Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/225

Rh 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