Another principle is to study the social training and tastes of the immigrants and if they need clothes give such things as will make their appearance more respectable. One of the purposes of the clothes department is: to have the alien appear before the Board of Special Inquiry as neat and respectable looking as possible, so that he may be judged as he would look under ordinary circumstances, not as he arrives after a lengthy trip in the steerage. Another principle is: not to overlap. Where there is a number of missionaries there is always the danger of overlapping in the distribution of gifts.
At Ellis Island a clothes room of moderate proportions is in use. It is divided into sections, and clothes are kept separately for men, women, and children. Shoes and other things have their proper places. A great deal of valuable time is consumed in sorting out the things which are utterly unfit to give away. We cannot insist too strongly upon the necessity of not sending things which are useless, worn out, or ridiculous. The average alien has a great deal more knowledge and taste than he is credited with by the donors in various churches. Shoes and clothes ought to be at least in good repair. It would be far better to send fewer and better things, than to send great boxes of indifferent material.
The greatest needs. Underwear, suitable to the season of year, shoes of large proportions, men's overcoats, socks and stockings for all, infants' outfits for the newly born, and children's clothes are always welcome and appreciated. Also a lot of other things seldom received, garters, suspenders, toilet articles, such as combs, finecombs, shaving mugs, brushes, etc. All these things are needed every day. The most essential principle of all this work, however, is for the missionary to put heart into it, and not to let the recipient feel that the work is done perfunctorily or with aversion. The missionary sometimes must even show how to make use of the gift and must see to it that the clothes are actually worn, etc. It is a blessed work if properly done.
Rev. P. H. Land,
Chairman of the Committee.
Missionary Work in the Immigrant Hospital,
Ellis Island
The daily visits of the missionaries in the hospital wards on Ellis Island have proved a great blessing and a help to the immigrants. We are also in various ways helpful to the doctors and nurses in their attentions to the patients, and very often act as an interpreter. The missionaries are particularly responsible for those people in whose languages they are able to converse. They visit these daily, if possible or advisable, but they also pay attention by little gifts and sympathy to the other patients in the ward, and by doing so become friends to everybody. Our first object in visiting new arrivals is to let them know that the relatives who traveled with them on the same ship are waiting for them in the large Immigration Detention Rooms and will not leave before the sick one is discharged from the hospital. This is always welcome news, for most all the poor, helpless patients seem to be under the impression that their friends have left them when separated from them by the doctors. After a little explanation and comforting words, we leave (if advisable) some good literature with them and promise soon to call again and bring greetings from their loved ones. As they see us talking to other patients, they find confidence and take courage among the strangers, and wait anxiously our return. We visit all the wards in the hospital except the contagious hospital, where the missionaries are allowed only by special permission from the Superintendent or doctors. The missionaries are called upon to supply the patients with the most necessary articles of clothing to those discharged from the hospital, and also to supply many children and adults with shoes and stockings when under treatment for trachoma or any other disease, which does not confine the patients to the bed. They furnish the outfit for new-born infants for which the mothers had no chance to provide, or were too poor to do so. We bring tags, picture books, dolls and other little gifts to the sick and lonesome children. To the adults we carry newspapers and magazines in different languages, books, gospels and tracts. On Christmas we place trees in the different wards and give appropriate presents to all the patients. The missionaries communicate with the relatives or friends of the sick aliens. In case of death they assist in every way possible. Pastors often officiate at the funeral services.
Martha M. Troeck,
Chairman of Hospital Committee.
Committee on Appeals and Petitions
When a case is excluded at Ellis Island an appeal is allowed to the Secretary of Labor in Washington, as a higher "court," except when the exclusion is because of certain contagious disease, mental inferiority and the like.
The missionaries at Ellis Island not infrequently write the appeals, endeavoring to bring out points in the cases which strengthen the appellants' cause.