Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/226

198 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