Voices From Ellis Island (NY) -- "He who can do a little of everything gets along best. He must not shirk hard work, and he must not shirk being treated like a dog. He must be willing to be anyone's servant, just like any other newcomer here." -- Peter SORENSEN, a Danish immigrant, letter of April 14, 1885. "I can remember only the hustle and bustle of those last weeks in Pinsk, the farewells from the family, the embraces and the tears. Going to America then was almost like going to the moon." -- Golda MEIR, a Russian Jewish immigrant in 1906. "I felt grateful the Statue of Liberty was a woman. I felt she would understand a woman's heart." -- Stella PETRAKIS, a Cretan immigrant in 1916. "Time between meals was spent on the deck if the weather was good. Some immigrant would always come out with a harmonica or some musical instrument and the dance would follow. And during the day, of course, there were always acquaintances to be made, discussions about America, the conditions in America, and the preparation for life in America." -- Paul STURMAN, a Czechoslovakian immigrant in 1920. "We had good times, we had bad times, we had all kinds of things. But by this time we were immune to everything. Most of the people were in so much torture before they got on the boat, not just the examinations but the life we had in general in Europe. And besides, that hope to be in America was so great and so sunny, that it colored all the pain that we had during our trip." -- Gertrude YELLIN, a Russian Jewish immigrant in 1922. "My mother began to go to night school, and she immediately began to study for citizenship. She and I studied together about the Constitution, about the presidents, about the portions of the government, the executive, the judicial, and the congressional. She knew all these things and she did pass the examination and it was one of the happiest days of her life when she became a citizen." -- Morris MOEL, a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant in 1922. "Well, we didn't have anything to do in Ireland, there was no work. And you didn't want to be poor all your life. You could have married an old farmer if you wanted to and stayed there for the rest of your life and work on that old farm. But I wasn't about to do that. So I said, 'Goodbye, I'll see you later.'" -- Bertha DEVLIN, an Irish immigrant in 1923. "My father was a building contractor in Wales. And one of the things that he did, he was an ornamental plasterer. He would go to New York and walk up and down the streets looking for some evidence of some work going on, and try to walk in to get a little job. He'd walk the streets systematically. One street after the other, day after day after day, and come home -- nothing, nothing, nothing ..." -- Donald ROBERTS, a Welsh immigrant in 1925. "The melting pot is destructive to our race ... The danger the 'melting pot' brings to the nation is the breeding out of the higher divisions of the white race and the breeding in of the lower divisions." -- Dr. George B. CUTTEN, President, Colgate University, 1923. Excerpts from "Ellis Island, An Illustrated History of the Immigrant Experience, " Chermayeff, Wasserman, and Shapiro (Macmillan Pub. Co/NY 1991) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jean R." <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 1:06 PM Subject: Re: [IRISH-AMER] Voices from Ellis Island (NY ) - The immigrant experience > Voices from Ellis Island (NY) -- > > "I remember my grandfather always telling me how he knew he could be rich > in > America because he saw riches in the architecture of Ellis Island. <snip>

Voices From Ellis Island (NY): "The day I left home, my mother came with me to the railroad station. When we said goodbye, she said it was just like seeing me go into my casket. I never saw her again." -- Julia GONIPROW, a Lithuanian immigrant in 1899. "I had a small steamer trunk for a start. One of those small ones you can push underneath a bunk. I didn't bring very much clothes, just a work suit and my best suit. And I had this pound of butter wrapped up. I guess somebody told me to take it to somebody who'd like Irish butter. It was good butter my sisters made." -- Joseph Patrick FITZPATRICK, an Irish immigrant in 1910. "They found my grandmother had a black nail. She raised us, all the years, with that hand and with that nail. There was nothing wrong with it. And they held her back. They sent her back. They were stupid, to let an old woman, when she has her whole family here, to let her go home by herself. So we never saw her again. That was heart-breaking. I'm still crying over it." -- Evelyn GOLBE, a Russian Jewish immigrant in 1914. "The second day I was there I noticed this old man. He must have been about 70. He took two tongue depressors. And he made a cross out of them. And he got at the end of the bed. And he would kneel and pray. The poor man was so scared and lost. No one to talk to." -- Oreste TEGLIA, an Italian immigrant in 1916. "The first time I saw the Statue of Liberty all the people were rushing to the side of the boat. 'Look at her, look at her,' and in all kind of tongues. 'There she is, there she is,' like it was somebody who was greeting them." -- Elizabeth PHILLIPS, an Irish immigrant in 1920. "We were put on a barge, jammed in so tight that I couldn't turn 'round, there were so many of us, you see, and the stench was terrible." -- Eleanor Kenderdine LENHART, an English immigrant in 1921. "My mother was a twister in the Lawrence mills. It was unusual; in Italy, there were no jobs for women. In fact, people that heard about it back in the village didn't like the idea of the women working. But my mother felt she was doing no different from all the other women, so she decided she was going to work. Make some money." -- Josephine COSTANZO, an Italian immigrant in 1923. "It was kind of bad for awhile till we got to know people and speak the language and quit being called greenhorns. People say, you ought to preserve your own heritage or something, but all we could think of was, we didn't want to be different, we wanted to be like the rest of the Americans." -- Walter WALLACE, a Lithuanian immigrant in 1923. "There was a man that came around every morning and every afternoon, with a stainless steel cart, sort of like a Good Humor cart. And the man was dressed in white and he had warm milk for the kids. And they would blow a whistle or ring a bell, and all the kids would line up, and he had small little paper cups and every kid got a little warm milk." -- Donald ROBERTS, a Welsh immigrant in 1925. --Excerpts, "Ellis Island, An Illustrated History of the Immigrant Experience," Chermayeff, Wasserman, Shapiro (Macmillan Pub. Co. NY 1991). ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jean R." <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 1:12 PM Subject: Re: [IRISH-AMER] Voices from Ellis Island (NY ) - Emigration -- Theimmigrantexperience > Voices From Ellis Island (NY) -- > > "He who can do a little of everything gets along best. He must not shirk > hard work, and he must not shirk being treated like a dog. He must be > willing to be anyone's servant, just like any other newcomer here." -- > Peter > SORENSEN, a Danish immigrant, letter of April 14, 1885. <snip>