab proved, however, a peacable one. No crowd of men and women so well groomed and refined could have stooped so low as to throw a brickbat into a rival dance hall. The swells were exhonerated, and the objeetors re- eeived a new conception of social equality in a democratie land.
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Racial Antagonism .- With the strong influx of the foreign element there arose doubts and fears in the minds of native Americans. These doubts and fears in due time developed into a prejudice and in many instances into a positive hatred for every person of foreign origin.
Thus, when German immigration had reached its greatest impetus, it was also confronted in this country with the strongest prejudice against the for- eigner which had ever been manifested in the history of the country. The so-called Know-nothing movement found its beginning about the middle of the last century and became so aggressive as to form itself into a national political party. Its watch ery was "America for Americans" subserving the immediate interest of the native born and antagonizing all foreigners.
The attitude of the native element therefore towards the foreigners was not always a cordial one. While on the one hand immigration was welcomed as being conducive to material progress, there was on the other hand a feel- ing of apprehension that a preponderance of foreign blood would endanger the stability of American institutions.
In 1843 the opposition to the foreign born found vigorous expression in one of the local newspapers. The nativistie tendeney of the whig party had prompted the Germans and Irish to join hands under the banner of the democratic party in securing suffrage equality with the native Americans. The newspaper said: "If these foreigners, who are unlike ourselves in birth, language, breeding and customs, secure equal rights with the Americans our institutions will be seriously endangered. It is an injustice to draw these untutored monarehial Barbarians out of their legitimate sphere and coddle them with fine things they do not understand. Already the population is more than half foreign born. If they once gain the upper hand our liberties are lost."
The very fact, however, that the foreign born sought a voice in the elec- tion that was to elevate the Territory of Wisconsin into statehood, proved a signal step in the process of assimilation and citizenship. It proved itself an expression of the spirit of equality which strengthened rather than weakened the body politie. The foreigner had no aims other than to support the institu- tions of the republic in harmony with the native born and secure a voice in their preservation.
Incidentally the native born realized that the constant accession of for- eign born stimulated his material prosperity. The latter came with sound bodies and willing hands to work. They were frugal, industrious and thrifty, and thus became an asset rather than a liability to the community.
'The German born who was at a special disadvantage compared with other foreigners who spoke the English language upon arrival, became a special object of contempt and suffered more largely from this hatred than the Seoteh, Irish and other similar nationalities. The ery of "Damn the Dutch" was a more or less familiar one until 1871 when the result of the Franco-Prussian war lent a new aspect to the German character and its mental and physical fibre.
Nevertheless, with the arrival of every ship-load of immigrants went up the ery that the country was being inundated by a foreign population which would
WHOLESALE CONFECTIONERY.
RIVERSIDE PAINTING YOUSE
LAGER BIER HALLE
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HENRY WEIIR'S, NO. 1 GRAND AVENUE A famous restaurant where excellent coffee, wines and beers were served for many years
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TRANSITION, ALT-MILWAUKEE TO AMERICAN CITY
in time seriously endanger the stability of our form of government. The German immigrant, however, readily adapted himself to his new environ- ments. freely imbibed the spirit of our political institutions, added vastly to the material progress of the country.
Old and new world conceptions sometimes collided in a peculiar manner. The native element, for instance, had been taught to observe the Sabbath with almost puritanical regularity. When the Germans eame with a continental conception of Sunday observance there was more or less irritation. Brass band music and parades were deemed sacrilegious. The quiet of the Sabbath had become proverbial.
The issue came when the Fourth of July in the earlier period of the Ger- man immigration, fell upon a Sunday the Germans planned a joyous celebra- t'on. The Yankee element objected. All festivities should be postponed until Monday, the 5th of July. The Germans, however, went to church in the morn- ing and in the afternoon and evening celebrated Independence Day with patriotic speeches, brass bands and parades and fireworks, and with all the enthusiasm, hurrah and noise of an American Fourth. The objections then mellowed into acquiescence.
The opinion entertained by the average foreign born for the Yankee, especially for those who advocated a puritanical Sabbath and total abstinence, was not very flattering. The Yankees were regarded as a class of bloodless and soulless individuals who worshipped the almighty dollar, constantly sought to practice paternalism over the newcomer, and lacked an apprecia- tion for the higher and nobler impulses of life. "The Yankee preaches total abstinence," said the foreign born, "and drinks whisky behind the door. He is a hypocrite, and an enemy of personal liberty."
In time, as the foreign born became acclimated, he learned to appreciate the qualities of the native American. He learned to know him as a generous- hearted man and appreciative of all the good things he found in others. The Yankee was enterprising and energetic in commercial and industrial under- takings. Ile created business and gave employment. The German would rather work for a Yankee boss than work for one of his own countrymen. The latter was close-fisted; the Yankee was less exacting and more liberal in his dealings with his employes.
