Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1880-05-22
Among the Immigrants at Castle Gar

The arrivals at Castle Garden have
averaged more than go per day thus
far this year, and that is enough to
make lively times for everybody about
the Garden. The bedlam of the Stock
Exchange is hardly more noisy and con
fusing to the casual visitor than is the
scene presented by the immigrants daily
in this place, which is to them the por-
tai of the New World. AS they arrive
they are all brought here direct, by
barge or steamboat, from the vessels in
which they reach this port, and from
here they start anew for inland destina-
tions. They may eat, drink, change
money, telegraph to distant friends, re-
celve any letters or messages that may
have been sent to meet them, gain relia-
bic information about different sections
of the country, meet friends, get through
the inevitable wrestle with the Custom
House officials as conveniently as pos
slble, be treated if they are sick, re-
ceive financial aid if their worth and ne
cessity are demonstrated, rest and re-
cuperate from the fatigues of the ocean
passage these and much more with
out stepping outside the confines of the
Garden.
Looking down from Secretary jack
son. S windows upon the great central
rotunda, the throng is tIickest about
the central railed-in stalls, where the
money-changers, ticket sellers and reg
istrars are. Here and there, kept in
single file by ratings that only allow
them to reach the desks one by one,
they move patiently and slowly. At
another point near by, they crowd ex-
citedly about a man who, stendirg on Il
bench, yells at the top OF his voice
cn,.inS Of Il,
those who for whom letters are held or
friends are i'll waiting outside, and his
communications seem to awaken the
liveliest interest in all, even those who
are furthest from any reasonable expec-
tation of seeing anybody they know or
receiving anything from anywhere. At
another point they appear to have ex-
temporized a mass meeting about an
employee of the Garden, who is MAX
ing stump speech to them in their
own language. They are Scandina-
vians going to Minnesota, and he is
telling them all about how they will
travel, how long they will be on the
road, where they will stop en- route,
how to get land, at what points best in
ducements for employment are offered,
warning them against the tricks and
wiles of sharpers. advising them in re-
gard to a multiplicity of details in the
| new conditions of life upon which they
are entering, and patiently answering
from his comprehensive store of practi-
cal knowledge the questions they have
to ask him. Not far from him another
man is rendering similar service in Ger
man to another body of immigrants.
Almost every language is spoken by
some one of the many employees in
this department., SO that the stran ger.
no matter whence he may come, need
never lack for full information. on his
arrival here, concerning all matter per
! tanning to his temporal interests. His
spiritual interests also are measurably
well cared for, not by Garden employees,
however, but by colporteurs and tract
| distributors sent here by Home Mission
and other religious societies. When
| the Commissioners of Emigration are
satisfied that the avowed colporteur has
no secret intention to attract custom
| for unlicensed and undesirable board
ing houses, or to vend bogus tick
cts, or peddle worthless articles, OF do
any other Objectionable thing, they
have no objection to allowing him priv
| ileges on the floor. So, at almost any
hour of the day, but most frequently in
the forenoon these men may be seen
worming their way to an fro through
the throng of immigrants, bearing arm
fuls of tracts and Testaments that they
distribute to all desirous of receiving 9
| them. About the desk at which tick
cts purchased ON the other side are in
spected-to see that they are all right,
and that no fraud has been practiced
upon the emigrant in his own country
respecting them-there is a constant
throng, but SO expert and prompt are
the officers having charge of this ser
vice that the inspection is very rapid.
1t is rare now to find fraudulent tickets
or to learn of excessive charges for
! genuine ones; not that the agents in
the Old World have grown more hon
est, but that the energy with which
they have been pursued and punished d
for petty rascalities has made fraud in
advisable.
1t is estimated that each emigrant
sent for by friends or relatives here is
the cause of five arriving. The starting
of the one hastens the movements OF
those who had made up their minds to
come. yet have found excuses for delay
previously, and the example determines
the wavering. Hence it is that, in the
great majority of cases outside the
large movements of colonies, imlni-
grants come in groups Of from four tc
six adult members each. Such groups
implicitly follow the directions supplied
for the guidance of the one who has
been sent for, cling together, take coun
sci with one another on every possible
occasion, and for the time being, seen
to have the closest family bonds, and
this although there may be between
them no relationship whatever bu
merely acquaintance. This fact applies
not especially to any one nationality,
but to all.-N. Y. San.