The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-11-27
ITALIANS IN THE sTEERAGE.
Observations on a Voyage From Ma
 les to New York.

 Observations on Voyage From Ma
 les to New York.
 The Cedric, though having four times the tonnage of the ship first crossed the Atlantic in and being |among the half dozen biggest boats in the world, was not so impressive as one might think; these great vessels are so we'll proportioned that you can not easily realize their sizei In fact, the actual difference in size is not very remarkable for some 4,000-ton boats .are over 400 feet long, and the Lusi- Itania, which has eight times the ton mage, is less than twice as long.
 There were only handful of Eng lish-speaking passengers at this sea- son; the boat catered to the Italian steerage traffic, which is always heavy and profitable. All emigrants are now examined before being allowed to sail, so as to see in a general way that they come within the United States immi- grafton laws. A few of the poor people who had bought their tickets, and had already, probably, in their imagina- ton, made their fortune in that won derful new world which their com patriot Columbus discovered for them, were rejected, but on the whole the examination was perfunctory. More than that, it was actually a danger rather than a safeguard, for the doc tors in examining the eyes of the emi- grants for trachoma did not stop to sterilize their hands or instruments, and thus the effect might be actually to inoculate the whole lot with the disease. When thousands of people have to be handled within a few hours such examinations are apt to become farce.
 Some fal1irs of tortoise-shell, coral and similar local products on the wharf were urging their wares on a couple of American girls as we arriv- ed. Dollar and a half' was the price he named them on a beautiful tor toise-shell comb, and they jumped at | it. Then I said to him in Italian, m give you two lira GAO cents) for one, :" and after some pretehse that he would be losing money he took my offer This illustrates the methods you must use in these countries if you want to get bottom prices.
 It was pathetic to see the rheager- ness of preparations made by most of 1 the emigrants for going across the sea to new world. Usually they had all their belongings in a small handbox or tin trunk, or tied up in a blanket; the women had come away in their old clothes, bare-headed and wearing their aprons-as if just to drop in at their next-door neighbor's. On the other hand many were taking with them things which most of us would think their flatirons, bird-cages and even garden tools, and two or three moth CTS brought small cradles, which dur ing the voyage they kept on deck to rock their babies in. Others brought their own wine, in pretty straw-cover- ed fiasks or 'tiascos." It was a study in human nature to watch the ac- tions of the steerage passengers. Be- ing Italian of course they had to have their lotteries going; they were never at a loss for something to amuse them selves with, and often couple of men dancing native dance together, to the accompaniment of the ever present ac- cordeon, would hold a big circle spell bound for half an hour together. The Italians in both cabin and steerage did not like the food or the cooking provided, as it was in the English style. The steerage people could not eat the yeast bread which was liber- ally furnished to them, and hungry as they no doubt were they would use 1t to wipe their dishes with, throw it overheard, or oftener leave it on the deck. In fact, they dropped refuse of all sorts wherever they stood, and it kept the English stewards and deck hands constantly at work cleaning up after them They wiped everything in- discriminatory on their clothes, and it is not overstating it to say that dornes- tic animals might have suggested points of cleanliness to the majority of them. Nevertheless, the hopeful sign was that a residence In the new world would improve them in the little nice- ties of social usage, etc, for number of the passengers who had lived some years in America were notably pros- porous and self-respecting. One man who had come over 26 years ago was now foreman for a gas company, earn ing his $40 week, and it is the exam pies of this sort which tempt every Italian who can get hold of the money
 puodssIIoO ueedoInH- 'eleIsltu9 0; ence of the Pathfinder