The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-10-19

faces when he greets them each in hi.
own language.
"Oh, yes, can make 'em understand
what we want, no matter where they
come from. 1 can say Show your card,
| and GO ahead and Go downstairs
and wait and all that in pretty near
every language there is, 1 guess.
| don't know how to spell what / say
shouldn't know it if 1 saw it in a book
but I've got the sounds all right
What is more, he can make himself
understood very clearly in the univer-
sal language of kindness and good
=, fellowship.
1T would make you laugh, if you
didn't feel more like crying, to hear
them tell what their friends over here
said to 'em. One Jewish fellow was
readin' a letter to some Germans the
other day while he was waiting for his
brother to come and take him out and
| heard what was in 1t. 1t said: Don't
be afraid-in America there are no
longer Cossacks. Nobody will trouble
you. Everybody will help you if you
ask questions and say what you want.
But you must be very polite, because
they will be polite to you"
There are notices all over Ellis ISL
and to give strength to these remarks.
Discourtesy to immigrants will be pun
ished, so read these placards, with dis
missal. Probably If any one in the
immigrant Office is minded to ill-treat
the ignorant folk about him he could
do so in that great crowd without much
fear of detection, but most of the men
seem to keep the rule, both letter and
spirit.
Hello, Bill" calls one man to an
other who passed, carrying a placid and
well developed two-year in his
arms. did you buy it, or are they
givin' 'em away?"
Belongs to her." laughs Bill In re-
turn, pointing to a woman on whose
back was strapped bag of dimensions
more huge than those of the old-time
wood-cuts of Christian in "Pilgrim's
Progress" 1t is not nominated in the
bond that the Bills of the immigrant
department shall help poor Italians to
carry their babies. but they do it of
their own good will. Maybe Bill came
from some other country years ago,
and maybe he sees himself in the little
one he handles so carefully.
These are the lights of the immi-
grant office. There are shadows, too
In the detention room, where weary
women wait for their friends or for the
decisions of the special inquiry board,
tired mothers rock their still more
tired babies, and in a corner a Polish
woman sways to and fro and prays,
sobbing all the while. The woman who
is cleaning the brass handle of the
door does not know why she cries.
Maybe no one comes for her. Maybe
her husband or her child, is sick in
the hospital. She waits these two
weeks, poor woman"
The Polish woman looks UP, hoping
that some one has come, but sinks
back again into her praying and Sob
bling. The others. more cheerful crowd
around, perhaps to see whether the
stranger has news for them, but in
manner of women these Americans
may be. Brave in finery are most of
them. Blue velvet and orange silk
adorn them, for they have every in
tention of making an impressive en-
trance into the New World. Some one
will come-and If not, they can try
Canada, or go back on the free tick
cts the government gives.
About / per cent. go back. They may
be diseased, or they may be without
money and likely in one way or an
other to become public charges. Once
in a while they go back of their own
accord. A young girl comes up with
letter. which certifles that she is in
danger of consumption and must have
a change of air. She is only is or so,
and her pretty face is sharpened with
disease, but a change from the sweat
shops of New York to the pure breezes
of the ocean and TO her old country
home may bring back the girlish lines.
In a corner woman croons the
songs of Armenia. Mad" say the
others, and the old soul laughs hap
PLY. Madness is not always a bad