The San Francisco call., 1898-12-23
Shed Crocodile Tears Over Immigrants.
IT FALSIFIED TO LAND THEM
THEN IT DUMPED THEM UPON
 THE SALVATION ARMY.
One of the Children Afflicted With Leprosy and the Others Sus- pected of Having the
 Dread Disease.

One of the gold bricks issued by the Ex
 aminer a year ago has returned to smite the yellow journal in the neck.
 The first chapter of the story was told at the time by The Call. Then the Ex-
 aminer shed a few crocodile tears, set It's
 brass band to playing, and having osten-
 sibly assumed charitable burden
 dumped the load upon the shoulders of
 the Salvation Army and never gave a
 cent for the free advertising that it gave
 itself.
 On the 1st of September of last year
 there arrived on the Hawaiian bark R.
 P. Rithet five children named Agnes, IA
 years old; Bertha, 13 years; Alfred,
 years; Ottilee, 6 years, and Carle 4 years.
 They were of the Hagsten family of Hon.
 olulu. The father was a worthless drunk
 ard, the mother fallen woman The mother had died shortly before that time,
 having lived for nine months upon the
 earnings of the shame of the 13-year-old daughter.
 United States Immigration Commission
 CT Stradley called a special board of in
 quiry, consisting of John Lynch, E. H.
 Hills, Arthur F. Rhodes, E. A. Holmes
 and w. A. Sprague, to pass upon the matter er, of the admission , of the children ported that the five half-orphans
 were liable to become public charge and recommended that they
 be deported to Honolulu; Before this step was taken Major Winchel of the
 Salvation Army put in an appearance and exhibited letters from persons in
 Honolulu to the effect that sum of money had been left to the children by the death of relative in Norway. The children had neither relatives nor friends in the United States.
 for free advertising in the matter and freaked the story after it had been scoop ed on it the day before by The Call. Tearfully it spoke. of the arrival of the well as false statements, said:
 ''The United States stood at the gang plank of the ship and said to atfves ahf hVe are 0rPhan in this ~ess countg % Toa @ shall not come here; the alien labor law shuts you out; there is no room here for five little orphans. If you. want to stay long enough to send word to your relatives or to have hearing at Wash ington you must give $2500 as bond that you will not run away.
 As will be seen the foregoing statement in the Examiner was a lie from beginning to end The children had no relatives in this country, and they did not claim to have. The alien labor law did not shut provides that other countries shall not dump their pauRers, leperS and @ criminals CT mi .hs Examiners gold brick. On the next day two employees of the Examiner signed the bond for $2500 as a guarantee that the children would not become pubic
 Then the Examiner dumped the chill dren upon the Salvation Army and lost sight of them altogether
 It happens that the immigration laws require that the local Commissioners shall report once each year as to the condition of such bonded immigrants, ana S Co9mis Ga ms matter for the purpose of preparing his report to the National Commissioners at Washington. He found that the children had been taken to the Salvation Army Rescue Home for Girls at Beulah, where Agnes, the eldest girl, was for months thereafter under the care of pr. C. w. Bronson for treatment for loathsome | disease contracted in Honolulu. In the | early part of the present year It was dis covered that the next oldest girl, Bertha, ! aged B, was a leper, and 9 she was almost waiian Islands by the Salvation Army | people, and is now member of the leper | colony on Molokai.
 At the Salvation Army Home Captain Schell of the Immigration Bureau was told that Alfred and Ottilee had been placed in charge of Rev. MT: Daniels, said | Finding Society, who had found homes for them or had placed them with some body on trial. There was no record at | the home of the whereabouts of the chil- | dren, the record containing simply the | names, ages and the date of arrival. Dan- eiS had gone to Colorado and the old em- | ployeS or the nome had left Tor parts un- | known.
 From other sources Captain schell learned that Alfred was with Mrs. Anna | kearny at Arroyo Grande, in this State, | and that Ottilee was with MT and Mrs. | Charles Otto of Woodville, near Visalia. i both places being more than 200 miles | from San Francisco and beyond the sur | veillance of the Commissioner
 Commissioner North has reported the | foregoing facts to the National Commis- | sioner of Immigration at Washington and | stated in his report that the children are 1 liable to become a public charge at any | time within the next ten years He re- | ported also that the children have been a public. charge ever since the day tbeV | anded, for they have been in the care of the Salvation Army, which is supported | by the charity of the public. He found | that the child Carle was the only one of | the children now at the home, and that ne is suffering from a disease which tbe natron calls eczema. but which may be eprosy. He recommends that pr Georoe l.. Fitch, an expert on leprosy. he i5o 'tructed to examine all the children pnu, n this State to determine whether tbo@, ire afiiicted with the dread disease. ana nat the children be sent back to Eonn Sr,du ulu in any event 'o ihoiio-