f it at Ellis Island
is exceedingly difficult to deal patiently with. Hence, from the very
nature of things and men, the situation is one to develop pathos, humor,
comedy, and tragedy, as the great "human sifting machine" works away at
separating the wheat from the chaff. The tragedy comes in the case of
the excluded, since the blow falls sometimes between parents and
children, husband and wife, lover and sweetheart, and the decree of
exclusion is as bitter as death.

[Sidenote: Make Yourself an Imaginary Immigrant]

To make the manner and method of getting into America by the steerage
process as real as possible, try to put yourself in an alien's place,
and see what you would have to go through. Do not take immigration at
its worst, but rather at its best, or at least above the average
conditions. Assume that you belong to the more intelligent and desirable
class, finding a legitimate reason for leaving your home in Europe,
because of hard conditions and poor outlook there and bright visions of
fortune in the land of liberty, whither relatives have preceded you.
Your steamship ticket is bought in your native town, and you have no
care concerning fare or baggage. A number of people of your race and
neighborhood are on the way, so that you are not alone.

[Sidenote: The Ship's Manifest]

Before embarking you are made to answer a long list of questions,
filling out your "manifest," or official record which the law requires
the vessel-masters to obtain, attest, and deliver to the government
officers at the entrance port.[16]

[Sidenote: Numbered and Lettered]

Your answers proving satisfactory to the transportation agents, a card
is furnished you, containing your name, the letter of the group of
thirty to which you are assigned, and your group number. Thus you
become, for the time being, No. 27 of group E. You are cautioned to keep
this card in sight, as a ready means of identification.

[Sidenote: The Voyage]

Partings over, you enter upon the strange and unforgetable experiences
of ten days or more in the necessarily cramped quarters of the
steerage--experiences of a kind that do not invite repetition.
Homesickness and seasickness form a trying combination, to say nothing
of the discomforts of a mixed company and enforced companionship.

[Sidenote: First Experiences in the New World]

Your first American experience befalls you when the steamship anchors at
quarantine inside Sandy Hook, and the United States i