The baggage of the emigrant, which had been so long the prey of the lodging-house keeper, the runner, and the smasher/ is now not only retained in safe custody in compartments well adapted to that purpose, but is fre quently held as a pledge for the repayment of advances made by the Commissioners to assist their owners to pro ceed on their intended journey. There is, however, no charge made for its custody, neither is interest required to be paid for the loan or advance. I have seen quantities of boxes, trunks, and packages of various kinds, duly marked and lettered, and safely stowed away, to be kept until the owners found it convenient or necessary to send for their effects, or, in case advances had been made on their security, until they were in a position to redeem them. This plan of making advances on the security of the bag gage, or portions of the baggage of the emigrant, which protects it from being plundered, and enables the individual or the family destined for the interior to proceed on their route, has now been in practice fully ten years, and has been attended with great good. The advance does not in any case exceed a few dollars ; but the possession or the want of these few dollars may, at such a moment, deter mine the future fate of an entire family. In their report for 1865, the Commissioners bear testimony to the good which these advances have done. Assistance has been ren dered to many who might otherwise have become the prey of fraud, or have fallen into destitution, whilst, as they state, the character of the assistance was such as not to lessen the feeling of independent self-reliance. The small amount of $112 was advanced in 1856 to nineteen fam ilies, or about $6J per family. This had been punctually repaid. The total amount advanced from August 1856, when the system was first adopted, to the end of 1865, was $23,215-; the number of advances, whether to individuals or families, being 2,394. Of this amount, there remained unpaid but 1,376.