The German Market .- Among the institutions which grew out of the life of an earlier day was the German market, located at the corner of East Water and Junean Avenue (then known as Division Street). While markets are a common utility known to most American cities, this market, known as "der Grüner Markt," was in its earlier day a unique social center of German life in the community. It could well be likened to the public markets of Nurem- berg, Munich, Hamburg and other German cities. The gossip of the town was here diffused in the Mecklenburger and Pommeranian dialects as freely as it was in the Bavarian and Swabian dialects, although every one made an effort to employ high German.
The low German market woman who sold butter, eggs and Schmierkäse, had a husband who sat with his saw and saw-buek against the walls of the City Ilall waiting for a call to saw a cord of wood. In the winter time he anchored
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himself to the sunny side of the building while in the summer time he sought the shady side. If he happened to be engaged in an argument with a fellow wood-sawyer, and was in possession of a hunk of rye bread and some speek. and of a fair supply of tobacco, he respectfully deelned to saw wood for any- body.
Morning life at the market afforded a character study of the female popu- lation of the community. The market woman. sturdy, red checked and out- spoken, varied her manner of salesmanship, with the style and appearance of her customers. The well-dressed lady who came down from Yankee Hill to fill her market basket, and who was designated as the "Englische Dame, " was treated with the utmost courtesy. The snippy hired girl who sampled the butter before she bought, or rolled over the vegetables before she made her choice, came in for sarcastic response. The dog who sniffed about the market woman's baskets came in for a swift kiek exerted by a heavy soled boot, and a parting salutation in Plattdeutsch.
In the gossip which gained eirenlation and momentum in the morning crowds which gathered about the market stands the happenings of the day were discussed simultaneously with the quality of vegetables and the dairy prodnets. The good housewife who had bought her yeast at the brewery. must fill her basket with greens and at the same time learn what people were . talking about.
Besides the births, marriages and deaths, there was the latest brewery or grain elevator fire, the scare aroused by a runaway horse, the arrival of some immigrant who ela'med ownership of a great title, the German boy who mar- ried an Irish girl. the Yankee who was building a new hotel, the indignant resentment of a German who had been called a Dutchman, and so forth.
With the evolution of the corner grocery store, the introduction of a greater variety of food products, package and canned goods, the delivery system, and later on the telephone, the German market went out of existence. Attempts on the part of the municipality in later years to revive the old mar- ket idea has resulted in the establishment of a number of smaller markets in different seetions of the city which are conducted on vacant lots in the open air during the summer months.
The German Beer Garden .- The German beer garden, too, grew into flour- ishing proportions. Prominent among these was Milwaukee Garden, located at Fourteenth and Chestnut streets, condueted for years by Pins Dreher, and Quentin's Park, located on Walnut and Eighth streets, conducted by Paul Schuengel. Milwaukee Garden later gave way to a residence district and Quentin's Park is now a public park, known as Lapham Park. There were other parks of lesser popularity as for instance Terrace Garden, located on Ninth and State streets, Kmir's Park and National Park, located on the south side. Bielefeld's Garden, located in the vieinity of upper Knapp Street on the east side, and Berninger's on South Pieree Street.
The first beer garden brought into life by the earliest German settlers of Milwaukee was Ludwig's Garden, located on a delightfully wooded spot on the east bank of the Milwaukee River to the immediate north of the present Cherry Street bridge. The admission fee was 25 cents and those who did not
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participate in the dancing were entitled 121% cents rebate payable in beer or eoffee and kaffee kuchen.
The festivities held in these parks were frequent and zestful. Beer and wine flowed freely, mnsie and song rang out in joyons accents, and laughter and gayety was the order of the day. The various social benevolent and singing societies held their annual pienies in these beer gardens. Brass bands crashed their notes into patriotic airs, both American and German, selections from the leading operas, and then cosily lapsed into potpouris of popular folk- song music. The American Hag would Hutter gaily beside or over the society banners, and everybody was happy to feel that he enjoyed the protection of that flag, and at the same time grateful in the thought that he was of German origin.
They believed that the American flag was big and tolerant enough to permit them to enjoy themselves in accordance with their own native customs. "We are loyal to our adopted country," they would say, "We obey its laws, and pay our taxes, revere the American flag and stand ready to defend it against any enemy that may come forward. We know our rights and will assert them. We hold that we ean sing and play, love and pray in our mother tongue with- ont becoming unpatriotic or disloyal. We are American citizens, even though we were not born here. Only the Indian has a better claim than we to that title."
These beer garden festivals became picturesque reproductions of old world plays and pleasures. A Schuetzenfest saw the target contestants in the hunts- man garb of a Tyrolean or Bavarian. A Saengerfest presented large male and mixed choruses that revelled in classie productions as well as in German lieder and folksong. A Turnfest saw handsome athletes in white shirtwaists and gray pantaloons performing graceful gymnasties and building remarkable human pyramids.
