in the morning we were up early, and after a very indifferent breakfast got our hand luggage together and departed from the albergo della rosa. at the door we were beset by fruit-venders with their long barrows, and small tradesmen with all sorts of trifles that they convinced our people were indispensable on the voyage; and i really believe that between the lodging-house and the steamship-broker’s offices that portion of the party which lagged behind where i could not control them bought forty or fifty lire worth of stuff that was worse than useless, being merely a burden and a care.

at the steamship-broker’s offices an enormous crowd was gathered. two thirds of them had no real occasion to go there, but if one member of a party was not right in his papers, or imagined he was not, all the party went with him to avoid being separated. we had some baggage checks to see about. it seemed that there was not one hour of our journey from gualtieri to our american destination which was not embittered by the mishaps of that baggage, and as i write, months after, some of it is still missing. i have had thoughts about it that were deeper than the greatest depths of profanity, and more far-reaching than the extent of the combined english and italian languages in blasphemous reference.

160we passed down the vico di via porta and along the marina, a veritable tumult of sailing-day traffic.

a highly picturesque carreta loaded with emigrants and their friends on their way to the capitaneria from their country home came jogging by and paused long enough to be kodaked.

near the railroad tracks we came upon a group that was both laughable and pathetic. it was one of the places of sudden and forced sale of household effects of emigrants. some of the foolish people will bring, even from provinces more distant than the campania, quantities of household goods, furniture, etc., and their hearts are almost broken when they find they cannot take it aboard. they have felt sure that there must be some little corner on such a big ship in which they can place a half-dozen two-hundred-years-old hand-made chairs, or a five-foot bureau, or so small a matter as a table large enough to accommodate a family of the usual italian size. however, here was a pile of it, heaped up indiscriminately, and about and on it were beggars who had bargained to look after it, or owners who had decided to remain and guard their own.

when we arrived within the iron enclosure of the capitaneria we found that the first thing to demand attention was of course the baggage. it was already getting hot, and the large space of open, unsheltered dust in front of the capitaneria was strewn with luggage of all shapes and sizes. there were huge wooden chests, bundles of bedclothes and blankets, casks of wine, kegs of olives, and cheese and butter, and quantities of small bags like my own. all such were already tumbling to pieces, being but cloth and paper pasted over frail wooden frames, and made on purpose to be sold to emigrants at ten times their value. 161men went about selling grass ropes with which to tie them up.

first of all we had to get the baggage together and separate the hand baggage from the hold baggage; then the latter must all be opened up before the american consular agent and inspected, numbered, and listed; next inspected by the port health authorities; then received and receipted for by the company’s agents; and what with wild efforts of the emigrants to go backward through the process, to get shut trunks that had been opened and shaken up in inspection, and to get through before the steamer should leave, it was a scene to wring a man’s soul. if any of our party had any trouble, they came to antonio or to me with it. antonio went about holding his head as if he was afraid it would burst, and all the emigrants about us kept an eye on the big ship; not due to sail for hours yet, as if they were afraid to see it start off, like a train, at any moment.

this section of the toil and turmoil being over at last, we found that we had to carry our encumbrances to the south side of the capitaneria and embark on a small steamer which would take us over to the fumigating-station, half a mile across the harbor, on the breakwater. it was an hour before we were properly assembled at this embarkation point, and the women were already almost succumbing to the dust and heat.

the little steamers were not much more than barges with donkey-engine power in them, and emigrants and baggage were piled in till it seemed they would swamp the craft. the men in charge of the boats knocked the emigrants about in a shameful fashion, without regard to their being men, women, or children, and 162the fear of “getting into trouble” caused the emigrants to take it all without resentment.

i observed many emigrants who had come to the point for embarkation on these little steamers, taking their baggage back without going to the fumigating-station, and a little careful watching showed me that certain furtive neapolitans were directing them. the little groups paused a moment just outside the door of the police station in the south side of the capitaneria and then hurried on around to the north side with the baggage.

i purposely put myself in the way of one of the sneaking neapolitans and asked some question concerning the baggage.

“you do not need to go over there for fumigation and inspection if you do not want to,” he said.

“is that so? how can we avoid it?”

“i know some men who will put on the labels that they put on over there, and no one will know you have not been there.”

i thought best to call antonio to engineer the deal by which i hoped to trap this gang, which i could see must be counterfeiting official seals. he went aside with the neapolitan, and soon turned away shaking his head. i called to him and asked what was the trouble. he said the neapolitan wanted fifty lire for our eleven pieces of hand baggage. the other had already gone. i told antonio to offer him twenty and i would pay it. antonio offered fifteen and the neapolitan accepted.

