sunday fell on the 11th, and it was a pleasant day till afternoon, when it began to get rough. the ship’s band was sent forward to play on the hurricane deck, in order to cheer up the emigrants, many of whom were beginning to look very badly, and to endeavor to brace them up till port could be reached; for it is a great saving to the company to take as many passengers as possible to ellis island in a good state of health.

on this day occurred another medical inspection; and to make all of the health tickets appear to have been properly punched as each passenger was inspected day by day, a steward whom i had heard called beppo went about and carefully punched any vacant spaces. as neither my wife nor myself had gone by for the last three of the four health inspections, having missed the call by being busy eating in the petty officer’s cubby, beppo punched out the full twelve days of the voyage at one punching. when those tickets were presented at ellis island there was nothing to show that their bearers had not been properly inspected each day.

that night beppo and two other stewards, who were on watch below, went into the women’s compartment and drank some wine that had been brought aboard by a spanish woman of uncertain character, and in a short while a small orgie was in progress. about six persons 199participated. the other women finally roused to protest, and the stewards addressed them in language that is not fit to be stated here, and continued until they were ready to quit.

in the morning the warmth of the gulf stream began to stir the chilled blood of all hands, and the first sail sighted since the azores caused the poor emigrants to rejoice, as it was a token that they were nearing america. in a slow way the italian provincial songs which had prevailed changed to american airs, attempted by those who had been in the states. everybody seemed happier than they had been for days, and first-cabin passengers began to appear in numbers on the forward end of the hurricane deck. several young women had brought out little bundles of delicacies, candy, oranges, apples, etc., and were dropping them over the rail to the emigrant children below. this kindly occupation was observed by the first officer, who was on the bridge, and he came down in haste and rebuked the first-cabin young women with severity, and sent the ship’s interpreter down to hector the emigrant children and their mothers. i wonder what he would have said had he known the quantities of first-cabin fare that was being smuggled to emigrants by the stewards and cooks every day.

that night we saw nantucket light, and from that on my wife and i counted the hours. we arrived too late the night of the 13th to go up the harbor, and so proceeded slowly so as to reach quarantine by eight o’clock on the morning of the 14th.

the night before, the joy among the emigrants that they were reaching the promised land was pitiful to see, mingled as it was with the terrible dread of being debarred.

200there was little sleeping all night. about twelve o’clock the women woke up the sleeping children, opened their packs, and took out finery on top of finery, and began to array the little ones to meet their fathers. my wife pleaded with camela to stay in her bunk and wait for daylight at least, but camela could not understand why she should wait, and at three o’clock little ina was brought up on deck arrayed in her very best, and as clean as her mother could make her with a small bottle of water and a skirt combination wash-rag and towel.

by six o’clock all the baggage in the compartments had been hauled out and up on deck, and the hundreds of emigrants were gathered there, many trying to shave, others struggling for water in which to wash, and mothers who had been unable to dress their children to their satisfaction in the cramped quarters below were doing the job all over again, despite the chill air.

happy, excited, enthusiastic as they were, there was still that dread among the people of the “batteria,” the name used to sum up all that pertains to ellis island. i saw more than one man with a little slip of notes in his hand carefully rehearsing his group in all that they were to say when they came up for examination, and by listening here and there i found that hundreds of useless lies were in preparation. many, many persons whose entry into the country would be in no way hindered by even the strictest enforcement of the letter of the emigration laws, were trembling in their shoes, and preparing to evade or defeat the purpose of questions which they had heard would be put to them.

some of the people who had confided in me came around even two or three times to ask me whether i thought they looked at all “sick in the eyes.” one 201woman who fancied that her baby had trachoma gorged the child all that day in an effort to get it asleep and keep it asleep, so that the doctor should pass it without examining it, as she was prepared to protest against its being waked up.

more than once i heard leaders of groups telling men:

“remember, you have got no work and you paid your own way.”

“oh, but they will not let me in if they think i have no work and will have no money to keep my family from charity,” protested one fellow whom i knew was under promise of work.

