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Many
turn of the century immigrant families suffered from severe poverty.
In
times of hard luck, the temporary deficit of the family will be
met by relatives and friends. This was the expected form of behavior
because in Italy "everybody helps everybody else." If
the head of the household falls ill, the neighbors drop in daily
to see how he is, and rarely does one leave without slipping into
the sick man's hand a nickel, dime, or quarter. Not the slightest
thought of charity is entailed by the act, either in the giver's
mind or the receiver's. It is understood, however, that an act
of kindness will be reciprocated when the occasion arises.
Josephine
Roche, "The Italian Girl," in Ruth S. True, The
Neglected Girl, vol. 2 (New York, 1914), 107.
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