woman, assuming that she desires to work and is capable of it, may come out at any season of the year, Winter or Summer; but the man who looks for out-door employment should come out when the Spring work is opening certainly not sooner than March, or later than October. The total number of males provided with employment last year—1866—through the Intelligence Office and Labour Exchange, Castle Garden, was 2,191; of females 6,303; of both sexes, through the Commissioners agents, at Buffalo, Albany, and Rochester, 1,289; and at the office of the German Society in New York, 988—making in all, 10,771.
I saw a number of women and girls, generally young, in a large apartment of the building, employed in knitting or sewing, waiting to be hired for various purposes, whether in factories, in stores, or in domestic occupations.
One of the latest improvements in the Emigration Depot at Castle Garden is its direct connection by telegraph with every part of the United States and the British Provinces; so that an emigrant, on landing, may at once communicate with expecting friends in any part of North America.
Having referred to some of the most salient features of the establishment at Castle Garden, I may briefly glance at Ward's Island, which is the crowning feature of the whole, combining everything necessary for the care and comfort and protection of the stranger which enlightened benevolence and practical experience could suggest, or the most liberal expenditure could provide. When one remembers the bed of broken straw, the rotten flour, the decayed vegetables, the putrid meat, specially procured for the sick emigrants of 1847 and 1848, by the shipbrokers of that day, one may well invoke a blessing on the noble-hearted men to whose humanity, courage, and perseverance the existing system is mainly due.
Removed, by its insular position, from all contact with
