Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1905-08-03
INFERNO OF THE THIRD
CLASS.
Terrible COntit ions under which In,mi.
grants Cross the Atlantic Ocean.

In writing on The Inferno of the Third
Class" in Golfers for July % Mr..
EroughtCn 1irandcnburg says.
In voyage in the Storage from New
York to Naples yon board the steamship
Lain, made by my wife and myself,
studying the under side of the immigra
ton question, we were given as We came
aboard each n blanket in which was Il
tin pan. n tin cup, IA fork. ana Il spoon
and card emitting us to cone Ration,'
and instructing us to form a group of
six or more and elect one of the group
eapo di rancio, 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 II
slap-dash fashion by dirty Storage
cooks and storage stewards, while n
ships officer and the naval commissioner
placed by the Italian government on
every ship carrying Italian emigrants
stood by and watched. In this manner
the food was produced throughout the
voyage. was in every compartment
used by stceracc passengers. and at no
time saw a table or anything resembling
it or disable for the purpose, and saw
no chairs or benches of any sort either
compartments or on deck. except n few
tiny rush chairs brought aboard by pas
sengers themselves At no time WIS
there any chair or bench provided by the
ship for sitting down except in the hos
pital Whom one ate one snuatted on
deck pcrchcd Oh the matches or wnchcs
or went below and climbed into bed
My wife and I ate in this fashion until
we found tho underground railway for
high-priccd leftover food from the cooks
galley. We were expected to wash our
pans in n room where cold salt water
ran.
Tho beds provided were of iron, skcle-
ton bunk form. in two tiers. and were
massed in hundreds in the various com
partmcnts. Tho mattress was a dirty
burlap tick. filled with some coarse sub
stance like n vegetable fibre. The COW
ering was a skinny blanket" such as
] would not put on horse / cared for.
The beds. bedding. compartments. COM
panionways. etc. dirty when we
found them and dirty when we left.
Some months later, on our return voy-
age, when we had large party Of i'm
migrants with us, we found precisely
the same conditions aboard the great
beautiful Princess Irene of tho North
German Lloyd Line. All food was served
In the same way, the compartments were
Just as filthy and i'll ventilated. The
separation of passengers was effected by
compelling all the men and boys to oc-
rupy certain apartments. while all the
women and children were placed in GER
tain others. In the compartment in which
my wife was all the borths were open
as are the majority of the Storage bcrths
on nearly all ships, affordng no privacy
Mt any time. on neither the Lain nor
the Princess Irene were there screen
Ing partitions of any kind whatsoever.
md I saw two women and four children
lying in two adjacent berths ! had no
means OF ad-mea surfing the compartment
70 ascertain If the law was being COM
piled with, but even IL it was, that as
we'll as the other compartments were
pvercrowdcd by the moro than two hum
arcd persons there, in shameful, revolt
ing. and inhuman fashion that should
never be permitted by nation that
abolished the slave ships.
have been in wars. wrecks, great fires,
md the like but let me picture one of
NC most terrible things I have ever
witnessed. 1t was a night of storm.
treat waves were breaking with heavy
crashes over the forward decks. Tho
ship was pitching and rolling so heavily
that ono could stay in the shallow bcrths
with difficulty Tho hundreds down in
the storage compartments were dcathly
roasick and mad with the terror OF the
tempest. Over the beds over their per-
sons. over the walls over tho companion
ways. like a layer over tho floor, lay
elected food and other filth.
\ few dim lights set in tho ceiling
allowed one to grope about that hole.
The air was so sitting that the feeble