Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/362

358 insane or supported by charity; whether a polygamist; whether an anarchist; whether coming by reason of any offer, solicitation, promise or agreement, expressed or implied, to perform labor in the United States, and what is the alien's condition of health, mental and physical, and whether deformed or crippled, and if so, for how long and from what cause.

The master or first officer and the ship's surgeon are required by the same law to make oath before an immigration officer at the port of arrival that the lists manifests are to the best of their knowledge and belief true, and that none of the aliens belongs to any of the excluded classes. Each alien is furnished with a card, with his name, the number of the list on which his name appears and his number on that list. The cards of minor children are given to the head of the family. These cards are valuable and necessary for identification, and facilitate inspection at the port of arrival.

The condition of the steerage quarters of a modern steamship depends largely upon the age of the ship and the degree of overcrowding. The steerage of a first-class ship of recent construction will afford accommodations equal to those accorded second cabin passengers on less progressive lines. First-class lines are careful also to prevent overcrowding. On some of the smaller and older ships the accommodations are limited, and overcrowding is permitted. But it is safe to say that the worst steerage accommodations to be found on any ship entering New York harbor to-day are infinitely better than the best afforded by the sailing vessels or old 'side wheelers' of the past.

On entering New York harbor the ocean liners are boarded by the state quarantine authorities, and the immigrants inspected for quarantinable disease, such as cholera, small-pox, typhus fever, yellow fever or plague. Then the immigrant inspectors and a medical officer of the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service board the vessel and examine the cabin passengers, paying particular attention to the second cabin. This cabin inspection is very necessary, and, before its institution, the second class cabin was the route most often employed by persons who found it necessary to evade the law. After the completion of the cabin inspection the ship's surgeon reports any cases of sickness among the aliens in the ship's hospital. The medical inspector examines these cases and later arranges for their transfer, if deemed advisable, from the ship to the immigrant hospital. The immigrants are then taken from the ship upon barges to the immigrant station, Ellis Island.

The medical examination at Ellis Island is conducted according to a system which is the result of many years of development. The doctors work in pairs, and divide the inspection between them. The immigrants, coming in single file, are examined for certain defects by the first doctor, who detains each one long enough to keep a space of