The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1891-11-01
HEADS OF THE IMMIGRANTS.
SKETCHES FROM LIFE NJ A BARGE
oFFfCE PHYSICIAM

$50"
PsetsrssSus>HssA 9ear nrssa An ouarSsrs-
N usss Asifsr Az The Batesry. but lG.st
Thea Give Way 70 the tDowery Dessy
aaA the Millinery % uivision Street.
There 10 usually nothing particularly strik.
ing about the dress OF cabin passengers oil
foreign nationality who land from ocean-cfoss.
ing steamers at this port. They are generally
cosmopolites, and the attire OF one civilized
person Of wealth and fashion IL pretty nearly
the same as that OF another. We must look In
the steerage for national characteristics in
dress, manner, and speech. Some Of the peas
ant immigrants bring with them the simple
and sometimes resplendent- and sug-
eestion OF the local color and atmosphere Of
the far.away places In which they pass their
lives up to tho time the allurements Of Life in
tie western world tempt them hither. Afew
OF the plebeian, women Of Europe yet weave
their own head dress There are bonnets
and caps that indicate nationality Just as
surely as faces and dialects. But they
are not 80 numerous IS they used to be.
Civilization is the deadly foo OF picturesque
ness. In the New World the wide-brintmed
donal citizen under IL are vanishing. with the
bison he helps to exterminste. before the West
ward march Of the Derby and the, billed I"
shirt. In the Old World the cheap slopshop
clothes, made in stuffy rooms Of tenements
and factories. have driven out tho odd and
ofte attractive attire Of a past not too remote
to be beyond the memory Of men who have
reached forty. The clatter OF the sabot fire.
ouently heard on the floors Of old Castle Gar
den less than twenty-five years ago. creates
surprise and remark when heard nowadays.
The dress Of most of the immigrants Is not
very different from that Of poor folksin nearly
all civilized lands But there arc exceptions
to the rule. and that 10 what makes the Barge
Office interesting. not only to tho CASUAL visitor
from wayback. but also to the men who 60
there almost every day when home seekers
from fleet Of big ships swarm through the
gates Dr. Newborn. the assistantto DR.. Toner.
chief Of the Barge ONCE medical stan. probs-
bly, pays more attention to the quaint, pecu-
liar. and pretty things that the immigrants
wear than any one else in the granite building.
That is because he 10 an artist as wen a. .
physician. sketching heads and their adorn-
ments is the Doctors forte and those that en-
bellish this article are from his faoile pencil
The Doctor often wonders what's going on In
the multitude OF heads as he transfers tho
images Of the most striking ones to his sketch
book. Doubtless many are filed with dreams
OF quickly acquired wealth and many with
merely sense ofbewil derment, Like the heads
of countrymen who alieht for the first time
from train in the depot OF q great city.
OF all the immigrants that pass before the
Doctors eyes the Italians probably are
the most interesting from the standpoint
of an a:tist. This is especially true OF the
women. They. have tho, barbario love for
are almost prismatic enough to be taken
BY an imaginative person for ,incarnated
have the italian woman as she occasionally
appears among the dusky. gestfculating. chat
tering throng OF her countrymon and women.
and as she usually is seen.