The+Journey+tfl

=The Journey= The Immigrants from Europe traveled in the "steerage" of steamboats. Steerage is the cheapest accommodations on the steamboats. The immigrants packed onto them until no one else could fit and ate whatever food they could find. Edward Steiner, an Iowa clergyman who posed as an immigrant in order to write a book about immigration wrote, "Narrow, steep and slippery stairways lead to it. Crowds everywhere, ill smelling bunks, uninviting washrooms--this is steerage. The odors of scattered orange peelings, tobacco, garlic and disinfectants meeting but not blending. No lounge or chairs for comfort, and a continual babble of tongues--this is steerage. The food, which is miserable, is dealt out of huge kettles into the dinner pails provided by the steamship company."