" He worked his passage as a
coaler, and was passed at Ellis Island through the perjury of one of the
bosses who wring money out of the immigrants in the way of commissions,
getting control of them by the criminal act at the very entrance into
American life.
A Greek peddler, a graduate of the high school at Sparta--think of a
modern high school in ancient Sparta!--after two years in the army, was
ready for life. "All these later years I had been hearing from America.
An elder brother was there who had found it a fine country and was
urging me to join him. Fortunes could easily be made, he said. I got a
great desire to see it, and in one way and another I raised the money
for fare--250 francs--($50) and set sail from the old port of Athens. I
got ashore without any trouble in New York, and got work immediately as
a push-cart man. Six of us lived together in two rooms down on
Washington Street. At the end of our day's work we all divided up our
money even; we were all free."
[Sidenote: A Swede]
A Swedish farmer says: "A man who had been living in America once came
to visit the little village near our cottage. He wore gold rings set
with jewels and had a fine watch.
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