The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-04-08
THE WORLDS W0MANKlND.
DAUGHTERS OF THE OLD CotN-
TRIES AT THE GATEWAY OF
TIE NEW.

sLOnEO-PaSs1nE OF the
and the Immigrant boarding
Houses-The Barge Office Mntron,
Her Aides and the Missionaries
Among the Immigrants.
New York. April THE great throb-
bing ocean that beats against the barge
Office down at the wall Of the Battery
is still Offering TO our unwilling shores
that waif of misfortune, the woman i'm
migrant Every ship that lands passen-
gers at this port brings hundreds of the
fiotsam and jetsam Of womankind from
other lands. And as in the days when
she first came over, the sturdy Puritan
maiden to mother a new race, or the de-
ported erisette TO find compromise hus-
band, the woman immigrant OF to-day
has listened. on that other shore of power
ty, oppression or disgrace to the siren
voice OF the great dividing waters and
put herself and her hopes on their prom
Using breast to waken 70 new life on
their furthermost reach. Sometimes she
comes TO join her husband, who has pre-
coded her, or a sweetheart, who has earn
ed a home in which to receive her. Or,
perhaps. she comes TO an enterprisng
young brother, who built air castles in
that other land and then came over the
seas to make them come true, to find
habitaton for her the Old father ana
a still younger brother who. in time, VIII
help the pioneer adventurer to send for
the old mother waiting in the Old place
for the price of a ticket to follow her
deer ones.
The story Of such a woman immigrant
tn {uh no off Ia
other day. young girl had come over
from the south of Italy. with her father
and little brother to join her established
brother. She was named Marietta-Mari-
eta LongO-and she looked like her name
When she entered the room of Special In
quiry, between her father and little
brother. the eyes of every one present
We're bent upon her, for she was the
only pearl that the ocean had cast up at
the barge Office that day.
An Air Castle Came True.
She and the boy sat down on bench
while the father was undergoing b. exam
ination, but everything alb Marietta
was meanwhile telling ar Interesting
tale to every one in the place. Marietta
was 10, she said; she looked like woman
Of 20, but with the eyes and grace of
child. In some strange way. with the in
stinct of pretty womanhood the world
over, she had dressed herself with taste
almost with style. Her hair massed itself
in a natural pompadour through which
little rings of baby curls slipped out and
lay against her smooth brow; her young
form defined itself roundly in an olive
silk with a pink guimpe, cheap, indeed,
but simple and attractive In the combined
effect of color, and she had high-heeled
shoes that had way of peeping out from
under her skirts to let you see how small
they were. Everything about Marietta
had a way of expressing itself, somehow,
all the time she sat in unaffected and I'M
conscious thought Yet she looked sad
like hurt and lovely and wondering
child-it was all so uncertain, for they
were expecting some one to meet them
and he was not there. The old man said
that most of his money had been taken
from him in Naples, and he did not seem
clear about anything. For a long time
after his examination they all sat together
silently on the bench
Suddenly a well-dressed young man
came in, walking straight TO the table
where the board sat; was sworn, and an
swered the questions put to him with in
telligence and dinectness, when he was
told that these he sought were here. He.
turned. saw them. moved swiftly to the
Old father and kissed and embraced him
again and again A trembling wave Of
emotion swept over the little group; Mari
eta rose, her chin quiYering, tears veil
ing her eyes. A moment later she was in
her brothers arms, holding to him yet
while he turned and embraced the younger
brother. Presently they were all weeping
uncontrollably, but the chairman peremp-
toriaNy recalled the young man, who an
swered the remaining questions with agi-
tated hesitancy.
You see," he explained to a symba-
thetic bystander its nine years since l
saw them
1t was all right at last The tickets to
Philadelphia were found in the old mans
pockets, after the young man had dis
played the reassuring price of them to the
commissioners and the ability to provide
fer the new corners was satisfactorily in
dicated by the young mans statement that
be was earning SIS a week. and besides
had money in the bank. Some Of his for
mer earnings had found their way back
10 Italy you may be sure, and part of
them had gone to buy the very gown that
adorned Marietta so becomingly. Surely
1t was an air castle come true; it was so
to them, at least and away they went
clutching each other in frantic happiness
But why didn't You let them embrace
as much as they wanted TO when they
first metz" the chairman of the board was
asked He smiled tolerantly
1T is far better to restrain them" he
sad They interrupt the board, and, be
sides that, they get themselves in such a
state that they can't answer the neces-
sary que stlons. Why, sometimes a pair Of
Russians will delay us fifteen minutes by
Their hysterical weeping over a reunion -
About one-third of all The immigrants
landing here are women, and few of these
come independently; those who do are of
a different type from Marietta, although
the prettiest women that now come are of
the Italian peasantry. In other years the
Irish and Germans represented the ma
oority, and generally went into service;
but these two nationalities are now so
amalgamated with the American people
that they can hardly be considered aliens
and their friends and relatives are almost
as numerous in this country as in their
own. Moreover the Irish or German girl
who now comes over has mind above
service; local influence or native ability
quickly puts her into a shop or factory,
and If she should go into service it is but
as a means TO an end. Italian girls never
go into service, and few Of them come TO
this country unless to join male relatives.
Even that is comparatively infreuuent. for
1t is rule that the Italian workman ex-
poets to return and marry in his own
land. and to buy little farm with the