A rather formidable strike has disturbed the equanimity of New
York. Italian labourers now do most of the rough labour of the city, and a thousand of them have recently been employed to construct a reservoir dam a few miles distant. They are paid a dollar a day, but as much of this money is stopped by the " padrones " who import them, and as expenses, especially rent, are very high, they struck on Monday for better terms. Their employers refused an advance, and proceeded to hire rival workmen, whereupon the Italians retreated to a neighbouring hill, promised to shoot any" blacklegs" at sight, and threatened if they were coerced to blow up the dam of the great Croton reservoir, which supplies New York with water. Three regiments were at once called out by the Governor, Mr. Roosevelt, a very determined man of Dutch descent, and they, by the last accounts, were patrolling the works, and protecting two hundred non-Union labourers. The Italians have " sniped " a, sergeant who was inspecting a picket, but they either hesitate to face the troops, or they are waiting for a "frontal attack," which the shrewd New Yorkers will probably not make. The incident is important, as we have shown else- where, for there must be more than three hundred thousand Italian and " Hungarian " labourers in New York, whose lot as described in the reports of philanthropic societies is most deplorable.
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