Evening star., 1921-06-10
WASHING STEERAGE
MAY Be PRECEDENT
Skipper Showed What Could
Be Done in Cleaning and
Purifying immigrants.
BY HERBERT COREY.

Noel Marcantetti did it He certainly
spilled the beans. BY proving that steer
age passengers can be bathed and hair
cut and uncootied and polished up and
generally disinfected on the voyage
across the Atlantic. he may have set a
! precedent. The department Of public
health hopes so. 1t is as sure rs taxes
| than which nowadays there is nothing
| moro sure-that the attention Of those
in high places will be called to Mar
cantetti's feat One Of these days clean.
fragrant glittering immigrants may be
| as commonplace as the wireless and
| flying and other miracles.
Marcantetu 10 the captain Of tho Fabre
liner Providence. Being laden with a
| valuable cargo that might be taxable
under a higher schedule II the President
signed tho tariff bill before he got his
manifest under the collectors window in
New York. Marcantetti was kept ad-
vised OF the progress Of tariff negotia-
| tons all the way across. Likewise. in
order not to be held up by any quaran-
| tine troubles because of coolies or
| typhus-which are sometimes inter
| changeable terms-on arrival in New
York he bathed his 1850 steerage pas
sengers to a glowing pink.
Bathed. Then Bathed Again.
Life in the steerage." one sufferer is
|
| after another"
The agonized 1850 were bathed.
And bathed. Then they went to the
tbarber Then their rair was exam
ined: Then they bathed again. Their
haircut. Their heads were given the
exacting look-see. They were bathed.
| Those still having hair paid another
visit to the BARRIERS. who by this time
were suffering from writer's cramp.
Quick salve and soap were rubbed on
/ the 1850.
! When the Providence reached quar-
antine the quarantine doctors-a
blase lot-steamed up under her lee
| in their cutter. Then they looked up.
tors loudly. 'Lookit the clean faces"
| The 1850 were shimmering over the
| port rail. There was no sun at that
hour. but il there had been a sun the
| semaphoric effect would have been
noticed in Sacramento. Desert dwell
ers would have taken it for the aurora
| borealis. Instead Of spending half a
day in more or less cursory scouting
| OF the arrivals for cooties and typhus
and other ills to which the immigrant
is an unresisting prey. the steerage
passengers were inspected and passed
in three hours. Then Marcantetti hur-
ried ashore and filed his manifest.
| Steamship Companies Worried.
| The horrible tring about this to the
steamship companies. is that now tina t
Marcantetti has demonstrate that it
can be done some savage lawmaker
may insist that it be done on every
ship. The immigrants arriving now
adays are usually lousy and filthy
Sometimes this is their fault. Those
coming in from Russia and Poland
| often seem to regard the louise as a
family friend There are Arabian
tribes which favor the cootie. "A we'll
populated head" runs one of their
proverbs. ''is evidence of well
stocked brain Other immigrants
cannot help themselves They may
start from their homes as clean as a
secured pan on a sunny day and by
the time they have slept on benches
in never-cleaned immigrant stations
and spent days and nights in railroad
lcars which are as odorous and foul as
the average American stock-car they
become the hosts Of every form OF
House known.
They DO not get a chance to get rid
TOR the beasts. The steamship COM