4/5/1911

Dear Cousins back at home,

The first thing we did after we left Ellis Island was try to find our dad’s address so we could move in with him. We did… kind of… we found out that the five points ( Irish Community) was not the best place to have our family move into. So we moved into a nice Italian Neighborhood where our mother became the Landlady. The old landlady was missing her daughter too much so she went to go live with her. So now we do not have to pay rent. Before I turned ten I went to school and to help my family start their life in America I peddled with my friend to earn some extra money, to help my family. Papa peddles, Uncle Ernie is a woodworker, Sam and John paint signs and at night they go to night school, Mother is the landlady and Sasha helps Mother, Me, Charlotte, and Maeve all work in a skirt factory, Grammy sells rags for two cents apiece, And Joe delivers bread, oh and here is a funny story about that when Joe came home and told Mother about the job Mother said, “Good, you are becoming a man now.”. Ha Ha Ha! A common discussion around the dinner table is what my and my siblings future is going to be like and who are going to marry. We also plan to picket some of the factories later in the year because, cousin Maeve, Charlotte and I are all unhappy with the conditions in the factories.

Most of the time our tenements conditions are good unless, Mother gets sick and Sasha is left with all the work, which means that our building is probably left in a worse state than when she started. The street we live on in the Italian Neighborhood is called Mulberry so we live on 48 Mulberry Street. Mother, Papa, Brother Sam, Brother John, Baby Sasha, Sister Charlotte, Me, Cousin Maeve, Uncle Ernie, and Little Joe all live with us. We can never take in boarders ( that means people who pay you to sleep in your house ) even though that would give us extra money because we have such a big family. A few laws were passed so tenements would be safer to live in so now all windows have to face outside to help with ventilation and now the latrines have to be inside so it is more sanitary ( no more 3:00 am freezing trips to the bathroom ). Every time a tenement inspector comes Mother gets very scared thinking that her building is not going to pass inspection and every time the inspectors come our building passes just fine. A few times a year, a man named Jacob Riis comes into our tenement with a camera, (a machine that will freeze a moment in time) but everytime that happens Mother shoos him out and says she wants no one snooping around HER tenement! Sometimes Sam and John gives Sasha a spool of thread and then Sasha, being two years old and doesn’t know better than to spread all of it around the hallways. Everytime she does she gets hugged and Mother being Mother knows that it was Sam and John all along and they get in trouble.

As you probably know now I am a factory worker. Even though I know I am not allowed to I am part of a union working for factory workers rights. The conditions are terrible because the windows are always locked and you can only go to the bathroom for three minutes ( imagine if there was a line! ). Also, even though factories are not allowed to have children under 14 work for them, they do, so whenever the inspector comes the underaged children get thrown in crates, so when they come I get thrown in the crates and so do a lot of other children. Our average wages at the end of the week is $4.00. Just like the tenements, a few laws were passed so that factories are safer and better to work in, so now sometimes the wages are higher. Every morning I come to work and I see the whole monotonous work day ahead of me and I get dreary even thinking about that and that always happens when I ride up in the freight elevator ( a box that will carry you up and down. Amazing right?!).

Even though we are now in America we always try to eat Irish food to keep our culture while also trying new foods made in America. I really miss dinners when you just put everything in a big pot and boil it until it is so soft and, breakfasts made up of cream of corn soup from our garden. I always get some of my food from Father for dinner and I pretend to haggle with him to get myself ready for real haggling. On my way home from the factory I usually get herring and bread for dinner. Also in America you can get ingredients for potato meat soup if you walk just a couple of steps out the front door, incredible right?! There is always a Irish peddler in front of our tenement waiting for us to buy the food from our culture. If you walk outside all you can hear is peddlers singing out their wares.

The reason I wrote this letter to you is because I think America is fun, but, I also miss Ireland so I am happy and sad that we came here. Sad because I miss so, so much about Ireland, but happy because America is such a great opportunity to learn, be free and have fun and try things I would never have dreamed of doing back at home. Most things in America are fun but, some are not. For example: Playing potsy is fun, washing the dishes for the whole family Is NOT. Sometimes before and after work I go outside and play potsy or watch a boys stickball game ( Stickball is when you use a stick to hit a ball ). I love America and think it is a great place to live but every night when I go to bed I dream about Ireland and everything I’ve left there.

Love,

Sibina Moore (Stella)

This is a letter from the Lower East Side that I also made in the immigration study of our class and we were pretending to be our immigrant personas that we created.