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Subject: [MORIPLEY] First Food Prices Immigrants encountered in this country
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:27:02 EST

Food our immigrant ancestors could buy at Ellis Island, before proceeding on
to New York, and their final destinations.


PRICES AT ELLIS ISLAND, NY, RESTAURANT IN 1896
(Privately owned and operated restaurant on the Island)
Originally published in The New York Times, December 13, 1894. MENU
Rye bread, two pounds....10c
Wheat bread, two pounds....10c
Wheat bread, one pound...5c
Swedish bread, two pounds....10c
Rolls, each....1c
Pies, each....10c
Half-pie.....5c
Bologna sausage, per pound...20c
Boiled ham, per pound....30c
Corned beef, per pound....25c
Cheese, per pound....20c
Coffee, per cup.....5c
Milk, per pint.....5c
Soup, with bread, per bowl....10c
Sandwich, ham or corned beef, each....7c
Sausage and bread, each.....13c, 2 for 25c
Soda water, ginger ale, or sarsaparilla, each, small....7c
Do, large.....20c
Smoking tobacco....10c
Cigars, each.....5 and 10c


At the bottom of the bill is this notice, in large letters: "Prices are
regulated by the Commissioner of Immigration." This notice is posted by virtue of
a clause in the contract, which the successful bidder for the privilege
makes, under which the Commissioner is at liberty to fix the prices which may be
charged for bread, sausage, soup, &c.
No change has been made in prices since this system went into effect. There
must have been a good profit in the restaurant at that time, for immigration
was heavier than it has been this year, which now brings $10,510, was awarded
for $2,400. Under the old system, this award was made without competition,
and was considered one of the choice bits of political patronage. This
restaurant is no place for an epicure. The bread comes in big loaves. They would
make dangerous missiles. The immigrants like them to eat. The pies may or may
not be toothsome. No immigrant was found who had eaten one and could speak
enough English to tell the reporter how they tasted. After having seen them,
hearsay evidence was all the reporter was looking for. The sausage had the
appearance of the usual bologna.
Few college graduates have sufficient knowledge of the modern languages to
keep this restaurant. It requires a linguist to sell these pies and bologna.
The process, as observed the other day, is peculiar. The quantity purchased
was fixed by the man behind the counter, and he depended somewhat on the length
of the journey ahead of the immigrant. As the half-dazed European approached
the stairs where he was to look after his baggage, the man behind the
counter shouted at him, in a foreign tongue. Presumably he asked where the
immigrant was going, for the latter produced his ticket and showed it to the man
behind the counter, sometimes saying something in his native tongue.
"Scranton, eh?" repeated the man who dispensed bread and sausage. The
immigrant nodded and grinned, knowing as much about the location of Scranton as he
did about Tasmania. Before the grin died away the restaurant man had made up
a "Scranton lunch," that is, one which was supposed to be enough to last
until the immigrant reached that place. This consisted in most instances of one
big loaf of bread, one bologna, a chunk of cheese, and a bottle of beer or
ginger ale. If the immigrant had been going further more luncheon would have
been sold to him.
These things were put in a bag of tough brown paper, the price was paid, and
the immigrant, stolid as a graven image, passed down to the baggage room.
This process was repeated at a rapid rate. Bread and bologna went in a steady
stream of brown paper bags and cash came to the restaurant. Some days 3,000
luncheons of this type were disposed of.
The immigrant does not know whether he has his money's worth or not. There
is no record of his transaction. He makes no protest at this treatment, and if
he wanted to, it would be difficult for him to make out a case against the
restaurant. One considerable branch of the restaurant business consists of
furnishing food to immigrants who are for any reason "detained." There is always
a good-sized colony of these, men, women, and children. Some are kept for
days, a few for weeks, pending the determination of whether or not they shall
be returned. The steamship companies bring these immigrants are, by law,
obliged to pay for the food they eat while at this Island.

Judy Neu
Springwater, NY

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