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This article neatly sums up the ambivalence many felt about Polish emigrants in the towns of Franklin County, Massachusetts. On the one hand it describes them as "industrious and thrifty," but on the other it characterizes them as hard-partying and hard-fighting. This article principally comments on the increasing number of Polish-born immigrants to the county. In 1890 only 90 persons listed in the county were born in Poland; by the 1900 census there were 724. By 1920, more than 2,000 Polish-born lived in Franklin County out of a total population of 49,361. For many native-born and other European immigrants, Poles were seen as being very foreign, perhaps because of their language's Slavic roots.