TESTIMONY, &c. OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION, Committee appointed pursuant to a resolution of the House of Assembly, passed October 11, 1847, to investigate frauds upon emigrants, met : Present, Mr. THOMAS SMITH, Chairman. Mr. MCNAMARA, Mr. UPHAM, Mr. CHANDLER, Mr. RUTHERFORD. (No. 1.) Testimony of William Harnett. William Harnett sworn, says he resides at 167 Allen-street NewYork, has been assistant agent of the New-York Protection Society, was appointed to that office in 1843, the society was composed of the owners of different lines upon the Erie canal, they had an agent stationed at Quarantine ground to book passengers; that agent was Jonathan D. Stevenson, who employed me; I have no connection with the society now. There are many boarding houses in this city where frauds of a most flagrant nature are committed; the frauds are committed by Germans upon Germans, Irish upon Irish, &c.; there arc no Americans keeping boarding houses, engaged in the frauds that I am aware of.. (No. 2.) IN COMMITTEE, OFFICE OF THE CCMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION, Present, Mr. THOMAS SMITH, Chairman. Mr. MCNAMARA, Mr. UPHAM, Mr. CHANDLER, Mr RUTHERFORD. Testimony of Smith Parks. Smith Parks, sworn. I have an uncle by the name of John Woodworth, of Manlius Square, Onondaga county, who recently visited me; aged about seventy-three years, quite childish; who, when about to return, brought me a ticket that he had bought to carry him home by steamboat to Albany, and railroad to his place of residence. I examined the ticket and thought it wrong, and went to the office of Porter Adams where the ticket was obtained; Adam's office is No. 106 Barclay-street. I found a man in the office who represented himself as a clerk of Adams, and told him that my uncle had bought the tickets, expecting to be forwarded to Manlius Square by steamboat and railroad; he denied that the tickets had been sold for any such purposes. I then went to the steamboat and enquired if the tickets were good, and if they would carry my uncle to Albany for the ticket, the captain told me he would take him to Albany for the ticket, but that he must be confined to the deck of the boat, and pay six shillings in addition for a berth if he had one. The ticket had on it as a vignette, a railroad car and a canal boat, directed to some one in Albany. I paid my uncle's passage home and retained the tickets; requested Mr. Adam's clerk to refund the money, or at least a part of it, retaining his profits, which he declined doing, as he had paid the money over to Adams. I then called on Adams and stated the circumstances to him, and requested him to refund the money, but he declined, on the ground that his clerk who was a great scoundrel, had not paid it over to him. I left the tickets at his office, writing my name on the back, have called several times with a view of getting some portion of the money, but without suc cess. (No. 3.) Testimony of Daniel B. Davis. Albany county, ss. Daniel B. Davis being duly sworn, doth depose and say, that he is Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Assembly, that he accompanied the committee to investigate frauds upon emigrants, to the city of New-York on the 14th day of October last, for the purpose of subpœnaing witnesses, under the direction of said committee; that he subpoenaed Smith Parks to appear before said committee; after his examination, the said Parks went with him to subpoena Porter Adams; that before naming his business to the said Adams, Parks told Adams that he must settle with him for the fraud committed on his uncle, by selling him tickets to go to Syracuse by railroad from Albany, when the tickets were only such as would carry him in the steerage of a canal boat. Adams refused to refund the money, denying all knowledge on the subject, that the fraud was committed by a man called Buffaloe, whose real name he did not know, and for whose acts he would not become responsible; that he then subpoenaed Mr. Adams to appear before the committee; after a moment's reflection, Mr. Adams turned to Mr. Parks and settled with him by refunding the money he had taken from Park's uncle. D. B. DAVIS. Subscribed and sworn, the 17th day of November, 1847, before me. D. S. MCNAMARA, member of said committee. (No. 4.) Testimony of Porter Adams. Porter Adams, sworn. I reside 256 Fulton-street; my office 106 Barclay-street. My business, forwarding passengers and their baggage to Upper and Lower Canada and the Western States; have business cards. I have forwarded, I think, since the opening of navigation, from eight hundred to one thousand; when I forward passengers I receive pay through to their place of destination; forward them to my employers in Albany, James Roach and Henry D. Smethurst, generally consigned to H. D. Smethurst; more than a month in the spring, I consigned to William Malburn of Albany. I act as agent for these men on commission; worked by the month till about the 1st of July; I receive the passengers from persons who work outside; sometimes I find them in the street; these persons who work outside receive a commission from those engaged in the business; sometimes passengers call at the office; I charge from $3 to $5 each for forwarding passengers from New-York to Buffalo, which includes 60 pounds of luggage; I pay those who act on the outside from one to two dollars for each passenger; the difference in price is occasioned by the choice of the person between a cabin and a deck passage; there are but three companies that I know of engaged in this business. I forward passengers to E. Matthews, Troy. I have had some four or five passengers during the summer who have found fault and returned their tickets, for which I have invariably paid them their money. There is a man in my employ who acts for me in my absence. I have my tickets signed in my office. When the pas-sengers arrive at Albany the ticket is given up, and a new one given by the house to which I consign them. The tickets specify the mode of conveyance-whether cabin or deck passage; but do not in all cases specify whether the passenger is to go by a line boat or a packet on the canal. All passengers sent by me to Sche nectady, go in the first class of cars. Those who work on the outside sometimes misrepresent to passengers the mode, in which they are to be forwarded. I pay the runners at the time the passenger pays his fare. The account stands thus The balance of $2.50 goes to the runner. I usually manage thus ; the person pays $5.00, for which I give him river fare, $1.00. Office in New-York 50 cents. Canal fare $1.50, making $3.00. The balance to runner, $2.00. From this amount my consignee receives the tickets, for which I pay him $1.50. I receive in no case more than fifty cents for each passenger. My consignees make their profits mainly on the baggage, for which they receive, when I settle with them, 75 cents per hundred pounds, from Albany to Oswego, Rochester, or Buffalo. There are two or three hundred hackmen who get their living in a great measure by conveying passengers from the eastern boats and vessels to the Albany boats. I have charged in some instances $7 for passage to Buffalo, in which case I board them. I have regular prices, but sometimes vary from them, and in some instances have paid the runner an extra price. I have in many instances refused to charge an extra price for the purpose of paying extra to runners. Forwarding houses and offices receive a regular fare, which is uniform; all extra prices go to the runners. Persons who are employed here as runners by the month, receive from $40 to $75 per month. Hiram Johnson, Barclay-street, Philip Caswell, Courtland-street O. B. Teal, West-street, O'Hern, West-street, cor. of Albany-street, Wm. L. Ray, 101 Barclay-street, are engaged in the business. I have never given tickets to runners to be sold by them to passengers. During the summer, a runner known as Western or Westey, came to my office with a passenger with whom he had contracted at $7.00 to Whitehall, the regular passage being $3.00. The passenger was an old lady. I told him |