Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1880-03-19
JOHN CHINAMAN IN NEW YORK,
Life i'm the Transplanted Section of the
Flowery Hingdom-The Interior of n
Chinese Store,

Flowery Kingdom-Tho Interior of a
Chinese Store.
The great obstacle in the way of the
growth of the Chinese population of
New York city at present is the difficulty
they have in procuring buildings for
habitations and business purposes in
any desirable part of the town. They
are now scattered in all sections of the
city, by twos, threes and half dozens, in
he laundry business, but their quarter
S the lower end of Mott street. There
their peculiar institutions flourish /;
there their stores are; there their fire.
cracker and tea-chest lingo is Haunted
glaringly upon red paper at almost every
door. r.4
Here in New York there is not, as
yet, any such overcrowding as in San
Francisco, yet the manner in which they
utilize space is really remarkable. Take
Wo Fee's store for example. 1t is the
principal Chinese store on Mott street,
consequently the leading one in New
York. 1t contains apparently some
where near a million different things of
the most incongruous character There
are an infinity of diminutive pasteboard
boxes, filled with Chinese medicines
gigantic pills, roots, herbs, barks, seeds,
and such like. There are incense sticks,
jade bracelets; strange evolutions of
Celestial fancy in the way of ornament
alton, like glorified valentines; quaint
and pretty tea services, dried sharks
fins, looking like bangled strips of
amber-tinted glue; ducks split, baked
in peanut oil, and fiattened out dry, so
as to look like strange caricatures OF
HTo ofY1oa fo - E,,s 20 a4r
nuts that nobody but q Chinaman
knows the name of, dried mushrooms,
opium and pipes for smoking it, to-
bacco, teas of many kinds, some of them
exquisite and much more expensive
than any American store sells; silks,
fungus-looking black Jumps, of which it
is guaranteed that small bit will make
the drunkenest man Immediately sober;
sandals and Chinese clothing. In short,
it is grocery, dry goods store, jewelry
shop, drug store, curiosity shop, and
twenty other things, and yet is all COM
prised in the space of small front par
lor, with a narrow branch into back
room, necessarily small, so as to leave
space for well-patronized lodgings de-
partment. There is little open space
in the center of the store, just enough
for three OF four customers to stand in,
but beyond that not an inch is wasted.
On little table near the window stands
the inevitable tea pot and a number of
little cups, preparation for hospitality
that the Chinese merchant extends to
every one. Behind the narrow little
counter is Wo-Kee himself, bland,
courteous, deft in running up sums
with the buttons of his Chinese abacus.
artistic in the manipulation of the
camel's hair brush with which he paints
the mysterious symbols of his account
books, graceful and exact in the weigh
ing out by his ivory and thread balance
(on the steelyard pattern) of the minute
quantities of opium constantly in de-
mand by his customers.
In the basement of Wo-Kee's house
meets the Po-Lan-Gung-Se, q benevolent
society of Cinnamon numbering about
seventy-five members. Further down
the street is the meeting place of the
Sam-Hop-We, another association for
mutual benefit.
The Chinese quarter contains couple
of opium-smoking shops, where the
slaves of the soporific drug lie in narrow
hunks and sleep dreamful slumbers
Those addicted to this vice show it in
their listless, indifferent stare, stupidity
and bodily weakness when it has gained
a great hold upon them, but nearly al
the Chinese seem to smoke opium to q
moderate extent without suffering any
harm from it. There are no Chinese
liquor shops, and a drunken Chinaman
is exceedingly rare, although most o.
them drink little beer. They have nc
temple here as yet, and no theater. but
in course of time hope to have both
when they are here in sufficient mum.
bers for the support of such institutions
In neither devotional nor histrionic exer.
cises have they any disposition to favor
prevalent among them seems to bt
gambling. They play for very snail
stakes generally, but with an eagerness
and infatuation thatnO other people cal
excel. Their games no white man evel
dreams of undertaking, and hence ii il
that when party of Chinese gambler!
are arrested it is hardly possible, excep
by stretch of presumption under th,
law, to convict them. They have, how
ever, q wholesome respect for American
law, and are extremely cautious in ad
mitting q stranger to any knowledge o
their sports of chance. Reporters th'
more ignorant of them fear more thai
police men, for their Interpreters hav
taught them: 1t is only by the publ
cation in the newspapers of the matters
you permit the reporters to know abou
you that the police ever find out any
thing. So long as the policeman is lef
to the resources of his own intelligence
you have nothing to fear from him.
So it is very hard to get any informa
ton from them about their lives AM
habits. When Chinamap is very sicl
and feels that he can afford it, he goe
to IN American physician for treatment
but for ordinary ailments, Just beyont
the limits of his own knowledge of th
resources of Wo-Kee's red boxes. b
goes to the one of the two Chimes
physicians located here, Chun- Man
wy, their principal physician, doe
quite thriving trade upon basis {
prices regulated to meet the iinancia
; abilities OF his countrymen. Sometime
u Cbinaman pays him as much as y
for being thoroughly cured. Quon2
! Lee affirms that there has never .yt
been case of leprosy among the Chint
, men in New Yolk.
| There are six flourishing stores o
Mott street, dealing almost entirely
= imported goods, paying high rents, an
doing q thriving business. Not I'll
/, least amusing feature of the transaction
e in them is the frequent occurrence I
: Cinnamon coming in to have reweighe
0 on the honest scales of their countryme
j.. the small packages of goods purchase
t from grocers and other shopkeepe
s who are not Chinese. They say that
q is rare thing for them to find pacI
q age that is of full weight. s. No sue
It business in my store" sad Woke
S proudly. Il give full sht of all
SELL" There has been two Chine
women here, but one of them start