you.

GEO. F. HOAR

CHAPTER XXXI
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AND THE SYRIAN CHILDREN

A very touching incident, characteristic of the kind heart
of President Roosevelt, ought to be put on record in connection
with his visit to Worcester.

During the Christmas holidays of 1901 a very well known Syrian,
a man of high standing and character, came into my son's office
and told him this story:

A neighbor and countryman of his had a few years before emigrated
to the United States and established himself in Worcester.
Soon afterward, he formally declared his intention of becoming
an American citizen. After a while, he amassed a little money
and sent to his wife, whom he had left in Syria, the necessary
funds to convey her and their little girl and boy to Worcester.
She sold her furniture and whatever other belongings she had,
and went across Europe to France, where they sailed from one
of the northern ports on a German steamer for New York.

Upon their arrival at New York, it appeared that the children
had contracted a disease of the eyelids, which the doctors
of the Immigration Bureau declared to be trachoma, which is
contagious, and in adults incurable. It was ordered that
the mother might land, but that the children must be sent
back in the ship upon which they arrived, on the following
Thursday. This would have resulted in sending them back as
paupers, as the steamship company, compelled to take them
as passengers free of charge, would have given them only such
food as was left by the sailors, and would have dumped them
out in France to starve, or get back as beggars to Syria.

The suggestion that the mother might land was only a cruel
mockery. Joseph J. George, a worthy citizen of Worcester,
brought the facts of the case to the attention of my son,
who in turn brought them to my attention. My son had meantime
advised that a bond be offered to the Immigration authorities
to save them harmless from any trouble on account of the children.

I certified these facts to the authorities and received a
statement in reply that the law was peremptory, and that it
required that the children be sent home; that trouble had
come from making like exceptions theretofore; that the Government
hospitals were full of similar cases, and the authorities
must enforce the law strictly in the future. Thereupon I
addressed a telegram to the Immigration Bureau at Washington,
but received an answer that nothing could be done for the