The Arrival of the S/S Bolivia 25 October 1898 Orleans Parish Submitted by: Rose Albrizio January 2004 Source: The Daily Picayune Wednesday, October 26, 1898 p. 9 and p. 11 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** ANOTHER BATCH OF SURLY SICILIANS Arrives in Port and Undergoes the Ordeal of Inspection. The Bolivia Brings Nearly Fourteen Hundred of Them, Who Hope to Find Here the Land of Promise and Plenty. Immigration Inspectors from New York Assist the Local Officials in the Work. Another contingent of Sicily's surplus population to the hospitable regions of Louisiana reached this port yesterday, on board the steamship Bolivia, which in twenty-three days made the trip from Palermo to New Orleans. To the number of 1,369 men, women and children the new comers crowded the spacious decks of the big steamship, and strained their eyes to discern and their strong lungs to greet their hundreds of fellow- countrymen now residents of this city, and many of whom had acquired citizenship, and who were crowding the Northeastern wharves as the Bolivia slowly came, broadside on, to effect a landing. It was a few minutes after 12 o'clock noon that the immigrant-freighted vessel neared her mooring place, and as it came gradually closer and closer to the shore and recognition was possible from ship to landing, and from terra firma to the floating mass, there arose a chorus of excited yells, queries, exclamations, calls, in high-pitched vernacular, that was positively deafening. And the gyrations of arms, heads and bodily contortions which, strangely, seem to be indispensable with the exchanges of greetings among some of the Latin races, were enough to cause any sedate and practical onlooker to fear that a limb or two of the most vehement of the excited performers would suddenly be severed and fly off. A squad of policemen, and a detail of United States customs inspectors, had hard work persuading the Italians on the wharf to stand back, and the crowd was finally pushed back, and ropes were stretched across the wharves, inclosing about 300 feet of space, within which none but authorized persons could enter, under penalty of arrest. When the Bolivia was at last made fast to the landing no gang plank was put out. The United States inspectors and immigration agents had to complete their tasks on board before a single immigrant could be permitted to go ashore. So the vessel and the wharves were closely guarded, to prevent the possibility of any of the newcomers sneaking ashore. From noon until 5 o'clock in the evening the big steamship was the scene of indescribable hubbub. The decks swarmed with the mercurial, voluble gentry, scores of whom, notwithstanding that 200 feet of space separated them from the serried lines of Italians maintained within bounds by the ropes, kept on a screeching, mitrailleuse conversation for hours with friends, relatives and acquaintances on shore. Meanwhile the serious task of the United States inspectors and agents was going on, without interruption, and batches of immigrants were corralled, driven before the inspectors and submitted to the closest examination, to ascertain if any of them came under the prohibitive sections of the immigration laws. This process kept up until about 5 o'clock, at which time about 300 of the immigrants had passed and had been allowed to depart. Shortly after 5 o'clock the steam tug Corsair towed the Bolivia into mid-stream, where she anchored for the night. The vessel will return to the wharf in the early morning and the labor of attending to the remainder of the newly-arrived Sicilians will be resumed. The Bolivia's arrival at quarantine was made known to the collector of customs and information was sent that she would reach the city Tuesday during the forenoon. Collector Wimberly ordered that the vessel be stopped at the "point," below Algiers, there to await the coming of the immigration agent, inspectors and other United States officials. The following party embarked on board of the tub Corsair, which cast off from Canal street landing, and steamed down stream to meet the Bolivia. Messrs. A. N. Howell, special deputy collector of customs; Nat. L. Marks, acting deputy collector of customs; F. N. Wicker, Chinese inspector; John Y. Snyder, representing the naval office; Henry W. Robinson, deputy surveyor of the port; L. V. Landry, T. J. Wallace, Christ Madden, Paul Morgan, P. H. Adam, T. R. Conquehuon, Robert Joiner, local inspectors. Mr. S. A. Montgomery, Inspector of immigration, was also with the party, and he had with him Messrs. E. B. Holman, United States Inspector of immigration, from New York, and his assistants, N. J. Arbeely, Sam A. Eppler, B. W. Baker, L. H. Robinson and Joe Di Miceli, the latter an interpreter. Drs. D. C. Kalloch, J. B. Stoner, of the United States marine hospital service, went along to conduct the medical examination of the immigrants; and Mr. Antonio Bonnard, local Italian interpreter; Mr. Alvin V. Ecker, representing the agents of the Bolivia, Messrs. Meletta & Stoddart, completed the delegation bound for the incoming Italian colony. The Bolivia was met at the Point, and the inspectors and officials of the government went on board of her. Captain Thos. Craig, commander of the steamship, said that he had had an uneventful trip from Palermo to this city. Only one death occurred, from natural causes, and not from any infectious or contagious disease. The immigrants were remarkably healthy during the voyage, and they were a sturdy set, able to be self- supporting after landing in America. The first act of the United States representatives was to put the Italians through medical examination. Meanwhile, the Corsair had put a towing hawser on the Bolivia and was pulling the vessel toward the city. The physical examination proceeded very rapidly. All the immigrants were ordered forward, and a rope was stretched across deck. Then the inspectors with the assistance of Interpreter Miceli, prevailed on the Italians to pass in single file beside the