Dean Wagner's Genealogy - The Immigrant's Progress

Castle Clinton National Monument

New York City, New York County, New York, USA

The Immigrant's Progress

Scribner's Monthly
© September 1877
Pages 577-588

Return to Part I

Part II

The truth is, the owners trust to good luck in contemplating the subject, or treat the matter with indifference. The captains and officers are compelled to assume the responsibility. The master of a steamer told the writer that in leaving Liverpool with over a thousand emigrants on board, he remarked to the agent on one occasion how improbable it was that a single life would be saved, were it ever necessary to abandon the ship at sea. The agent dismissed the matter with the cool observation that the captain took a morbid view of things, and distressed himself about disasters which would never happen!

Giles and his friends, who have never been afloat before in their lives, are slow in settling down to the routine of the voyage. They complain to the captain of the narrowness of their quarters, the insolence of the stewards, and the quality of their food; and the captain listens to them, or growls at them, according to the mood he is in. While the weather is fine, their sufferings are not very great. Three meals are served every day, and both in quantity, which is unlimited, and in quality, which is variable, the rations are better than the law demands. Breakfast, at eight o'clock, consists of oatmeal porridge and molasses, salt fish, hot bread, and coffee ; dinner, at twelve, of soup or broth, boiled meats, potatoes, and bread; and supper, at six, of tea, bread, butter, and molasses. But the manner in which the meals are served is careless and uncleanly. The beef, soup, and porridge are placed on the table in great, rusty-looking tins, which need scrubbing; and the passengers scramble for the first choice, often using their dirty fingers instead of their forks, in making a selection. Mrs. Giles finds her appetite gone after watching a filthy rag-picker plunge his hand into a dish of meat for a tender piece. The stewards themselves are greasy, and want washing. The potatoes are bad, and the bread is not baked enough. Still, while the sea is calm, Giles can take his family on deck and brace them with the glorious fresh air, which brings roses to pallid cheeks. Indeed, the emigrants are quite merry on deck during a warm summer's day. Some of the squalid Italians are dragged from their suffocating retreat over the gratings of the engine-room, and induced to give a concert with their harps and violins, to which the cabin passengers liberally subscribe. Card-parties are formed and checker-boards roughly made for the occasion. Giles lies basking at full length on a hatchway, and dreaming over an old newspaper.

It is when a storm comes that the emigrants suffer most. The hatches are battened down, the ports screwed in their places as tightly as possible, and the companion-ways closed. So long as the sea sweeps the decks, Giles and thirteen hundred others are confined to the steerage. It may be for a day, or two or three days. Each hour the atmosphere becomes more close, and in twenty-four hours it is loaded with impurities. The meals are served irregularly, or not at all, and the food is not cooked enough. In the darkness the ignorant and timid lose control of themselves, and pour out imprecations and prayers in shrill chorus. The terror spreads to others, and the bravest quail as the shrieks grow louder. The greater the number of emigrants, the greater the confusion and the worse the atmosphere. We have known of instances in which the sailors have refused to enter the steerage for the purpose of cleaning it after a storm until the captain fortified them with an extra supply of grog. And sailors are not ridiculously sensitive, nor are captains in the habit of indulging them without reason.

Giles is pale and feverish when he reaches the open air again, and his wife and children are too weak to stand. The deck is still wet and the wind boisterous; but he cannot endure that "black hole" of a steerage. The thought of the filth he has seen and the dread of contamination sicken him. The company is to blame, he thinks, for crowding so many people together; but the habits of some of the emigrants are even more to blame than the overcrowding. The Italians will not wash themselves, and cling to their berths until they are peremptorily ordered out by the captain. They neglect every provision made to insure their personal cleanliness, and they excite little sympathy when they are brought on deck and thoroughly drenched with water from the fire-hose.

In nine or ten days the voyage draws to a close, and hope is revived in Giles's breast. He has very hazy ideas of the country he is approaching, and believes that its characteristic features are Indians, buffaloes, and log-cabins. Very likely he expects to obtain a view of the Rocky Mountains from Chicago, see war-chiefs in their paint on the streets, and hunt for his supper before he eats it. He has heard much about the great cities, the wealth and liberality of the people, the profligacy of municipal government; but it never enters his head that New York has any of the magnificence of London.

His surprise is unbounded when the steamer arrives at Quarantine. The cultivated lands on the heights of Staten Island and on the Long Island shore, the tasteful houses, prettier to his eyes than the English villas, the appearance of wealth, comfort, and beauty on each side of the Narrows, astonish him and excite his warmest admiration. If he is fortunate, the day is warm and sun-shiny, and tempered by a delicious breeze coming from the sea. That cloud which looms at the head of the bay, - that, he is told, is New York, the gate-way to the land of promise, and he points it out to Mrs. Giles and the children to their intense satisfaction.

