“Between 1880 and 1920, more than 4.1 million Italians were recorded as entering the United States” (Daniels, p. 188). Italian immigrants of the post-1880 period were different from other immigrant groups in these matters of religion, work, family orientation, politics, and education. The 1880s brought a change not only in the number of Italian immigrants but also in their characteristics as a group. This group of immigrants was incredibly male-dominated, compared to other immigrants of this time, most of whom settled in New York and Chicago. The living conditions these Italians encountered were not pleasant. It was normal for them to live in very crowded four-bedroom apartments. Compared to other immigrants, they had some of the worst living conditions, usually very close to industrial workplaces. These apartments commonly did not have plumbing. As unskilled workers, they tended to work in manual labor, railways, and steel mills in dangerous conditions. These work areas were so dangerous that more than forty deaths occurred each year. Sometimes Italians in the construction industry lived in boxcars while working on a long-term project. This can be seen in the third image of the additional links, Italian Laborers, Padrones and Pernicious Pasta. The freight car is not very large and is shared by three workers. Obviously there is no plumbing, very dirty and most likely no furniture inside. The men look dirty and worn out in the photo. The workday usually lasts more than ten hours a day, more than five days a week, so it's understandable why some would opt to simply live on the job. Despite working all these hours, many continued to collect food and scraps from the garbage. Many of these are...... middle of paper......your Italian has its redeeming features” (Reading 11, p. 2). These best traits are honesty, stubbornness, faithful wives and devoted mothers, and finally happiness and light-heartedness. As for light-heartedness, Riis compared the Italian to a child in that there is no social filter, which may seem rude. Although there are mixed feelings about Italians as a whole, Riis believes they are preferable to Germans and other immigrants because they can be exploited. Feel pity and sympathy for them. The comparison to a child connects to the image of children in the Golden Age (Presentation 7:33). In this image the child is depicted as serious and not as a child is usually thought to be. If an immigrant is like a child, then Americans must teach him to become a responsible American and educate him on progress, known as progressivism.