nspection officers
come on board to hunt for infectious or contagious diseases--cholera,
smallpox, typhus fever, yellow fever, or plague. No outbreak of any of
these has marked the voyage, fortunately for you, and there is no long
delay. Slowly the great vessel pushes its way up the harbor and the
North River, passing the statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, that
beacon which all incomers are enjoined to see as the symbol of the new
liberty they hope to enjoy.

[Sidenote: Ship Landing]

At last the voyage is done, your steamship lies at her pier, and you are
thrust into the midst of distractions. Families are trying to keep
together; the din is indescribable; crying babies add to the general
confusion of tongues; all sorts of people with all sorts of baggage are
making ready for the landing, which seems a long time off as you wait
for the customs officers to get through with the first-class passengers.
At last word is given to go ashore, and the procession or pushing
movement rather begins. You are hurried along, up a companionway,
lugging your hand baggage; then down the long gangway on to the pier and
the soil of America.

[Sidenote: Unnecessary Cruelty]

It is not a pleasant landing in the land of light and liberty. You have
been sworn at, pushed, punched with a stick for not moving faster when
you could not, and have seen others treated much more roughly. Just in
front of you a poor woman is trying to get up the companionway with a
child in one arm, a deck chair on the other, and a large bundle besides.
She blocks the passage for an instant. A great burly steward reaches up,
drags her down, tears the chair off her arm, splitting her sleeve and
scraping the skin off her wrist as he does so, and then in his rage
breaks the chair to pieces, while the woman passes on sobbing, not
daring to remonstrate.[17] This is not the first treatment of this sort
you have seen, and you feel powerless to help, though your blood boils
at the outrage.

[Sidenote: Unpleasant Beginnings]

As you pass down the gangway your number is taken by an officer with a
mechanical checker, and then you become part of the curious crowd
gathered in the great somber building, filled with freight, much of it
human. Here there is confusion worse confounded, as separated groups try
to get together and dock watchmen try to keep them in place. Many
believe their baggage has been stolen, and mothers are sure their
children have been kidnaped or