Show I AT THE TEE KISSING GATE Ellis Island th the ti Osculating Spot of the United States Kansas City Journal The one spot in ia this tl world where year in and year out there lere is more kissing real earnest kissing too than there is Je anywhere e else is 18 on Ellis Bills is island Island land 1000 in New York harbor Every day rain rIn r ln or shine toot or cold It t fairly resounds with the earnestness s of the greetings greeting that take place there thereWith thereWith With the kisses are tears sometimes The spot is near the western we tem part of o othe the great new red and gray turreted building wherein immigrants from the remotest quarters of the globe are received re received received examined and If not found wantIng given into the fostering care of Migs Mis LU Columbia and her Uncle Sam Officially the spot is known only onty as the bureau of information certainly e it severe unromantic looking sort of oC place with its long lines of iron IroD railings and high latticed But at one end and the end nearest the door which affords s exit from that part of the building Is the Matting In ld gate Here it tt its ItIs Is s that the kissing begin and 00 is pro prolonged longed over oer the little distance to the thedoor thedoor thedoor door or to the benches which are ranged in ll close lo lines Unea at the extreme lower room The bureau of Information ig J the point to which are sent all those who seek friends or relatives among the im ha immigrants Immigrants migrants and the kissing gate is the first point paint at which they meet face Lace to face hand to hand lip Up to lip Here it is that the Ute father gray but buti i sturdy with the peasants sturdiness meets the rough handed toil ton marked son who woo has ban worked mad and saved to bring i the old man here hero And it is where the mother and the daughter dau meet husband and father after years of separation It is here the lovers meet shyly first firsta a 8 handclasp and a sidelong glance and I then the fumbling kiss that is only 1 a half a kiss and half a bump because they thought those officials were watching them Watching them thom I indeed And here too tOG others wait and watt walt and wait walt for tor husbands brothers sweethearts who wilt will never come These stand against the latticed pens and watch the e others kissing and thus it goes on day after day month after month year alter after year yearn It n may m almost fee he called the gateway into the Untied United States for tor such it is 15 for thousands t upon thousands of the immigrants AM All who are met by toy rela relatives relatives tives fives or friends pass peas through it to be caught up and hugged and nd and am cried over a 8 little perhaps before the new life in the new land with the old friends You ask any of the officials in the bureau of information about the kiss Ides kissing l 83 ing lug gate and they will win point it out to you tell you that theres there a somebody som bodY or other kissing ther thero all day long and that is all There te is no novelty in the he sight or the custom for them thorn It has h t been going on 1 n ever since the building was as erected and before that just as many years as there have been item grants arriving The he kissing kl gate hears bears kisses am and greetings in neatly nearly all the tongues and dialects of the tile world Stay here long enough one of the officials said and you 11 see every kind of ot human being you youve ve ever eer heard beard o or of orand and a 8 lot you youve v e never heard of ot And Am Amas Andas as for kissing and hugging a summer hotel and a bear pit are nothing to it Men women and children hug ant and I kiss each other ther O and one a 1 other Some Sometimes Sometimes Sometimes I times they will wUl for tor just a L moment o or orP P 0 two stop a aR 41 the official machinery out one calls down here until some Move on which really means Bras Break Breakaway a away aY The bureau of information Is te one room in two sections the penn Me auction e elion and the railed and fl lion tion at the north Behind benched section at the south the gratings are kept those immigrants who have hae successfully passed their ex ax examinations for tor candidacy for American citizenship and are expecting relations ne or frIends friend to take them by toy the handon hand on the threshold of the naw now worM children Here are men women and French Spanish German Armenian Russian Scandinavian Dutch Danish Servian Czech Italian HaUan Basque one and all watching the narrow gateway gate at the end of the room the passageway passage way between two lines of steel pipe railings that lead pest past Chief Horan desk toward the tree free world Some of or them are listless sitting on OR their peculiar box ike trunks or trunk I like boxes hands inert in laps staring starl with dull eyes Others nave have their hearts beating in their throats with ex cx excitement nt fearing that the tong ought Ion loved one will wUl come in and not Dot s see e and be toe seen at once It is thus mainly with th the women although though now DOW and then one sees an old oh man or a very young boy whose whole being is alert with expectancy ex ncy and who cannot forbear for forbear bear the glad cry when the wished for tor forone torone forone loran Horan for one comes cometS in and asks uk Mr permission to take such and such a tone one home There was a young man at the outer railing today who ho had come for his hi old mother and his sister They espied pled e him hint long before he saw them and tooth iotla oth of them sprang from their trunk seats and I called his name aloud in an of or recognition Soon they were at the kissing gate their arms about him tears coursing cour down their cheeks as they cried and laughed the while They were v re Ger Gee Germans Germans mans and to the wrinkled old mother the sun ISun rose and set in that th t boy When Vb en she could release rele him she held him hint at rats length to admire him She made wlm im take his Hat off she ran her hands ands through his hair and told him over and over again what a fine ne fellow he WaST was The T he young girl was clinging to his arm all ail this time and now and then raising herself 1 on n her toes to kiss herbIg her herbig bIg tolg brother All AU were vere entirely oblivious of the rest the other immigrants the officials and would probably have re ye remained remained teamed blocking the passageway had hadnot hadnot hadnot not one of the Interpreters called out for them to move on and even eyen then thea the old woman as she gathered her skirts her bundles and her boy oboy under her arm ann cried out a bless you to the officials and stumbled out telling the boy what v hat a fine big fellow he was The Italians are great ones 1 nes for kiss kissIng kissing Ing like the French and it is i toy thy no means uncommon for tor two men to stand In a embrace kissing like two turtle doves while the Inspectors and interpreters and attendants cry out at them to move along alongA A little Bohemian girl not a day more than 11 who had made the ocean journey alone at least only with steamer friends was met at the gate g te teby by her uncle because her rather lather who intended to come was ill In a hospital Surprise and grief at the fathers ab absence absence sence were evident In the childs face the moment she saw only her uncle awaiting her at the gate The uncle saw it at once and the first thins thi he said to her across the space 85 that her father lather was all right only a little ill and that she should see him this very afternoon This evidently comforted the child because after the customary kiss at the gate she went off oft hand In hand with her overjoyed uncle And so the kissing and abd the greeting and the happiness and the tears and aad the longing and the unhappiness go on day after day |