St. Paul daily globe., 1896-03-15
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Special Correspondence of the Globe.

ebbing and down through the Narrows
the waters of the uper bay are pouring.
The ocean is coming to it's own again.
Blocks of ice as big as the top of a
Harlem shanty are rolling awlkwardly
along, jostling each other and gouging
out each other sddes. A strong, sharp
cold wind is blowing off shore, chasing
the frozen blocks$faster and faster out
to sea, and making a nasty bluff in
the faces OF incoming shippers. A big
ocean liner is comingSup. The captain
OF the revenue cutterttells me she is an
Englishman. I don't ask him how he
can tell. Anyway, she has had hard
trip across, for as She comes nearer
and nearer we can see her guards
wrapped in ice, the smokestacks white
with the salt spray. the davits on the
port quarter broken and the boats
swept away, and sheets of ice in her
rigging.
Along the railssare3 hundreds of peo-
pie, some of whom are looking. for the
first time on the shores Of America.
These latter are the people whom am
after. 1t takes but a moment or two
when l run UP the ships side on the
ladder with the federal officers, those
whose duty is to prevent smuggling
and those who are to inspect the char
acter of the immigrants, the state off,
Ger who first boards the ship having
just given her clean bill of health.
1 leave the federal officers and go
alone among the immigrants. It's as
much as ones life is worth. The poor
things look as woebegone as starved
camel. The wind comes cold and
heartless, and the question comes up to
them whether, after all, they had not
better have stayed at home. They are
dirtier than a Welch miner, and they
are wearing the same clothes through
out that they have slept in for year
last past You find yourself pushed and
run into, and as you slip over the deck
you feel as if you were in the middle
of a herd of wild cattle whom word
may stampede Finally we get to the
dock, and there we are, bag and bag
gage, hustled into another boat, and
| presently, with a lost-to- world look
on every face, we steam over to Ellis
island, in the noise Of the tongues of
the world. You have recognized Ger
man, Italian, French, and you think
you know a Pole, Turk, Scandi-
navian when you see one. There are
others, but they don't mean anything
to you except you think you know they
are not Chinese or EsquimauX. And
these hundreds of your fellow creatures
want to become your fellow citizens,
Uncle Sans adopted children! Shades
Of Baxter streets!
When we get to Ellis island we are
hallooed to by some one who wears
cap with an eagle and gold band on
it, so we scramble out with bags and
bundles and fumigated stuff and held
in leash, as 1t were, we get led to the
enormous waiting room on the second
floor of the Ellis Island immigration
station building. Here l became inten-
ticnally separated from my father,
brothers and sisters, and under the
charge Of an inspector, watch such
things as prove interesting.
I learn that the new smell in the air
is due to the disinfectant with which
the floors are scrubbed. see that on
this immense floor space there are
many small divisions, one which con-
tains telegraph office for the use of
immigrants, a branch of the United
States postoffice, "a series of railroad
ticket offices; another is "a carefully
guarded cage in which are kept those
poor devils who have been unable to
pass the examination of the federal
officers. either through disease, power
ty, crime or violation of the contract
labor law. Looking out of one of the
windows facing north I see the sep
arate hospitals for men and women for
other than contagious diseases, which
are sent to Brothers island. further
down in the lower bay.
After a while the immigrants get di-
viCed into groups Of thirty or less, ae-
cording to the sheets Of paper on which
their histories are written by the mas
ters Of the ships which brought them
to America, and each group is placed
in compartment by itself. Each indi-
vi6ual is given card bearing his num-
Der on the sheet, and one by one each
is croSs-eXamined as to. the truth OF the
statements on the masters manifest.
Each is examined as to the money he
or she has, and if it seems from the
amount of money possessed that he or
she will likely become charge on
charity, back they go to the country
whence they came. and at the expense
of the steamship company which
brought them; then their moral char
acter is inquired into, and If it is as
certained that they are Sicilian toughs.
or otherwise dangerous to the welfare
of the community, back they go. And
if for instance, some unmarried woman
about to become a mother, though
with money in her pocket, is among
the newcomers, she is not allowed to
lard. And so with those who were hir-
ed abroad to come here to labor. They
were sorry looking lot saw held and
guarded waiting for the steamers to
carry them away from the promised
land whose streams OF Watered milk
and glucosed honey they fancied they
could see. However sorry felt for them.
was glad they We're not to be adopted,
for they were mostly moth-eaten, hy-
drophobic, germ-bearing degenerates,
half-witted or of promising talents in
the immoral class. Still 1T was hard
luck to get nipped so: near the close OF
the game. eI
Another large space was devoted to
those who were waiting for friends 10
come to sign bond and become surety
for their not becoming a charge on
the town they wished to settle in;
children waiting for their parents to
come and take thena,c or parents wait
ing for their children; or those hav-
ing no money to pay railroad fare
waiting for promised funds; young
woman waiting for her husband and
for whom ten alleged husbands had
already appeared.
Most of the newly arrived knew
where they wanted to go, and mad
railroad tickets to their destination or
money to buy them All of these with
in twenty-four hours We're placed on
barge under care of accredited
agents of the company chosen and
taken directly to it's station. This is
so delightfully."- different from the old
Castle Garden days when immigrants
having passed the ffimsy governmental
inspection were turned loose in the
Battery park, where shoai or ra-
pacious sharks were waiting for man,