Books: The Little Immigrant
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Eva Stern >> The Little Immigrant
Thanks to Robert Stern, great-grandson of the author, for donating this
eBook.
INTRODUCTION
In 1921, my great-grandmother, wrote this book about how her parents
met, married and began a family. Eva's mother, Ernestine, was
presumably "the little immigrant." The book was privately printed,
and only a few copies survive.
The names of most of the characters have been disguised, although
thinly. In the table below, the fictitious names appear on the left,
the real names, where known, on the right:
Renestine Jewel Ernestine Jacobowsky
Aldine Bilter (her married sister)
Jaffray Starr Jacob Sterne
Lola, the Starrs' first-born Laura Sterne
Ena, their second-born Eva Sterne
Lester Leopold Sterne
Andrew Alfred Sterne
Frank, the youngest child Fred Sterne
Josiah, longtime family slave
Caroline, Josiah's wife
Sarah, successor to Carolina
One name that is authentic is that of Gen. Buell, whom the Starrs put
up during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War and who in
fact was sent to Jefferson following a breakout of violence during
this period.
Eva Sterne, who became the wife of Leopold Stern (with only one e),
was 59 when this book was printed.
THE LITTLE IMMIGRANT
Eva Stern
CHAPTER I
"NAH! Renestine, cannot you come with the skirt and let me lay it in
your trunk? You are dreaming, dreaming all the time. My child, these
things must be ready by midnight tonight."
The girl was thirteen years old and her mother was getting her
possessions together to send her to America to join a sister who had
already gone there and was married and now sent to have her little
sister journey to the States, too.
"Oh, Mutterchen, I do not want to go," burst out Renestine. "I
want to stay with you. I do not want to go."
"Nah! Kindlein, stay then," said the mother, keeping her own
grief away from her child.
Just then the door to the little room flew open and three
excited girls of about Renestine's own age or perhaps one or two years
older, bustled themselves inside.
"Why, Renestine, you are not finished packing yet! We are
ready and our trunks are roped and standing at the door for Laaskar to
put on the post-wagon when he drives by on his way to the post-house
tonight."
The speaker stopped confused seeing that Renestine was silent
with no joy in her eyes and the mother sat quietly with flushed checks
and said nothing.
"What has happened?" said the three girls in chorus. "You are
not going to back out, are you?"
Still Renestine did not look up or make any sign that she was
interested in the preparations for her arranged trip. Presently the
mother spoke and her voice trembled.
"Renestine has changed her mind and will remain at home."
Then the girls broke into a laugh and chided Renestine, saying
she was a baby and would never see the ocean or go to America and ride
in carriages. The mental picture was doing its work. Not ride in
carriages and have pretty clothes and .learn to speak English? That
was too much to refuse. Renestine raised her head, wiped the tears
out of her eyes, brought the skirt neatly folded to her mother and
said: "Mutterchen, finish my trunk. I am going with Yetta, Selma and
Polly to America."
The journey began and Renestine made the voyage over in a
sailing vessel which took six weeks to make her port at Galveston,
Texas, in the early fifties. The girls experienced days of seasickness
when they thought it was better to die than to ride in carriages and
were weary and homesick. But when, at last, they walked again upon
land and were welcomed in Galveston by their relatives, all the
melancholy hours were forgotten. The girls had separated into their
different families on arriving at Houston, but frequently met just as
they had before leaving their home town, and were observing everything
with eagerness and getting their first impressions of America.
One balmy Sunday morning they took a walk and marveled much
that Houston had so many houses and such large ones. While they walked
they chatted and were merry. Finally, they noticed that a great many
looked at them curiously, and some smiled. They were at last spoken to
by an old lady, who reminded them that it was not customary for girls
to walk in the middle of the street. This was a conceit that pleased
them, to walk in the middle of the street just to see people walking on
either side of them.
The ringing of the Sunday morning church bells was a startling
sound and Paula exclaimed, as the three stood still listening: "Oh,
listen to the music box!" Solemnly they walked on and wondered that
the world was so large and full of beautiful things. Itwas a long time
before Renestine realized that they had gone a great distance. "We
will return now," she said. But when they turned to retrace their
steps they found themselves in a wood of large, dark trees with heavy
gray moss dropping from their branches and a solemn stillness over all.
