Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1886-06-05

What the Immigrants bring with Them
Their Characteristic Luggage.
FAsau wxv1r uorsd I


New York Wor,dl
The annual ciearing-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 and which are stored
by themselves until the time comes for
their removal to Wards island. There
the baggage is opened, and whatever
Is of value is preserved, while the
rest is destroyed in q large bonfire.
The collection embraces all conceivable
kinds of boxes, bundles and bags. 1t
would be hard to imagine any con-
trivance for packing that is not made
use of by these immigrants. The COM
mon pine box with iron hooks is tho
most general in use. 1t is sometimes
ornamented with an iron hinge, and oc-
casionaIly with a thin coat of paint.
Next to the pine box the typical emi-
grant bag is most common. 1t is usu-
ally made out of patched bed-sheet
gathered together at the four corners
and secured by rope. This fashion of
tying up everything with ropes is uni
versal, and the size of the rope is gen.
orally out of all proportion to the size of
the box. 1t Is not uncommon to SEQ a
bundle two feet square bound with an
inch rope, and small trunks are fire.
quentiy wound over and under in all
directions by fifty or sixty feet of rope
large enough for a ships hawser.
After gazing about at the apparent
confusion of baggage, the other day, a
reporter sought out Mr.. Grant, who has
charge of this department, and inter
viewed him on the subject. "rhis isn't
a circumstance to what we have here in
the busy season, replied Mr.. Grant. 1T
is generally piled up to the roof so full
that we can hardly get about. The busy
season is during April and May, when
the emigrants get little money ahead
and start for western farms. Then we
have all We can attend to night and
day."
1--WE have a regular system which
makes what seems confused heap
really an orderly collection. When a
steamer arrives we number every parcel
and store it according to the nationality
of the owner-of course keeping record
of what steamer it came on. And in
this way it is an easy matter to hunt up
| the baggage when called for"
''But can you tell the nationality of
the owner, by his nameW
mo, indeed; very little Of it has any
name or mark of any kind to 60 by.
But can tell you what country every
piece of baggage 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 tel
even what part of country mar
comes from by his baggage in lots oil
cases. That pile to the left there is q
| French baggage. The French emigrants
have two kinds of trunks, the long, low
| and very broad ones and the tall, mar.
row kind, and l never saw one that
wasn't painted black. On the whole
they are rather neat about their bag
gage. The next pile is English. The
English are the only ones that use tir
trunks, which look well at first, but
give us lots of trouble by breaking open
They sell great many of them on The
| Wharves in Queenstown.
''To what nation do those boxes anC
chests belong2 They seem to he nearly
all marked, observed the reporter, al
he seated himself on substantial look
ing oak chest and jotted down the vari
GUS ways the owners of several boxes
had contrived to spell New York"
eyes, they are German, and as We
receive more Germans at Castle garder
than the people of any other national
ity, large part of our store-room il
! filled with their baggage, and a Ger
man, by the way, always brings a mas
of stuff with him, and it is abominabl,
heavy. But they put it up well, ant
are always careful to mark it.
Jewish emigrants are very filthy
and never bring anything but clotl
bundles. They have habit Of spread
ing out piece of strong cloth or can
vas, and throwing what they own in ;
heterogeneous mass into the center, ant
1 gathering the cloth together and wind
ing the whole over and over with rop
until it resembles big and dirty musk
melon. Then they jump up and dowr
on it furiously to flatten it, run stick
through the rope and swing it on ther
backs"