The New York Times carried this item on August 8, 1885: "Among the hundreds of immigrants who arrived at the port yesterday were seven rough-looking Arabs from the mountains of Lebanon, Syria. They said that they had brought with them beads and relics from the Holy Land and were going to Cuba, but they did not have enough money to pay their passage there. Superintendent Jackson suspected that they belonged to the class of Arab tramps that periodically come over to the US and make a begging tour through the country. When they see a policeman they pull out a bundle of beads and pretend to be selling. The new arrivals loudly declared that they were not going to beg, although no one had asked them about it. They were detained until further investigation."