The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-10-24
Uncle SANS BIG SIEVE.
-ov IT SITS OUT UNDESIRABLE
IMMIGRANTS.

MISSION
4 Copyright 1887
xrw YORK, Oct. 19.-"The United States
-.,.rnment declines to receive you as
ss,en even in intent"
What must l do"
Raturn to your native land. You can
- rarlain on these shores"
This conversation occurs, on an average,
,rice a day, at the big stone portals Of
r...ls Garden. It is rendered into every
,.,ruare under the sun aud differs in
..o1ua almost as often as uttered. 1t is al
avs addressed to an undesirable immi-
.,.nt The immigrants who are not per-
gitted to land would, in a year. make a
GOOD sized regiment.
"Tbrough that gateway has passed more
.bsn oue-tenth of the population of the
United States" said an official yesterday.
&C bs pointed to the low, not very broad
.rcbed door leading from the docks to the
inside of the sombre old barracks that once
schoed with the throbbing strains of the
Swedish nightingale Jenny Lind. The
ryatawav is an old sallyport of the fort and
ssfords the only means of access from the
5atar 10 the garden. On the docks just
without the walls the immigrants are
landed. and every newcomer who has
stopped for the first time on American soil
at New York has passed through that low,
broad gateway. Over q, DOC, 600 souls have
emerged from under its arrow arch to the
lioht of freedom; or, as the official said,
more than one tenth Of the entire popula-
ton of the United States. They are now
scattered from Maine to California, from
Florida to Washington Territory.
OF the vast number who have stood out
s;de this gate. there has been thousands who
left homes of abject poverty and even vice,
and who, seeing the shores of liberty for
the first time, felt better impulses and new
strength, but who were downcast and
utterly disheartened by being refused ad-
4 mission in the solemn words quoted above.
1t has been sad and bitter-hearted pro-
cession that has tramped disconsolately for
years out of Castle Garden, back through
the gate by which it entered. They we're
the immigrants who could not stay.
Unless the good were separated from the
bad, comparison would be impossible and
virtue indistinguishable from vice. All the
emigrants go through big sieve established
4 by law, and the same law orders that tue
sieve shall be called the immigration CON-
mission. There are just seven holes in this
sieve and they are all different in shape.
lucy AoSPOC1iNOiJ1 1lCoiOOAD Hluk0-
way Of the commission, and Messrs. Wyland,
Stephenson, Stage Hauselt, Rourke, and
Uhlrich, mer nbers. 1t is for these gentle
men to decide whether the immigrant may
turn his face westward toward the land of
plenty, or turn his head and sadly retrace
his steps out through the big gateway and
on board the steamer that will land him
again on the shores he quilted for Americas
soil, where rest was denied him. The ma
lority of the immigrants bring some prinld
.fdcie proof of their Independence and are
readily passed by the represe ntatlves of the
commission; but. whenever there is doubt,
the Immigrant is held to appear before the
commission for their decision as to his
Gtness for American citizenship.
There are three classes of undesirable
immigrants for whom the sieve naturally
holds many terrors, and it is for these that
the commissioners are mainly on the alert.
France and Italy, and even industrious and
frugal Switzerland, have not hesitated at
different times within a few years to per-
nit the shipment to these shores of known
criminals IN the guise of desirable immi-
grants On one occasion it was shown that
jail delivery in Switzerland had been
effected evidently for the purpose of getting
rid of the occupants by transferring them
to this side of the Atlantic. Poor Ignorant
Italians, penniless and contract-bound to
native employers, contract laborers from
Scotland, England and Belgium, paupers
from the almshouses of many districts in
Ireland, and Migrants from the London
Sums, of whom the English police were glad
to have radiance, were assisted" here. in
order that they might begin life anew as
good American citizens. Besides all these,
there was the great helpless army of the
unskllled, whose fingers have never been
trained to labor and whose inclinatiops
were the reverse of Industrious, constantly
drifting to this country uuhindered and
helping to swell the ranks of the criminals
IN our large cities.
This is where the sieve comes in. The
emlgrant makes affidavit to his name, age.
nativity, destination, friends, if any here,
money, baggage trade or whatsoever proof
ne may be able to bring to demonstrate
mat he is neither, a criminal or a lunatic.
nor yet likely to become public charge
on the country in which he may find him
self when his immediate financial resources
nave been exhausted. Then he is put into
Ine sieve. LII he gets through one or the
oVher OF the holes-all right; but if he can
pass through none, why, then, he must
return home. AS has been said, each hole
Inherently shaped and the differences are
aue TO the individuality of the gentlemen
forming the commission. Politics aside,
tne dlferences are quite remarkable.
There was large batch of doubtful immi-
grants to be decided upon few days ago,
ana attended to see how many got through
t me sieve. To fit the hole, it was necessary
tnat tne immigrant then in the sieve should
eorlHe The pet theme of the commissioner
Iepresentlng that particular hole. Tue
neat, methodical secretary of the commits
SION, who has seen thousands Of immigrants
son1 back and who has served through
many changes in the sieve, called out an
uHpronounceable Austrian name. For an
eNer, there came into the room a sturdy
man, small, broad-browed, bright-eyed
E Ttoman, his wife, and two little children.
me man was glazier.
.,, nave you the implements of your trades"
Interpreter.
Some of them" was the reply. That
1IeSled 1t. The man had struck the hole
labeled Rourke and it remained to See if he
V * get through. Any immigrant who has
trade, is healthy and in addition BRINGS
- 10 Tools with him, has friend in Com
missioner Rourke. That gentlemen is a big
t ISoa'eed lrishman who has not forgotten
sne days when his own trade and tools
s sooou between him and suffering. The
1eellng has enlarged with time and pros
p.SoEHy, and now Mr.. Rourke will vote for
sre admission Of any immigrant who has
''er owned kit Of tools.
r. suppose you can't find any works" asked
Mhlssioner Stephenson.
III. Ut Stephenson is the pessimistic patri-
e,, Ill OF the commission and opposed to
t.erythlng. He is a kicker. He seems to
tbsr 70 keep immigrants out or discourage