Post by fredj on Mar 22, 2019 9:27:22 GMT
How did Catfish earn his living? Could he have sponsored Scrooge, saying that he would make Scrooge his apprentice, and support him until he is able to earn his own living? I'm sorry, but "open borders" don't necessarily mean that millions of underage people with no parents, and no visible means of support would be accepted into USA. Most of them, if alone, would be taken as sex slaves, or would have had to start begging in the streets and stealing, until they'd be found by a "Fagin" type criminal who used gangs of children to do his dirtywork. I could see some tradespeople making 16 year-olds their apprentices. But a 13 year old traveling accross the ocean would generally need a sponsor to guarantee his support and work for him after being trained. I just don't believe ANY country would take in refugee, penniless waifs, with no one to feed, clothe and house them.
Well, if millions of poor orphans would have been able to cross the Atlantic there still wouldn’t be any legal grounds for rejecting them in 1880. There weren’t even any immigration inspectors back then. When Scrooge’s cattle ship arrived at New Orleans the captain would had turned over a passenger list to the port authority, but this was for record keeping and to make sure the ship followed regulation. I simply haven’t found anything that suggests that a healthy Scottish teenager, who have worked his way to America and most likely have a glowing recommendation letter from the captain in his pocket, would be denied entry.