Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1891-06-26
THE BARGE OFFICE EYE,
Alert FOR Immigrants who Are Lam
Blind, Chronicaliy Diseased nr Eoot,s,,

Alert for Immigrants who Are Lame
Blind, Chronically Diseased, or Foolish.
Few immigrants whose mental or phy
steal condition prohibits them from
landing go through the portals of the
barge Office without being found out.
Inc system OF inspection which ends
there begins at the port from which the
immigrant sails. Just after boarding
the steamship he is examined In cur.
sorry way by the ships surgeon or an
assistant. AS the steamship compan.
les pay for the support of every de-
barred Immigrant pending decision In
ms case, and are compelled to take him
back free of charge, it is to their inter-
est 10 have none but steerage passen-
gers who are mentally and physically
sound. by taking first or second cabin
passage an immigrant may evade the
final rigid inspection at the barge Of
nee, and get into Uncle Sans dominions
merel y to become charge in the future
This is possible because cabin passen-
gers, even though they may intend to
settle in the United States, are not sub
1ected to any examination, save one of
the most perfunctory sort, either before
or after landing at the piers of the steam
ship companies.
Since the general government as
sumed charge of the landing of immi-
grants, no cases of contagious disease
nave been discovered by barge office
physicians. Health Officer William M.
Smith generally manages to find out at
quarantine, where he or his assistant
boards every incoming vessel from a
foreign port, whether or not there is
cohtagion on her. If the disease is not
virulent one, like smallpox, yellow
fever or cholera, DR.. Smith sends a
cypher despatch to DR.. r. M. Guiteras,
chief OF the barge Office staff, telling
him how many patients he may expect,
the nature of their disease, and what
ship they arrived on. The ships physi-
cian frequently discovers the disease on
the voyage and has the patients isolated
IN the ships hospital. If they are chill
dren, with measles, scarlet fever or
dlphtheria, they are transferred from
the ship to the immigrant barge, where
they are kept in closed room apart
from the other immigrants After all
the barges well passengers have been
landed the i'll ones are taken off and
put into the barge Office contagion ward.
They are there examined, and if the
diagnosis of DR.. Smith is confirmed the
patients are sent to the reception hos
pltal at the foot of East Sixteenth street,
where the health department takes
charge of them. Smallpox patients
are sent directly from Quarantine to
North Brother Island.
1t is not primarily the business of Dr.
Guiteras, Dir. A. D. Newborn, and Stew
ard w. f. Mcdowell of the Marine
hospital, who constitute the barge Of
hce staff, to detect contagious diseases.
They might confidently leave that to
the veterans at quarantine. Their chief
duty is to see that the halt the lame
and the blind" and those who are i'd
lotic or mentally unsound do not get in
to the country. Foreign municipalities |
overburdened with paupers have habit
OF shifting the responsibility for their
support on Uncle Sam. They are cum
ming enough to send only those whose
lncapacity can not be easily detected.
IL Is to lind these that Dr. Guiteras and
his assistants go out on the Stone pier
nearly every day In the year and watch
the immigrants as they de- he
gang plank from the immigrant barges.
only few of those who are detained
Tor more thorough examination than is
possible at the foot of the gang plank,
down which the home-seekers come in
swift procession, are finally excluded.
Decrepit men or women, whose labored
gait generally gives them away, are al
ways detained until they or their rela-
tlves give assurance in the substantial
form OF $500 bonds that they will not
become charge on the government.
An Immigrant with glass eye is inva-
rlably held-not to pay duty on his eve,
put TO allow the doctors to make care
ful examination of his real eye to see If
1t is likely to last. Several Immigrants
with glass eyes have been sent bacl,
since the federal government took
charge of immigration at this port be-
cause the sight of their remaining ewes
was so poor that their ability to support
themselves was a question of only a !
lew months An immigrant with that
form of disease called locomotor otorv
the symptoms of which resemble paral-
ysls OF the lower limbs, is usually dis
covered by his shuffling gait. The deaf
Ina dumb are not detected at the gang
plank. They are found out by the req
stry clerks, who always ask questions |
'equiring verbal responses. c
Alter running the gauntlet of nrac- I
',ced eyes at the foot of the gang plank I
.he procession of Immigrants passes nm.
Ter the inspection of DR.. A. D. Newborn S
Is 1t fles past the registry clerks on the |
second floor of the building. DIR. New t
corn mas The observant eye of an artist
% assist him in singing out those who r
ire mentally unsound. He not unfre. u
luently takes pencil sketches of those
Nhom he detains. His point of obser- h
'ation is sometimes a chair placed op e
op OF table in the fenced enclosure b
where detained persons are cross-oues. a
Toned by the barge Office officials p
mere are two narrow passage ways on S
lther side of this enclosure, and n
l'rough these the immigrants march In II
ingle file into the land of opportunitv "
II 70 the pen for the prohibited back of I
nd to the west of the enclosure. II
appens sometimes that deaf and Il
umb Immigrant with trade convinces
is examiners that he is just as able to S.
axe care of himself as any of his fell W
NV voyagers, and he is permitted to 81
md. 1t is not difficult to detect imbe- Y,
lies or idiots, but the sharpest observa- m
on is necessary to discover deranged 81
ersons who show no palpable physical cl
7mptoms of their malady. and who an al