It was growing dusk, too, and the trees looked ghostly in the falling
gloom.
"Do you know which way to go?" asked Yetta.
"Oh, come with me and I will show you," said Paula.
Trustingly they followed Paula. But the brave girl, after a
half hour's vain effort, had to admit that she was puzzled herself and
did not know how to get out of the wood. Yetta showed the nearness of
tears, but Renestine set to work to extricate themselves. Before she
had decided what to do they all three heard horses' hoofs trampling
down bush-wood and dry twigs not far away. The riders, or whatever it
was, came nearer until the girls saw a young man on horseback, a boy
accompanying him. The horsemen reined in their horses and stopped when
they saw the girls standing before them. The older man, who was about
twenty-eight, asked how they came to be so far in the depth of the
trackless woods. When they had told him, he dismounted, throwing the
reins over his arm and leading his horse, he walked along by the side
of the girls guiding them out of their difficulty; the boy followed on
his horse which carried the saddle-bags containing the personal
belongings of both of them. As they walked many questions were asked
and answered and in a little time the woods were left behind and the.
girls were opening the gate of Renestine's sister's home. The young
rescuer, after seeing them safely disappear in the doorway, got on his
horse again and trotted off to his hotel, the boy following.
CHAPTER II
SEATED at her work table in her sitting room, Mrs. Bilter was putting
the last stitches in a white Swiss dress that Renestine was to wear
that night to a ball. The puff sleeve close to the shoulder was the
last of the dainty dress to be put on. Mrs. Bilter took eager pleasure
in dressing her pretty sister in the daintiest of gowns. When she
looked up she saw her husband coming through the gate for his noon
dinner. She put down her sewing and moved to meet him on the porch.
"Well, dear, how are you getting on with the ball dress?" For
Mr. Bilter was as interested in his little sister-in-law as his wife was.
"Renestine will have to look her prettiest to-night. There are some
visiting young men in the town and they will be at the ball."
They went in together and were received by old Aunt Mary, a
colored family servant who was much respected and held in affection by
the members.
"Dinnah jest put on de table, Missus."
"Has Miss Renestine come home?"
"No'm. I's hasn't seen her; prehaps she's kept in fer not
knowin' her lessons."
Just then Renestine came in, her cheeks rosy and her large
black eyes luminous with the exercise of walking home from school. She
entered the dining-room laughing and sat down next to her brother-in-law.
"How were the lessons today, Renestine?" he asked, patting her
hand that lay in his. "Arithmetic right?"
"No trouble at all. Oh, I am so glad that you both had the
idea to send me to school, I love it. I love to be puzzled over a
question and find it out for myself. I love to feel myself gaining
knowledge and understanding many things that used to be dark and
incomprehensible to me and that seem plain now. I rejoice that I am
able to think and speak English," and Renestine turned her head toward
her sister and her eyes were moist. "You are very good to me, Aldine,
and besides you are spoiling me with all the pretty dresses you make
for me."
"Oh, do come in right after dinner and look at your dress for
to-night. It is just lovely with the little rosebuds around the
shoulders," said Mrs. Bilter.
It did not take long before the three were admiring the fluffy
white dress and predicting its success at the ball.
Renestine hurried home after school and sat down by the side of
her sister to help sew rosebuds on the flounces of the wide skirt.
When the dress was finished Renestine took it to her room and pinned
it up on the curtains of her bed to look at it and get the effect of
it. Then she got out her little white satin slippers and began the
ceremony of the toilette for the ball.
Carriages were coming and going before the brilliantly lighted
Colonial house owned by the Good Fellowship Club. The colored drivers
sat proud and erect on their boxes and held in their restive horses
while their masters and mistresses alighted. Young dandies in ruffled
shirts and flowered velvet waistcoats came on foot and sprang eagerly
up the steps and vanished through the double doors swung back by
colored attendants. Strains of music reached the street and ceased
when the doors opened and shut and the sound of many voices in
conversation and happy laughter burst upon the ear of the passer-by.
