The Laclede blade., October 14, 1905, Image 6

About The Laclede blade. (Laclede, Mo.) 1890-1945

Image provided by: State Historical Society of Missouri; Columbia, MO

                
DEPORTATION OF AN
AMERICAN CITIZEN
Immigration Laws Are Broken
Because of Their Failure to
Provide for Emergencies.
CURIOUS AND INVOLVED QUESTIONS RAISED
.Sad Tale of a Russian. Jew, His Bride
Their New-Born Babe Hard Struggle
the Husband Federal Statutes Not
Tempered with Mercy.
and
of
New York. Strict and exacting im
migration laws are of the utmost neces
sity. Were this not the case the country
would soon become the refuge of Eu
rope's paupers and beggars.
The federal statutes that provide for
the admittance of foreigners are sup
posed to cover every possible case and
the officials at Ellis Island are com
pelled to act in strict accordance with
the law which does not provide for
-emergencies.
It was the result of the law's failure to
provide for emergencies that the offi
cials were recently compelled to deport
a new-born American citizen.
it is against tne law to deport an
-American citizen. The law does not
specify any age limit in citizenship. It
simply says that a child born on Ameri
can soil of alien parents is an American
citizen.
The baby in question was not born on
terra firma, but it was born within the
three-mile harbor limit placed by law
as the boundary between American soil
And the high seas. He is therefore an
American citizen, fully entitled to all
the rights and privileges therof, and his
deportation has raised a most curious
And involved question in Immigration
.litigation. - ., . , ,- - ,
1 The baby's parents are Lotta and Her
man Romanik, both Russian Jews, both
.25 years of age, and both immigrants,
or, as the law calls them, aliens.
Comes to 'Make His Fortune.
Over three years ago Romanik came
to this country from Russia. He was
.young, healthy, capable, and ' was ad
mitted through Ellis island without the
-slightest . trouble. It was a good start
to hia fortune in the new land. He was a
(tailor by trade, and with the industry
nd pertinacityof . his race he estab
' lishei himself In short order in a small
tehOfi on. Attorney street.
; Tie shop" thrived, so did Romanik's
novemaklng'- Back in his Russian home
r.livedY Lotta, the sweetheart of his boy
rhood, and the girls of the East side Ghet
tto had no claim Tat the busy little tailor,
as he worked steadily month in month
out, and 4reame4 of the day when he
.should bring Lotta. home as a bride.
Fourteen months ago the dream was
ireabed. Romanik would not let the
x-rl maks the trip alone. Between Rus
- la and Attorney street' lie many slips
; for straying' immigrant feet 1 ;Not the
least is Ellis island, ; - ; ' U :
Returns for His Bride.
Romanlkma.ae.tJi e longtrip back home
Aid returned to Auerica with his bna.
Both were passed by the medical exam
iner and board of special inquiry at El
lis island. To all appearances at that
time the wife was in perfect health a
pretty, rosy-cheeked peasant girl, brimr
ful of happiness and hope over the golden
future in the land of plenty.
Romanik had already rented and fur
nished a little flat over his shop, and the
honeymoon was a prosperous one. At
torney street is in the heart of the east
side Ghetto. On all sides of it branch
the streets of the pushcart district. It is
generally the first business venture of
the immigrant Jew the pushcart.
There is one grade lower yet. The
swinging shelf of collar buttons or shoe
strings that hang from the necks of curb
venders in the Ghetto market place.
The Romaniks were above both grades.
They were respected and well liked In
the neighborhood, and by virtue of his
having a "store business" of his own
Romanik was adjudged a rising young
man. When it was rumored there was a
possibility of his having a son to bear
his name the news was accepted as but
another sign of the good luck which had
followed him since his first landing in
the country.
Clouds Hover Over Home.
The cloud of trouble fell darker over
the little home for the sunshine that had
gone before. One day Romanik closed hi J
shop and went away. He returned with
two doctors. Nothing was told to the
neighbors, but in less than a week the
bride of a few short months was taken
away to Bellevue hospital, and the little
tailor worked and lived alone.
"It is .nothing," he told people who
asked questions of him. "She is sick.
crazy in' the head, but it goes away by
and by. Sure it will go away soon as
the baby come. The doctors they say
so. Sure It will go. She hurts nobody
yet Only it is best she should be quiet'
Soon as the baby is' born she gets all
right, and they let her come home
again."' ' - ' ; ; f
"At Bellevue hospital admitted insane
public cases are transferred to the stale
institution for the Insane on .Ward's
island, and when Romanik called In a
few days he found his wife had been sent
over as a public charge. . It was a severe
shock to the pride and independence of
the little tailor.' He had not been able
to read the English on the Bellevue eft
trance card'be na slgnednuid was to
tally ignorant of its nature. Going to
Dr, pent of Ward's Island, he offered
to. sign a bond to pay for tne care of his
wife untii after the birth of the child.
but the offer was refused. Bythelmml
gratlon law "an alien who shall be found
a public charge from causes existing
prior to landing shall' be deported, as
hereinafter provided, to the country
whence he came at any time within two
years after arrival.'
