Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1908-01-03
FROM AN IMMIGRANTS LOG
BOOK.

published by the Congregational Home
Missionary Society, has an article from a
young German immigrant describing his
experience in the steerage of one of the
largest and richest transportation lines
between Europe and this country. His
story is n revelation of fpcts that add
little honor to the business and call loud
ly for reform. He says:
wealthy American going to Europe
in the first cabin of an up-to-date ocean
liner sent a cable from Bremen to his
friend in New York reading LUXURY
] hid otion to send cable to my
mother on arriving in New York in the
steerage reading Misery" That would
best describe my impressions of the trip.
After the preliminaries of inspecting
| 900 people. for that was our number,
we were packed on small steamers which
took us over to the-, an H.
600 ton steamer eight years old. We
came alongside and climbed on board.
little realizing the sufferings that were
awaiting us. Down / went to the COM
partment where l belonged namely,
'single men" Here our beds were
shown, and found myself in a room that
served al the same time as sleeping room
| dt contained 300 beds if you please) din
ing room and recreation room, in case of
bad weather, or after nine p. m, when
we had to go below. In vain | looked
/ for a dining room. discovered to my
establishment that we had to eat in the
same room where we slept Full of in
| dignation thought what could be done
to put stop to such conditions when a
/ bell rang which understood was a signal
to get our eating utensils. The inspec-
ton had lasted so many hours, and all
were so tired and hungry that everyone
wanted to be first to get a plate, spoon
and cup, the outfit of hungry steerage
passenger on this line. No knives, no
forks, no table cloth, no service at all at
the tables. Add to this no spittoons, no
refuse buckets, no bath rooms, and you
have conditions that certainly do not up
lift the immigrant.
Upon one of the tables stood sailor
Another steward handed him the cups.
plates and spoons. All sorts of languages
were heard, and very soon the first fight
was on. To be sure of getting their uten-
sils the men pushed and thronged. The
steward on the table swore in every lam
guage known to the stewards, and they
are all linguists, but he could not control
the mob, and at last he said to his mate,
who locked the cupboard with a bang,
| ltl Tie IlOChS eat lTOIl UDe lndU
was the end. Half of us were turned
away with nothing at all. About an
hour later | saw men going down with
kettles of soup, potatoes with coats on and
tea. They had no time to put down the
things upon tables. In the twinkling of
an eye the kettles were empty, and no
wonder, for the poor fellows had nothing
to eat since morning, all the time being
taken up by inspection and other opera
tons.
Next day there was more> order.
Plates, cups and spoons were provided
for all, and out of every tier of sixteen
men, one was appointed to get the food.
When the dinner bell rang, all these men
went in line to the kitchen, where the
purser and his assistant controlled the
cards. This system works very badly,
and many times there is not enough for
the sixteen men yet when a man with a
card goes a second time to get more, he
stands fair chance to be sent away
empty by one of the stewards, or kickers,
as they are called.
After the first meal was served, | won
dered what would become of dishes and
spoons. 1t did not take me long to dis
cover that 1T was our privilege to keep and
to wash them. Men, women and child
|
having no fresh water, had to use salt
water and cold, an impossible thing, es-
pecially when they were greasy. ANY
old thing served as dish cloth. l do not
need to say that the dishes were far from
clean. When we looked for regular
wash rvom we found there was no such
institution on the ship, though she is
only eight years old with large tonnage.
The only place available was the lava
tory, which opens into the toilet rooms,
withthe bowls as wash pans, or the open
ings of the deck wash-pipe. There was no
inducement whatever to try to keep clean
and decent.
We now came to the question where to
put the dishes. There were no cupboards
and no lockers, SO the only place was the
deck underneath the lower beds. In case
of rolling ship there was, of course, a
general mix up, and the beds were found
to be the safest place for the dishes. In
case OF bad weather many were seasick,
and common sense will tell the rest. AL
most incredible is the fact that the
steamship officials provided no basins for
the poor people to use in case of sea sick
ness, thereby making it impossible to
preserve decent conditions since there
was no access to the open deck.
In rooms IS feet square there were
sometimes 300 beds. Between beds not
an inch of space. They were double
TERED and divided into blocks SO beds
each. The floor was of iron and damp.
The light was too dim for reading by day
or by night. The ventilation, especially
in bad weather, was foul. Pillows and
mattresses filled with sea-grass were
hard, and the one blanket was not suffic-
lent on cold night. On one night es-
pecially when could not sleep for the
cold, asked the steward to turn on the
steam heat, which he refused to do.
Upon inquiry found that it was turned
on that night in the first and second
cabins.
There was nc place to hang up clothes,
no clothes hooks, no lockers. There was
no place to put baggage, but the damp
iron deck upon which the refuse of meals
was thrown, while the consequences of
sea sicknesses are scarcely fit to put bag
L