Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/134

114, who, while not officers, are nevertheless under the close and constant supervision of the Commission, and are required to keep a record of all transactions, subject to the inspection of any member of the Board.

VII. The Information Department.—When the foregoing operations are completed, the emigrants are assembled in the Rotunda, and an officer of the Commission calls out the names of those whose friends attend them in the waiting-room at the entrance of the Depot, and to whom they are directed. At the same time are called out the names of those for whom letters or funds are waiting, which are then delivered to the proper owners through the Forwarding Department. Emigrants who desire to communicate with friends at a distance are referred to

VIII. The Letter-Writing Department, where clerks, under standing the various Continental languages, are in attendance to write; the emigrant, while waiting a reply, if destitute, finds a home in the institutions at Ward's Island.

IX. Boarding-House Keepers, licensed by the Mayor and properly certified as to character by responsible parties, are admitted to the Rotunda after the foregoing business has been completed, to solicit for their respective houses such emigrants as desire to remain in the city for any length of time. These boarding-house keepers are subjected to careful supervision and to certain regulations, which will be found in the Appendix, and every precaution is taken to guard the emigrant against the abuses and imposition to which he was formerly liable.

X. The Forwarding Department receives, through the Treasurer, all communications and remittances from friends of emigrants, sent either before their arrival or in response to letters written by the Letter Department, and applies them to the purchase of tickets. The amount of money and orders for passage received and disbursed through it will be found under the head relating to the Treasurer's duties.

XI. The Ward's Island Department receives all applications