A little tow-boat brings the doctor on board,- not the ship's doctor, but the health-officer of the port, who inspects the steerage and the emigrants. As there are no cases of an infectious disease, the steamer is allowed to proceed to the city, and then another little steamboat appears, bringing the boarding-officer employed by the Commissioners of Emigration. The boarding-officer is an officious Irish-American gentleman, who ascertains the number of passengers on board and their health. He is also instructed to examine the steerage and to listen to all complaints made; but he retreats below as soon as he comes on board, and we are much mistaken if he may not be found at the bar taking a quiet "nip " with the chief steward. Mean while the emigrants on deck are looking wistfully toward the city, with its high roofs, spires and towers. Many of them are anxious and sick at heart, almost afraid to enter the new and unfamiliar world now that they are at its portals. Some happy ones expect friends to meet them and know all about the beneficent offices of Castle Garden, which they explain to others who are not so well informed. By and by the trees and lawns of the Battery Park come into view, with the curious-looking building, in the form of a rotunda, at the water's edge. The steamer's pulse ceases to beat, and several large barges are towed alongside. The baggage is brought from the hold and transferred with the emigrant passengers to these tenders. There is the same confusion and uproar as at the outset of the voyage. The bewildered people are browbeaten and driven about in the most inconsiderate manner. A loud laugh is heard for an instant. An old lady from Ireland has put her tin cooking utensils underneath the cord that binds her heavy trunk. As the trunk is tossed down the gangway, the sailors fail to keep "this side up with care," and saucepans and basins suddenly collapse. As soon as the barges are loaded, a steamboat takes them in tow, while the great steamer proceeds to her pier in the North River.

Castle Garden has been famous for generatons. First it was a fort, and then it was converted into a summer-garden for the sale of chocolate, soda and ices. In 1832 it was the scene of a grand ball given to the Marquis Lafayette, and in 1843 a reception was given to President Tyler within its walls. Afterward it became a concert-hall, in which Jenny Lind and many other celebrated singers made their first appearance in America.

The Board of Commissioners of Emigration was created, in May 1847, and Castle Garden was afterward selected as a convenient and suitable entrepôt for immigrants, and such it remains. It was partly destroyed by fire on July 9, 1876, but it has been rebuilt with a few changes which do not materially alter its appearance. The lower walls are the same that formed the old fort, and the embrasures, through which the cannon peeped, are sometimes selected by the immigrants for smoke and rest, or meditation.

From May, 1847, to March 20, 1876, the laws of the state required the owners or agents of vessels arriviug at the port with immigrants to give a bond of $300 for each passenger, conditioned to indemnify every city, town, or county in the state against any charge on account of the relief or care of the passenger during the first five years of his residence in the country. The same laws enabled the owners or agents to commute the bond by paying a certain sum known as "head-money" (which varied at different times, the highest being $2.50, and the lowest $1.50) to the Commissioners of Emigration, whose duty it became to pay the expenses incurred by the immigrant in any poor-house or hospital, owing to his infirmity or poverty. The large steamship companies were opposed to the exaction, and on March 20th, 1876, they obtained a decision through the Supreme Court of the United States that the law was unconstitutional and void. The expenses of the Commissioners for the current year (1877) are defrayed by an appropriation of $200,000 made by the state; but an effort will be made at the next session of Congress to obtain further authority for the collection of head-money.

The barges are soon moored to the wharf at Castle Garden, where the custom-house officers are in waiting to examine the baggage. Battered old chests, barrels, and great bundles of clothes and bedding are packed together, much against the wishes of their owners, who are in terror of losing all their worldly treasure. The officers then set to work,with turned-up sleeves, and faces expressive of repugnance. Some of the bundles are uninviting, but they are explored and turned upside down and inside out with a degree of energy and speed highly creditable to the inspectors. Some of the unmarried men have no baggage at all, except a small bundle tied in a handkerchief and slung over a stick. Some forlorn women, who embarked at Queenstown, are without bonnets and have no shawls or mantles. The whole wealth of the Italians consists in their organs, harps, fiddles and the clothes they wear. They have traveled from country to country, and from town to town, earning their bread on the way, and in the same manner they will travel to their destination in America. Other immigrants with families are overloaded with baggage and have large sums of money in their pockets.

At one time all passengers were questioned at Castle Garden as to the amount of money in their possession; but they scarcely ever gave truthful answers. It is assumed on credible evidence, however, that one hundred dollars at least, is the average amount in the possession of each person, and that the average quantity of property brought by each is worth fifty dollars more. During 1869, two hundred and fifty-nine thousand immigrants arrived at Castle Garden, and thus the amount added by them to the national wealth was almost equal to thirty-nine million dollars. Large as this sum is it becomes trifling in comparison with the capital value of the immigrant's labor. A well-known social economist estimates the capital value of the male laborer at one thousand five hundred dollars, and the capital value of the female at seven hundred and fifty dollars, making the average value of persons of bQth sexes eleven hundred and twenty-five dollars. Between May, 1847 and January, 1870, four million, two hundred and ninety-seven thousand immigrants were deposited in New York. Adding to the capital value of each immigrant the estimated value of his personal property, we find that immigration increased the national wealth by more than five billions of dollars in less than thirty-three years. The total immigration into the United States for several years previous to 1874 was at the rate of three hundred thousand persons a year, and the country gained nearly four hundred millions of dollars annually from the traffic, or more than one million a day. Less than five per cent. of the whole number of immigrants are unproductive, but the worthlessness of these is more than counterbalanced by the large number whose education is superior to that of the ordinary laborers.