at the doorway of the capitaneria—author’s party on the quay

soon a man i had not seen before appeared and beckoned to us, and we toiled with our loads over to the south side of the capitaneria, set our baggage down in a row against the building, and in an instant a cordon 163of guards, four in number, was stationed about us. they came out of the crowd like summoned spirits. no words passed. a fifth man appeared, and with lightning-like rapidity affixed to the baggage, by lifting up the tacked ends of straps, or prying open the tiny lead billets themselves, little metal seals impressed with the seal of the italian government. it was the work of but a few seconds, interrupted once by the appearance of a pompous uniformed police officer who walked right by the baggage without noticing anything unusual in progress. the guards had given a quick signal as he appeared, and the groups seemed most ordinary. a sixth man appeared with a paste-brush and some little red labels. with one movement only he pasted each piece of baggage, and a seventh man, following him, affixed some large yellow labels bearing the united states consular seal. the eighth man was the one i had first seen; he appeared to be the capo or chief of the gang.

meanwhile i had made careful mental notes of the eight men. i was determined to get some or all of them into the proper hands. as soon as they were through they all hurried away, mingling with the crowd without waiting for their pay. that seemed odd.

we carried our baggage around to the other side of the capitaneria, and there stood the eighth man, really the best dressed of the lot, and signed to us to put our baggage inside a gate where two policemen were on guard, without going to a stand where men in the service of the united states consular service were pasting on genuine yellow labels on such baggage as had been over to the fumigating-station.

as we passed our baggage through the gate a boy 164marked each piece with a number, gave us a check, and it was all piled in rows on the ground, inside the fence, under police guard.

straightening up with a sigh of relief at having passed the danger line so far as the fraudulent baggage was concerned, and free from our encumbrances for a while at least, i found the eighth man at my elbow. he said we must now go and be vaccinated. this was something i did not care about, nor did my wife. we each needed both arms in good condition for some time to come, but as i looked at my health ticket i saw there was a space on the back where there must be the vaccination stamp.

“for a lire i will tell you how to keep from getting a sore arm,” said the thief beside me. i gave him the lire.

“when the doctor vaccinates you, rub your shirt sleeve down over the two scratched places quickly; then suck them. he will not stop you.”

in the middle of the open rough lot, very similar to half-ploughed ground, which lay out beyond the capitaneria fence, stood a small building with a big door. crowds of emigrants were struggling around it. venders of water-ice, lemons, fruit, etc., were in the midst of the crowd, holding their stands with one hand to keep them from being knocked over while they dealt out wares, made change, and talked with the other.

when we had fought our way inside at last, the crowd that was let in with us took seats all around the room in a row. three doctors sat on a raised dais at one side. one did the vaccinating, the others the clerical end of the work. i believe they took turns. the moment we entered, the vaccinating doctor 165caught sight of my wife, and, advancing politely, addressed her in german. he thought her an austrian, and afterward confessed that he believed her to be a moravian missionary. he was a very amiable sort of fellow, with a fine education, both general and professional, i should judge.

with a gallantry which might not have been so effusive if he had suspected that she had a husband present, he vaccinated my wife first, and she removed the virus with haste.

at the sight of the fierce-looking old man putting down the bared point of steel on my wife’s bare arm the women shrieked and the children began to cry. little anastasia made a break for the door, but a guard blocked his exit. others fought to get out. the other doctors reassured them; and after much difficulty all in the room were vaccinated, every member of our party following the advice of the thief. concetta was as white as milk from fright and horror.

outside, the thief informed us that we would not be required to go back to the capitaneria just yet, but i did not believe him until i had asked one of the guards, for i mistrusted the thief because he had not asked for the pay for the job done by the gang. now he asked us to leave the vicinity of the capitaneria and go to a nice place with him to get something to eat. i refused, and then he demanded his money. if we had gone with him he would have put up some game that would have wrung a few lire from us at least, and, if we had been as stupid as his usual victims, perhaps all that we had. he not only demanded the amount agreed upon, but three times as much. he threatened to get us arrested for having fraudulent labels on our baggage. antonio was scared to the rigidity of a 166poker, and all the others were trembling like leaves. but his bluff was not equal to american aplomb, and in a few minutes he went off with ten lire and no more. i knew we would have no trouble from him, and was anxious to get rid of him so as to be able to communicate with the american consul and secure the arrests i had in mind.

even though the capo had left us, i observed that we were duly watched, and, try as i would, i could not get a message away unobserved. i could not leave the party myself, nor could i send any of them, they being strange to the city. i began to despair.

it was now time to return to the capitaneria for the final examination, and to go aboard if we passed. i knew i should see st. ledger there, but it might be too late.

we made our way in at the front entrance, and were compelled to stand for a long time in the crowd. there the capo joined us once more. he had shed his ill humor as a snake sheds its skin. one of the boys brought to me the report of a case in which i was interested. it was that of mrs. vincenzo tortora, a woman who had been in new york and lived with her husband at no. 3 elizabeth street, and had returned to visit her home in a village back of naples. she had with her a two-and-a-half-year old boy born in the united states. some time before, she had endeavored to return to the states, but the doctors had refused to allow her to do so because the child had contracted trachoma. i saw the woman and talked with her, and found that she had come down to naples to see the “underground men,” who had agreed to put her through for 300 lire. they had told her to go back, that she could not go on a north german lloyd steamer, 167but must go by a certain line when they sent for her. while i was talking to her the capo came over, having heard the boy who had reported the case to me telling antonio about it, and he assured the woman that if she had come twenty-four hours sooner he would have sent her over on the prinzessin irene for 100 lire.

i drew him into talk about the underground system for diseased emigrants, and he said that there were doctors in naples who could so relieve trachoma in forty-eight hours that if the emigrant kept up the treatment he or she could get by the doctors at new york or boston. the eyes would be worse than before after the treatment was stopped, and, if continued too long, would cause blindness. those emigrants who could not be doctored up temporarily were sent through, however.

