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ABUSES AT BARGE OFFICE

Immigrants' First Experience in Land of the Free Not Happy.

"Why do they treat those people like dogs?

Posted to the Comunes of Italy Mailing List by Gay Parisano Raab - 2 October 1998.

People who visit Battery Park for the first time and see the bigcrowd in from of the Barge Office cuffed about by policemen askthis question. The policemen, if the question is put to them,inform the inquisitive ones that it is none of their business,while the Barge Office officials themselves are wont to treat anycomplaints with silent and contemptuous disdain.

The state of affairs that is witnessed by casual lookers-onoutside is a fair index of what is transpiring within the building and on the further side of it at the water's edge,except that the discomfort to which immigrants are subjected inthe interior is caused rather by a lack of room than by willfulintent. Those in authority say that the completion of the newbuildings at Ellis Island will mark an end to the misfortunesthat newly arrived immigrants are overwhelmed with, and thatafter the new quarters are opened there will be no necessity forherding together the incomers like sheep.

From the time a foreigner leaves his native land to seek a newhome in the United States until he runs the gantlet of theblue-coated guardians of the New York Barge Office's front door,his lot is anything but a pleasant one. On shipboard, whether theofficers who look after the steerage be lenient or harsh, thereis necessarily much unhappiness, for the quarters prepared forthat class of travelers, even in the finest steamships, are by nomeans palatial. In crowds and amid the nauseating odors thatindigent humanity exhales the traveler spends the weary daysdreaming of a new land, where there is the freedom, plenty, andcontentment.

WHEN THE SHIP ARRIVES.

When a load of immigrants is brought into port, they aretransferred from their vessel to the lower end of ManhattanIsland in river boats kept by the Bureau of Immigration for thatpurpose, and as the boats are towed along the river, the chatterof many strange tongues and the melancholy wails of babies areborne to the ear.

Upon reaching the pier that forms a rear porch to the BargeOffice, the boats are unloaded. The process, however, is often aslow one, and there may be such a crowd inside as to make itnecessary to detain the new ones until room can be made by thedischarge of those who arrived first. Sooner or later, however,the occupants of the boats are hustled out and into the back doorof the building. All the while the air echoes with the shouts of"Move on, move on," and gradually the confused group of temporaryprisoners is pushed and shoved up stairs to the "pens."

There, after a long wait that is due rather to the limited spacethan to any negligence on the officials' part, it is ascertainedwho is entitled to enter the country and who is not. Much "redtape" is wound and unwound, but it is said, apparently withtruth, that this is necessary, and that it will not be noticeableor troublesome when space for the proper discharge of businessbecomes available on Ellis Island.

As the immigrants "qualify," either through the possession of therequisite cash or by reason of having relatives in the countrywho will guarantee their support, they are released. But theirtroubles are not over. Outside, lining the pavements and streetand waiting for relatives or else watching the scene as a matterof curiosity, are many people. On days when the number ofincomers is large, the crowd goes far into the hundreds, andthere are two or more police officers present to "keep order." These officials walk to and fro along the pavement, yelling andswinging light canes. If an overenthusiastic relative pushes hisway across the gutter on seeing the face of a kinsman appear atthe Barge Office door, he receives some smart blows and is forcedto withdraw behind the line, after which the new arrival ispushed bodily into the midst of the multitude and the arms ofthose who await him.

Then follow kisses and embraces, and soon the participants in thescene slip out of the crush and disappear in the direction ofBroadway, while still others arrive, take their dose of blows,and finally go away. During all this commotion the baggage men,whose wagons line the street a little further down, play aconspicuous part, canvassing for trade from the newcomers andoften dragging them away from their friends and into thevehicles, bag and baggage.

The Barge Office was located at the foot of Whitehall Street
on the East River at the eastern end of Battery Park.

OFFICIOUS OFFICIALS ON HAND.

Such is life in front of the Barge Office on almost every Springday, and while the regular policemen and the crowd play theirparts, there are many other individuals, of more or lessauthority, who help to complete the picture of disorder. Sometime a detective in plain clothes stands at the entrance tothe Ellis Island Ferry landing and seems to be testing thecapacity of his lungs. He, too, carries a stick, and his criesare, if anything, even louder and more vicious than those of hisbrass-buttoned associates. He beats, or pushes, or shakes asoccasion demands, sending the venturesome trespassers flying backinto the street in terror, and making a flush of resentment orfear rise to the cheeks of the women. For there is no regard forsex at the lower end of Battery Park.

"Cripps," the Battery fixture, who sleeps in a box on the pier orin the engine room of the Barge Office, has his share in themanagement of the crowd.

He yells as savagely as the rest, and, being fiercer ofcountenance, his orders are more quickly obeyed than those of theauthorized guardians of the peace. Nobody dares face the glitterin the eye of "Cripps," and before his gaze Italians, Huns,Greeks, and men of various nationalities wither away in mortalfear and venture no more in reach of his eye or cane. He,without a smile and confident of his supreme authority over all"furriners" never flinches in his duty.

To the spectator who looks for the first time on the abuses atthe door of the Bureau of Immigration, the treatment of women bythe policemen is probably the most noticeable feature. They,like the men, are subjected to knocks in abundance, and it is notuncommon for some Italian, Irish, or German girl to be seenstifling the rising tears after being roughly pushed back by anofficer, though the Irish are better treated, on the whole, thanother people.