“Why you’re right at the start of it,” said the official with a laugh; “wait till you get further on, if you want to find system.”

“Here I see, too, the questioning begins,” remarked Hamilton.

“Yes, some of the inspectors at the desk know several languages, and they are assisted by interpreters when necessary.  They hold a responsible position, because they can decide to let an alien land.  You see they ask the immigrant the same questions that are on the manifest sheet.  If the answers tally all the way through, if the man understands and gives an apparently straight story, if he has a sufficiency of funds to keep him until he has a chance to get work, and especially if he has already a railroad ticket to friends at some inland point, he is given a blue ticket and allowed to pass directly through to the right into the railroad waiting rooms.”

“But if he hasn’t?”

“Then he goes down this passage which leads again to the special inquiry rooms where you saw the others going.  He is given a different colored ticket, in accordance with the expected objection.  You see, the inspector does not attempt to pass upon the merits of the case.  He just affirms that the passenger has not made his title clear.  Just as before, the aim is to enable the desirable immigrant to land as quickly and easily as possible.  Supposing there were no crowd, an immigrant could land on the wharf, be looked over by the doctors, pass through the primary inspection, answer all questions, and be in the railroad waiting rooms ready for his train in less than four minutes.  That’s not much of a hardship!”

“It certainly isn’t,” Hamilton agreed.  “And I notice that most of them seem entitled to land.”

“That varies a great deal,” his guide said.  “I think it averages about ninety per cent.  In a few ships, especially those handling little of the Continental traffic, those held for special inquiry drop as low as five per cent, while for the vessels bringing immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, the proportion held will rise to nearly one-third of the entire passenger list.”

“All right,” said Hamilton in a satisfied tone, “I guess I have that straight.  But I notice there is a third stream of people.  One, you say, is going to the railroad waiting rooms, one down to special inquiry, but how about the third?”

“That’s the ‘temporary detention’ group.  I’ll take you there in a minute, but let us finish up with the man who is to be admitted.  Here is the railroad waiting room.”

A few feet further on Hamilton found an immense room, like a railroad ticket office, where tickets could be bought for any railroad or steamship route to any point in the United States or Canada.  A money-changing booth was in the place, where foreign money could be turned into United States currency at the exact quotation for the day, even down to the fractions of a cent.

“Why are they pinning on more tickets?” asked Hamilton.  “I thought when they took off the tickets upstairs that would be the end of it.”