, 1885-08-22
aseeAeg Al oAsrLs eAapgN.
What the Immigrants Bring with Them
THOR characteristics Luggage.

THOR Characteri<tio Luggage.
New York World
The annual clearing-out of baggage
collected during the year at Castle Car
den is made at this time. There are
always several hundred pieces which re-
main unclaimed aud which arc stored
by themselves until the time comes for
their removal to Ward S island. There
the baggage is opened, and whatever
is Of value is preserved, while the
rest is destroyed in n large bonfire.
The collection embraces all conceivable
kinds of boxes. bundles and bags. 1t
would be hard to imagine any ION
triyance for packing that is not made
use OF by these immigrants. The com
mon pine box with iron hooks is the
most general in use. IL u sometimes
ornamented with an iron hinge, and oc-
c%a,ionally with n thin coat Of paint.
Aext to the pine box the typical emf
grant bag is most common Ii is usu-
all made out OF a patched bed.sheet
gathered together Mt the four corners
and secured by n rope. This fashion of
tying up everything with ropes is uni
yersal, and the size of the rope is gen
orally GU of all proportion to the size of
the OK. IL is not uncommon TO see q
bundle two feet square bound with an
inch rope, and small trunks are fire.
guently wound over and under in all
directions by fifty Or sixty feet of rope
large enough for n ship hawser.
After gazing about at the apparent
confusion of baggage, the other day, a
reporter sought out AIR. Grant, who has
charge of this department, and inter
viewed him on the sub ect. This isn't
n circumstance to what we have here in
the busy season, - replied alr. Grant. 1t
is generally piled up TO the roof so full
that wecan hardly get about. Tho busy
season is during April and May, when
the emigrants get IA little money ahead
and start for western farms. Then we
have all we can attend to night and
day.
We have a regular system which
make what seems a confused heap
really an orderly collection. IS hen n
steamer arrives we number every parcel
and store it according to the nationality
of the owner-of course keeping a record
OF what steamer it came on. And in
this way it is an easy matter to hunt up
tho baggage when called for.
But can you tell the nationality o.
the owner, ty his name
"No, indeed; very little Of it has any
name or mark Of any kind TO go by.
But | can tell you what country every
piece of luggage in this building came
from the moment ! lay eyes on it. The
people Of every nation have their own
peculiar way of doing up packages. We
never make a mistake. We can tell
even what part Of n country n man
comes from by his baggage in lots Of
cases. That pile to the left there is a
French baggage. The French emigrants
have W. kinds of trunks, the long, low
and very broad ones and the tall, mar
row kind. and | never saw one that
wasn't painted black. On the whole
they are rather neat about their bag
gage. The next pile is Lnglish. The
English are the only ones that use tin
trunks, which look well at first, but
give us lots Of trouble by breaking open.
They sell a great many Of them on the
wharves in Queenstown.
To what nation do those boxes and
chests belongl They seem to he nearly
all marked, observed the reporter, as
he seated himself on a substantial-look
ing oak chest and Gifted down the vari-
Gus ways the owners of several boxes
had contriyed to spell New York"
"l es, they are German, and as we
receive more Germans at Castle garden
than the people of any other national
ity, a large part of our store room is
filed with their baggage, and a Ger
man by the way, always brings n mass
of stuff with him, and it is abominably
heavy. But they put it up well, and
are always careful TO mark it.
Jewish emigrants are very filthy,
and never bring anything but cloth
bundles. They have q habit of spread
ing out a piece of strong cloth or a n
vas, and throwing what they own in a
Heterogeneous mass into the center, and
gathering the cloth together and wind
ing the whole over and over with a rope
until it resembles q big and dirty musk
melon. Then they jump up and down
on it f~uriously to tlatten it, run a stick
through the rope and swing it on their
backs.