Lights and Shadows of New York Life

J >> James D. McCabe >> Lights and Shadows of New York Life

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[Picture: THE CUSTOM HOUSE.]

There are about 1100 clerks attached to the Custom House, whose total
wages amount to about $3,000,000 per annum. The legal salary of the
Collector is $6000 per annum, but his fees and perquisites make up an
actual income of five or six times that amount. The Collectorship of
this port is the best paying office within the gift of the Government.
Colonel Thorpe thus sums up the duties of the various officers of the
port:

"The Collector shall receive all reports, manifests, and documents to be
made or exhibited on the entry of any ship or vessel; shall record, on
books to be kept for that purpose, all manifests; shall receive the
entries of all ships or vessels, and of the goods, wares, and merchandise
imported in them; shall estimate the amount of the duties payable
thereupon, indorsing said amount on the respective entries; shall receive
all moneys paid for duties, and take all bonds for securing the payment
thereof; shall, with the approbation of the Secretary of the Treasury,
employ proper personages--weighers, gaugers, measurers, and
inspectors--at the port within his district.

"The Naval Officer shall receive _copies_ of all manifests and entries;
shall estimate the duties on all goods, wares, and merchandise subject to
duty (and no duties shall be received without such estimate), and shall
keep a separate record thereof; and shall _countersign_ all permits,
clearances, certificates, debentures, and other documents granted by the
Collector. He shall also examine the Collector's abstract of duties, his
accounts, receipts, bonds, and expenditures, and, if found correct, shall
certify the same.

"The Surveyor shall superintend and direct all inspectors, weighers,
measurers, and gaugers; shall visit and inspect the ships and vessels;
shall return in writing every morning to the Collector the name and
nationality of all vessels which shall have arrived from foreign ports;
shall examine all goods, wares, and merchandise imported, to see that
they agree with the inspector's return; and shall see that all goods
intended for exportation correspond with the entries, and permits granted
therefor; and the said Surveyor shall, in all cases, be subject to the
Collector.

"The Appraisers' department is simply for the purpose of deciding the
market values and dutiable character of all goods imported, so that the
imposts can be laid with correctness. Other than this, it has no
connection with the Custom House."

There is located at the Battery, an old white building, surmounted by a
light tower. This is the Barge office, and is the headquarters of the
Inspectors attached to the Surveyor's office, who are under the orders of
Mr. John L. Van Buskirk, now nearly 89 years of age, and who has been
"Assistant to the surveyor" for many years. The arrivals of all ships
are reported from the telegraph station at Sandy Hook, and as soon as it
is announced at the barge office that a steamer or ship "from foreign
ports" is off soundings, two Inspectors are placed on a revenue cutter,
and sent down to take charge of the arriving vessel. From the moment
they set foot on the vessel's deck, they are in supreme control of the
cargo and passengers. One would think from the manner in which many of
them conduct themselves toward passengers, that an American citizen
coming home from abroad has no rights but such as the Inspector chooses
to accord him. Certainly the joy which an American feels in returning to
his own home is very effectually dampened by the contrast which he is
compelled to draw between the courtesy and fairness of the customs
officials of European lands, and the insolence and brutality of those
into whose clutches he falls upon entering the port of New York. The
Inspectors examine the baggage of the cabin passengers, collect the
imposts on dutiable articles, and send them ashore. They then send the
steerage passengers to Castle Garden where they are examined. After
this, the ship is allowed to go alongside of her pier, where her cargo is
discharged under their inspection, and carted to the Bonded Warehouses of
the United States, for appraisement and collection of duties.

Passing goods through the Custom House is a troublesome and intricate
undertaking, and most merchants employ a Broker to perform that duty for
them. A novice might spend hours in wandering about the labyrinths of
the huge building, trying to find the proper officials. The broker knows
every nook and corner in the establishment, and where to find the proper
men, and moreover manages to secure the good will of the officials so
that he is never kept waiting, but is given every facility for the
despatch of his business. The fee for "passing an entry" is five
dollars. Sometimes a broker will pass fifty different entries in a
single day, thus earning $250. Some brokers make handsome fortunes in
their business. When there is a dispute between the government and the
importer as to the value of the goods or the amount of the duty, the
broker's work is tedious and slow. The large importing houses have their
regular brokers at stated salaries.

