Year: 1872

Passenger En Route from Liverpool
by Allan Brothers.
To TIE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:-


Sn-Our attention has been called to an article
In your issue Of the 25th Of September, purporting
to give an account OF the experiences OF steerage
passenger on board our ship. the Sarmatian, In
June last. The article contains number OF state
ments which are not only not true but perfectly
impossible. It is astonishing 1t did not occur TO
you that In publishing such an article you were
adopting the statement OF an irresponsible person,
one unaccustomed to the life he describes, ana
therefore liable to fall into serious mistakes. as In
fact he did. Putting aside the obvious
fact that the owners OF the passenger
lines are at least not altogether without
rights, we would ask whether it is right to preju
dice the public mind, unless there is some inde-
pendent evidence OF the truth OF what is allegedf
1t Is rather remarkable that your correspondent
kept his miserable experience to himself for three
months, and only consented to put his agones upon
paper when intelligence had reached your side OF
the steerage passage discussion going on here; and
also that 1t should have appeared at the same time
as the experiences OF the amateur emigrantr OF
the Daily Ne,os, who sold his unhappy story Of
passage in another vessel for publication In the
Tri6ane. i your correspondent had been 50 mise
rable, surely he Would have been More eloquent
when his woes bore heavily upon hin; and,
what is more his memory would have
been more accurate than after three
months silence Your correspondent says that 500
passengers were embarked on this journey at
Liverpool and 200 more at Londonderry. The fact
is there but 62o passengers, all told, and only
seventy.sx embarked in Londonderry. Again, he
states that on the previous voyage the Sarmatian
had lSoo passengers There ever were q but LOGO Souls m
better had ne put pen to paper when he landed. II
he can be inaccurate in this, ne can be wrong In
thnHo tunvN tnVtN pft ~ r9


When he says that men, women and children
were mixed together without the slightest. regard
permit him to say what is demonstraby false. The
Allan line alone OF all the steamship companies
women aaa sns Se eSuen o%
men. they have ~, separate part
their families and friends. 1t is unfortunate that
| your correspondent should have selected this point
1 as In the articles which have been written on this
subject since the discussion began the evidence
has been unanimous with respect to the superior
| decency OF our arrangement. 1t may also not De
known to you but it Is well known here, that until
the present discussion the Allan line alone carried
stewardesses for female stcerage passengers. Your
correspondent: appears to have suffered as much as
people generally do from sea sickness &C., and Tor
that we surely are not to blame. he quarres WIN
bread sour, and 80 on. In iact. his stomach was
out OF order and he had no relish for his fo0d At
dinner his disgust was great with the beef and the
would not give to his pigs" You win probably
l
| any long criticism on the article under review. All
that we can say is that on every voyage the Doctor
| and the Captain have instructions to make daily
reports as to the food and to register complaints,
| II any. There were no complaints whatever on
s had used his he Would
have seen the following notice posted In c0nspcu-
GUS parts OF the vessel:-


tention Of the steward IN charge to any irreguares,
Or other q o ssSud ID
they should Immediately select two Of their number to
Who viii he and o al
70 b% any
nature before the master, he having many important
sT sh the
F19aHd sSaPlsin tssy are nvissa Tsaasssd


Amy steward asking for gratatcs win be dschargsd





sengers carried by their vessels. ="


II he did not complain he had only himself to
blame, and as he did not complain there Is of
course very good reason for his silence He has
no right now to turn round and BY means OF an
| q company which has Afforded him every precau-
tion against the evils he complains Of.


We may call your attention to the following
notice issued by our victualling superintendent to
the chief stewards Of oil the vessels Of the ine:-


You are instructed 10 see that every person has pien
syssy MEDICAL sss
signed by the captain and medical officer You will also
deposit daily with the medical officer the bill fare for
the day for ntcrmedate and steerage passengers and
he approves of the quality OF the provisions will sign
it and return to These documents handed in
to me the ships arrival In Liverpool caution every
servant In the vicuallng department. that wherever


a e an @
visit them with punishment


A. WOODS, victualling Superintendent.
In conclusion we may say that these accounts
are doing great damage to the cause OF emigration
to the United States 1t Is not the interest or the
States to play into the hands OF the anti-emigra-
tha
efforts the German authorities are making to stop
German emigration to the States. They take up
these stories with avidity and circulate them with
comments OF their own. We are and always have
been ready to stand by the facts and to be judged
by them, but we really cannot who is to be
served by the dissemination OF palpably untrue and
overdrawn statements. They are even calculated
to damage the NEW YORK HERALD which has stood
high in this country since the of its mag
nilcent Livingstone discovery expedition-an ex-
pedtlOn which Is an honor to the American press
and the wonder Of Europe and the world. We are,
sir, yours truly, ALLAN BROTHERS h co.


LIVERPOOL, Oct. Is, 1872,


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