For your guidance we will divide your situation and movements upon landing into three principle phases, namely:
- What must you do upon leaving the ship?
- What must you do in Castle Garden?
- What must you do to continue the journey by rail?
- What do the steerage Passengers have to do upon leaving the great ship?
Leaving the Ship
After the baggage is unloaded, whether on the deck or in the large salon, you must look for yours among the lot. If you have other trunk or bags gather them together. Then you open the trunk and bags and stay with them, until the customs official comes to inspect them to see whether you have items among your things subject to duty.
If your trunk is nailed shut, summon an aide who will be circulating in the area with hammer and chisel. He will open it, and after the inspection is over, during which the official will mark it with a piece of chalk, reseal it.
Many travelers carry the important records on the opening and reselling of their baggage with them, which is very advisable. This will give you an opportunity to exchange some clothing, taking some out and putting others in.
Now close everything up carefully and retie the cords around the trunk and other bags, because they will not always be treated gently. Do not release your luggage until you have received a claim check for each one. Still retain your hand luggage.
From there you will be taken by small boat to Castle Garden with the rest of the Passengers. So begins the second principle phrase. More on this below; heed well.
Castle Garden
Castle Garden is a large, round building on the water. A small boat or ship brings you to this building. So that you do not lose it, put the St. Raphael’s Society card in your hat or on your breast, because you will find the St. Raphael’s Society spokesman in this building.
A) Name Registration:
From the small boat you will be shown to a certain room in the Castle Garden building. Through a narrow hall you will reach an official who will write down your name, what country you came from, and what town you are going to. In order to make things easier for the official who has to do this, it is a good idea for each passenger to have his name, land of birth, and destination written clearly on a slip of paper, to present to him. Don’t sit around, but push foreword to get registered early, because there is a lot to do.
This is where most Luxemburgers commit a mistake, that they do not give their nationality correctly. Some will register as Hollanders, other simply as Germans, others as Belgians and still others as French. Ridiculous!
B) Money Exchange:
When your name is entered you will go farther along the narrow hall, and an official will ask you if you have European money to exchange, and will direct you to a cashier, near by. Mark well, That you can not ever get a bank draft in exchange for cash at Castle Garden. For that, you have to go into the city to the appropriate bank. You would do well, in the matter of money exchange to seek help from the spokesman.
C) Buying Railway Tickets:
If you wish to travel farther, you will be shown where to buy railway tickets, or, if you have previously purchased a railway certificate in Europe, where to get it exchanged. Here again, there are more officials at work. Either you will be given the railway ticket directly, or you will be given a voucher and be shown to the appropriate official near by, where, when you turn comes, he will issue the ticket for your voucher.
D) The Spokesman:
After receiving the railway tickets, or, if you are not traveling farther, right after the name registration, proceed to the designated room where the passengers are gathered. There you will find the spokesman circulating, and who can easily be identified by the golden anchor/cross which he wears on his breast. You may have seen him earlier, if you looked about you. He, in turn, will recognize you by the society card, which should always be worn openly at Castle Garden, either in the hat, or on the breast. Discuss with him further aspects of the journey.
E) Missionaries:
Now you will also meet the missionaries. There are a great number of them at Castle Garden, including some females. But only one is a German Catholic Priest, and that is the spokesman for the St. Raphael’s Society. The others are Protestant preachers, who distribute Protestant religious tracts and writings, such as the bible, among the people. Be advised that Catholic Priests do not dress in America as they do at home, they distinguish themselves in clothing from other people only in wearing the Roman Collar (a white collar, Buttoned in the back). Also, the Germain Catholic Priests distribute Catholic literature. as long as the supply lasts. As a Catholic, you should take reading material only from them, not from some supposed Protestant missionary, who will attempt to foist their pamphlets on you with artful babble, which is sometimes completely against your religion and faith, and in which Catholic teachings are misrepresented, in an evil way, in order to cause you to fall away from the Catholic Faith. Luxemburgers, who have not been exposed to Protestant wiles, only too easily swallow this slick twaddle, and almost always fall into the trap. They accept it all, because in their opinion it must be good. Responsible Protestant Ministers do not do this, only the fanatics proffer their goods and deceive you into thinking they are Catholic. If you are so approached by a Protestant Preacher you tell him, very civilly, that you are Catholic. In doing so, you are making a testimonial for your faith, which redounds to your honor, and obtains for you merit in heaven. If you do otherwise, even out of human weakness, You will display evidence of being a poor Catholic. You will not only be sinning against the Faith, and will put yourself in danger of losing it, but will give scandal; you will be abandoning yourself, your faith and The Holy Catholic Church for heresy. So fulfill your Catholic obligations, and warn your unwitting companions, who do not know perhaps what propositions will be made to you.
