Tenement inspectors Journal Entry

My name is Riccardo Cozza. I am from Italy. I came to America in December 1905. My story is about my first time hearing about the tenement inspectors.

 I woke up one morning and I heard loud footsteps getting louder and louder. Then they stopped and the door opened. I hid under my covers , my two sisters did the same because I told them to. It turned out it was my dad telling us that he had to go to work and that the inspectors for the tenement were coming over. When I heard that I got scared and had so many questions. I was scared of the inspectors at Ellis Island because they looked rough and they had tools that looked like they would hurt you. So when I heard inspectors I thought it would be the same thing. I was wrong they didn’t inspect you, they inspected the tenement.

I asked are they going to be like the inspectors from Ellis Island? I also asked when are they coming? How long are they going to be there? Will they fix the heat? But all my dad did was say I don’t know and shut the door. I got dressed and ate breakfast and played a game of backgammon with my sister Maria. She is 6 years old. I won by 8 points. After that I went outside to take my sisters to school. When I went back home my mom told me that they measured everything and checked everything and that she doesn’t know what to do. I was really scared that something bad might happen. As I got older I realized that the tenement inspectors measured the stairs because the stairs need to be 8 inches tall. They checked to see if the stairway had a banister. They did this to make the place safe. I thought they were going to be like the medical inspectors in Ellis Island where they use the painful tools to check to see if you’re healthy. If you’re not healthy they will send you back to your country, where you came from.