Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/96

82 Smethurst and a Dutchman were there. I have been in Albany and seen the luggage of emigrants weighed, and have seen the men that took the tally add to the weight called out by the weigher so as to average about fifty pounds to the passenger over the true weight; I have seen it done by men in the employ of Smethurst & Co., and the charge collected by them; I have also seen the same thing done in Malburn & Co.'s office in the absence of Malburn; I have seen Smethurst collect lake charges on luggage, and receipt only upon the canal ticket, compelling the emigrant to pay lake charges again at Buffalo; I have seen Daley, Smethurst, and Weaver, on two or three occasions, collect from passengers their passage, and freight on their luggage, and endorse on their tickets due upon this a balance in Buffalo.

"The men called the Sixteen party have their Headquarters at 16 Front Street, headed by Huested, Hart, and others. I have heard several of the party say, after they had been booking emigrant passengers, that they had made a big thing of it, and at the same time they had skinned them of their money, and that they had skinned English and Scotch out of sovereigns. The English runners generally get the luggage of passengers in their office, then, if the passenger does not take passage with them; they make a heavy charge for storage.

"The notorious James Roach says that he considers those employed by Government more valuable as runners in consequence of their official station than others of equal capacity, and especially that a man connected with the Custom House as night-watch has an advantage over other men in booking passengers."

In Albany, the prices paid by the emigrant forwarding companies to runners varied from $40 to $100 per month. "I have been paid by Smethurst & Co. $150 per week," says George W. Daley, "from the 3d or 5th of August to the 20th of October last, for the purpose of keeping me from interfering with their business by establishing an opposition office. The New York runners averaged about $70 per month, and in Albany about $55 per month. There are about twenty runners in this city, and in New York Smethurst & Co., Malburn & Co., and E. Mathews employ and pay about sixty runners, and indirectly about one