loo Dock, whence the greater number of emigrant vessels take their departure, will see a profuse display of the various articles upon which the man-catcher makes his gains-articles generally of the most inferior quality, and sold at the most extravagant and ⚫ ridiculous prices. The man-catching business, in all its various departments, has been reduced to a regular system, and no London sharper can be more sharp than the Liverpool runners. Perhaps the most complicated and ingenious trick is the following: When a steam-vessel laden with emigrants leaves an Irish port for Liverpool, one of the Liverpool fraternity, dressed up as a raw Irishman, with the usual long-tailed, ragged, and patched gray frieze coat, the battered and napless hat, the dirty unbuttoned knee-breeches, the black stockings, the shillelah, and the short pipe, takes his place among them, and pretends to be an emigrant. Before the vessel arrives at Liverpool he manages to make acquaintance with the greater portion of them, learns the parish they came from and the names of the relatives whom they have left behind, not forgetting those of the parish priest and the principal people of the neighborhood. He also ascertains the names of the friends in America whom they are going to join. He tells them of the roguery of Liverpool, and warns them against thieves and man-catchers, bidding them take especial care of their money. On arriving at the quay, in Liverpool, he jumps ashore among the first, where a gang of his co-partners are waiting to receive him. He speedily communicates to them all the information he has gained, and the poor people on stepping ashore are beset by affectionate inquiries about their friends in Ireland, and that good old man the parish priest. They imagine that they have fortunately dropped among old acquaintances, and their friend of the steamboat takes care to inform them that he is not going to be "done" by the man-catchers, but will lodge while at Liverpool at such and such a place, which he recommends. They cannot imagine that men who know all about the priest and their friends and relatives can mean them any harm, and numbers of them are usually led off in triumph to the most wretched but most expensive lodging-houses. Once in the power of the man-catchers, a regular siege of their pockets is made, and the poor emigrant is victimized in a thousand ways for his passage money, for his clothes and utenBils, and for his food. Even after they have drained him as dry as they can, they are loth to part with him entirely, and they write out per next steamer a full, true, and particular account of him-his parish, his relations, his priest, and his estimated stock of money-to a similar gang in New York. Paddy-simple fellow-arrives in New York in due time, and is greeted on landing by the same affeetionate inquiries. If his eyes have not been opened by woeful experience, he thinks once more that he has fallen among friends, and is led off by the "smart" man-catchers of the New York gang, to be robbed of the last farthing that he can be persuaded to part with; and he is possibly induced to spend the savings of years in the purchase of land, supposed to be in the far west, but having no other existence but such as paper and lies can give it. It must not be supposed, from the statements in reference to the rogueries practised by runners and man-catchers upon the simple, emigrants themselves do not ocea sionally endeavor to commit frauds, both upon each other and upon the owners and captains of ships. The Irish emigrant, with the passion for hoarding which is so common among his countrymen, often hides money in his rags, and tells a piteous tale of utter destitution, in order to get a passage at a cheaper rate. The shameless beggary, which is perhaps the greatest vice of the lower classes of Irish, does not always forsake them, even when they have determined to bid farewell to the old country; and I have several times been accosted by men and women, on board emigrant ships in dock, and asked for contributions to help them when they got to New York. "Sure, yer honor, and may the Lord spare you to a long life; I've paid my last farden for my passage," said a sturdy Irish woman, with a child in her arms, when accosted on the quarter-deck of a fine ship, in the Waterloo Dock, "and when I get to New York I shall have to beg in the strates, unless yer honor will take pity on me." On being asked to show me her ticket, she said her husband had it; and her husband—a wretched-looking old man-making his appearance and repeating the same story, was pressed to show the document. He did so at last, when it was apparent that he had paid upwards of seventeen pounds-eightytwo dollars and twenty-five cents-for the passage of himself and wife and his family of five children. "And do you mean to say that you have no money left?" was inquired of him. man. 66 those who have money. Those who really have none at all, or who possibly have not suffi"cient to pay their passage, resort to other schemes for crossing the Atlantic at a reduced rate, or free of charge altogether, and "stow away." This is a practice which is carried on to a great and increasing extent. "Not one blessed penny," said the "No, nor a fardin," said the woman, "and God knows what'll become of us.' "Do you know nobody in New York?" "Not a living sowle, yer honor." Have you no luggage?" "Not a stick or a stitch, but the clothes we wear.' As the good ship was detained two days beyond her advertised time of sailing, all the emigrants, as usual, had liberty to pass to and from the ship to the streets, as caprice or convenience dictated. On the following day, this sturdy woman and her husband were seen entering the Waterloo Dock gates with a donkey-cart, tolerably well piled with boxes, bedding, and cooking utensils. When they were down in the steerage, and she was asked whether that was her luggage, she replied it was. "You said yesterday, however, when you were begging, that you had no luggage." "Sure, it's a hard world, yer honor, and we're poor people God help us." After encountering these perils of poverty and cheating, the crowd becomes finally