Inside, all was gaiety and animation. Festoons of greens hung from the
chandelier of kerosene lights and garlands and wreaths decorated the
walls of the wide hall and rooms where there was dancing. In the
ballroom five colored musicians were the orchestra and the leader
"called out" the figures of the lancers and quadrilles. "Face your
pardners," he called out as the square dance was begun. Several sets
of four couples were formed ready for the first strains of the lancers
music and the prompter. "Forward all," and all the couples advanced
to the center. "Swing your pardners," "balance corners," the lady and
gentleman faced to the right and took steps to the music. "Swing," and
they swung around.
The next figure was the "Grand right and left," called out by
the prompter and the couples circled around and after a large ring was
formed by taking hands and going first to the right and then to the
left, amid laughter the dance broke up.
Standing near the window on the porch were two young men. They
were smoking cigars and commenting on the guests and the surroundings
generally.
"There's a little Queen Esther with her black hair braided and
folded over her shell pink ears. Look at her graceful walk. Do you
see the one I mean?".asked the taller of the two men.
"Do you mean the one with the rosebuds on her gown?"
"Yes, the very one. She has the most beautiful black eyes I
have ever seen."
"Yes, she is a beautiful girl," assented his companion.
"Where have I seen her before? I recognize those eyes."
"You are not captured, are you, Jaffray?"
"Well, I don't know." And they both laughed. "Let us go
inside."
They threw away their cigars and went in.
"Miss Jewel, Mr. Starr would like to be presented to you, may I
bring him to you?" Renestine looked up and found a friend speaking to
her, but before she could answer the tall stranger was at her friend's
elbow.
"This is a great pleasure for me," said the newly introduced
guest. "But, Miss Jewel, it has been an impression of mine since I
first saw you this evening that we have met before. Can you help me
settle upon the place, time and occasion?"
"Why, no," laughed Renestine, showing two rows of small, white
teeth that enhanced her charm.
"I am sure if we try hard enough we shall soon discover," Jaffray said.
"May I sit down?" Renestine drew sideways to allow him to draw up a
chair, her hoop skirt spreading her tarlatan flounces some space
around her.
"Why, yes, indeed, now that I look at you, the woods, gray
moss, three frightened young ladies; it was in the dusk of evening as
I was riding from McKinney, all of that picture returns," he put his
forefinger to his lips, and looked down at the floor in deep
reflection.
For a moment Renestine was silent, then turned rosy red. "Oh,
Mr. Starr, was it you who brought us out of the Wilderness and
restored us to our families? You appeared at the most fortunate
moment, we were really lost," and she laughed heartily. "You are a
stranger here, Mr. Starr?"
"Not altogether. I have visited here before on business.
Where I live it is lonesome for me and I take my vacations with much
the spirit of a school boy. Shall we dance?"
The "Kiss Waltz" was a great favorite and the opening bars
were beginning, "Hun" Williams, leader of the orchestra, putting a
good swing into it. Renestine and Jaffrey glided with the rhythm of
the music and danced until the last strains closed the tuneful
composition. Throwing a lace scarf about her shoulders, Jaffray led
Renestine to the balcony. The moon was bright as day and the early May
dew brought out the fragrance of the jessamine and clematis climbing
over the balustrade.
They stood for a time without speaking, feeling the spell of
the Southern spring time.
"Is not this solemn beauty? Somehow it hurts, it is so
beautiful," said Renestine quietly, her large eyes dreamy and full of
softness.
"Ah, you have a poet's soul, Miss Jewel. Will you tell me
something of your life? You were not born here?"
They were walking up and down the broad verandah and Renestine
was telling him of the little mother so far away, parted from, perhaps
never to be seen again. She was saying, "At last when the time came to
say good-bye, I clung to my mother's form and in that moment could see my
soul, bared, bruised, wounded and somehow the little girl passed with
that parting and although I was but a few months younger than I am
to-night, I am here just one year, I feel much changed and older." Her
lids closed and Jaffray did not interrupt. "Mr. Starr, do you know of
any experience more cruel than this parting of parents in Europe with
their children to come to America? I think of it now so often. I
think there cannot be in all life . . . ."
