The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-02
DEPORTED PAUPERS FATE.
zrIsERT lWhIrs TEE 1MMTeBl1rs
SENT BACK IRON DUN SHORES.

1rIsERT lWlIrD TEE 1MMT9RlxTs
SEM BlOK FROM DUN SHORES.
puupea IN q strange CITY asa Lert te shin
fsr Ths-teives. witheut raeusy or Fssd
-Rsrty.twe syrians whe were veuna
Starving ana Cello In Paris Recently.
PARIs, Dec. 22.-when the good American
reads in his morning paper of the deportation
Of pauper foreign immigrants arriving on his
shores, he doubtless congratulates himself upon
the fact that his country has such wise laws,
and only wonders why they were not passed and
enforced long ago. He has been told that
wicked foreign Governments have had O way Of
unloading their undesirable citizens upon the
great republic Of tho West, and he sometimes
thinks that thoy have.at last met with q check.
He knows that tho operation Of the law 10 Just;
that the steamship company forewnrned Of
its responsibility whom It ships tho immigrant,
and that, in case of exclusion, 1t is bound to
take HIM back to where he same from at its own
expense. What he does not know 10 that tho
steamship company rarely does-this; and that,
In consequence, the returned immigrant,often.s
subjected to great hardship.
This. of course, is due TO the fact that the i'm
migrant does not hail from the port at which he
10 shipped, and at which the steamship COM
pany's responsibility ceases upon the return;
and, indeed, that he IL seldom q native Of the
country rwhose flag the steamer sails. Tho
steamship journey forms the last link in the
chain Of his assisted" trip. The destitute
immigrant, whether he pays his passage with
his go wings or has 1t paid for him by municipal
authorities or emigration societies. Is just as
destitute when he gets back to tho port from
which he shipped as he was whom he tried to land
in America. And 1t 10 thon that his real troub-
les begin. He is lucky II he ever sees his homo
again. Usually he becomes o vagrant in tho
foreign land to which he Is returned by tho
steamship company.
Sometimes, however, he-is sent back at pub
lic expense to his own country. This 10 nearly
always the case in Franco, II he is likely to be-
como . municipal charge. In this year tho
Paris authorities alone have returned to their
homes several hundred persons. mostly Armen-
ians and Syrians, who were prohibited from
landing In America. The experiences Of many
of these hapless persons have been pitiful. but
none more 80 than those Of q party Of Syrians
sent back to their native land by the Project of
the Seine yesterday. 1t is ono case which may
stand as an example of the many.
About daylight q few mornings ago q police
man found forty-two half-naked persons, mon,
women. children, and babies. e%ncamped on Q
sidewalk near the st. Lazare railway station.
1t had been raining overnight, and at dawn 1t
was freezing. Most OF the poor wretches were
nuuQl6u UOR6Un6T 10 Keep WaIul, anu several
Of the mon were trying to start q little fire in the
gutter with some scraps OF paper they had gath.
had any clothing other han the fimsiest cotton
stuffs, and some Of them were batless and
The policeman questioned them, but they un.
derstood not q word Of French, 30 he took them
all to the police station. where an interpreter
was secured. Even then they were so afraid Of
harm that it took a long time 10 get their story.
They hi, had eaten nothing:for three rec days, and they
had come to Paris from Boulogne.ln which place
they had been dumped by q steamship company
which had brought them back from New York,
landing.
These forty-two persons composed ten fami-
grafton agent had come with wonderful tales Of
tened to him, had sold their little possessions,
and had started for the New World by way Of
oity:they were met BY another emigration agent,
an associate Of the first. He had taken them
in.charge and upon one pretext or mother had
America and a lot of rags. some Of them con-
absolutely penniless. and understanding no lam
guage but their own. they were shipped to New
Tho laws of the United States, Of course, ex.
clue Guided them 1e e., The n agent 81 had rSm dss,ia them hem
out for them upon their arrival, but he did not
appear: and they did not have his address. The
agent aggs dr had also oIpn promised ssd. to send ND Their he'll SiS 7 he's
@AAA SAASSNo ~ eoN s.Sg S@ NoS
some either. Finally. as their instructions were
explicit. the Immigration: authorities in New
York required that tho forty-two voyagers
should be taken back by the steamer which
The steamer. however. was not going back to
Marseilles. but to Boulogne. That was unfor-
tunate for the Syrians, clad as they were, but
they had no right to complain. seeing that it was
q losing job for the steamship company anyway.
80 to Boulogne they went, and when they got
there they were unccremoniously bundled out
to the quay with the Information, conveyed, of
course. in polished French. that II they wanted
to get back to their homes they would have to
ter way to do this than to wander through the
chilly streets, which they did.
The Boulogne authorities said they must get
out Of town at once; there was no money there
to feed them, and they were a nuisance on
general principles. But they did not even know
ell thought 1t was In for a peck of trouble and
expense. when the Northern Railway Com
pany stepped up and said 1t would carry the
castaways to Paris without charge. Everybody
likely to be troublesome is sent TO Paris as q
last resort.
fund applicable for the purpose of repatriation,
tunates by steamer to Syria. 1t was expensive,
according to French standards, but 1T was
cheaper than to let them remain in Paris to
swell the ranks, already. terribly o~vercrowded,
of the INDECENT. and helpless. So the forty-two
wanderers. rich in experience II empty of
land, in which respect, they are luckier than
most immigrants sent back, from the United
their arrival and will have to begin life over
again.