The legislature of the State of New York, in 1847, appointed a Committee to inquire into the frauds practised upon emigrants.  It made its report in January 1848.  In the fourth page of that Report these words occur:  “Your Committee must confess, that they had no conception of, nor would they have believed the extent to which these frauds and outrages have been practised, until they came to investigate them.”  The first set of robbers into whose hands the emigrants fell were called “runners.”  They are described in the Report as a class who boarded the emigrant ship and brought the emigrants to their special lodging-houses in spite of them, and in spite of the authorities.  They took charge of their luggage, pretending that nothing would be demanded for the storage of it, the price claimed for which afterwards was exorbitant, and the luggage was held until it was paid.

The frauds committed with regard to passage tickets were if possible more grievous than those practised by the runners.  “The emigrant,” says the Report, buys a ticket at an exorbitant price, with a picture on it representing a steam-boat, railway cars, and a canal packet drawn by three prancing horses, to bring him to some place beyond Albany. He gets a steam-boat ticket to Albany.  Here his great ticket, with the pictures, is protested; he has to pay once more, and instead of railroad cars and a packet-boat, he is thrust into the steerage or hold of a line boat, which amongst other conveniences is furnished with false scales for weighing his luggage.

A few extracts from the testimony of some of the witnesses examined before the Committee will show how unexaggerated was the Report.

Henry Vail is examined:  he testifies that he is employed by E. Mathews.  His practice is to get all he can for tickets; he retains whatever is over the proper price and gets his monthly pay besides.  The only exception to his getting all he can, is, he declares upon his oath, that he “never shaves a lady that is travelling alone.  It is bad enough,” in his opinion, “to shave a man."[297] Charles Cooke said, in his examination, that he had been employed by many offices.  He heard Rieschmueller tell passengers to go to the d——­l, they could not get less than twelve dollars as deck passengers on the lake, and he made them believe they must get their tickets from him, which they did.  “Rieschmueller told me,” said Cooke, “that all he was compelled to pay for a passenger to any port on the lakes was from two dollars to two and a-half.  Wolfe told me that two dollars was the price, and all luggage free."[298] Mervyn L. Ray swore that he knew Mr. Adams to take twelve dollars for a passenger to Buffalo, when he (Ray) would have given him the same fare at two dollars.