LXXXVI. MISSING.

It is a common and almost meaningless remark, that one has to be careful
to avoid being lost in New York, but the words "Lost in New York" have a
deeper meaning than the thoughtless speakers imagine. If the curious
would know the full force of these words, let them go to the Police
Headquarters, in Mulberry street, and ask for the "Bureau for the
Recovery of Lost Persons." The records of this bureau abound in stories
of mystery, of sorrow, and of crime.

As many as seven hundred people have been reported as "lost," to this
bureau, in a single year, and it is believed that this does not include
all the disappearances. Many of those so reported are found, as in the
cases of old persons and children, but many disappear forever. Others
who are recovered by their friends are never reported as found to the
bureau, and consequently remain on its books as missing.

When a person is reported "Missing" to this bureau, a description of the
age, height, figure, whiskers, if any, color of eyes, dress, hair, the
place where last seen, the habits and disposition of the person, is given
to the official in charge, who enters it in the register. When the
returns of the Morgue, which are sent to the Police authorities every
twenty-four hours, are received, they are compared with the descriptions
in the register, and in this way bodies are often identified. Five or
six hundred cards with the description of the missing person are printed,
and sent to the various police precincts, with orders to the commanding
officers to make a vigilant search for the person so described.
Advertisements are also inserted in the newspapers describing the missing
ones. Many of the estrays are children, and these are usually recovered
within twenty-four hours. These little ones usually fall directly into
the hands of the police, and are taken at once to the station house. If
not claimed there, they are sent at nightfall to Police Headquarters,
where they are cared for until their friends come for them.

[Picture: THE FATE OF HUNDREDS OF YOUNG MEN.]

Many of the missing are men--strangers to the city. They have come here
on business or for pleasure, and have undertaken to see the sights of New
York. They have drowned their senses in liquor, and have fallen into the
hands of the thieves and murderers, who are ever on the watch for such as
they. They have been robbed and murdered, thrown into the river, from
which they sometimes find their way to the Morgue. Or perhaps they have
followed some street walker to her den, there to fall victims to the
knife or club of her accomplice. The river is close at hand, and it
hides its secrets well. Year after year the same thing goes on, and men
pay with their lives the price of their impure curiosity. The street
walker still finds her victim ready to follow her to her den, for "he
knoweth not that the dead are there: and that her guests are in the
depths of hell. He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the
slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks. Till a dart
strike through his liver, and knoweth not that it is for his life. She
hath cast down many wounded; yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death."

Year after year the waters cast up their dead, and the Morgue is filled
with those who are known to the police as "missing." Men and women, the
victims of the assassin, and those who are tired of life, find their way
to the ghastly tables of the dead house; but they are not all. There are
long rows of names in the dreary register of the police against which the
entry "found" is never written. What has become of them, whether they
are living or dead, no one knows. They were "lost in New York," and they
are practically dead to those interested in knowing their fate. Year
after year the sad list lengthens.

In many a far off home there is mourning for some loved one. Years have
passed away since the sorrow came upon these mourners, but the cloud
still hangs over them. Their loved one was "lost in New York." That is
all they know--all they will ever know.

Footnotes.

{78} Samuel J. Tilden's speech.

{86} The Committee of citizens consisted of the leading merchants of New
York--such men as Royal Phelps, Robert Lenox, P. Bissinger, Paul N.
Spofford, Samuel Willets, H. B. Claflin, Seth B. Hunt, T. F. Jeremiah, R.
L. Cutting, W. A. Booth, Jas. Brown, B. L. Solomon, Courtlandt Palmer, J.
K. Porter, W. E. Dodge, T. W. Pearsall.

PUBLISHER'S ADVERTISEMENTS.

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