Jaffray saw the tears in those wonderful eyes. "No, Miss
Jewel, no. I know of nothing more humanly cruel! I, too, parted from
my beloved mother and twin sister when a mere lad to cross the ocean to
seek my fortune in America. A lad barely fifteen years of age, I had
no idea of what I was going out to meet in the world when I took my
small belongings and journeyed toward these shores. There were no
friends, no relatives where I was going; all those were being left
behind; but the spirit of adventure possessed me and I wanted more
freedom to work out my destiny in and the parting had to be for me and
I cannot tell you how I have suffered from homesickness for the beloved
Mother and good sister, for the little home in the Rhine village where
the terraces of grapes lay just back of our house; that never is
forgotten, no matter how long one lives. We have a common bond of
sympathy, may I hope it means a tie of friendship?"
She gave him her hand and shortly afterwards he led her back
into the ballroom; but the music could not tempt them to dance again
and, after seeing Renestine with friends, he said good-night and left.
It was near daylight when Jaffray smoked his last cigar and
finally put out the light in his little room in the hotel and went to
bed.
Jaffray paid frequent visits to Houston from McKinney, after he
met Miss Jewel. Although Renestine was busy with her school work, her
sister permitted her, like all the young girls, to accept the
attentions of young men who wished to call or who invited her to social
affairs.
Jaffray was some years older than Renestine and was aware that
she was but a school girl, untutored in the ways of the world, even
less than most girls of her age. But Renestine's modesty, her
innocence, her beauty, appealed to him as no other woman's charms had
done and thoughts of her took possession him. His stuffy little office
in McKinney, in the long, narrow store where general merchandise was
rather irregularly piled around in high wooden boxes, in barrels, and
on shallow shelves, became a prison house and the weeks endless terms
of sentence. It happened that be could not absent himself from duty
oftener than once every month and then only from Friday to Sunday
night. These days of freedom were now prized tenfold more dearly than
if he had had his time free to do as he wished.
Heretofore it had been his dearest wish to employ his spare
time with books, reading and studying to improve his mind and for the
pleasure that books gave him. Now his thoughts refused to concentrate
upon anything but Miss Jewel.
After some weeks of acquaintance there was an exchange of
letters which grew into a long correspondence. Those were happy days
for Jaffray! Eagerly he would look forward to the mail and from the
receipt of each of Renestine's letters to the next he would be in a
heaven all his own. He sent her songs and books of verse; he wrote long
and throbbing letters, and Winter and Spring, Summer and Autumn were
just one long summer day for him with the music of the birds overhead
and the earth a garden of blossoms.
CHAPTER III
TWO years went by and Renestine had been the bride of Jaffray Starr
three months. Grown into womanhood, she was radiant; happy in her love
and secure in the faith of her choice, she went forth from her sister's
home full of hope and cheer. Renestine had had many suitors, had had
much admiration. She could have become the wife of a young adoring
banker; she had refused to listen to the suit of men of more substance
than her husband; but because of the quiet manliness of Jaffray Starr,
because of his keen intellect, because of his nobility of heart and
generous nature, she gave her heart into his keeping, sure that she had
made no mistake, and set out with him to share his fortune, whatever it
would bring. They had been married and left at once for Jaffray's home
at Jefferson, where he had a position in the County Clerk's office. Now
they were settled and housekeeping. But it was a long, rough journey
they had made from Houston to Jefferson. The railroads had not been
built in that section of the country and travel was done by horse teams
and in covered wagons. Two good colored servants accompanied them; old
Josiah, who drove and took care of the rough work, and his wife;
Caroline, to look after the "Missus" and do the cooking. Bringing out
kettles and pans tucked away in the wagon, Josiah would build a
brushwood fire and Caroline would cook the meals, rations for two weeks
having been provided. When it was time to stop for a meal or to rest
the horses, Josiah would be on the watch for a clear spring of water
along the roadside, would draw up by the side of it and begin
preparations for camping. It was not as much of a hardship as Pullman
travelers would conclude. The wagons were fitted with springs which
gave easily over rough roads and even had a fascination and romance,
and in the cool of the evening when a stretch of smooth road lay before
them it was delicious to feel the soft air blowing into their faces and
to experience the exhilaration of the rapid motion of the wagon. There
were also arrangements for comfortable beds.
