Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/25

Rh make good his word, took the five pounds, and sold Catharine to Johnson, who married her at once. The match turned out excellent.

"Robust farmers and sturdy mechanics," says D. von Buelow, the celebrated military writer, who first visited the United States in 1791, "find a very easy market. At times, however, an unsalable article creeps in which remains for a long time on the shelf. The worst of these articles are military officers and scholars. The captain who imports that kind of goods does not know the market. I have seen a Russian captain for more than a week on board of a vessel, heavy as ballast, without being able to obtain a purchaser. He was, in fact, unsalable. The captain of the vessel entreated him to try, at least, to find a purchaser, and, in order to get rid of him, he offered to sell him at a discount of fifty per cent. He sent the captain on shore to make the people take a fancy to him; but it was of no avail, nobody had a mind to buy him. The Russian always spoke of stabbing with bayonets, which, he said, he had often practised against the Turks and Poles. Strictly speaking, the use of the bayonet was the only art he had mastered. Finally, the captain and consignee released him upon his promise to pay his passage after six months, and flattered him with the hope of obtaining a school-mastership in the country. He really obtained it. What he will teach the boys and girls I do not know, unless it be the bayonet exercise." Peasants and mechanics generally got along tolerably well. Much, of course, depended on the character of the master. There are instances of immigrants having been treated worse than cattle, and driven to work with blows and kicks, so that the colonial authorities had to interfere. The better educated a man was, the more he had learned at home, the worse it was for him. Hard drinking and suicide were often the fate of the unfortunates of this class. Parents sold their children, in order to remain free themselves. When a young man or a girl had an opportunity to get married, they had to pay their master five or six pounds for each year they had still to serve. Yet a steerage passage never cost more than ten pounds. Run-away servants had to serve one week for each day, one month for each