The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-04-30
INVASION OF IRISH GIRLS,
SIX HUNDRED hRRITE BY STEAM
Err IN TWO DAYS.

Passages OF NIost Prepaid with Money from
This Country-They Arc Met ut Ellis Island
by Au,ericantscd Friends and Relatives
Destined Chieny Tor Household service.
There were 1,400 immigrants in tho throe
steamships which arrived on Wednesday and
yesterday. and Of these 915 were Irish and 600
Of the Irish were girls. Two hundred and fifty
of the latter were booked for this city. 1t is OK.
pectod that Irish immigrants will continue to
come in similarly largo numbers during the next
few weeks.
All day long groups of fresh-faced, almost
scarlet-cheeked girls stood about tho Barge
Office sidewalks yesterday saying farewclls to
each other and exchanging promises to writo.
Almost every girl carried a green.striped carpet
bag which dragged on tho ground. Somewhere
noar each group lowered q knot of two or threo
older women. or sometimes a young man or two.
somewhat Ill at ease. These were the people
to whose care the newly arrived immigrants
had been intrusted, or whom they had come TO
meet Moro than SO per cent. of the girls wero
"prepaids." or. in other words, their tickets had
been bought by friends in the United States and
sent to them.
The American friends went down TO Ellis
Island by the boat load. beginning with tho first
trip OF the ferry yesterday morning. When they
got up on the main floor where the immigrants
and their friends are brought together. neither
the newcomers nor those who wanted to well
come them were disposed to wait through the
usual formalities. The crowd on each side of
the railed-off compartments pressed 30 hard
that one rail went down in pieces, and the crowd
swept over It. For a minute or two it looked as
though there were going to be trouble. Ono
girl wearing a black sailor hat. with black hair
which fell forward on her forehead in FIVE or six
loose curls. and gray.blue eyes. opened her
cherry lips and gave q shrill whoop that was
heard through the building.
And then, realizing that she was a stranger in n
strange land and not at a fair in county Kerry,
on her little yellow trunk and cried and cried.
down dw0 INK x Snnib la d. " Tent over 70 s,l her, and md, laying
81 them carried, tried to console her. The more
they patted her shoulders and knelt before her
violently she sobbed. just then the strong
lunged man at the gate shouted:
Derwyer! A friend for Lizzie Derwyer."
The girl stood up and tossed her hair away
OF her trunk with another. She struggled and
she was seized by q pretty little efrl with red
Ikewise-eyeept that he didn't pass her over to
cheeks grew crimson. and ra0 the t crimson hRSes e spread asi
all over her face and neck. They went out with
yellow trunk between themnn.s and ndd1 th sT yoanR m sae
holding the black-haired girls waist tight with
his free arm.
That" said the Deputy Commissioner, "is
the way one girl came TO America"
Ihere were not many as pretty as she, though
there were few who were not pretty. The con-
trast between the rather roughly dressed new
corners, with their tawny hair hanging about
thelr shoulders, their faces burned red with the
sun, and wearing rough ungainly shoes, and the
neatly dressed Americanized girls who come TO
them was significant.
Patrick McCool, agent OF the Mission OF Our
OF the Rosary, was among them all day
giving advice and answering questions. All
those girls whose friends had not called for them |
were taken to the mission house to spend the
night. When their friends fail altogether OF APP |
for them. or where 1t becomes apparent
mat their friends are not Of the right sort, the
mission tries to place them in household service
among good people. Almost without exception
ooo who came yesterday expect to go into
training.