davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-31

the same He was looking for contag- ious trachoma or ophthalmia, and had 1t been there he would have taken me out of the ranks and made the steam ship company carry me back whence came This is done with every immi- grant and the immigration doctors look over 2.00O,000 eyes in this way every year.
 My eyes were all right however, and I was showed along with those who could be passed, as far as their health was concerned. It was far different with others, but of them I shall speak far ther on. I should say at least 25 per cent were held back for special in- quiry, each receiving a yellow card bearing their names and the reasons why they were held.
 Passing the Inspectors
 My next experience was in the reg istry hall. This is a great room cov- ering about half an acre and filled with a network of alleys inclosed by iron pipe fences. Each of the alleys is devoted to one group of immigrants, and the groups are labeled A, B, c, D, E, etc, to correspond with the letters borne by those who come from the ship. At the end of each alley is an inspec- tor in uniform with tall desk before him. He speaks a half dozen languages, and catechses each immigrant as he goes through. He makes him pass all the tests for admission, and if he be- longs to the objected classes decides against him, marks him L. P. C., or lia- ble to become a public charge, and puts him on the road back to Europe. There were two pretty Servian girls in front of me, and the questions asked them made me think that the officer sus- pected that they might be white slaves.' Behind me was a fine look - ing old woman, with a white hand kerchief over her head. She was asked as to her relatives, and whether they would support her on landing.
 l moved along with the crowd, and when l came to the gate I fould that the inspector had the long sheet of answers which l had written out on the steamer. He asked each question over again and examined me to see if l was telling the truth. When l told him I had $45 he made me take it out and count it before him. l ob- served that the two girls in front of me each had eight gold pieces of the denomination of 20 marks. The man talked to them in German, and the party in front of them was addressed in Polish. Indeed, he seemed to have a whole babel of languages at his tongues end.
 It took him about two minutes to fin- ish my examination, and after he was convinced that was honest and not lia- ble to become a public charge, he gave me a yellow ticket stamped 0. R.. and as l passed out l was at last in America.
 This ticket only was given me be- cause I intended to stay in New York. Many of the other immigrants who were passed through had in addition tickets marked R." and later on they were badged with the names of the railroads
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-31

brought thousands of dollars profit never gave a promise that was broke Quiet, keen and unostentatious, he w puzzle to many @ shrewd observer
 The general public thought him 'avar ious. Few persons knew the truth. Or a week he left his store after supper al was gone for hours. Only his moth and his own agents knew on what m sion he went, and few of the worthy pd who received his money knew that | donor was the merchant prince.
 When a man has no financial setbacl no expensive habits and a highly props ous business, money accumulates fast just piled in on John Robins. He beca a millionaire and again a millionaire. \ it made not the slightest difference in method of living. He did not change js. his shop did not change. His sign not change. Its paint grew dinner vi the passing of years, but it kept on seV ing it's purpose, like that shilling basin.
 His mother died, his brothers died, old clerks died. his old customers dis but John Robins became an institutil The older he grew the more firmly chung to old forms. When he had bH in business 30 years some one sugges that he should retire. He replied thai would be preposterous. He celebrated i occasion of his half centenary by dol exactly as he had done every day in 90 years that had gone. When he Il been in the same store 60 years, and < der the same sign, he was a bit S 9 dened that the city had grown away fr& him. that it had gone uptown, and t there had been an invasion of the t eign poor into the district that once VI his great territory. He sorrowed, N that the old pump at which he had 1 more than half a century got the wa for his morning wash had been reno and that he had to draw it from the q ton tap that had been put into his hoVs
 When he had been 65 years In busir he was the same John Robins he alw had been. He bought and he sold, he bought and sold less than he hadN any time since his first year In dry gods John Robins and his business were W ering.
 Late in 1866, when he had been 67 ye a merchant, without ever missing dT without ever borrowing a dollar or lsn ing business trouble, he neglected morning to go through the accusto1 routine. He was dead. That was only reason.
 The millions he had made went to tant relatlVeS-Sorne doWn III NlckSpN some over in Jersey: some in Ohio. store that once was the emporium downtown New York was dismantled a f1ve-story brick structure that wal wonder then, but Is faded and old dingy now. took its place.
 John Robins, merchant prince, is gotten. While he was great as a Il chant he lacked the one thing that gk color to life. Without romance, with wife or child or real, true home. 4 structure that John Robins built after all, house of sand.
 Copyright, 1911, by Richard Spillal
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-31

