Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1876-05-06
THE PEST.

CASSIDY 4 DENNIS.
THE CHINESE PEST.
The anti-C Chinese excitement in Cal
ifornia is growing, and growing rapid
ly. It has, for the first time in years,
assumed the form Of mob violence.
The town OF Antioch on the San Joa-
quin, in Contra Costa county, has, in
common with every town on the coast,
has been afflicted with Chinatown"
and public morality has been, as with
us all, daily outraged by the open and
notorious prostitution carried on there.
The particular cause of the outbreak in
Antioch, in which the entire Chinese
quarter was destroyed, was the discov-
cry Of an organized system, existing
among the Asiatics fer the enticement
OF youths into their dens of prostitu-
ton. 1t appears that young boys, the
sons of respectable parents, had been
invited by the masters of the women,
and many of them had contracted
loathsome disorders. The public mind
was already infiamed against the Chi
nsse, and these facts becoming known,
the citizens, carried away by their pas
sions, burnt the Chinese settlement to
the ground, and drove away its inhab-
itants. Ne acts of personal violence
appear to have been committed. The
following day, at a monster meeting in
San Francisco, these acts of the people
Of Antioch were Endorsed and a SINH
lar course advocated for the city.
Now, all this is wrong. Men whose
Industries are paralyzed by the intro
duction in the community of a system
Of slave labor, and whose wives and
children are continually affronted by
the parading ola prostitution Of slaves
before their very doors, may be ex-
cused for taking the law into their "
hands and roofing out the pest, but
they cannot be justified. In the first
place violence is ever 10 be deprecated.
In the next place, such violence mill
tates against the cause sought to be ad-
vancsd by it.
The only remedy for tho evils under
which We suffer, and which are in
creasing in a geometrical ratio. threat
ening to displace Saxon civilization,
lies in Federal legislation. The recent
decision of the Supreme Court Is con-
elusive on this point. The States can
not legislate against the importation Of
Chinese. To Congress alone can we
look. Now, we on the Pacific coast are
but . small fraction of the United
States. The three Pacific States send
to Washington including both Houses,
but twelve representatives out of q total
representation OF three hundred and
sixty-six. We think we know all
about this Chinese question by reason
Of our daily familiarity with it. But
VI must remember that most people
in the East think that we are wrong;
that the Heather Chinee is a patient,
industrious, faithful, useful person,
and that every Californian, Nevadan or
Oregonian who entertains sentiments
hostile 10 the immigration Of Mon
golians, il an obstruction Of free
commerce, and q petty tyrant. in
short, a Bill Nye; and we may
remark. in passing, that to Bret
Harte, more than to any other liv-
ing man, may be ascribed tho exist
ence of this belief among our brethren
beyond the Rocky mountains. Now,
this feeling in the East can only be in
tsnsiied by such unfortunate occur
rences a. that at Antioch. The aver
age man, the average Congressman,
reads the account in his morning pa
per and his sympathies 60 out to a
community OF strangers in q strange
land, sufIsring-as he bslieves-perse-
cution at the hands Of men of his own
race.
There 10 but u way to solve this
problems problem OF vital impor-
lance to every man and to every in
dustry in the land-and that is. to lay
the facts before the people Of the Unit
ed States, to teach them, what now
they do not know, that Chinese immi-
grafton means slavery, and slavery in
it's worst form; slavery for . term Of
years, after the lapse Of which the
bodily or moral health Of his chattel
10 Of no more consequences to his mas
ter; that it also means prostitution, or
ganized, almost legalized, prostitution,
and prostitution in its worst form;
prostitution where the poor, dsbased
woman, herself . slave, and openly
bought and sold for money, does not
even receive the profits Of her own
persou. Let these facts be conclusive
ly laid before the people of the East,
and our word for it . cry Of horror