“how sent through?”

for answer a shrug of the shoulders and—“oh, pay some money to some people!” always that evasive, baffling answer.

however, having heard of the system in messina, on the steamer, and in the city of naples, and now seeing such palpable signs of it right in the shelter of the capitaneria, i began for the first time to believe what i could scarcely credit before,—that the “gold-paved avenue” leading into my beautiful, healthy home country, for the loathsomely and contagiously diseased, did exist. i set on foot at that point some investigations not yet ripe, and i may never harvest them; but if i do not some one else will sooner or later “get on the inside.” i shall later prove beyond a doubt that there is a door for diseased aliens.

another flagrant abuse which i should mention here was that of supposed bankers’ agents inducing emigrants 168to buy new york drafts for the safety of their money. one man was going about cautioning the emigrants to invest in drafts, and another followed him offering drafts. the first man came up to me, after some of our boys had been approached by him and had referred him to me.

“who are you?” i asked, feigning stupidity.

“the chief of police,” he said,—and i laughed in his face.

however, many were caught in the scheme, among them a boy i had taken an interest in, a lad named salvatore biajo, bound for st. louis. he had 100 lire in gold and eight in silver, and bought a draft. the draft was all right, being on the bank of naples, but the man who sold it to him, instead of making it for 108 lire minus a few centesimi for discount, put it in dollars, writing in only $19 when it should have been about $21.35 according to post & flagg’s ellis island rate. the gang of draft-sellers made two dollars off young biajo, and if they made as much off the hundreds of others who bought, they did a fine day’s business.

at last we were ready to move on, and, still accompanied by our thieving friend, who evidently wanted to see me safe where he thought i could do him no harm, and where i might pay him a little more for valuable information, we entered the great north pen in the capitaneria, where emigrants in hundreds were standing, with their passports out, in a solid mass held back by police, who peeled off the front row from right to left, then back again; and we filed across the room to a door in the corner where was the american staff, the port doctor, the surgeons on duty for the united states marine hospital corps, the ship’s surgeon, and some others.

169we were examined; our eyelids were turned up for trachoma; our heads rubbed over for favus; any defective-looking parts of the body touched for hidden disease; and every now and then a man, woman, or child would be told to stand aside for further examination, and a wail would go up from the group to which that one belonged. it was as if a touch of death had come among them.

i saw one old man who had taken his wife and widowed daughter with her two children, sold all his little property, and was starting for america to open up a little business of some sort, pulled out of the line, examined for some spinal trouble, and turned down. the family could not go without him, so they were all turned back. there were two or three other cases like that, which happened there before my eyes. last year we turned back over 20,000, including dependent relatives, at our ports and borders. they should never have been allowed to leave home. that is where our system is wrong. the emigrant should not be selected at the port of arrival, nor at the port of embarkation, but by a small visiting itinerant board that should come to him in his home community. we would thus get none of the bad and lose none of the good, and a hundred outrages would be avoided. the fuller argument i hope to give with the light of facts yet to be told.

when we appeared at the bar of the police official who inspects all passports, i made our presence known to mr. st. ledger, and after a word from him to the official we were passed, went by the place where the police were taking weapons from suspected bad men, and out into the enclosure where our baggage was. against the fence i saw the face of the capo of the gang of thieves and counterfeiters.

170under a pretext i got the party halted, re-entered the building, followed by the perplexed st. ledger, and, when inside, where the thieves’ sentinels could not see, i unfolded the plot i had discovered.

in a word, before the ship sailed i had the pleasure of seeing the capo and two others in the hands of detectives, and the others would have been captured had not the port doctor, the instant he was informed of it, rushed up to me in full view outside in the baggage enclosure, followed by half a dozen officers, and at the sight the thieves flew like birds.

the port doctor refused to allow our baggage to go aboard, as it was fraudulently passed; but in the end i got it into his dull head that if he did as he threatened, kept us there to testify, and held our baggage for evidence, he would not get any testimony from us; and when sufficient consular pressure had been brought to bear to show him that we had been parties to the fraud in order to catch the counterfeiters and make the case, he relinquished his hold on us and our belongings. we found sixty-eight other pieces of baggage, with the fraudulent labels on, in the enclosure. they could be told by a slight imperfection in the red labels. the yellow counterfeits of the united states seals were perfect.

at last we were free to go aboard.