1 She cooked and she washed. She was famous for the coffee that she brewed, and she made cakes that people came long distances to feast upon. She was up every day in the year before the sun, and she never had a servant. Appar- ently 1t did not hurt her, for she lived to be %, and then died of cholera. Robins tiny store was not much to look upon, but 1t drew trade. The man who conducted it was a natural born sales man, a real merchant, and in a few years he had to move to larger quarters; then few years later to larger still. His second move was to Nos. 426 and 42S Pearl street, at the corner of Madison. People of wealth and fashion. like the Clintons, the Rutgers, the Van Cortlandts and the Stuyvesants had come to patronize John Robins. His business grew so that he took his two brothers into partnership, and the style of the house became J. & N. Robins.
 John Robins made no splurge. He worked just as he had when he was a clerk in Laverty's store. Each morning al sunrise he got out of bed. went into the yard to the old pump, drew basin of water and washed himself in that shil- ling bowl. Then he went out market ing. He bought loaf of bread and some plain, wholesome fare. Then he swept out the store and was ready for cus- toners. He dressed very simply and his one extravagance was in shaving.
 Gradually his profits increased until he began to loom up as a person of impoI,- tance. By always paying cash he had a certain distinction. Though extremely careful of his personal expenditures, he had the true merchants courage when it came to large affairs. He bought whole car loads of goods, and his judgment got to be automatic. He had the reputation of making no mistakes.
 During the period of the war of 1872 he was particularly active. The prices of goods fiuctuated widely. Values de- pended upon the success or nonsuccess of the blockade the British maintained. Those were gay, lively times, and money was made and lost very fast Three times Robins sold out everything he had in his store to some one who made an offer for his whole stock Each time the blockade was broken within a few days, and the prices of goods immediately de- clined Once he bought out everything 2 in the way of dry goods that John Jacob Astor possessed. and made a small for tune in the transaction.
 In January, 1875. the greatest sale that had been conducted up to that time in America was held in the Tontine Coffee house in Wall street by John Hone. A thousand cases of goods were disposed of Prices were very high dnd the ri- valry was intense Robins, wto was do- ing a very large business at the time and whose shelves were almost bare, sat there hour after hour without buying a yard of anything. He went home somewhat dis gusted with himself, had his frugal meal and went to bed, In the middle of the night he was awakened by a crAr racing through William street into Pearl. bel lowing one word.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-31

western world, and John Robins was the Altman. the Marshall Field, the selfridge of the time. His store at Madison and America.
 Pearl street is dingy and dour today, but 1t was not when the nineteenth cen- tury was young. Madison street, Monroe street, Henry street and various other thoroughfares that stretch out to the northeast are peopled with sweatshop workers now. But there was time when the wealth and fashion of New York cen- tered there. The passers by were fla miliar with the figures of John Robins and his little housewife mother as they leaned upon the lower half of the quaint Dutch door in their house. Few of New York's thoroughfares were more popular as a fashionable promenade than Pearl street then. Its pavements were brisk with well dressed ladies intent on shop ping; it's eduipages made as lively a spectacle for those who had time 10 watch as Fifth avenue does today. There are few of the old mansions still re- maining; worn. stripped Of their former glory. and but a wreck of what they once were.
 When they were great John Robins was great When they went into decline Robins began to dry up. He was like an old tree. The city was moving. John Robins could never move. He preferred to wither and decay in the spot where he had taken deep root nearly three quarters of a century before.
 Robins was born in New Jersey in 1779 not far from the spot where the Battle of Monmouth was fought. The wanderlust got him when he was q boy and he tramped to Philadelphia. Congress was in session there then. The boy did not have a penny in the world, but before he left home he had caught and skinned a muskrat and he took the skin with him to Phil adelphia. He bartered the skin for two books. One was Robinson Cru soc and the other Bible.
 When he got back home he was treated as a great traveller. He told of all the things he had seen in the big city, for Philadelphia was the biggest city in America then. The child had listened to the debates over the con- frmation or rejection of the Jay treaty and the speeches made a deep impress sion on the little fellows mind
 While he was in the City of Broth erly Love the Whisky Rebellion broke out and he earned 75 cents tacking up the governments proclamation for the raising of troops. This was the first money John Robins ever earned. Not penny of it did he spend. He had it intact when he arrived home in Mon mouth.
 One experience in the outside world only whetted his appetite for more. A few months later he tramped to New York. He had an older brother named Enoch, who was fairly well to do and had a shipping office in Old Slip. Enoch Robins owned a few small vessels. He loaded them with all kinds of assort-
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-31

