Historical November 1984 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Ellis Island is twenty-seven acres of rock in Upper New York Bay and is the subject of a book by Fred Mustard Stewart.
As many as five thousand immigrants a day were Processed through this entry point to the United States, and it is said that the doctors and inspectors treated immigrants with considerable hu- .manity. Those old cow barn-like buildings were closed in 1954 and have since fallen into disrepair.
The main characters in Ellis Island include a handsome young Italian named Marco Santorelli; Jacob Rubenstein, the son of a cantor who escaped a Russian pogram atop a Kossack’s horse and later became the toast of Tin Pan Alley in New York; and Tom Banicek who left the poverty of Bohemia for a job in the Pennsylvania coal mines, eventually becoming a labor leader and martyr.
The O’Donnell sisters from Ireland came to America to make their home with rich relatives in New York.
The story begins in Russia in 1907 and concludes in 1967 in America. I enjoyed Mr. Stewart’s rich descriptions of Ellis Island and the conditions of immigrants living in New York in the early part of the century: “The smells of the city assaulted their senses; garlic, sauerkraut, hot dogs, horse manure, bagels, blintzes .
The room, 8 feet wide and 12 feet long, had one tall dirty window that opened onto a narrow airshaft, admitting at high noon barely enough sunlight to illuminate the cell in a penumbral glow.” The plot moves quickly.
We get caught up in the loves, tragedies, and joys of these people—a great picture of an important time in America. Try to catch the mini series in November of the book with Richard Burton and his daughter, Kate.
This production was one of Mr. Burton’s last performances.
The Europeans by Luigi Barzini, published in 1983, is a penetrating study of modern Europe as it prepares itself for “the dangerous and turbulent years ahead.” The author reminds us that the dream of a United States of Europe has permeated the history of the Continent, and that at the heart of every European is this ancient desire to see Europe pacified and merged into a political and economic unit.
He observes that while the urgency of unity is recognized, the will to unite is still lacking, due primarily to the survival of national, sensitive pride and a nostalgic longing for a vanished, familiar world. Concentrating on the “chief protagonists”—the principal members of the European Economic Community (or Common Market)—he examines the national character, unique cultural heritage, and contribution of each of these member nations to European and world civilization. Barzini says the future of Europe lies ultimately with the future of Germany.
He reminds us that it is still “Le Coeur de Europe” (the heart of Europe).
In an absorbing chapter, he alludes to the inscrutable elements in the German character.
He quotes Nietzsche: “The German soul has corridors and caves; its disorder possesses much of the fascinating and mysterious.” It is these unpredictable qualities, he says, that make it essential for other European nations to maintain a vigilant “Watch on the Rhine.” Exploring the English character, he contrasts the proverbial British “sense of fair play,” their cool balanced judgments, code of good manners, etc., with their attitude of moral and intellectual superiority, invincibility, to say nothing of social snobbery and arrogant pride. Much of the success of British statecraft he attributes to a predictable uniformity of thought and behavior.
There are illuminating chapters on the “quarrelsome” French, the “careful” Dutch, the “flexible” Italians, and finally the “baffling” Americans. Barzini states that America should be included among the European nations “because it is an annex, philosophically speaking, of Europe.” He refers to the all-too-common perception of American by Europeans as a land of “soulless materialism,” and reminds us that it was a “spiritual wind” that drove America from the beginning.
He dwells on the clash between their knight-errant idealism and that contradictory American trait: pragmatism. Barzini has written a very readable, enlightening, and thought-provoking book.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, November 1984.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1984_11.pdf, printed page(s) 5; PDF page(s) 5.
