``The quality of the food was not so bad, but the manner and haste in serving it made it unsatisfying.  It might not be unreasonable to demand a little more care in its preparation and seasoning.

``The Hebrew cook who prepared kosher food for the Jewish passengers received much the same materials as our cook.  Some of the better passengers, particularly Germans, found the Jewish cooking so much more appetizing that they sought favor with its cook in order to secure it continually.  They also complained of the quality of the bread, and the purser allowed their table to have such bread as was supplied to the third class.  The coffee and tea were less satisfactory than the other food, but hot water was available, and many prepared their own tea.

``At the bar, besides drinks, apples and pickled herrings were sold.  Several stewards had supplies of edibles that they offered for sale.  The steerage passengers were all ready buyers.  The plain tasteless, quickly bolted meals really required supplementing, and as long as there was money with which to buy, it was quite impossible to resist.

``The washing and toilet rooms were quite as inadequate as the sleeping and eating accommodations.  These were on the main or open deck.  There were eight toilets and as many wash basins for the women; the men had two similar rooms adjoining.  The construction of the toilets rendered them convenient enough for use had they been kept clean and dry.  The hose hung continually attached, and the daily cleaning consisted of a washing off with the hose.  The floor and seats were always wet, and, as the individual compartments were so very short and narrow, it was impossible to go in or out without rubbing one's clothes against the wet and often dirty floor, step, and seat.  In the wash room, leading to the toilets, the water often stood inches deep on the floor.  The eight wash basins were insufficient for over 200 women and children.  The little room was crowded most of the day.  We rose at 5 o'clock, and earlier, in order to get washed before breakfast, which was served so promptly at 7 o'clock.  It really was no wonder to me when some finally gave up trying to keep clean.  In such filthy surroundings it was necessary to wash often, and keeping even comparatively clean would have meant a perpetual struggle to get at a basin.  The two or three days before landing those who had given up the struggle resumed it with renewed vigor.  The little wash room was crowded all day until late into the night with women washing their own and the children's heads, and washing out towels and clothing.  They were truly heroic efforts at cleanliness in the face of every obstacle.  A thorough washing of the body, or even a part of it, was entirely out of the question.  There were no bath tubs, and to monopolize a basin for more than a very few moments was impossible.  Besides, one could never have the wash room entirely to himself even for a moment.  Here, where the surroundings make a bath imperative, it was an impossibility.  All the human physical needs were so miserably provided for, or else entirely ignored, that it was not at all strange if the passenger developed and showed some animal propensities.

``The steerage passenger certainly gets but very little besides his passage.  Practically no consideration is had for him as regards either space, food, service, or conveniences.  One of ten rules on the walls announces that the passengers are responsible for the order and cleanliness of the steerage.  The difference in cost between passage in the third class and the steerage is about $7.50; the difference between accommodations is everything, and the third class does no more than provide decently for the simplest human physical needs.  The white napkins are the only nonessential that might be omitted.  Every other provision is essential to decency, propriety, health, and the preservation of self-respect.  To travel in anything worse than what is offered in the third class is to arrive at the journey's end with a mind unfit for healthy, wholesome impressions and with a body weakened and unfit for the hardships that are involved in the beginning of life in a new land.

``The letter of the law may be obeyed implicitly without bringing about the desired reforms and conditions.  This was very true on the -----.  There was apparently every observance of the law and yet the conditions in the steerage were such as should not exist.  Observing everything closely and considering it very carefully I could not see how conditions could be improved without changing the entire general arrangement of the steerage.  The undesirable features of the large sleeping compartments will continue as long as the use of the large compartments themselves continues.  And so with many of the other evils; they are the inevitable accompaniments of the system itself.  The total abolition of the present steerage and the substitution for it of the third class would seem the complete solution of the many evils of the steerage.

``Section 7 of the passenger act was posted in conspicuous places and was fairly well observed.  However, there were a few breaches.  Sailors and stewards did sometimes find themselves on the open deck to make free with the women.  This, however, was not of frequent occurrence.  The steward in charge of the women's sleeping compartment promptly expelled any man passenger who entered.  He himself, however, and even the chief officer of the steerage, did not hesitate occasionally to poke, punch, and handle the women as they lay in their berths.

``From those who had gone aboard as steerage passengers I learned that they had been taken in a small vessel to the steamer the day before it sailed.  They had been vaccinated by the ship's physicians and relieved of their ship cards.  The physicians accompanies the captain on his daily tour of inspection, passing through all the steerage and third-class quarters.  However, there was no examination of the passengers until just the evening previous to landing.  Then each one bared his arm and presented the vaccination to the doctor for inspection.  The women were all kept in first, then the men.  After that, in order that the last memories of the steamer might be pleasant, each women was given a little candy, each man a pipe and package of tobacco.

``The day before this, ship cards had been returned, and attached to each was a number to aid the division of passengers at Ellis Island; also a doctor's card.  Similar cards were given in the third class.  These were marked and stamped in identically the same manner, though the one class had been vaccinated and the other had not.

``There were hospital rooms, one for men and one for women, but there seemed to be a strong objection to using them.  A sign on the doors strictly forbade admittance, and the doors were locked except when a stewardess was present, and then she kept out the curious.

``During the journey, two women after much effort were admitted to the hospital.  One was so weak she had to be carried.  She was returned in a couple of days, but was still so weak she dropped in a heap on the iron floor of one of the compartments.  Neither stewards nor the two stewardesses noticed her, and when urged to get a mattress for her and help her to a berth said that was the business of the chief officer of the steerage, not theirs.  The two stewardesses in the steerage apparently had few duties.  They distributed meal gruel to children and in nice weather drove out all the women on deck.  Much of the time they were not in the steerage at all.

``There were 450 passengers in the steerage and almost 300 in the third class.  They differed very little in kind.  Nevertheless it was possible to maintain cleanliness and order in the third class.  The blame for the filth of the steerage can not then be placed entirely on the passengers.  The third class is proof that if given an opportunity the poorer passengers do keep clean.