Robins stuck his head out of the win dow. heard that one word, and went to bed content In the morning he went to the office of the Mercantile Advertiser at 159 Pearl street. The whole town seemed to be attracted to that part of the city just then. People were wild The glo- rious news of peace had come. A ship had arrived at Sandy Hook the night be- fore, and already a message was en route to Washington with the information. But the news was not glorious for the mer- chants who had bought a thousand cases of goods the day before. Many of them were facing ruin. The goods that were bought at war prices had to be sold at peace pricesl There was no more block ade no more interference with commerce.
 Within a few months nearly 100 mer- chants of New York had gone to ruin.
 When prices seemed to be very low, a syndicate was formed to purchase all the goods that were on the market. A proposition was made to Robins to act as the syndicate's buyer, so as not to disclose the existence of the com bination. percentage was offered that meant a small fortune, but he de- clined to serve. The members of the syndicate thought he was foolish when he told them their plan neant ruin. A little later, when they discovered his good judgment Hdu SdNtu lllG1l HUH disaster, they were thankful, for prices fell so much lower than they had been that the scheme would have ruined all of them.
 The same wonderful judgment, good sense, almost intuition, that Robins displayed in regard to dry goods he showed in every other line of business in which he embarked. He was di- rector in various banks for some years and then something happened that led him to sell every share of bank stock he possessed. In each instance he ob- tained the highest price for his shares that those securities ever brought, and in each instance the bank had less prosperity after he got out of it. Unlike e John Jacob Astor, he had few real es- tate transactions. He. thought the hold ing of improved or unimproved real es- tate was less remunerative than or dinary business. The few pieces of land he did purchase he sold at handsome prices, and was satisfied.
 He always prided himself on his thor ough knowledge of dry goods, and es- pecially cloths. He knew the value of everything he had in his establishment to the utmost fraction of a cent For 46 years he never missed one of the dry goods auction sales held in the city. He was as painstaking in small mat ters as in big. He never was too busy to wait upon a customer no matter how small that customers purchase might be. He gave the closest attention to those who came to his store and would leave any visitor rich and important though he might be, if he saw humble buyer waiting to be served and his clerks too busy to attend td that GUS toner's wants. Robins worked as hard on the thing that brought only few cents a yard profit as on the thing that
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-31

A MERICA has many great mer-
 A chants. You can almost mark 4 ! the different stages of its his tory by these princes of industry. Astor stands out in the minds of most per sons as the dominant personality in commercial life in the first half of the nations existence. After him A T Stewart was powerful figure. Today a score of men form the commercial sky line. Their operations are gigantic. The stocks they carry represent mill lions and millions of dollars. Their em- ployes number thousands; they are armies-armies of peace and prosper ity.
 If the question were raised as to whom the honor of being America s greatest merchant belongs nine per- sons out of ten would name Astor first and Stewart second. In their selection they would give full consideration to the limitations under which those men labored. Astor was a remarkable man and Stewart was almost a genius in his line
 But there was a merchant of New York, contemporaneous with Astor and contemporaneous with Stewart who was the equal if not the superior of either of those men in mercantile life Today his name is practically forgot ten. Only few, a very few, of the old, old members of the Chamber of Commerce recall him. There is not a building or an institution in all New York to mark his achievements He is plotted out-hardly memory. And yet for 67 years he was a business man of the metropolis. For moro than 50 years he was a leader. For many years he paid not only the highest personal tax of any man in New York but of any man in the United States or of any man in the world. He never bor- rowed a dollar and he never owed a cent
 If he ever made a loss it is not re- corded. His judgment was marvellous He trained himself for his career and his training was arduous. In the mak- ing of money he was a colossal sue cess. In the making of a name that would be historical in it's line he was colossal failure. His error was that he never built a house-that is, a house that meant a home, family, hive. He was a creature of habit, of busi- ness habit, the money habit.
 He lived long after the allotted time, and he worked until the last. Then he withered and blew away like late au- tumn leaf, to be lost and forgotten
 Ever hear of John Robins? Of course not You may go today down into that crooked thoroughfare known as Pearl street, in that dingy part of 1t where Chambers and Madison and Oak and other streets are all in a tumble, and go from house to house and ask about John Robins. Shakes of the head would be the only reply.
 But Pearl street knew John Robins, and knew him we'll It knew him in the days when Pearl street, or at least that DOT tion of it, was the Rue de la Paix of the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-31