F) Preparation of the Baggage for Continuation of the Journey.
After all the passengers have been registered, while the ticket-buying and money-changing is going on, an official will mount a high desk, and call the passengers around him. Then the names of those persons will be read who have letters or money at Castle Garden, or who are being fetched by friends. As soon as a name is read off, the person called should report, and step forward with his hand luggage.
These names having been read, if it is still daylight, it will be announced: All those who have train tickets, proceed to the terminal to take care of your baggage. You go, not to the depot itself yet, but to the baggage room. The claim checks that you received earlier, must now be turned in. Take your train ticket in your hand, together with the claim checks and go to an open door on the same side as the one you just used when you arrived on the little boat. Downstairs and to the left you will come to an official, to whom you give the claim checks when you show him the train ticket. You will now be let into the baggage room where at the side, along the walls, lies the luggage, boxed. Find yours at once, and if you have several pieces, gather them together as much as possible. Turn the tags that are on them so that the inspectors can seen them easily, and remain standing there until a man comes with a wheel-barrow to cart them off to the scale. Follow him, your luggage will be deposited near the scale. Now you yourself much inch it forward toward the scale.
When it is finally on the scale, produce your train ticket again. If you do not have more than 100 pounds, you do not have to pay to have it forwarded; 100 pounds go free. If it is above 100 pounds, then you must pay an overweight fee based on a determined rate. The luggage will be shoved sideways off the scale, and here you must wait again (always with your train ticket in your hand) until a man has placed a tag on them and handed you a similar one. Now you need no longer worry about them until the station where you leave the train, that is, your destination. sometimes the luggage will be tagged only on the train itself rather than at Castle Garden.
G) Your Meals:
Now the principal business at Castle-Garden is finished and we may proceed to the the continuation of our journey, if hunger has not intervened. But the stomach must also be satisfied. Maybe you had, as mentioned above, time before you left, to pack something to eat, which you still have, or which you bought for yourself in the Castle Garden restaurant. Perhaps you would prefer to go to a cafe outside of Castle Garden for a warm meal. You must consider, however, whether you will travel onward that same day or not, and whether there is enough time to take a meal outside Castle Garden. The point is; emigrants are transferred from Castle Garden to the railroad between 4 and 5 p.m. Thus you must be ready at that time. If you have arrived at Castle Garden in the morning, there will be time enough. If the passengers arrive only at 4 or 5 o’clock at Castle Garden, it is hardly possible for them to procsed
H) Hotels and rooming houses:
If you wish to go to a hotel, you can easily get there, for the hotel keepers pick up at Castle Garden passengers who have their cards and are waiting there. If you have a card from a good hotel which you have obtained from a reliable source, stick this card in your hat, or on your breast, so that the hotel keeper can spot you. The hotelkeeper himself has one of these cards in his hat, and a badge, whereby you may recognize him. The hotelkeepers are allowed into Castle Garden only after all the passengers have been registered. Don’t be frightened by their appearance, when the whole bunch plunges amongst the passengers and with cries and shouts attempts to take them to their respective hotels. The poor passenger must here often undergo real torment as many of the hotel keepers keep pushing among the throng. People are asked, “where are you headed;” or, “are you leaving today?” ” You must come with me, since I can deliver you directly to the station;”” you must hurry or you’ll be late,” etc. Many pass themselves off as agents for the various railroads. The innocent immigrant often believes this ruse,and goes along, only to find out later that he has been duped. Don’t listen to all this garbage: The more you are promised, the less you should believe. Beware if Americans traveling with you whom you do not know particularly well. Stay at the hotel that has been recommended to by a responsible party. Look closely, before you enter the hotel, and compare the lettering on the sign with that on your card, for it often occurs that people are misled to another hotel, which easily happens because many hotel cards are quite similar or because a hotel keeper will pass them off for another. If you are in doubt about the hotel ask the spokesman. If you should have a dispute with the hotel about poor accommodations, or being cheated, notify the spokesman without delay, either in person before you leave; in New York, or else write him later. In this event, avail yourself of the St. Raphael’s Society card, on which you will always find his address.
I) Provisions for the Continuation of the Journey:
If you have a long rail trip before you, you must make arrangements for food and drink enroute. This means that you have to provision yourself with victuals from New York out. You can get this either at Castle Garden, or at a hotel, or some other store. Inquire first how long you will be on the road approximately, so that you can estimate how much will be needed, and so buy neither too much or too little.