Step Three
Completion requirements
Below you will find two primary source accounts of what it was like to arrive at Castle Garden. Please read each account with the goal of trying to find out what it was like for people to arrive in the United States. What were their difficulties? Hopes and dreams? Worries?
Source One
From “Castle Garden.” The New York Times Marine Intelligence Column. Experiences of an English Emigrant - December 23, 1866.
"….All being ready, the emigrants proceed in a body up the corridor into the interior of the building, their boxes and baggage being removed to the luggage warehouses, and here they range themselves in order on the seats. In front of them, and in the center of the building, which is lit by a glass dome, stand a staff of some dozen gentlemen, all busily engaged in making arrangements for facilitating the movements and promoting the settlement of the newly-arrived emigrants.
Each emigrant, man, woman and child, passes up in rotation to the Bureau, and gives to the registrar his or her name and destination, as a check upon the return of the Captain of the vessel, who gives the name, place of birth, age and occupation. One of the leading officers connected with the Bureau of Information then mounts a rostrum, and addressing the assembled emigrants, tells them that such as are not otherwise provided for, or prepared to pay for their 217 accommodation, can find shelter under the roof of that building; that advice and information of the best and most reliable kind can be had relative to tickets for railway and steamer to take them East, West, North or South; as to the best means of obtaining employment, for which a register is kept in the Intelligence Department of the Institution; also as to the best and most expeditious routes to take, with facilities for corresponding with friends, and of changing money at the Bureau of Exchange.
The Intelligence Department is largely resorted to by emigrants, inasmuch as there they can obtain information as to probable situations without fee, for which outside they are asked $2 by the employment agents. A careful supervision is exercised by the office as to the suitability and respectability of the parties on both sides. All this is well and wisely done for the protection of the emigrant, who would otherwise, if let to himself, become the prey of …boarding-house "runners"…."
Source Two
From “Castle Garden.” The New York Times Marine Intelligence Column. Experiences of an English Emigrant - December 23, 1866.
"...No inconsiderable amount of thieving occurred both on board and at Castle Garden, of wearing apparel and other articles and one night at the Castle one emigrant, subsequently detected through the vigilance of Officer Murphy, had the effrontery to rob another by whose side he was sleeping of his watch. In fact nothing was safe out of sight or hands for a minute from the marauders and pilferers….
Many of the men had become grizzly and hirsute, and much wanted a clean shave, but almost stood aghast when they heard that it would cost them twenty-five cents to have their beards taken off--an operation that, when last effected, they only paid a penny for.
I have since seen some of those emigrants who were at first so despondent and could get no work, and it was delightful to see what transformation they had undergone. They had obtained situations either in stores or in some capacity and were all happiness and smiles. Their patience and perseverance had been rewarded.
One or two practical thoughts and suggestions appear to arise out of the foregoing…experiences of an emigrant. The vast space at present unappropriated in the balconies of the building might be converted into dormitories for the women and children, and those in delicate health, and a towel or two, some soap, and other requisites, would be useful supplemental articles in the washing rooms. Many a poor emigrant comes over in a filthy and verminous condition, and the first thing done with such would be to order them a bath and send them to the hospital, where their clothes might undergo a process of purification and fumigation, and so prevent the spread in the New World of the pestilences of the old."
Source One
From “Castle Garden.” The New York Times Marine Intelligence Column. Experiences of an English Emigrant - December 23, 1866.
"….All being ready, the emigrants proceed in a body up the corridor into the interior of the building, their boxes and baggage being removed to the luggage warehouses, and here they range themselves in order on the seats. In front of them, and in the center of the building, which is lit by a glass dome, stand a staff of some dozen gentlemen, all busily engaged in making arrangements for facilitating the movements and promoting the settlement of the newly-arrived emigrants.
Each emigrant, man, woman and child, passes up in rotation to the Bureau, and gives to the registrar his or her name and destination, as a check upon the return of the Captain of the vessel, who gives the name, place of birth, age and occupation. One of the leading officers connected with the Bureau of Information then mounts a rostrum, and addressing the assembled emigrants, tells them that such as are not otherwise provided for, or prepared to pay for their 217 accommodation, can find shelter under the roof of that building; that advice and information of the best and most reliable kind can be had relative to tickets for railway and steamer to take them East, West, North or South; as to the best means of obtaining employment, for which a register is kept in the Intelligence Department of the Institution; also as to the best and most expeditious routes to take, with facilities for corresponding with friends, and of changing money at the Bureau of Exchange.
The Intelligence Department is largely resorted to by emigrants, inasmuch as there they can obtain information as to probable situations without fee, for which outside they are asked $2 by the employment agents. A careful supervision is exercised by the office as to the suitability and respectability of the parties on both sides. All this is well and wisely done for the protection of the emigrant, who would otherwise, if let to himself, become the prey of …boarding-house "runners"…."
Source Two
From “Castle Garden.” The New York Times Marine Intelligence Column. Experiences of an English Emigrant - December 23, 1866.
"...No inconsiderable amount of thieving occurred both on board and at Castle Garden, of wearing apparel and other articles and one night at the Castle one emigrant, subsequently detected through the vigilance of Officer Murphy, had the effrontery to rob another by whose side he was sleeping of his watch. In fact nothing was safe out of sight or hands for a minute from the marauders and pilferers….
Many of the men had become grizzly and hirsute, and much wanted a clean shave, but almost stood aghast when they heard that it would cost them twenty-five cents to have their beards taken off--an operation that, when last effected, they only paid a penny for.
I have since seen some of those emigrants who were at first so despondent and could get no work, and it was delightful to see what transformation they had undergone. They had obtained situations either in stores or in some capacity and were all happiness and smiles. Their patience and perseverance had been rewarded.
One or two practical thoughts and suggestions appear to arise out of the foregoing…experiences of an emigrant. The vast space at present unappropriated in the balconies of the building might be converted into dormitories for the women and children, and those in delicate health, and a towel or two, some soap, and other requisites, would be useful supplemental articles in the washing rooms. Many a poor emigrant comes over in a filthy and verminous condition, and the first thing done with such would be to order them a bath and send them to the hospital, where their clothes might undergo a process of purification and fumigation, and so prevent the spread in the New World of the pestilences of the old."
Last modified: Monday, 30 July 2012, 7:51 PM