Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York/Appendix/2
II. Protection of Emigrants and Care taken of Them.
REPORT OF THE GRAND JURY ON THE MODE OF DOING BUSINESS AT CASTLE GARDEN.
THE Grand Inquest of the county of New York, in the discharge of their duty, have been called upon to investigate certain complaints which have been preferred against certain employees of the railroad companies doing business with the emigrants landing at Castle Garden. In the discharge of this duty they have felt called upon to visit the Landing Depot itself, with a view to give a personal inspection to the mode of doing business within its enclosures. The landing and despatching of a cargo of upwards of 400 passengers, taking place at the time of their visit, afforded a favorable opportunity to watch the whole proceeding. The passengers were brought from the ship on a barge, towed by a steamboat, persons and property sheltered from the rain by the upper deck of the barge. They landed in an orderly manner, having evidently been instructed by the officers from Castle Garden as to the nature of the Landing Depot and its arrangements. They passed over the deck, answered the enquiries of the examining physician, whose duty is to note cases whose age or condition requires special bonds from the ship for their support in case of need, and to detect cases of sickness which may have escaped the notice of the Health Officer at Quarantine. On entering the large rotunda of Castle Garden, they were registered by a clerk of the Commissioners of Emigration, who took down the names of the heads of families and single persons, whence they came, the State of their destination, their cash means, and the relatives (if any) they were going to join. The annual statistics of the current of emigration are made up from these notes. The passengers then passed on to the next desk, where clerks of the Transportation Companies ascertained the places of destination they wished to go, laid maps of the various routes of travel before them, explained the difference in time and price of travel by the various routes; and, after a selection was made by the passengers, provided them with an order on the cashier, setting forth the number of tickets required, the route selected, and the price of passage and of over-freight per one hundred pounds by such route. The cashier, on receiving this order, issued the class of tickets it called for, and received the price therefor. The passengers were then shown by a different way from that by which they had entered the rotunda back to the dock, and there produced to the weigh-master the checks they held for baggage, which they had received on board of the vessel which brought them into port previous to passing their trunks into the hands of the officers from Castle Garden. The property having the corresponding checks was then taken from the barge and weighed, each piece being labelled with a conspicuous label, having a certain number and the place of destination printed thereon, the passenger receiving a baggage ticket with the corresponding number, and on which were inserted the number of pieces of baggage delivered, the route it had to be transported, the gross weight, and the amount of freight to be collected thereon after deducting the amount to which each passenger is entitled. This freight was then paid to the collector, having his office at the scales, who copied the whole ticket into a book kept for reference, and then receipted for the money at the foot of the baggage ticket. The baggage was then taken on board of a steamboat employed to transport the passengers and their property, free of charge, from Castle Garden to the starting-places of the various railroads and steamboat lines; and the passengers, having now fully prepared themselves at the usual hour of the day, had ample time to enjoy themselves in the depot by taking their meals, cleansing themselves in the spacious bath-rooms, or promenading on the galleries or on the dock. The utmost order prevailed throughout; every requisite information was given passengers by officials conversing in different languages; letters from friends were transmitted to landing passengers, bringing them money or directions how to proceed, etc.
