Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/64

50 {|
 * width=400|"The number of passengers arriving at this port during the last three years amounted to 181,615, of which 20,119 were commuted . . . . . ||width=90 | $21,452 17
 * Received on account of passengers bonded the sum of . . . . ||| 19,939 28
 * Making a total receipt from these passengers of . . . . ||| $41,391 45
 * The whole number of passengers which arrived, at one dollar each, would have amounted to . . . . . ||| 181,615 00
 * Whereby the city would have received in addition the sum of ||| $140,223 55
 * or $46,744 51 per annum paid to individuals, as before stated."
 * }
 * Whereby the city would have received in addition the sum of ||| $140,223 55
 * or $46,744 51 per annum paid to individuals, as before stated."
 * }
 * or $46,744 51 per annum paid to individuals, as before stated."
 * }

During all that time, those who became chargeable were sent to the Almshouse, and the bondsmen paid the expenses of their board to the city authorities.

Even this arrangement, though pecuniarily advantageous, only excited cupidity, and the bondsmen concluded to support the sick and indigent at private poor-houses and hospitals, where they could sustain them at rates lower than those charged by the Almshouse department. Experience having proved the plan feasible and profitable, these establishments soon became numerous, some being conducted by the passenger-shippers and others maintained by individuals, whose profits and business were confined alone to the medical care or temporary maintenance of the pauper or unfortunate emigrant. To this latter class of establishments, on account of their cheapness, many merchants and passenger agents transferred the destitute; but this system was associated with many grave and flagrant abuses. These evils gradually attracted public attention, and the various emigrant societies urged the necessity of a prompt and radical change.

On February 2, 1846, the Board of Assistant Aldermen of the city of New York appointed a committee, consisting of Messrs. Purser, Gilbert, and Candee, relative to the treatment of investigation of certain emigrants in a place designated "Tapscott Poor-House and Hospital." This institution was established by the firm of W. & J. T. Tapscott, passenger-brokers in South Street, New York, and situated in North Sixth Street, in the then town of Williamsburg.