There were Swabian and Bavarian folk festivals where the Kellnerinen or waitresses appeared in picturesque native garb, where dialect obtained freely, where sauerkraut, bratwurst, and knoedel and the like, were the food order of the day, where beer and wine flowed in torrents, where the soft strains of zither musie alternated with the cornet solo, where the Schuplattel Tanz displayed white hosiery and bulging skirts, where laughter and gaiety pro- ceeded with the zest of happy children at play.
One of the peculiarities evolved here is that the German who sipped his beer with moderation in his native country was inclined to drink it immoder- ately in this country. Years ago the Lutheran and Catholic parishes held annual pienies in the popular parks of the city at which wines and beers were dispensed. It was found that the sale of alcoholic drinks had to be dispensed with because excesses were indulged in. The American treating system, it was believed, was largely responsible for the difference. The old world ens- tom, where everybody paid for the wine and beer he himself consumed, led to moderation whereas the new world liberality led to over-indulgence.
The Bier Wirthschaft .- The American saloon, as exemplified here in a German Bier Wirthschaft, proved a useful institution in teaching the mean- ing of a new world democracy. Those who came with exalted old world Vol, 1-49
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notions as to their blood and breeding sometimes received a rude lesson at the hands of those who had been among the submerged classes of Europe and who now asserted the law of equality. The man who by dint of character and honest effort had made something of himself, and was leading a useful life. had no patience with his polished countryman who was stiffly afflicted with notions of easte and ancestry.
As already stated, these German saloons became veritable schools in democracy. They not only did much to make old world class distinctions seem ridiculous, but afforded the average foreign born much information on the economic and eivie life of his adopted country. He learned to know some- thing about men and measures in the political field, the principles of govern- ment. and his rights and prerogatives as an adopted citizen.
The traditional Stammtisch too, reserved for groups of friends who came together periodically for a social confab, had its value. Its discussions usually went beyond the domain of politics and the doings of the day. Art, music, the drama and old world diplomacy were under consideration, literature came and the discussions engaged in frequently developed into heated arguments. The latest play at the Stadt Theater, an article in the Gartenlanbe, the new- est Bismarck eoup, the last musical society concert, the Know-Nothing move- ment. the enlargement of a brewery, and so forth, became the burden of con- versation. High German flavored with dialeet characteristics was the language employed.
Every German, whatever his dialeet might be, made a pretense to a knowl- edge and use of the written and official language as taught in the schools of his native country, but he did not always succeed in his use of high German in hiding the infleetions of his dialeet or the jargon of the partienlar section of the country he came from. There were those who could read these dialect infleetions and determine with reasonable exaetness the birthplace of the speaker.
There was something imposing and festive about the old-time beer wagon. The barrels containing the famous produet were stacked in pyramid fashion on a broad, long, strongly built wagon. Frequently a row of barrels hung from the sides of the vehicle which was drawn by magnificent Percheron horses.
The driver, stalwart and broad-shouldered, who was the personification of the traditional Gambrinus, plus a huge leather apron and minus the beard. on arrival at a saloon could toss, roll or carry his "eights and quarters" with the dexterity and ease of a giant athlete. His appearance in a barroom was the signal for an all around treat in which the impeeunions thirsty became the usual beneficiaries.
The saloons and taverns which had become exceedingly numerous in the area lying between Oneida and Knapp streets. Broadway and the river, bore a variety of names. The signs which hung over the entrance door of the "Lager-Bierhalle" hore in large German lettering, such names as "Bayerischer Hol. " "Schwabenhaus," "Zur Stadt Wien," "Preussischer Hof." "Jäger- haus," "Schweitzer Heimath, " ete. With the expansion of the village these saloons and taverns, which were the American replicas of the German gasthaus
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and bierhalle, also sprang up on the west side. on Third and Chestnut streets and on the streets adjacent to them.
While these taverns served as the headquarters for the immigrants upon their arrival and until they were otherwise provided for, they also served as boarding houses and usually maintained a bar. The real Bierstube with its Stammtisch and regular habitues soon developed. It had its guests who grouped themselves about the tables, sipped their beer slowly, and discussed the news of the day. These groups, in a somewhat milder degree, smacked of the class and caste of an old world drinking locality. While language and raee origin drew them together in friendship and comraderie it was noticeable that the business and professional men grouped themselves abont certain tables and that those of lesser intelligence and means formed other groups. Occasionally an "intellectual" would resent the familiarity of the plebeian whose democracy did not harmonize with his old world standards of class superiority. The supersensitive, wine drinking aristocrat wanted it under- stood that the plebian must keep his "dirty beer fingers" off his shoulders.
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