When the baggage has been "passed" by the inspectors, it is checked and sent to a room prepared for its reception. The immigrants are examined by a medical officer, who ascertains that no paupers or criminals are among them, and that no persons afflicted with contagious or infectious diseases have escaped the doctor at Quarantine. There is too much ordering about for Giles's liking, but he quickly takes his place. The immigrants are then ushered into the rotunda, a high-roofed circular building, into which ventilation and light are admitted by a dome seventy-five feet high. The floor is divided into small inclosures containing a post-office, telegraph-office, money exchange, and restaurant. As the crowd files in, each passenger is detained for a moment at the registration desk, where his name, age, nationality, destination, the vessel's name and the date of arrival are carefully recorded and preserved.

The whole number of immigrants landed at Castle Garden during 1873 was 267,000. The destination of 96,000 was the state of New York, of 44,000 the middle states, of 99,000 the western and north-western states, of 24,000 the eastern states, and of 2,000 the southern states. The whole number arriving in 1874 was 149,584, the destination of 52,444 being the state of New York, 22,630 the middle states, 56,615 the western and north-western states, 12,237 the eastern, 3,506 the southern states, and 2,152 Canada. In 1875 the total number of immigrants was 99,093, and in 1876 the total was 113,979.

When the registration is complete a clerk announces the names of the passengers who have friends waiting for them, or for whom letters, telegrams or remittances have been received, and delivery is made to the persons answering. Other passengers who wish to communicate with acquaintances or relatives are referred to clerks who speak and write their language, and their messages are transmitted from the telegraph desk or by mail. The railroad companies have agents in the building, and the passengers who wish to leave the city are shown to the ticket offices, while. their baggage is rechecked and conveyed to the train or dépôt without charge. Those who want rest are permitted to remain in the rotunda, where a bowl of coffee, tea or milk and a small loaf of bread are supplied to them for ten cents. If they choose they can go to one of the boarding-houses licensed by the commissioners, which offer food and lodging at the modest price of a dollar or a dollar and a half. But we hope that Giles will not be induced to enter one of these dens. With a few exceptions they are located in an unhealthy neighborhood, frequented by dangerous characters and conducted by reprobate men and women. We pity the immigrant who trusts himself to them. They are defective sanitarily and defective morally, and ought not to be sanctioned by the commissioners.

During his visit to America, eighteen months ago, Joseph Arch expressed his gratification at the care with which immigrants are treated at Castle Garden, but regretted that no provision was made for the accommodation of passengers who are detained in the city for a few days. "They are compelled to trust themselves to the licensed boarding-houses, which are not, I am assured, and can readily believe, very good places for their morals or comfort. * * * I have an interest, therefore, in suggesting to you the establishment of an Immigrant Home, where cleanliness and comfort would be combined with the protection so freely extended by the commissioners in other matters; this, I should imagine, might be rendered selfsupporting."

Attached to Castle Garden there is also a labor bureau, and if Giles had not an opening in view for himself he might present himself as a candidate. Neither the laborer nor the employer is charged a fee, and the latter is required to prove his responsibility. During 1873 employment was found for 25,400 emigrants, including 14,400 agricultural or common laborers, 3,500 mechanics, and 7,000 house servants. In 1874 employment was found for 10,148 men, and 6,762 women; in 1875, for 7,008 men, and 5,432 women, and in 1876, for 5,394 men, and 4,821 women.

The immigrants are guarded against swindlers by a broker's office in the rotunda, where coin is exchanged for bills at the lowest current rates, and where valuables may be deposited without charge. So Giles ought to be grateful, and the vessel-owners ought not to begrudge the small amount of "head-money" which secures so many benefits to their best patrons.

The last stage of the immigrant's progress is accomplished by rail, and, as far as the vehicle is concerned, it is the least pleasant. An immigrant train is usually made up of dingy old passenger cars, with few windows or means of ventilation. It runs on special time and is managed by conductors of more than ordinary brutality. Each seat has its occupant, and the atmosphere of the car soon becomes almost suffocating. Smoking is allowed in all the cars, which are filled with fumes of sickening density. At Albany, Rochester and Buffalo agents of the commissioners examine the passengers and assist them with information; but it is not their business to find fault with the railroad company, and they never do. The long, hot, dusty days lapse into long, hot and dreary nights. The passengers turn as well as they can in the narrow space of their seats and groan in the vain endeavor to get a wink of refreshing sleep. But after about fifty-six hours of misery Giles arrives at his new home, and with his wife and little ones, stands gazing at a broad expanse of untilled land. His work is before him, and it will not be complete until the waste has been cleared and the earth has yielded a tribute to his industry.