“that makes no difference; you are a jackass not to do as i tell you; don’t you think i know my business?” was the answer he received.

one man whom i knew to be of independent means and in no wise an unfit person under the law to be admitted was going about in a very nervous state, his hand constantly on some papers in his breast pocket. i had talked with him before, and he had told me he had had a store in salerno. now i approached him and drew him into conversation about the land already in sight, and before long he drew out the papers he had in his pocket. in addition to his passport and his regular ticket of health he had the naturalization papers of a full-fledged american citizen. the name on them was not the name on his ticket of health, and which would be the same on the ship’s manifest, and i told him that if he endeavored to use the naturalization papers at the docks he would certainly get into trouble. he was greatly frightened and was very suspicious of me, so much so that i was unable to get any further information out of him. i found one of his friends 202aboard who was a man of more experience, and after telling him just what lay before the salerno man if he attempted to use the naturalization papers, i persuaded him to find out where and how the salerno man got them. in half an hour he came back and said the salerno man was below, weeping, and ready to commit suicide, but had told him that he had gone with three other men to a man in the first wine-shop on the strada del duomo off the strada nuova in naples, and had paid fifty lire each for american citizens’ papers brought home by returning emigrants, and the four were to receive fifteen lire each if they returned them after use. the three other men had sailed on the citta di napoli.

numbers of the people were privately taking out and setting aside varying sums from their slender stores of money, with which to “pay something to the american inspector and american doctor.” so accustomed were they to extortion by officials, that they refused to believe me when i told them that it would cease at ellis island. they were astounded and deeply puzzled when it did.

giuseppe rota followed me wherever i went, for i had promised to lend him the money to replace his stolen seventy lire, and though we were hours and hours yet from ellis island he was afraid the ship would dock at any moment, a giant in the uniform of an american immigrant inspector would appear and demand to see twelve dollars, and i would be out of sight, in which case he would be locked up and sent back.

as we approached sandy hook the alternate glee and depression of the groups were pathetic. even antonio was trembling with excitement and said to 203me: “suppose they will not let me back in. can’t i tell them just to telephone up to my bank in stonington, and they will tell them that i got a wife and property there, and it will be all right.” camela’s tears were constantly ready to fall, for there dwelt in her heart a dread that something would arise to prevent her reunion with giuseppe.

the steerage stewards and the interpreter under the direction of a junior officer appeared and ordered all the steerage passengers to pass up from the forward main deck to the hurricane deck and aft, leaving their baggage just where it was. wild commotion broke forth, for this was preparatory action at last. slowly the chattering, excited hundreds were got aft and crowded into the space usually given to second-cabin passengers, and after a long wait there, while we approached quarantine, and the port doctor’s boat came out, and the chamberlain carrying the ellis island boarding-officers and a newspaper man or two, there were cries forward along the hurricane deck which indicated that the crowd was being passed back to steerage quarters.

i knew we were about to pass before the port doctor’s deputy and the boarding-officers, and got our party together and into the line passing forward along the promenade deck. as we approached the forward end we saw the dour german doctor standing with a gray-whiskered man in uniform, on whose cap front was the welcome gold-thread eagle design of the united states service. as we came nearly abreast of them i saw another official on the right-hand side, and turned my head slightly to see what was occurring on that side of the line. i caught a glimpse of steerage stewards beyond the officials, hurrying the emigrants 204down the companion-way, and the next instant received a heavy raking blow on the bridge of my nose and up my forehead. it partly stunned and dazed me, and i was merely conscious of stumbling on and of having the spectacles which i wore for reading or distance-viewing hanging by the hook over one ear. before i could even see, i was at the head of the companion-way, and the stewards were hustling my wife down the steps. i gathered from what she was saying that the german doctor had struck me, and, turning to look at him, saw he was looking after me with a sneer on his face. to go back would have been to spoil my investigations just at the last stage, and with a lamb-like meekness i went below, where my wife told how, having uncovered my head, as is the rule in passing the doctor, i had replaced my hat a second too soon as i turned to look to the right, and the german doctor had reached over her head and struck me with the back of his wrist, inflicting a heavy blow under the pretense of brushing my hat from my head.