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Show fifty, Just as ignorant and just as ragged as the first lot, got in the following fol-lowing year, thofi who were already there were in a position to help them and they .did. They; were, to' fact, eagerto aid one another in thone days', for th'e harsh experiences' which they bad been 'thcough bore la upon their mind the firm conviction that all the rest of the world was arrayed against them and that they must stand or fall together.'. The process has gone on in this way ever since. Each year there have been many new arrivals, and each , year those who were already settled have extended a helping hand to the others. There has, accordingly, been a steady increase ' in the amount of workable land, a sound, broad development develop-ment in the family life toward a good American standard and a. remarkable growth in the town's " educational, re ligious and commercial facilities, until now the Woodbine of twelve years ago, with its three shanties and tract of undeveloped land, has been changed into a thriving Jewish community of 1,500 people, with factories, stores, schools and modern equipments unsurpassed un-surpassed by any other place in Cape May county, and with about half the original tract fit for cultivation. Through the Hirsch fund Woodbine immigrants were able to -get a home and land on terms which would have been impossible under ordinary circumstances. cir-cumstances. The trustees of the fund had houses and other buildings put up and then deeded them, together with some land, over to any colonists who wanted a home and could make .a cash payment of $100. The trustees took a mortgage on the property for the balance, and monthly payments of from $5 to $8 were required. They offer practically tie same terms to the colonists still but are, of course, a little more particular about the details than they were then. Most of the houses are two-story frame structures, containing from five to ten rooms and furnished with many modern mod-ern improvements. The people of the place are divided into three . pretty accurately defined JNIQUE JEWISH TOWN r: ' WOODBINE, IN NEW JERSEY, HAS - STRANGE HISTORY. Founded Twelve Years Ago by Hebrew He-brew Refugees from Russia Is Now a Prosperous Settlement The Only Place Governed Entirely by Jews. Woodbine, a. colony of Russian Hebrews He-brews in the northern part of Cape May county, N. J.,-, was recently organized or-ganized by the New Jersey . legislature legisla-ture into a borough with a political identity of its own. Officers were elected, and it now enjoys the. distinction distinc-tion of being theonly place, in the wrld governed entirely by Jews. It Woodbine Synagogue, was formerly a part of the township of Dennis. The colony had its beginning twelve years ago when the Russian persecution perse-cution of the Jews was at its height and when Hebrews in France and England were doing all they could to get their people out of the Czar's empire. em-pire. It was founded through the generosity gen-erosity of Baron de Hirsch. He sent three men to Cape May county in the spring of 1891 to buy land and to establish there a refuge and a home for the sufferers who were being brought to this country by the boatload and dumped into New York's already overcrowded Ghetto. They got 5,300 acres, including all of Woodbine Wood-bine proper, which at that time consisted chiefly of three shanties, oc-. oc-. cupied by railroad employes. They bought all this land, but none of it had ever seen a plow and onlv a little was even half cleared. It was groups those who work in the factories, factor-ies, those who own or are employed on the farms and those who satisfy the mercantile wants of the community. commun-ity. The storekeepers are mostly early 1 settlers who got money enough by-, farming or working at odd jobs to start little places of business or equip pushcarts. They increased their stock gradually as their earnings allowed and now some have places of business so big -that they venture to call them by -such names' as "The Bargain Store of CapeiMay County "1 and "Cape May County' Department Store." . - .. Manyof the stores do a considerable croi .-'ue'ss, and none of them, iv is said, lost' much by it. Several of the merchants are said to be worth from $8,000 to $10,000. There are also h.otelkeepers, barbers, bar-bers, bricklayers, shoemakers, carpenters carpen-ters and other- artisans, besides professional pro-fessional men. . The factories employ considerably more than half the working population. popula-tion. More work in the clothing and knitting mills than anywhere else, and the rest are engaged chiefly in . machine ma-chine shops,, of- which there are three. ,-t. 5 It in, ,U -if A Farmer's House. . of white sandy loam, grown thick with scrub oak and stunted pine, swampy in spots and flat, with hardly a knoil to break the monotony of the stretch almost the last place one would choose for a home and certainly about the last place an American farmer would select. The three men built cabins and did what they could in the way of clearing bits of the property. A year later thirty immigrants came to the place. None of them had any money, none could speak much English and none knew anything about farming. They got aid from the De Hirsch fund, slept in stables, suffered many privations and worked hard. They learned something about clearing and plowing and planting from the men who had come before them, and they got a little knowledge of American business methods from contact with merchants In the neighboring places. For the most part, though, the neighbors neigh-bors weren't enthusiastic about helping help-ing them. They regarded the settlement settle-ment of ragged, ignorant immigrants near them more as an affliction than any "icg else. They expected to see their streets overrun with beggars and peddlers and their almhouse filled to overflowing. They had as little to do with tbem as possible, yet they couldn't help pitying the unfor.jnates who walked The School Building. through their streets, in the middle of the road, carrying their hats in their hand.-, as they had been compelled to 60 In Russia, and showing in the most 'humble manner consciousness of their iewn insignificance and abject position. I But, somehow, the first settlers got foothold, and when another batch of (' |