SNIPPET: An Irish immigrant in New York City, John DOYLE, writes a letter home to his wife in 1818: "Oh, how long the days, how cheerless and fatiguing the nights since I parted with my Fanny and my little angel. Sea sickness, nor the toils of the ocean, nor the starvation which I suffered, nor the constant apprehension of our crazy old vessel going to the bottom, for ten tedious weeks, could ever wear me to the pitch it has if my mind was easy about you. But when the recollection of you and my little Ned rushes on my mind with a force irresistible, I am amazed and confounded to think of the coolness with which I used to calculate on parting with my little family even for a day, to come to this strange country, which is the grave of the reputations, the morals, and of the lives of so many of our countrymen and countrywomen... We were safely landed in Philadelphia on the 7th of October and I had not so much as would pay my passage in a boat to take me ashore... I, however, contrived to get over, and ... it was not long until I made out my father, whom I instantly knew, and no one could describe our feelings when I made myself known to him, and received his embraces, after an absence of seventeen years. (The father was a United Irish refugee of 1798) ... The morning after landing I went to work to the printing ... I think a journeyman printer's wages might be averaged at 7 dollars a week all the year round ... I worked in Philadelphia five and one-half weeks and saved 6 pounds, that is counting four dollars to the pound; in the currency of the United States the dollar is worth five shillings Irish ... I found the printing and bookbinding overpowered with hands in New York. I remained idle for twelve days in consequence; when finding there was many out of employment like myself I determined to tur! n myself to something else, seeing that there was nothing to be got by idleness ... I was engaged by a bookseller to hawk maps for him at 7 dollars a week ... I now have about 60 dollars of my own saved ... these I laid out in the purchase of pictures on New Year's Day, which I sell ever since. I am doing astonishingly well, thanks be to God, and was able on the 16th of this month to make a deposit of 100 dollars in the bank of the United States. As yet it's only natural I should feel lonesome in this country, ninety-nine out of every hundred who come to it are at first disappointed... Still, it's a fine country and a much better place for a poor man than Ireland ... and much as they grumble at first, after a while they never think of leaving it ... One thing I think is certain, that if emigrants knew beforehand what they have to suffer for about the first six months after leaving home in every respect, they would never come here. However, an enterprising man, desirous of advancing himself in the world, will despise everything for coming to this free country, where a man is allowed to thrive and flourish without having a penny taken out of his pocket by the government; no visits from tax gatherers, constables or soldiers, every one at liberty to act or speak as he likes provided he does not hurt another ..." -- Excerpt, "The Irish, A Treasury of Art and Literature," ed. Leslie Conron Carola (1993).