The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 19, March 18, 1897 | Page 7

for us to let all the immigrants into the country who want to come. Others hope that he did sign it, because they think we ought to be very careful about the kind of people we allow to enter our country, and share its privileges with us.
The present immigration laws are very strict. Every foreigner who comes to our shores has to satisfy the authorities at Ellis Island as to his worthiness, before he can be allowed to land.
Ellis Island is in New York harbor, and is used solely for the handling of immigrants.
Every ship that carries immigrants is obliged to furnish the authorities at Ellis Island with lists of these passengers, and full information about them. The steerage passengers are landed at Ellis Island, the lists are given to the clerks, and the immigrants have to pass before these clerks, and answer all their questions before they are allowed to enter our country.
Before they come to the desks where the clerks sit, they have to pass two by two before some doctors, who watch very carefully to see if there are any lame or deformed persons among them. If any such are found, the doctors separate them from the rest, and they are carefully examined to see what their trouble is.
If it is serious, and they are cripples, and not able to earn their own living, they are not allowed to come into the country, but are sent back where they came from, at the expense of the steamship company.
In Spain and Italy, and indeed in many of the European countries, there are an amazing number of cripples who make their living by begging. These professional beggars are a dirty, shiftless set of people, a disgrace and a danger to the countries they live in.
If we allowed them to enter our country it would greatly increase our taxes and expenses, for we do not allow begging, and so, as the poor unfortunates must have food and shelter, we would send them to our almshouses, and have to pay to support them. So it is forbidden to allow cripples, or people incapable of earning their own living, to come into the country.
While the doctors are watching for cripples, they also examine the immigrants carefully, to see that they have not any kind of sickness. Only healthy immigrants are allowed to land, sick people being sent back.
When the immigrants have passed the doctors, they then reach the clerks, who must be satisfied that they have money, or friends in the country, before they give them permission to land.
People who come without money are divided from the rest, and are taken before a board of inquiry.
Here they are asked why they came to the country. If they have friends who have sent for them, and who agree to feed and shelter them, they are allowed to pass. If no friends come for them, they are kept on Ellis Island till their friends are found; and if no friends are found, they are sent back to their own country.
When they have been passed from Ellis Island the immigration law has not done with them. The law says that no charity shall be given to an immigrant who has been in this country for less than a year. Any person who asks for help, and has been less than a year over here, is sent back to Ellis Island, and from thence he is carried back to his own country by the same steamship company that brought him.
So you see that the laws are almost strict enough now, and the immigrants who succeed in passing through Ellis Island are a good, solid class of people, who are likely to become worthy citizens.
* * * * *
Did you ever hear a singing mouse?
A man wrote a long story to The Sun, a few days ago, telling how he was awakened one night, and frightened out of his wits by hearing a noise like the peeping of a chicken in the adjoining room.
He got up and lit the gas, and saw a little brown mouse run across the floor.
He set a trap, caught the mouse, which was no sooner in the trap than it began to sing. The man whistled to it, and the little creature replied.
The man did not seem to realize that he had found a great prize, but pretending that his wife was afraid of the mouse, he drowned it in a pail of water.
When it was safely dead, he began to search through his encyclopedia to see what kind of a "beastie" he had caught. But the encyclopedia, as studied by the good man, did not seem to be any wiser than he, and he finally wrote a note to the newspaper for information.
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It is a great pity he did not keep