located on board of ship, and assigned their quarters for the voyage. It is a strange place for the new-comers, and their admiration of the new life they have entered upon begins with the first day's issue of regulation food. The experience of most of them in the edible way, has hitherto been confined to "murphys" or, at most, Indian meal, which they heartily detest as "starvation porridge." They now come to the allowances, as above, handed them by law. The meal, the tea, the rice, the sugar, and molasses prove frequently a puzzler-tea in parAn incident of a kind not very dissimilar ticular—and it is not unfrequently the case occurred on board of another American liner. that a brawny Pat, who could do a good When the passenger roll was called over, turn at Donnybrook fair, but whose knowlit was found that one man, from the county edge of drinkables is confined to whisky, of Tipperary, had only paid an instalment will, after gravely surveying the tea for a upon his passage money, and that the sum while, deliberately fill his pipe with a porof $6 each for three persons, or $18, was tion, and smoke it with much satisfacstill due from him. On being called upon tion. Others, with more expansive ideas, to pay the difference, he asserted vehemently will at times mix the whole in a mass, ad that he had been told in the broker's office boil it into a thick soup or pudding, well that there was no more to pay, and that to specked with the expanded tea leaves. Inask him for more was to attempt a robbery. formation comes with experience, however, The clerk insisted upon the money, and and the first serious experience is sea-sickshowed him the tickets of other passengers ness, which utterly prostrates them, mind to prove the correctness of the charge. The and body, aggravating every dirty habit man then changed his tone, and declared they may have formed. Then is exthat he had not a single farthing left in the erted the utmost power of the captain to world, and that it was quite impossible he enforce cleanliness; he usually selects a could pay any more. "Then you and your dozen or two of the more intelligent, and family will be put on shore," said the clerk, investing them with authority, a general "and lose the money you have already paid." turn-out, and a thorough cleaning every The intending emigrant swore lustily at the morning, and in all weathers, is compelled. injustice, and declared that if put on shore By the rigid observance of this rule, much he would "get an act of Parliament" to put of the former sickness and mortality has an end to such a system of robbery. The been avoided. A voyage of some thirty clerk, however, was obdurate, and the man days usually brings the human freight withdisappeared, muttering as he went that he in sight of New York harbor. It almost inwould have his "act of Parliament to pun- variably occurs that in the first delight of ish the broker, the clerk, and the captain." arrival every utensil and article of bedding He returned in a few minutes from below, is pitched overboard. No matter how poor and, without saying a word of what had happened, and looking as unconcerned as a stranger, coolly presented a £5 note, or $24 25, and asked for his change. Such is a specimen of the rogueries attempted by are the people, or how hardly the things may have been come by, over they go; and cleaning for the landing takes place. How full of anxieties is that landing! CHAPTER III. Ward's Island 54,890 18,360 4,647 Forwarding Immigrants, &c., &c. 32,130 721 $197,744 This account gives a general idea of the operations of the commission. The whole amount disbursed by the commission, May 5, 1847, to Jan. 1, 1860, was $834,786. The proportion who go into hospital appears to be about six per cent. of the arrivals. A large majority of those who here land have their friends awaiting them to guide them to their future homes. Numbers have to seek their way amid numberless perils. But nearly all these have come provided with instructions more or less minute, derived from the numerous agents in Europe of the American land companies, who hold out inducements to settlers. The Germans are mostly inclined to agriculture, and they soon find their way, by the emigrant trains of the great trunk lines of railroads. Those lines have all exerted themselves to profit by the movement. LANDING IN NEW-YORK-FUTURE HOMES. THE Castle Garden, at New York, is allotted for the reception of the passengers under the Commission of Emigration, which was organized by law in 1847, and which charges a tax of two dollars per head on each immigrant, applying the proceeds to the support of the needy and destitute among them. The operations of this commission have become very extensive. It has charge of the Quarantine. Since its organization it has raised large hospitals on Ward's Island, where the sick are cared for. They are also sent to the Marine Hospital and the New York Hospital, and they reimburse the towns and counties of the state for the charges they incur for support of poor aliens, and advance money to immigrants on pledge of baggage, without interest. In the year 1859 $2,180 was so advanced to 162 families, and $2,031 was paid back. The operations of the commission in 1859 were:Receipts for commutation $159,112 The following table, from official sources, Other receipts..... 23,454 gives the number of Germans and British under each head, and also the aggregate of 182,566 all the aliens arrived since the returns have 5,656 been regularly kept. Some of the passengers $188,222 report themselves from Great Britain, without stating which portion. These are under the head "Great Britain." Thus, the total from Great Britain to 1859, is 2,670,059, of which, 1,415,399 are reported from Great Britain, 289,654 from England, 918,729 from Ireland, 46,277 from Scotland. Total receipts... Balance in hand, January, 1859 Of ce.. $16,486 Hospitals 6,380 Counties for support 23,555 Castle Garden. 34,727 Agent at Rochester. 1,087 66 แ Albany. 2,160 2,601 NUMBER OF PASSENGERS THAT ARRIVED IN EACH YEAR IN THE UNITED STATES FROM ENGLAND, IRELAND, SCOTLAND, GREAT BRITAIN, AND GERMANY, WITH THE TOTAL FROM ALL COUNTRIES. |