The Grand Inquest, having thus personally witnessed the whole mode of doing business at the Landing Depot of Castle Garden, and having become satisfied that every care was taken of the emigrant that philanthropy could suggest, and devotion to a good cause, realized by perseverance and daily care, made further enquiries about the arrangements made for special cases which might not then have arisen or been witnessed by them. They learned that it is a frequent occurrence that passengers land expecting to find the means to pursue their route into the interior of the country without delay, but are disappointed. In such cases advances are made on the luggage of passengers, who, being thus enabled to escape the necessity of waiting in expensive boarding-houses for communications from their friends, leave immediately for their destination, and after a short while send the amount advanced to them, without interest or charge for storage, and have their trunks sent after them. The amount of money saved to emigrant families by this beneficial arrangement, in keeping them out of boarding-houses, is immense; for it embraces not only the reasonable board for a few days. Before the establishment of Castle Garden, emigrants in such difficulties would go to a boarding-house, and write to their friends for "money," not specifying amounts; the friends would send what they thought would pay for the passage, which was then swallowed up by the boarding-house bill, leaving the emigrant still without means to travel. The boarding-house keeper would probably extend a new credit on the security of the luggage (but not a cash advance thereon), and when thus all the means of the emigrant had been exhausted, he would be turned into the street a pauper, and a fit subject for the charities of the public institutions. This is proved by the statistics of Ward's Island Emigrant Refuge, which, at the time of the establishment of Castle Garden, had 3,000 inmates, whose number has, in one year, been reduced to about 1,000—the protection afforded by Castle Garden having cut off the supply of paupers.
Another admirable feature, to which the attention of the Grand Inquest was called, is the special arrangement of a large, airy, and well-ventilated room for the accommodation of lying-in women, or such as have been confined so recently before the arrival of the ship as to require rest before travelling. They have all the necessary care of medical attendance and nursing, at the expense of the Commissioners of Emigration, and are not under any necessity of going to boarding-houses and expending money which will take them to their destination as soon as their strength is sufficiently established to bear the fatigues of a journey.
On enquiring into the causes of certain published attacks on the Emigrant Landing Depot, the Grand Inquest have become satisfied that they emanate, in the first instance, from the very interested parties against whose depredations Castle Garden affords protection to the emigrant, and who are chiefly runners, in the employ of booking-agents, boarding-house keepers, and others, who have lost custom by the establishment of a central depot, where the railroad companies have their own business done by their own clerks, and without the extensive intervention of passage brokers, etc.
This class has thrown great difficulties in the way of the proper development of affairs in Castle Garden, by constituting a noisy crowd around the gates, whose behavior is utterly lawless, and endangers the personal safety not only of the passengers who have to leave Castle Garden to transact business in the city, but also the employees of the Landing Depot, and of individual Commissioners of Emigration, who are continually insulted in the public grounds surrounding the depot, and have been obliged to carry loaded fire-arms in self-defence against the violence which has frequently been offered to them.
This same class will swarm in boats around the ships in the bay, and bias the minds of passengers against the Landing Depot, and, when driven off by the police officers stationed by the Commissioners of Emigration on such ships, will abuse these officers in the most violent manner, and will lodge complaints against such officers in the Mayor's office, and such complaints will be listened to as though they emanated from respectable citizens.
The Grand Inquest witnessed a crowd of this class hovering around the gates of Castle Garden, and they learned with regret that, in spite of repeated representations to the municipal authorities, the police utterly ignore the disturbances caused by this mob, who will pounce upon every person leaving the enclosures of Castle Garden, and, if they do not rob them of their money, valuables, tickets, baggage-checks, or the like, or commit gross assault and battery upon such as will not enter into conversation with them, will induce them, by force or argument, to go with them to places where they will be required to spend part or all of their money before they can find a chance to escape.
With a proper attention to their obvious duty on the part of the police, there can be no doubt that this motley, noisy, and dangerous crowd could be entirely broken up, and prevented from reassembling.
The Grand Inquest have learned with regret that this obvious duty of the police is absolutely neglected, to the great detriment of the emigrants, and to the great annoyance of the Commissioners of Emigration, who superintend the business of the Emigrant Landing Depot.
The Grand Inquest, having become satisfied that the latter in all its operations is a blessing, not only to the emigrants, but to the community at large, would feel remiss in the performance of a sacred duty if they failed to recommend this important philanthropic establishment to the fostering care of the municipal authorities; and they have dismissed the complaints preferred against certain employees of the Castle Garden, satisfied that they are not sustained by law, and have their origin in a design to disturb, rather than to further, the good work for which the establishment has been called into life by an act of Legislature of April, 1855.