Of course money and assistance was generally sent to those left back home, but things were not always easy even with such help, as the following story indicates : "I was five years old when my mother died and my father left for America. I was left in the care of strangers, whom my father agreed to pay for my support. At first life went on so-so, even though I was treated harshly. When my father finally sent tickets for me to join him in America, my greedy custodian burned them so he would continue to be paid for keeping me. Not until my father sent a new set of tickets, by way of a neighbor this time, was I able to get

to America." 68

Sometimes a husband might even take off for America, without saying a word to his wife. She could wait for a long time without word from him, perhaps until a man from the farm next to theirs might have come back home to Finland for a visit and said, "Oh yes, to be sure, Charlie was living in Duluth, somewhere along Rat Avenue." At that point the wife might have packed her trunk and set out after her Charlie. And if she found him there, and if he had not taken up with another woman, well, the reconciliation would have followed promptly enough.

The fact that the majority of the immigrants were at their prime as workers and that there were so many of them to leave caused considerable anxiety in Finland. 69 Direct propaganda to counter emigration appeared in the writings of leading Finnish authors, and even the authorities conducted investigations, which also focused their attention on the status of those who did emigrate. To understand the various social classifications into which they belonged, it is best to first consider from what parts of Finland they came, and whether they were from town or country.

It has previously been mentioned that statistics were first made available from the province of Vaasa, and indeed Vaasa also led the rest of the provinces in the number of emigrants, with

67. Päivälehti, May 23, 1914.

68. Interview with Juho Jaakko Hepokoski. Archives of Minnesota Finnish-American Historical Society.

69. Uusi Kotimaa, July 17, 1902.

62