ton of Shetland ponies. The only al ence is that the Shetlands are more h; and sturdy in comparison than man the immigrants we are now bringing
 The Great American Peril
 We talk of the yellow peril, and s1 der as we think of Chinese and Japal immigration. I believe one of our gi est perils today is from European irl grafton, and also in the exploitation our country by lot of steamship d panies whose stock is owned in EuI| and whose only aim is to keep up dividends. In the past the bulk os immigrants went to the west and [ citizenship began on the farms. The |. fresh air of America and the smell oil mother earth, a part of whom was oy by themselves for the first time, drove servility of Europe out of their veins, by association with Americans and tact with American problems they \ finally ground over into good Annex citizens.
 C0ngesting the Cities
 Now the immigrant comes in byI million, and hundreds of thousand him are dropped down into New ] Philadelphia. Chicago, Boston andy4 big cities. They lead there a life' II the same as in Europe Many of \ go to the sweatshops. and their blo4 thinned by the dust of the factork mine They speak their own lang1 and intermarry. They have their newspapers, and are largely moved politicians or agitators who preacH cialism and anarchism free from straint
 The situation is indeed far different anything we have had in the past,t it becomes more and more serious ' year to year. I have before me the \ bers of immigrants who have land@ this country since 1922. There have all told, 2S,000,OOO or 29.OO0.OOO, and of about one-fourth have come in withit past five years. We struck the Id mark first in 1905. We brought irf other 100000 in 1906, and more than \ coo in 1907. In the two following k times were hard and there was sk crease, but in 1910 we came up to 1,dl again. and this year we have even \ Can Uncle Sam stand it? The qudI bulks big in our prospects for thS ture, and 1t is one that should be s{ forthwith
The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-31

Copyright, 1911, by Frank G. Carpenter)
 New York City. "HIS is the story of an immigrant. Not of real Simon-pure imml- A grant, but of myself in immigrant clothes.
 l came to New York with letter from MT. NageL Secretary of Commerce and Labor, to Mr. Williams, the commissioner of immigration at Ellis Island. The let ter requested that I be shown all the processes and given all information as to how the foreigners breaks into this coun- try. Uncle Sam is adopting into our na- tional family more than 100000 new brothers and sisters each year. He keeps rushing them in at the rate of 2000 or 3O00 day, or of more than 100 an hour from midnight to midnight all the year through
 How do these people get in?
 Who are they?
 What are they?
 Where do they come from?
 Where do they go?
 Can we digest them? Or will they lie like lump of sour dough on Uncle Sam s stomach, poisoning our national family? The Experience of One Immigrant
 I shall answer the last question first, and that by my experience as an immi- grant. The first chapter of it is imagi- nary. You must suppose me a peasant in some little town in southeastern Flu rope. My wages are less than a quar- ter day, and the chief part of my diet is brown bread and water. One morning a smooth, well dressed man comes and offers me all sorts of inducements to go across the ocean. He paints the United States as a country where gold dollars can be picked up in the streets, and final ly persuades me to pay enough out of my savings to buy a steamship ticket to New York. The ticket is for the steer age and 1t costs me s35. Armed with it ] go to Plume, which is my nearest port and, after being examined and fumigated. am hurried with 2000 others into the hold of steamer It is the steamship company that causes my going.
 My passage helps to pay its dividends, and that is the reason their agent has called upon me. They get the worth of their money. I pay them one-third or one-half as much as a first cabin pas senger, but I sleep in bunk, away down below decks in q room with hundreds of others. I eat my meals out of tin pots and pans, and I have a luxurious loafing place, between rains, on the bare floor where seasick men, women and children, my fellow passengers, lie sprawling around
 After 15 days of fairly good sailing l have passed out of the Mediterranean, have crossed the Atlantic. and have steamed by the great Statue of Liberty to the docks of New York. There the cabin passengers have been landed, and have been showed with the rest of my fellows into barge. and carried to the little archipelago consisting of three bits of land surrounded by water called FL lis island. The islands are covered with buildings which seem to float on the harbor. They are joined by bridges, and our barge floats right up to the doort.