Page:1883 Annual Report of the German Society of the City of New York.djvu/41

Rh mostly do not understand English, the language of this country, and also because a portion of the pamphlets and journals published here and in Germany, which are intended to serve as "guides" to the emigrant, are, on the one hand, of very little value, and on the other—being published in the interest of certain parties and land speculations—positively misleading and injurious.

Under these circumstances it is incumbent upon the German Society to make use of its extensive experience in collecting and publishing all facts which it is necessary for the German emigrant to know. Everything which emigrants who are not too timid, or too much pressed for time, usually inquire about at the office of the German Society, or of its employes at Castle Garden, is contained in the present pamphlet.

Its extensive distribution is in accordance with the aim of the Society, expressed in its by-laws, "to give gratuitous advice and information to German emigrants and their families." In this way, such advice and information can naturally be tendered to thousands and tens of thousands, who would not ask for it, or at least not seek it until they have suffered through their inexperience. It is this which we wish to prevent; while, on the other hand, all that is contained in this pamphlet is important and useful for every emigrant to know and to remember.

Three large editions—over 22,000 copies—being exhausted at the end of the year, a new and revised edition is now in course of preparation. Orders are still coming in daily, and the work is universally acknowledged to be the most compendious and reliable of all similar publications.

The issue of this pamphlet involved a very moderate cost to the Society, as, in consequence of large sales to steamship lines and railroad companies, the greater part of the printing expenses were defrayed.

As was mentioned in the last annual report, and has been stated at the commencement of the present report, the Directors resolved to publish, in commemoration of the centennial of the Society, a detailed history of the same, and with this view have endeavored to collect the material still wanting. The result