SUIT CASE CATCHES
EYE OF IMMIGRANT.
FIRST STEP TOWARD AMERICAN-
ISM, SAYS STATION MASTER.
It Is in Kansas City That Average
Foreign Pilgrim "Ducks" Tele-
scope for Modern Travel-
ing Equipment.
Within the last few years Kansas City has become the threshold over which the newly arrived immigrant steps in his transition from the "raw" state into the finished "American product," according to Station Master Bell at the Union depot. And his first step is the purchasing of an ordinary suitcase.
For several years the trunk and traveling bag manufacturers of this city have noticed an increase in local sales of this class of their merchandise. The little shops that cluster about the depot reap the greater part of this harvest.
"An average of from eight to fifteen a day ask where they can purchase a suitcase," said Mr. Bell yesterday. "The conversation is usually one of gestures, but one that can be readily understood. The German and the Swede are the best customers of the suitcase man. They will come to me or one of the ushers and point to a great, bulging telescope arrangement constructed after the plan of a moving van, and then look around for some one who has a neat leather suitcase. When they find one that suits their fancy a wallet is pulled out and vigorously tapped and usually accompanied by one word: 'Where?' We know what they mean.
WHY HE BUYS IT HERE.
"Occasionally one who is conversant with English will come and ask where a suitcase or a grip can be bought. On the way from New York he sees one after another of those big 'storage warehouse' affairs disappear as their countrymen reach their respective destinations. When he gets this far west his, usually, is the only one of its kind and the immigrant sees it. He knows he is not like the rest and that he can be readily picked out for what he is by his luggage.
"One young German, I recall, came to me and in broken English informed me of his desire to get an 'English bag.' When he had made the customary motions I knew what he wanted and directed him to an uptown furnishing house, where he could get whatever he needed in that line. He came back togged out in a suit of the latest fashion, distinguishable for its 'loudness.'
" 'Now I am American, hein?' he said. 'I guess I make believe I have been here years, yes, and not but days, is it not, hein?' I told him his own mother would not recognize him. 'I am not glad of that one bag and I get for me these two, it is easier, much, and is it not much better to look yet? Before I am one poor Deutscher, not one but looks at my luggage when I get on the train or when I come off. Now will they think I am one of them, and that lonesome feeling that I get will not be again.'
"This exactly shows the situation," continued the station master. "The immigrant gets this far and begins to feel alone. Everyone singles him out and stares at the enormous grip he carries. It does not take him long to learn, and even if he does not get new clothes, he goes after the grip. Even the Italian with his belongings stowed away in a massive roll of blankets falls into line when he reaches Kansas City."
