Maggie, thanks for that fascinating bit of history. Now I understand why, when the Seattle Song Circle folks came to sing at San Juan Island National Park in 1985 or '86, you gave us all Statue of Liberty T-shirts as souvenirs!

To make this a musical thread, here's a Yiddish song, whose author I don't know:

ELIS AYLAND

O Elis Ayland, du grenets fun frayland
Vi groys un vi shreklech du bist!
Azelche r'tsiches, dos kenen nor ruches
Du plagst di geplagte umzist
Mit tsores gekumen, dem yam koym dershvumen
De getin der frayhayt derzen
Do kumt Elis ayland, der grenets fun frayland
Zogt, "Halt! du kenst vayter nit geyn"

In Jerry Silverman's singable translation (sorry, my Yiddish isn't nearly good enough to provide a more accurate one, but this seems fairly close):

O Ellis Island, you border of free land
How big and how fearful you are
You visit such crimes without reason or rhyme
On the people who come from afar
With greatest emotion they've just crossed the ocean
And seen freedom's goddess on high
But cruel Ellis Island, the border of free land
Says, "Halt! You can never pass by"

And those who did make it through didn't find the great golden land they were expecting. Again, from Jerry Silverman:

"In the decade between 1880 and 1890, 5,246,613 immigrants entered the United States. Among them, in 1881, was David Edelstadt, who came to America at the age of fifteen after escaping the terrible Kiev pogrom of May 8, 1881. He found employment in sweatshops and subsequently contracted tuberculosis. Because of his personal tragedy he was able to express in his poetry the sentiments of the exploited immmigrant worker. He died in 1892 at the age of 26." Here is his song, "Svetshop":

Shnel loyfn di reder
Vild klapn mashinen
In shop iz shutsik in heys
Der kop vert fartumlt
In oygn vert finster
Finster fun trern un shveys

Ich fil shoyn bay zich
Kayn gantsn eyver
Tsebrokhn, tsedrikt iz mayn brust
Ich ken shoyn far veytok
Mayn rukn nit boygn
Banacht lozt nit shlofn der hust

Loyft um der mayster
A khaye, a vilde
Er traybt tsu der sh'chite di shof
O, vi lang vet ir vartn
Vi lang vet ir duldn
Arbeter brider, vacht oyf!

Wheels turning so swiftly
Wildly pounding machinery
The shop is dirty and hot
My head, how it's aching
My eyes see but darkness
Darkness from tears and sweat

It just seems to me
That I'm torn to pieces
Broken and bent is my breast
The pain is so bad
That I can't bend my back
And coughing at night robs my rest

All around runs the foreman
A beast, a wild one
He drives to the laughter the sheep
Oh, how long will you wait
How long to be patient?
Wake up, working brother, don't sleep!

(Of course, the sweatshops didn't disappear in the beginning of the 20th century...they're still going strong, with other immigrants.)

Aloha,
Mark