Out of
the barge you are swept with the crowd, baggage in hand or on head or
shoulder, and on to the grand entrance. As you ascend the broad stairs,
an officer familiar with many languages is shouting out, first in one
tongue and then another, "Get your health tickets ready." You notice
that the only available place many have in which to carry these tickets
is in their mouths, since their hands are full of children or baggage.
[Sidenote: Medical Inspection]
At the head of the long pair of stairs you meet a uniformed officer (a
doctor in the Marine Hospital Service), who takes your ticket, glances
at it, and stamps it with the Ellis Island stamp. Counting the
quarantine officer as number one, you have now passed officer number
two. At the head of the stairs you find yourself in a great hall,
divided into two equal parts, each part filled with curious railed-off
compartments. Directed by an officer, you are turned into a narrow
alleyway, and here you meet officer number three, in uniform like the
second. The keen eyes of this doctor sweep you at a glance, from feet to
head. You do not know it, but this is the first medical inspection by a
surgeon of the Marine Hospital Service, and it causes a halt, although
only for a moment.
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