Word had gone ahead that Jaffray was bringing home a bride and
the people were alert to give her welcome. Jaffray never realized how
much he was thought of until he came back a Benedict. Homes were
thrown open to him and his young wife with offers to remain as long as
they would, and all .kinds of propositions made for their comfort and
welfare.
"No, thank you, John or Tom or Buck," he would reply, kindly
but firmly. "We shall go to the hotel until we can arrange a home. I
have already rented a house and it won't take us long to get settled."
Nor did it. In a few weeks Jaffray and Renestine were
occupying a small house, not far from the river that skirted the town,
with Josiah and Caroline in charge.
"I do not see how anything can be prettier," said Renestine one
day after they had been in their home about a week. She had just
finished looping the pretty Swiss curtains at the windows of their
living room. "I really do not," she continued, stepping back, her
finger tips together, her head quizzically on one side. "Nothing can
be sweeter or prettier than our home. Jaffray, have you noticed how
dainty the chintz furniture is and how well it goes with the walls? I
think I deserve commendation for that wall paper, Jaffray."
"Indeed, you do, my darling," returned Jaffray, pulling
solemnly at his pipe and looking half amused, half serious, at his
young wife. "Are you quite sure the pattern is large enough?" he said,
laughing.
"Oh, you ungrateful man, you are making fun of me, I do
believe. Come into the dining-room and have dinner. Caroline is just
bringing it in."
Arm in arm, they stepped into a long, narrow room which went
the width of the house, only excepting a little room off the main
bedroom which was used for a dressing room.
The house consisted of a living room, a small hall and across
from the living room, the bedroom. Back of the little room was a
small porch and detached from the house, but connected by a covered
walk, was the kitchen. The dining-room was a foot below the two front
rooms, the kitchen joining it by the covered passage way. They could
never explain why the dining-room was so arranged, but concluded that
the owner had added it on at a later time. It was cosy and
comfortable and became attractive under the deft fingers of Renestine.
The little covered porch in front of the house was screened by running
vines from the gaze of the street.
"Now for my book shelf!" exclaimed Jaffray, after he had smoked
his afternoon pipe. "You must help me arrange them, Renestine. No
real home without books, little girl."
Josiah brought in the large drygoods box, which he opened, and
together Jaffray and Renestine took out the books, dusted them and
placed them on the shelves built in one side of the wall. Among them
were Byron,
Moore, Pope, History of the United States, Josephus, Irving's Life of
Washington. It was late when the last one had been put away, and they
were glad enough to rest in their rockers on the porch in the gloaming.
CHAPTER IV
THE day was hot and sultry. The chinaberry trees gave out their sweet
flower fragrance, almost too sweet to breathe freely in, while their
lacy leaves scarcely stirred. A great shady one grew in the corner
of the paling-fence around the yard and close to the two-room living
quarters for the negro servants. Aunt Caroline sat in the door combing
her wiry hair with a curry comb, a jagged piece of broken mirror in her
lap to guide her in her hairdressing; close by were a couple of
rush-bottom chairs set face to face and holding across their seats a
pillow with a mosquito netting pulled tight across the top of the
backs. Every once in a while Aunt Caroline would twist her neck in the
direction of the improvised bed and, finding nothing stirring, would
resume her hair-brushing.
"Oh, Aunt Caroline," rushed out of the air and a two-year-old
little girl threw herself heavily against the old servant's knees,
nearly dashing her toilet articles to the ground. Aunt Caroline
started, raised her curry brush over her head and shook it hard at the
child.
"My lands," she said, in a low voice. "Whar you come from and
making all dat noise and your sister lying dar asleep. Ain't you never
swine to renembar what I's al'ays tellin' yer, not ter brash up against
one like out de Sperrit world and nearly scare yer old mammy ter deth?
Ennyhow yer look tired; come heah in my lap and le' me rock yer."
"May I have your looking glass, then, Aunt Caroline?"
"Look out, chile, you'll cut yerself! No. I's got to lay dis
up on de shelf for mahself. Dis no lookin' glass fer a white chile.
Now you come heah and get in my lap dis minute."