The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-06
HER CHARITY
kRUSSIAN GIRL GOT TRACHOMA
ON VOYAGE HERE.

SouBnt NAee AuO Will VOW nc Nutcus Dua
Back she Mus Go Despite Prosperous
Brothers Here. VINO Arc Her Nearest
Relatives Game In the First Cabin.
A case Of unusual hardship worked by
Nthe rigid provisions OF the immigration
laws came up before Judge Laoombe In
the United States Circuit Court yesterday
on the writ Of habess corpus sued out
against the Ellis Island authorities to re-
,strain the deportation Of Hamel Woshner,
an unusually pretty girl Of high caste in
LithUanta and q first cabin passenger On
the Kronprins wilhelm, landing here on
September IS.
The girl 10 the daughter Of a wealt ny
landowner who was the starotsa or head
man Of the town Of Vibissi. their home.
The father died several years ago. The
girls three brothers, Of whom two were
studying for the Roman Catholic PRIEST
hood, decided that Lithuania was becom-
ing too difficult a place to live in under
the hard rule of the Russian chinovniks
and decided to sell their property and re-
o to America. This was done. But
it was thought best to allow the little sister.
Hamel, to remain under the care Of her aunt
in st. Petersburg until she had finished
ACA ONAAOaNAOus AC pNONCCNhlk nv hCtANA
school for girls in the Russian capital.
Last summer, this having been COM
pleted and Hamel having turned 10, her
brothers decided that they wanted to have
her with them. All three are now located
in Pittsburg, where the two who have be-
come priests are attached to a Roman
Catholic church. the third brother. B. w.
'Woshner, being a prosperous Wholesale
.I-AIs- aaAa A.--s
So this summer the merchant brother
went over to Russia and placed in the girls
hands funds to defray ali her expenses.
Having to hurry back on account Of BUSH
ness affairs he left her to come over in the
custody of friends. This she did on the
Kronprinz Wilhelm, taking first cabin
accommodations at Bremen.
But on the ship were a large number OF
Russian refugees who had lost most of
their goods in the disorders and were in
poor plight indeed. Russian women rave
"a strong sense Of their duty to the poor and
needy and Hamel. just graduated from
finishing school. spent all her spare time
and money among the refugees, consoling
them, brewing them good Russian tea inn
stead of the tea furnished by the stewards
and helping them in every way she could.
The girl had passed the physical examina-
ton her brother had arranged for her at
Bremen with the ordeal ut Ellis Island in
mind and was pronounced in perfect health.
What was her grief and disappointment
TO ne informed when she was again ex-
amined on landing that she had contracted
trachoma, a Though of the most trifling
nature, among the steerage passengers
and during the last few days Of the voyage.
Therefore she would ave to be deported,
Her brothers, who were all on hand to
meet her, engaged a lawyer, Elias Rosentha |.
and made every. effort to restrain the de-
portation. They offered to have the girl
seQuestrated under Government super
vision at their expense until she recovered
The Ellis Island physicians themselves
aid that she W ould recover in a few weeks
and that the trouble was not serious. But
the law which made provision for u @ treat
ment being extended to the wife or children
OF a naturaIized American citizen had
excepted the~relation between sister and
brother as one too slight to be included in
its merciful provisions. With the merest
technicslity barring Der FROM her closest
kin on earth, she had to go back. The
law was plain.
As a forlorn hope Lawyer Rosenthal
sued out a writ Of habeas C rpus and had
the girl brought before Judge Lacom be
to see If there was no appeal that could be
taken to Washington or a higher court to
give the girl a chance TO set well. As she
sat there demurely between I q two SOM
erly clad priests, her brothers, she at
tracted the admiring glances Of ever man
in the gloomy court room. With the waving
blac hair and brown eyes, the slender
figure and dignihed mien Of the Russian
girl of good class, she made even Judge
Lacombe relax somewhat the expression
OF judicial severity which he always wears
on the bench. But the Judge shook his
head when he was asked to order the girls
retention in this country until she could
be cured.
"The law provides neither remedy nor
appeal in the circumstances can do
othing but permit the authorities to deport
this girl, said he.
When the decision had been translated
to her, the girl clasped her hands to her
breast with a ~convulsive tremor. Ne
kept from scbbing before the strange men,
but Ter eyes fl lied wit tears in spite OF
herself, and she buried or face In the
shoulder OF her black ROBBED brother. She
will return On the next North German
Lloyd steamer.
But as she volubly explained through her
tears TO her brothers as they went with
her out Of the court room, IL would be only
a little while before she woul be entirely
cured OF the trouble, this charity sick
less" she l~aughingly called It, and then
she would s~traightway come to America
and her brothers again. or course
II was an unfavorable omen, this failing
the first time. But II would come out all
right in the end, she felt sure OF that. And
laughing and crying at once, she went
with her brothers out OF the court room.