Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1874-11-21

aole ana perllous position there.
But new troubles were in store for
him. When he arrived at st. John he
found that the relief vessel from the
States had arrived before she was ex-
pected, and that his wife had taken
passage in her. She had left a letter
behind for him, explaining that she
had deemed it best to pursue this
course rather than lose the only oppor-
tunity that promised of getting away
from place so odious, and where she
had no friends that she could not be
certain of the success OF his enterprise
to Halifax; that she had written to
him at Halifax, and to their common
port Of destination in the States, to the
same effect and that she would await
his arrival at the last-named place al
the house of the friends with whom she
was travelling.
AS it subsequently, turned out, it
seems that this inexperienced young
creature had made two very important
mistakes. In the first place, the relief
vessel did not go to the port to which
the wrecked vessel was bound in the
second place, her friends did not live
at the last-named place, but somewhere
else, supposed to be out West. So that
when, after many detentions, our
heart-broken Frenchman found his
way to the port of destination, he
could discover no trace of his wife.
Among the requirements of the State
laws upon immigration is one that de-
mands of each alien passenger his
name, vocation, place of destination,
! etc. After some weeks of knocking
about at the seaport, our Frenchman
heard of this requirement of the laws,
and commenced to search the records
of the State Bureau of immigration, in
the hope of finding his wife's name and
place of destination. Although he ex-
pended good deal of time and money
in this search, the archives were 80
fragmentary and disordered that
nothing came of it ; neither did he OBJ
tain any intelligence through the post
Office.
Ten years passed away. About this
time Federal Bureau of Immigration
(now abolished) was established in the
State Department. 1 have, in a
previous paper, explained how the
functions of this bureau came to be
turned over to the Bureau of Statistics.
Well, one day, some two years later,
card, bearing a well-known French
Huguenot name, was brought into my
Office. The bearer of the card was in
troduced. He was q young man, of
medium stature, of an intellectual APP
| pearance, and bore the traces of long
suffering. His object in visiting me
was to solicit permission to examine
the lists of immigrant passengers which
he understood were filed in my bureau.
I explained to him that, although the
statistical returns of immigration were
compiled and collated in my Office, the
lists of passengers, if there were any
such lists, were required by law to be
deposited in the State Department.
Upon this he apologized for his in
trusion, and withdrew.
About two hours afterward he came
again-this time with look of the
deepest detection, almost in tears.
"Oh, SIR" said he, for the love of
God, help me to find my wife p and he
related to me the story have just told.
1t seems that he had gone to the State
Department, and, being accorded per-
mission to search the archives, had
found them in such utter confusion
letters, newspapers, returns, copies,
books, maps, all higgledy- -piggledy,
without dates, order or arrangement
as to render it physical impossibility
to search them. Presuming on the in
terest which he thought his previous
brief visit had awakened in me, he had
come to ask my advice what to do.
[ told him that, with regard to the
archives of the State Department, it
did not concern him, in respect OF the
matter in hand, what condition they
were in that his story placed the ar
rival of his wife in this country twelve
years back, and that the Federal Bureau
Of Immigration had not been estab-
lished over two years. It could not,
therefore, possess any list Of passengers
upon which his wife's name as an i'm
migrant was recorded. I advised him
to advertise in the personal columns of
the leading seaport and interior news
papers. He listened with what fan
cied was an air of incredulity to my ex-
planation about the State Department
archives, evidently believing still that
they must have his wife's name and
destination on record there, and thanked
me for my advice, which L saw very
plainly was not to his liking. A few
weeks afterward I read in the papers
that he had committed suicide by
shooting himself through the. heart
| with q 6uo1inp r1iatnJ Soma limos r5nra
found in's in bis s pocket, addressed sss T'to to
"Julia."
1t is true that this Story turns not
upon the bad condition of the Federal
(but of the SSate) archives, nevertheless
it incidentally even refers to the former,
and shows that the archives of the Fed
eral, State and Foreign Departments
are, or at least we're then, in as con-
fused state as those of the Treasury
"A. DeInar.