Dr. Dent acting under this require
ment of tne law, notified the state com
mission f lunacy of the presence of an
insane alien in his Institution. Mrs.
Romanik's condition was not taken into
consideration. The law makes no pro
vision for any such exigencies. She was
an alien And insane, and as such came
under the letter of the law.
The quality of mercy was lacking.
The . state commission took ud its yard i
of red tape and notified the department
of commerce and labor at Washington.
An order followed to Commissioner Gen
eral Robert Watchorn, of Ellis Island,
to deport Mrs. Lotta Romanik as an "L.
P. Cj" one liable to become a public
charge. The letter of the law was
obeyed, and . Romanik was forced to
stand by helplessly while his wife was
taken from Ward's island and placed on
a steamer, due to sail at 10 o'clock the
following morning.
It was the eleventh hour, and Roman
ik in his extremity turned to the Peo
ple's law firm as a last resort. The card
oft the People's law firm states that
"Mary H. Grace Quackenbos, LL. B., can
be consulted and retained as attorney
and counsellor at law in cases involving
attendance upon the courts and other
wise, especially with a view to meeting
the requirements of litigants of moder
ate means." ,
Saved by Fifteen Minutes.
As a litigant of moderate means Her
man Romanik sought Mrs. Quackenbos
and laid his case in her hands. It was
not an easy case. Mr. Watchorn said
positively that he could do nothing.
The law allows the Ellis island commis
sioner no discretionary powers in emer
gency cases. Everything must be re
ferred to Washington, and it was too
late to communicate with the depart
ment of commerce and labor. It was a
time for quick wit and quicker action.
Mrs. Quackenbos set out to procure a
ons but inhuman. But there was no one
to blame. Each department acted strict
ly according to Its official duty as inter
preted by the bare, cold letter of the law.
.As an insane alien, ordered deported,
the little mother-elect was onco more
hurried from the infirmary and taken on
board the steamer. She longed for her
husband, but he had long since exhaust
ed the little tailor shop profits and was
penniless. : - :
' As an accompanying alien the Peo
ple's law firm endeavored to have him
deported also at the expense of the gov
ernment, but failed. Finally a ticket
was procured for him from 'the United
Hebrew charities, and $25 was added by
the People's law firm, so that the for
lorn pair might not land in Europe pen
niless. : ...
Romanik's father and brother live in
Liverpool. They were written tofor
help, and as a concession the deporta
tion was made to Bremen instead of Rus
sia, as the nearest stopping point to Liv
erpool. -v
American Citizen Is Born.
Everything was settled as well as It
could be, when the most unexpected de
velopment of the case took place. Early
in the morning the vessel was to sail
Mrs. Romanik gave birth to a normal,
healthy boy baby, and that baby is an
American citizen. It is unlawful to de
port an American citizen, but how about
a citizen three hours old? Can the law,
to be absolutely lawful and acting on its
own laws, separate mother and child
at such a moment, deport one and permit
the other to remain?
It is the law. There was no Solomon
to decide the question. Mrs. Quacken
bos was in Halifax. The law had Mrs.
Romanik, and Mrs. Romanik had the
baby.
The poor little tailor man was scur
rying from Attorney street to the ferry
on foot, as no conductor would permit
him to board a street car with his gi
gantic load. He pleaded with tears that
it was but a few feather beds for Lotta
and the baby. Steerage bunks are hard
to lie on, but the hearts of New York
street car conductors are harder. The
little tailor had to walk and caught the
mm
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vestment you can possibly make. Delay
. , s means : daily waste1 of
. time, labor ana product.
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. SEPARATORS save
r : ve jvj wv JK jvwi '
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and $5.- per cow over
all imitating separators.
They received the Grand
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, St gt LOUifl. . .
Birring trashy cash-in -advance sepa
rators is penny wise, dollar foolish.
Such machines quickly Ipse their cost
instead of Having it, -; a ,
? If you havent; the i ready cash
DE LAVAL machines may be bought
On such liberal terms that they actually
pay. for themselves
Send today for new catalogue and
name of nearest local agent.
The De Laval Separator Co.
Randolph ft Canal St, i 74 Cortlandt Strati
Chicago I new York
Cold Storage Romance.
Ke Had an odd experience the
other day. One morning my break
fast boiled egg had an inscription on
it. It said: "The finder may write to
me," signed "Mary Smith."
Sht What reply did you get?
"The postmaster replied. He said
that Miss Smith died of old age sev
eral years ago." Louisville Courier-Journal.
writ of habeas corpus. Federal judges steamer by five minutes.
are not always within easy reach. It Then he found out and the People's
Advancing the Farmers' Interests.
Traveling agents and salesmen are
now sent from the home offices of the
Chicago packers into all South Amer
ican and Asiatic countries. They are
going into every land, no matter what
language may be spoken or what
money be used. They will exchange
their goods for cowries or elephant
tusks anything to' sell the product
and get something in return converti
ble into money. It may seem odd to
some folks but traveling men, carry
ing cases with samples of American
meat productscan be seen in the des
ert of Sahara, the sands of Zanzibar
or in Brazil, "where the nuts come
from." Great 13 the enterprise of the
Yankee merchant The greater the
market, the greater the price and sta
bility of the price of the product and
all that goes to make it in its various
stages.
