The Aliens Act in action in Grimsby
On the arrival of the Great Central Railway Company's steamer " Lutterworth" from Hamburg, eighty-six passengers were landed. Fifty-eight were transmigrants, booked through to America and Canada. Three were saloon passengers, who did not come under the operation of the Act but the remaining twenty-five were aliens who desired to remain in England, and were, therefore, examined by the immigration officials. AH the immigrants were able to -satisfy the officers as to their means and ability to maintain themselves in this country, and were also able to pass the examination of the medical officer, with two exceptions. The first to come under the ban of this official was Macie Paliwoda, a thirty-year-old labourer, from Pralytsamin (Galicia), who was on his way to Manchester, to join a brother-in-law. The doctor declared that Paliwoda was suffering from hernia, and on this ground he was refused admission into England. The second to be debarred was Wladislaw Kinezewski, a Russian labourer, who stated that he was going to Liverpool. He was found to be affected with a disease of the eyes, which, in the opinion of the medical officer, was liable to turn to total blindness. This affliction led to his rejection. Both aliens, when refused admission, became very dejected, and earnestly begged the officials to reconsider their cases. They were informed of their right to appeal, but the expense of engaging an independent doctor deterred them, and they preferred to be deported.
The Great Central Railway Company's steamer " Oldham" arrived at Grimsby on the 9th inst., having on board eighty-one passengers from Hamburg. The transmigrants for America numbered fifty-seven, and there were six cabin passengers. The remaining eighteen were aliens who were booked to England. The examination by the immigration officials revealed several interesting stories. Samuel Hartmann, a Hungarian shoemaker, with his wife and family, stated that he was returning to England after an absence of eleven months. Three vears ago when he first came to England with his family from Abad Snalok, he settled in Manchester, and after a two years' residence in that city, three of his sons determined to commence in business for themselves, and opened a boot and shoe manufactory. In order not to be a burden on them, and to leave them unhampered in their efforts, Hartmann returned to Hungary, taking with, him his wife and the younger children. The three brothers had now written to their father stating that the business had progressed successfully and that there was now work for all the members of the family, if they would return to Manchester.
Much amusement was occasioned by a young Russian Jew, who laughingly informed the interpreter that he had lost the address of the friend in Birmingham, to whom he was going. He was not at all cast down on this account, and confidently asked the immigration officer for the missing address. Fortunately the address had been obtained by the Hamburg representatives of the shipping company, and, as usual, forwarded to Grimsby, and the young Jew's loss was made good. An extraordinary feature,revealed in the examination of this immigrant was that although he could not speak a word of English he had been born in Birmingham. His explanation of this was that when he was but three years of age, his father returned to Kovno, taking his family with him. He informed me that the immigrants are carefully examined before being allowed to take the boat for England, and that he had three times undergone medical examination; firstly, on the Russian frontier, secondly, before leaving Berlin, and again at Hamburg. He was a tailor and had good prospects in Birmingham.
The death of Mrs Ada S Ballin
We regret to record the sudden death of Mrs. Ada S Ballin, which occurred on Monday morning last as the result of an accident. She was on the point of leaving home to visit her patients when she fell backwards from an upper window, and was impaled on the railings of her house, She died immediately. Mrs. Ballin was the daughter of the late Isaac Ballin, of Tavistook Square, by his second Wife, Annie —one of a family of talented sisters, of whom the best known is Madame Hartog. Like other members of her family, she became an accomplished Hebrew scholar , havin g studied Hebrew under Professor Marks, the Rev. S. Singer and the late Revs. M. Hainee and Lawrence M. Simmons. She gained the Hollier Hebrew Scholarship at University College, and became joint author with her brother, Mr. P. L. Ballin, of a Hebrew Grammar which, at one time, had a considerable vogue. At University College she had a singularly brilliant career. Besides the Hollier Hebrew Scholarship, she gained the Fielding Scholarship for French, the Heimann Silver Medal for German, the Morley Prize for English composition, and several other distinctions in languages and. philosophy. From an early age Mrs. Ballin evinced an interest in the care of children, which showed itself in the regular visits she paid from her girlhood to the Children's Hospital in Great Ormond Street, to the inmates of which she was in the habit of reading and talking. The results of her studies of child-life were published in her first signed articles in the Queen, and in a a lecture on " Children's Dress" delivered in 1884 at the International Health Exhibition, London. Many of the improvements that have been introduced of late years into the dress and care of children are owed to her initiative. She wrote several works on the care and feeding of children, including *' From Cradle to School" and " Nursery Cookery " ; and, at the time of her death, was editing three journals more or less devoted to the interests of children—Baby, Womanhood and Playtime.
… The opinions of her friends were divided as to the expediency of her taking up her latest profession personally superintending the production of beauty. She was an enthusiast as to her capacity for removing wrinkles from the brows of careworn men and of women who had lived too much. Crows’ feet and stray hairs were evils which in her view she was born to eradicate, and it is a true story that to a gentleman of her own race and religious persuasion who called on her on business she cried, “I thought you came to me to have the shape of your nose altered."
(Ada Ballin, who died aged 43 was among the first women students at University College, starting there at the age of 16)
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