Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-26
NEW YORK GOSSIP
Custom House Methods Are
Greatly Modified.
IMPERTINENT QUERIES
THE FAT LADY WHO GREW THIN
AND SYLPH LIKE.
But Whose t'Cure'' Refuses to Work
and Who is Now Heavier
Than Ever.
IMPERTINENT QUERIES

1S" ouIy ID, lStS
There has been a gradual cessation of
complaints this summer on the part of re-
turning European tourists as we'll as
strangers embarking here to visit the
United States over the gleeful ferocity, as
it has been described of the customs ex-
aminers on the docks The customs people
have to a certain extent modified their
methods. They do not manifest so many
evidences of eXuberant joy as they toss the
clothing, lingerie. as we'll as outer gar
ments, of agonized women around the piers
In their search for contraband Thy are
just trifie less relentless in their revealing
Of the innocent little privacies of the trunks
and boxes of returned ocean voyagers.
Their domineering arrogance of former
years has finally given way to sort of
sulky compliance with the rules of common
decency. 1t required the stern efforts of
two Secretaries of the Treasury. Mr. Gage
and his successor Mr.. Shaw, to accomplish
this reform. The conditions confronting
people debarking from steamships In New
York became so unspeakably atrocious on
account of the wanton lack of considera-
ton, not to say brutality, of the customs
employees that both of the Secretaries had
to give their personal attention to the
remedying of the evils against which men
and women of reputation had been so long
protesting.
However, 1t would appear that no sooner
Is one annoyance of steamship passengers
done away with than another springs I'D
A short time ago the immigration officials
of New York sprung an unpleasant sensa-
ton upon returning first and second-class
voyagers on the steamship by presenting to
them, to be filled out, blanks almost iden-
teal. if not entirely identical, with those
which immigrants arriving at this port are
compelled to fill out or have filled out for
them. These blanks were distributed to
the the steamers hefora
landed. and it was made one of the condi-
tons of their being permitted to land at all
that they fill out the blanks in accordance
with the directions.
A considerable number of passengers to
whom these blanks were presented fatty
declined to fill them out, and not a few ut
terly refused to so much as receive them.
The questions printed on the blanks were
to the last degree impertinent and irrele-
want applied to individuals arriving in
the United States as first and second-class
steamship passengers much less as applied
to citizens and c1tiz4neSseS of the United
States returning to these shores after tours
abroad. Not few of the questions proved
so distinctly and unnecessarily embarrass-
ing to certain passengers to whom the
blanks were presented that they calmly
threw the papers overheard 1t should be
added that the passengers of independent
spirit who positively refused to fill out the
blanks were allowed to land all the same.
such was the natural feeling of insecurity
on the part of the immigration officials as
to how the inauguration of their new and
silly system would be received by press and
public. The officials quickly ascertained
that they had made. a mistake, and that
such inquisitorial methods as applied TO
citlzens and strangers of station arriving in
TINS country would not be brooked
She Knew What to Do.
Just how embarrassing some of the ques-
tons proved was shown in the case of
French nobleman of wealth and repute, a
man who lived for many years in the
United States, who arrived on one Of the
French steamers with his wife the day the
new inquisitorial scheme was first put into
operation. One of the questions inquired
II the individual signing the blanks had
ever been confined in an insane asylum
This French nobeman mad a severe attack
or nervous prostration in the United States
a Few years ago which temporarily clouded
his mind, requiring his incarceration in a
sahitarium for few months. His reason
came back to him completely but the tenn
porary oDScuration of his intellect has nat
urally enough been a pretty sore subject
with the Frenchman ever since. When he
received his batch of blanks and, scanning
the questions, arrived at the one mentioned,
ne calmly passed the blanks over to his
wife without saying anything She, an
American woman, read the questions and
then, 1t IS said, walked over to the steam
snip rail- and chucked the blanks overheard.
Another question, with which it would
seem that the bureau of immigration had
little concern in the ulestiOn's reference TO
private persons industriously engaged in
nlndhS thelr own business, related to the
number of times the individual filling out
the blanks had been married. Plenty Of
IoiKS VINO are able to travel first class on
sea voyages have been in the divorce courts
anu most OF THESE gave evidence of de-
cided objection to spreading the history of
thelr matrimonial ventures on these off
mana blanks for the information of the i'm
migration officials. Some of the other uues-
IlOES were no less ''noSey''
sary, one, for example, that inquired az to
whether the blank filler suffered from any
soIt OIL Gsease Persons of wealth and
leisure aff1lcted with attacks of epilepsy or
vertigo, or sciatica or ANYTHING else natur-
any enough resented red tape measure
Whicn required them to spread their medi-
car history on paper at the behest of gov
eminent officials appointed and paid solely
LOT the purpose of handling immigrants ar
irving on American soil. The time may
come when American men and women and
strangers or conSidera ton arriving on
steamships in this country will be able to
get IN without undergoing all of these in
suIferable intrusions upon their privacy but
olu ana experienced voyagers are growing
pretty skeptical
A Growing Evil.
some OF the better class of newspapers
over mere have long been strenuously ad-
Focatng the private hearing Of all divorce
cases ana the complete suppression of all
uS'aii' VI Sucli cases in the press. The
proprletors of few of these more decent
newspapers have gone the length of at
tempting, a combination Of the press of New
York to rigidly exclude all matter apper-
tanning to divorces with, the exception Of
the simple announcement of the institution
OF SUITS and the results of the trials. The
pan ~, mas, OF course, Invariably failed owing
TO the desire of the yellows to incorporate
Just as much salacious divorce testimony
IN thelr columns as they can possibly get
hold Of o.
me publication of divorce testimony in
the newspapers of New York has come to
y. ne recognized as big and growing evil by
thoughtful persons Hardly a day passes
that the New York newspapers are not
cluttered with columns of this nauseating
material. The more sensational sheets do
NOT hesitate to print the testimony word
loI WORD and line for, line, no matter how
RISKY its tenor, probably taking the ground
that everything that t-anspires in an opeE
court can be printed with impunity in a
newspaper, a presumption that doesn't
stand scrutiny in the light of common sense
OF from the viewpoint of common decency.
.,fl loft hat how