FOREIGN NOTABLES. '
was late at night before District Judge
Adams was found and the writ signed.
It was served on the commissioner at
Ellis island the next morning just 15
minutes before the scheduled leaving
time of the steamer. The advocate of
the People's law firm did not waste an
instant, and Mrs. Romanik was removed
from the steamer in a tug and given into
the embrace of the poor little tailor and
husband waiting in desperation on the
New York wharf.
Romanik would take no more chances
with public institutions. He placed his
wife in the New York infirmary for
women and children and undertook to
pay (23 a week until the child should be
born.
The case was set for hearing in the
federal court, but never came up for
trial. Twenty-five dollars week Is a
heavy tax on an Attorney street tailor
shop, and Romanik was compelled to
give up in a few weeks. It would be
five or six weeks before the birth of the
baby. - Mrs. Romanik became more and
more violent and the Ellis island au
thorities were once more notified. i
Mrs. Quackenbos had sailed for Hali
fax to take a much-needed rest, and left
the case with her assistants pending her
return,' v The Ellis island authorities
contended that the woman- was an epi
leptic, and had been prior to her arrival
In this country. - Her husband swore
her insanity was due to her condition.
To deport her now was not only danger-
law firm found out that a baby citizen had
been born. ,
A tug was held, and everybody inter
ested tried to find a federal judge to sign
another writ of habeas corpus, as it was
said the woman had recovered her rea
son. But it was no use. It was noon.
The federal judges were at lunch some
where. The writ remained unsigned,
and the vessel steamed down the bay
for Bremen, with its baby citizen
clasped close to the little alien mother's
breast.
As a point of law the mat
ter ... rests In abeyance. , . As a
point of mercy probably the best
thing , has happened. The mother and
child-were not separated and the hus
band went with them. So much was ac
complished. But what of the exigencies
of the case? It is but one case in many
where Ellis island officials have been
compelled to act in strict accordance
with the law without regard for emer
gencies' unprovided by the law. In an
emergency like the Romanik case a hu
man life, perhaps two, was endangered.
The Romaniks have not yet been
heard' from in Bremen. Should . the
mother die from the effects of her de
portation, what then? ' It is an emer
gency unprovided for by the law." If It
can be proved that the woman is per
fectly sane, and not an epileptic, there
is a chance to show where the law is at
fault but at present no iaw has bewa
broken save in the deportatiofi of a new
born. American .citizen. .
Walter Rothschild, M. P., who recent
ly spent three weeks at Cauterets, in
France, near the Pyrenees, brought
home to England with him nearly 4,000
specimens of butterflies to add to the
million he already has. V - u"
Gen. Luis Terrazas, governor of the
state of Chihuahua, is probably the
largest land owner in the world, as well
as the richest man in Mexico. It takes
an eight hours' journey on a fast train
to travel from one end of his property
to the other. '
Among the men who have lately be
come prominent in Russia is Lieut Gen
Alexander Rodiger. He distinguished
himself in the war of 1877-78 with Tur
key, and has since attracted much at
tention by numerous articles and books
on military questions.
William Adams, life saver at Gorles
ton, an English seaside resort, has
saved the lives of 74 persons, besides res
cuing hundreds of others from perilous
positions. He has been presented with
gold, silver and bronze medals, several
of the Royal Humane society's certifi
cates andnumerous private tributes to
his bravery.
Admiral Rojestvensky has a beautiful
daughter, a fair girl of 20, who was mar
ried to a Russian naval engineer and
followed him to the east in the capacity
of a Sister of Charity. She returned to
St Petersburg when worn out and em
barked later with her father, but he re
gretted permitting her to sail with the
Baltic fleet and sent her home from
Vigo. ;
"COLD! GOLD!"
"Good," He
Says, "But Comfort
Better." "4
"Food that fits is better than a gold
mine," says a grateful man.
"Before I commenced to use Grape
Nuts food no man on earth ever had a
worse Infliction from catarrh of the
stomach than I had for years.
"I could eat nothing but the very
lightest food and even that gave me
great distress.
"I went . through the catalogue of
prepared foods but found them all (ex
cept Grape-Nuts ) more or . less indi
gestible, generating gas in the stom
ch,i (which in turn produced head
ache and ; various other . pains , and
aches) and otherwise unavailable for
my use. .-' ... .
"Grape-Nuts food I have found easily
digested and . assimilated, and it' has
renewed my health and vigor' and
made me a well man again. . .The ca
tarrh of the stomach has disappeared
entirely with all its attendant ills. -thanks
to Grape-Nuts,- which now is
my almost sole food. I want no
other." Name given , by Postum Co.
Battle Creek, Mich. ;
rI Ten days trial tells the story')
There's a reason, -
V
, I
1