Immigrants:

Immigrants: God Bless/Chapter 2:Our Calabrian Magazine...

Island of Greed:

NEW YORK TIMES ( Dec. 3 1894 )

From a New York Times article published December 13, 1894.These are the prices paid for the food the immigrants bought before leaving Ellis Island or during their stay.This article explains that since most immigrants could neither read or speak English, or any other language for that matter, including their own, they were at the mercy of the persons selling the food. The restaurant was "privately owned" even though it was on government property. This means that if you got someone in there who wanted to, he could cheat the immigrants all he wanted, and no one would know. The article also stated that the man behind the counter would give the immigrant what HE thought they would need for their journeys, TAKE the appropriate money and give them their change. All the while the immigrant having no idea as to what was going on.Goverment Sells the Right to Maintain a Restaurant to the Highest Bidder, Who is Responsible to Nobody--An Easy Matter for Him to Defraud His Ignorant, iIlliterate, Customers.
Gay Raab

When the immigrant has changed his European money for that which passes in this country, on landing at Ellis Island, his next business transaction in most instances is buying something to eat. Within ten feet of the money exchange is the restaurant, although, because of an iron railing, they must go through another room before he can reach it.

The Government sells the right to maintain the restaurant at auction. Although the lines are short and the prices apparently close to the bottom notch, the great number of customers make the business a profitable one. In the competitive sale this privilege brought $10,510 last April,l 1884, for a contract which will not expire until June 30, 1896. Felix Livingston secured the privelege. He says that he believes he has more customers than any other restaurant in the country. It is doubtful if one half of the 343,422 immigrants who landed at Ellis Island last year knew at just what stage of their transit through the big building they ceassed to be under the direct orders and supervision of the United States authorities and free to set for themselves. Some whom a reporter for the New York Times saw last week walked up to the lunch counter and made their purchases in precisely the same perfunctory and routine way that they walked past the inspectors and showed their documentary evidence to enter the country.

No complaint is made that he does not manage it as well as any one could or should. But, if it was in dishonest hands, there is a fine chance for defrauding ignorant immigrants. It is doubtful that there is another restaurant in the world where precisely the same conditions exist as at this one. It is on Goverment property, it is owned by private individuals. The Goverment assumes to maintain jurisdiction over it. Many of its customers do not now how to count the money which they pay for what they buy. None of them ever say it before; most of them will never see it again. Their purchases are made in a hurry. They do not ask for prices; there is no time. THese are posted conspicuously, but many customers cannot read, and the formality is useless in their cases. They do not ask what is to be had in many instances. They take such quantities as are put into a paper bag and handed to them. They give a piece of money and are give some change. They add the paper bag containing the food to their other bundles and pass on, stolid, stupid, half-dazed, out into the United States.

The man who conducts the restaurant alone knows what his slae amount to. He makes no report to the Government as to the number of sales or their values. The Goverment sells the privelege; the man who buys it does the rest. No one else-not even the immigrant-has much to say about it. Why should not the Goverment control this business, and by a businesslike system of reports make it certain that the immigrants are protected so long as they are on Government property and practically under Goverment jurisdication?

The counter were the immigrants buy their first meal is at about the middle of
the building at the north side. There is another around in the big room where
the immigrants gather before taking the boat for New York City.
The first one is just at the head of the stairs by which the horde of
Europeans bound for distant States pass down to the big baggage room. This
location might be made to cut an important figure in the business. Few of the
immigrants can escape the eye of the man who sells pies, bread, and bologna.
It is probably a convenience to all concerned to have it there, too. There
are odd things in the business of this restaurant. Upon the wall behind the
counter is the following bill of fare:

Rye bread, two pounds....10c
Wheat bread, two pounds....10c
Wheat bread, one pound...5c
Swedish bread, two pounds....10c
Rolls, each....1c
Pies, each....10c
Half-pie.....5c
Bologna sausage, per pound...20c
Boiled ham, per pound....30c
Corned beef, per pound....25c
Cheese, per pound....20c
Coffee, per cup.....5c
Milk, per pint.....5c
Soup, with bread, per bowl....10c
Sandwich, ham or corned beef, each....7c
Sausage and bread, each.....13c, 2 for 25c
Soda water, ginger ale, or sarsaparilla, each, small....7c
Do, large.....20c
Smoking tobacco....10c
Cigars,each.....5 and 10c

At the bottom of the bill is this notice, in large letter: Prices are
regulated by the Commissioner of Immigration."
THis notice is posted by virtue of a clause in the contract, which the
successful bidder for the privilege makes, under which the Commissioner is at
liberty to fix the prices which may be charged for bread, sausage, soup, &c.
No change has been made in prices since this system went into effect. There
must have been a good profit in the restaurant at that time, for immigration
was heavier than it has been this year, which now brings $10,510, was awarded
for $2,400. Under the old system, this award was made without competition,
and was considered one of the choice bits of political patronage.
This restaurant is no place for an epicure. The bread comes in bug loaves.
They would make dangerous missiles. The immigrants like them to eat.
The pies may or may not be toothsome. No immigrant was found who had eaten
one and could speak enough English to tell the reporter how they tasted.
After having seen them, heresay evidence was all the report was looking for.
The sausage had the appearance of the usual bologna.
Few college graduates have sufficient knowledge of the modern languages to
keep this restaurant. It requires a linguist to sell these pies and bologna.
The process, as observed the other day, is peculiar. The quantity purchased
was fixed by the man behind the counter, and he depended somewhat on the
length of the journey ahead of the immigrant.
As the half-dazed European approached the stairs where he was to look after
his baggage, the man behind the counter shouted at him, in a foreign tongue.
Presumably he asked where the immigrant was going, for the latter produced his
ticket and showed it to the man behind the counter, sometimes saying something
in his native tongue.
"Scranton, eh?" repeated the man who dispensed bread and sausage. The
immigrant nodded and grinned, knowing as much about the location of Scranton
as he did about Tasmania. Before the grin died away the restaurant aman had
made up a "Scranton lunch," that is, one which was supposed to be enough to
last until the immigrant reached that place. This consisted in most instances
of one big loaf of bread, one bologna, a chunk of cheese, and a bottle of beer
or ginger ale. If the immigrant had been going further more luncheon would
have been sold to him.

These things were put in a bag of tough brown paper, the price was paid, and
the immigrant, stolid as a graven image, passed down to the baggage room.
THis process was repeated at a rapid rate. Bread and bologna went in a steady
streasm of brown paper bags and cash came to the restaurant. Some days 3,000
luncheons of this type were disposed of.

The immigrant does not know whether he has his money's worth or not. There is
not record of his transaction. He makes no protest at this treatment, and if
he wanted to, it would be difficult for him to make out a case against the
restaurant. One considerable branch of the restaurant busienss consists of
furnishing food to immigrants who are for any reason "detained." There is
always a good-sized colony of these, men, women, and children. Some are kept
for days, a few for weeks, pending the determination of whether or not they
shall be returned. The steamship companies bring these immigrants are, by
law, obliged to pay for the food they eat while at this Island.

Written and contributed to Our Calabrian Magazine by Gay Raab.

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