Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/71

Rh system of commutation, the duty of examining the emigrant passengers will require the exercise of vigilance and honesty. To deceive the Quarantine officers, and obtain permission to proceed immediately to the city, the captains of vessels dress up their sick, and similar artifice will be employed to evade the provisions of the proposed law.

"The German and other emigrants not familiar with our language are liable to even more than ordinary imposition and suffering. To secure the assistance from the bondsmen, without which in the winter months they would perish, constantly requires the co-operation of the officers of their national benevolent institutions; and many remarkable instances of deception and cruelty have become known to your Committee.

"Agents are sent to the principal cities and ports of Germany with the view of securing passengers for some particular line of vessels, and from three to six Rix dollars is imposed as 'head' or commutation money, though, even if the law we recommend was adopted, $1 25 (25 cents for hospital fee) would be the actual outlay.

"It is maintained among some, if not all, of the passenger brokers that they are released from the obligation of sustaining the persons bonded whenever convicted of an offence and sentenced to imprisonment. Though we must dissent from this opinion, it appears to have been formerly acquiesced in by the authorities, or to have escaped their examination. The commission of crime, committals for misdemeanor or vagrancy, serve the selfish interests of passenger agents, though we are unwilling to believe that the practice is resorted to ordinarily. Occasionally, however, the inmates of these private work-houses and hospitals are unwarrantably consigned to the Penitentiary on Blackwell's Island. Hugh Graham, who was a sick man, was sent with eight others to be disgraced and contaminated in one of our worst prisons for insubordination. He, with his companions, purchased bread, and even ate it, without permission of the officials. He was taken before a magistrate, and committed without even being made acquainted with his crime or called upon for defence.

"Another illustration of the feelings governing some of the passenger carriers is to be found in the following anecdote,