Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-10-17
Aaisfellarrf0ns
WHO CONE ACROSS THE BIG POND IN THE
STEERAGE.

Some eaeer Feepie
WHO CONE ACROSS THE BIG POND IN THE
STEERAGE.
To the casual on-looker the distinctive
feature of ship-load of immigrants at
Castle Garden is the striking color OF the
newcomers dress. The women fairly re-
vel in sky-blue shawls tied about their
head and Magenta gowns or dresses OF
deep and insistent yellow. The men are
quite as pronounced in the color OF their
garments, and he is poor immigrant in
deed who does not blossom out in brilll-
ant indigo shirt or pair OF greenish
trousers. Not styles of head-covering
are alike and the contrast is as picturesque
as the boldest French painter ever ven
tured to put into Boston coast-6shing
scene. Even the babies dresses, and
there is always a large proportion of
babies, are as bright as their mothers
costumes and quite as un-American.
tits this constant commingling of chang
ing colors that makes the kaleidoscope
picture at Castle Garden different from
any other in America. That and the
forms of the women. Nowhere else can
one see such triangular or pyramidal wo-
men. Not one of them has the slightest
trace of waist. They seem built up
from the ground in the shape of an
Egyptian pyramid. The broad skirts
touching the floor form the base. and lead
up bv unbroken straight lines to the apex
of the pyramid-the head.
After the ship has landed her cabin pas
sengers at the dock. the crowded Storage
people plunge down the gang-plank into
the garden. The first step into the prom
Used land, their Eldorado. is not wholly
reassuring. They thought America free
country, but find themselves prisoners in
the garden, cut of from everybody by
long list of rules and regulations printed
in every language that any body ever cared
to learn. Watchful attendants are at their
side to tell them what to do and with the
neutrality-suspicious. characteristic ofim-
migrants, they sit down to wait for fortune
and the boat. They learn to work very
early, and the little girl of 10 or II years
employs the idle time in knitting warm
stockings that will do good service in the
cold northwest farm lands whittier they
are bound.
THE CHILDREN.
Sifted in everywhere. as thick as
stars in the milky way, are the
children. They seem to burst into BIOS
som in Castle Garden as naturally as the
leaves crowd the trees outside in Battery
Park. They, only, of all the ships COM
pany, do not care fig for the new sur
roundings The new country has the same
sunshine that they knew at home, and
there is the same freedom for play that
they liked there. Every grown person
seems to have more children than bag
gage. The usual rule is. the greater the
one the less of the other. You can see
motherly looking widowers leading and
carrying long strings of children, and
tired mothers worrying over sick babies.
Back of these, ii you stand on tiptoe and
look over their heads, you can see little
group OF two boys and girl clutching
each other tightly in hand. About their
necks or sewed to their clothing is tag.
1t is written in low German and begs Of
the good American to forward the little
tots to their uncle who lives somewhere
in Dakota or Manitoba. They have come
all the way from Germany alone. Just a
month ago two children. one from Ireland
and the other from Holland. exchanged
their tags with childish playfulness. and it
took reams of explanations to make the
relatives believe that they had the right
children.
These little emigrants are as rule, too
young to realize their changed lots in life.
and gambol on unconcernedlv amid their
strange surroundings, or sit with look of
supreme patience on their stolid faces
munching huge slices of coarse rye bread
and I ip,burrar Chooua 20 thov oot
any and every thing, and no fear of chOl-
era infantum disturbs theil parents on
| their account.
| FIRST MEAL ASHORE.
One consolation the emigrant has at the
Garden that is dear to him. He can buy
| food in his own language and eat it the
same way if he wants to. There is bread
counter where the prices are posted up in
different languages and where the pur-
chaser is offered the choice of Schwartz
brod Pumpernickel, Wurst." and all the
similar articles of food he has been accus-
toned to across the water
If the countenance is any indication,
there is greater satisfaction in supper
made up of things with familiar nam es
than ordinary people miss. The old man
untleS ms noaTueu pennies from the cor
ner of his handkerchief where he keeps
them. school girl fashion, and invests in a
loaf of Pumpernickel. The old lady buys
a mug of beer and the two seat themselves
side by side on an old box that contains
their entire property and make the first
meal in the new country. 1t is not much,
but they enjoy it, and he rolls over and
goes to sleep on the floor as naturally as
if he had camped out here for years.
Pets they bring, too of all kinds and in
all conditions of sea sickness. One of the
worst specimens seen lately was green
parrot in cage 1t belonged to boy of
10 and was the only friend he had in this
country. The parrot was Enthusiastically
i'll and moaned its fate in a tongue that
nobody but the bov knew. The lad clung