The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-30
I N writing on '"The Inferno of the Third
 Class in Golfers, MT. Broughton

I N writing on "The Inferno of the Third
 Class" in Golfers, MT. Broughton Brandenburg says:
 In a voyage in the steerage from New York to Naples on board the steamship Li-hn, made by my wife and myself, studying the under side of the immlgra- ton question, we were given as we came aboard each blanket in which was tin pan, a tin cup, a fork, and a spoon, and a card entitlng us to "One Ration," and instructing us to form a group of six or more, and elect one of the group capo di rancid, or chief of the mess to go and get our food. performed this task, lining up with the others on deck, where the food was served to us from huge baskets and caldrons in a slap-dash fashion by dirty steerage cooks and steerage stew ards, while ships officer and the naval commissioner placed by the Italian gov ernment on every ship carrying Italian emgrants stood by and watched. In this manner the food was produced through out the voyage. I wa in every compart- ment used by steerage passengers, and at no time saw q table or anything resem- bling it or usable for the purpose, and saw no chairs or benches of any sort either for use during eating or for sit ting in compartments or on deck, except few tiny rush chairs brought aboard by passengers themselves. At no time was there any chair or bench provided by the ship for sitting down except in the hos ptal When one ate one squatted on deck, perched on the matches or winches, or went below and climbed into bed. My wife and I ate in this fashion until we found the underground railway for high priced leftover food from the cooks gall ley We were expected to wash our pans in room where cold salt water ran.
 The beds provided were of iron, skele- ton bunk form. in two tiers, and were. massed in hundreds in the various com partments. The mattress was dirty bur lap tick, filled with some coarse sub stance like vegetable fibre. The covering was skimpy blanket" such as I would not put on a horse I cared for. The beds, bedding, compartments, companfonways, etc, were dirty when we found them and dirty when we left.
 Some months later. on our return voy- age. when we had large party of inn migrants with us, we found precisely the same conditions aboard the great. beau- tiful Princess Irene of the North German Lloyd line. All food was served in the same way the compartments were just as filthy and il-ventilated. The separation of passengers was effected by compelling all men and boys to occupy certain com partments, while all the women and chill dren were Iyaced in certain others. In the compartment in which my wife was all the berths were open. as are the ma jority of the steerage berths on nearly all ships, affording no privacy at any time. On neither the Lahn nor the Prin- cess Irene were there screening partl- tions of any kind whatever, and saw rlaf in two adjacent berths
 I had no means of measuring the com partment to ascertain if the law was be- ing compiled with, but even if it was, that as well the other compartments were overcrowded by the more than two hundred persons there. in a shameful. re- volting, an inhuman fashion that should never be permitted by a nation that abol-
 shed the slave ships.
 I have been in wars. wrecks, great fires and the like but let me picture one of the most terrible things l have ever wit