physicians, who ascertained, after a superficial examination, satisfactory for the purposes of the test, that none of the arrivals suffered from any contagious or infectious disease. The Bolivia reached the Northeastern wharf, and then the work of the inspectors began. Their duty was to find out if any of the Italians belonged to the excluded classes mentioned in the immigration laws, namely, paupers, persons liable to be a charge on the community, idiots, insane individuals, persons suffering from infectious or contagious or loathsome diseases, and persons brought over under contract to perform labor in the United States, in violation of the alien labor law. The examination was conducted by Inspector Holman, of New York, who, accustomed to the rapid and systematic manner in which such proceedings are conducted in New York city, found his task here a very tedious and protracted process. "In New York city," remarked Inspector Holman to the representative of the Picayune, "there are special accommodations for the inspection of immigrants. They are disembarked into large, well-ventilated rooms, on the wharf or conveniently near, and are given all the comforts of a hotel, so to speak, while awaiting examination. Their board and lodging until they are finally discharged, and allowed to depart, are at the expense of the steamship, as the government considers the immigrants to be still aboard ship until released by the inspection. Here, however, we have to attend to our official duties on board of the vessel, which is necessarily limited in space, and the inspection is, of course, slow and time-consuming." Inspector Holman called in the immigrants in groups of twenty to thirty, according to their listing and numerical order on the ship's manifest. Each list is a sheet containing twenty to thirty names and letters A, B, C, D, etc. Inspector Holman took each manifest sheet in succession, and with the aid of Interpreter Miceli called the names in numerical rotation, and as each party stepped up he was interrogated in accordance with the provisions of the immigration law, and the closest questioning was gone through with in order to find out if the party under scrutiny belong to any of the classes just enumerated. As quickly as the name of the party was tallied or checked he was registered, and, if having successfully passed the medical examination, and having satisfactorily answered the questions put to him by Inspector Holman, he was allowed to take up his goods and chattels and he himself to the open arms of relatives and friends on shore. In the registration of immigrants the inspector permitted those to land who were clearly and beyond doubt entitled to that privilege, but he detained a large number for special inquiry, as he was not entirely satisfied as to their eligibility to land. About 300 were permitted to leave, and nearly the same number were detained for special inquiry. The larger part of the immigrants, however, will be examined to-day. The board of special inquiry, of which Inspector Holman is chairman, and which is composed of four members, Inspectors also, will meet to-day and complete the work of examining and registering the immigrants. It is believed that before night the whole ship load will have gone through the ordeal, and almost all, if not all, of them will be allowed to land. Inspector Holman is satisfied, insofar as he was able to judge by cursory examination, that the new arrivals are healthy, able-bodied, fairly intelligent and capable of taking care of themselves. Some of them possess enough money to give them a start in life, while those who are not so well off financially seem robust and willing and able to work. Inspector Holman and his assistants were recently on duty at Pensacola. They inspected the immigrants on board of the Britannia, that vessel which arrived in New Orleans during the quarantine season, and which was so delayed at the quarantine station and at the Point - the state board of health having refused permission to land the immigrants - and which, finally, was sent to Pensacola. Inspector Holman and assistants attended to the inspection at Pensacola, and rejected seventy-one immigrants, on the ground that they might become a burden to the community. The officials were instructed to remain at Pensacola and prepare to inspect the immigrants on board the Bolivia, which, it was expected would have to be ordered to Pensacola on account of quarantine restrictions in New Orleans. But the Bolivia reached Port Eads after the quarantines had been taken off, and she was allowed to proceed to this city. The inspectors at Pensacola were then instructed to come to New Orleans immediately and help the local inspectors in expediting the inspection of the thousand and more immigrants on the Bolivia. The board of special inquiry will first take in hand the case of the seventy-one immigrants on the Britannia. The department at Washington has ordered to reopen the case, and give the rejected men a new trial, as relatives and friends of those people in this city have signified their readiness to vouch that the parties who were not allowed to land will not become a burden on the community. ***************************** IMMIGRANTS FROM ITALY. The British steamship Bolivia, 2561 tons net, Captain Thomas Craig, from Leghorn, via Gibraltar, with general cargo, consigned to Meletta & Stoddard, has arrived at post 30, Third district, bringing as cabin passengers Salvatore Vinezia, Salvatore Randazzo, G. La Rosa, Giuseppe La Rosa and 1,371 Italian immigrants in the steerage. She reports having sailed from Leghorn Sept. 21, experienced weather to Abaco, thence to Tortugas a strong southeast gale, with heavy rain and thick weather, followed by a strong north wind, with heavy seas, in the gulf of Mexico, crossing the bar at 2:10 p.m., Oct. 24, and arrived at the wharf at noon on Oct. 25. Captain Craig also reports that on Oct. 10, at 6 a.m., a steerage passenger named D. Ague Calogero died of pneumonia and was buried at sea.