Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/163

Rh accommodate all the livestock required for the uses of the institution; also a new building for containing

Workshops, for the various branches of labor used on the workshops, island. Both of these buildings are constructed neatly and substantially of brick.

The minor buildings consist of ice-house, dead-house, fowl-house, lumber-shed, tool-house, and gardener's house.

Ward s Island is reached from the foot of One Hundred and Tenth Street, by taking passage on a row-boat of the Commissioners, running to and from that point, or by a steamboat chartered by them, which leaves Castle Garden every day at one o clock A sick or destitute emigrant who desires to go to the island has to apply at the Ward's Island Department at Castle Garden. After an examination has established his title to the privileges of the island, he receives a permit, which contains his name, age, nativity, date of arrival in this country, the name of the vessel, and the cause of application, which permit is delivered on landing and kept on record by the proper officer. Upon reaching the island, all the new-comers are brought to the reception office, where they have to pass a medical examination, which serves to determine whether they are to be sent to the Refuge or to the Hospital. After this examination and a thorough washing and cleaning, which in most cases is indispensable, they are admitted in the proper place.

The Ward s Island Institution is divided into the Refuge and Hospital Department, the general care of which is entrusted to a standing committee of six members of the Board, appointed annually by the President. The charge of the various departments devolves upon the Superintendent, under the general supervision of this committee. It is, however, hardly possible to separate one department from the other. The relations between them are so intimate, that the institution, although actually divided into two departments, appears and works as an integral whole.

The Refuge Department, under the immediate direction of the Superintendent, has charge of all cases of destitution,