The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-03-18
JOHN CHINAMAN In NEW YORK.
Life I'm the Transplantod Section of the
Flowery Kingdom-Tho Interior of n
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 proenring 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
is the lower end of Mott street. There
| their peculiar institutions flourish
there their stores are; there their fire.
cracker and tea-chest lingo is flaunted
| glaringly upon red paper at almost every
door.
| Here in New York there is not, as
I yet, any such overcrowding as in San
Francisco, yet the manner in which they
utilize space is really remarkable. Take
Wo KEGS 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 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
fms, looking like bangled strips of
amber-tinted glue; ducks split, baked
in peanut oil, and fattened out dry, so
as to look like strange caricatures OF
dragons; sweetmeats in infinite variety,
nuts that nobody but 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
Prlsed in the space of small front par
lor, with narrow branch into back
room, necessarily small, so as to leave
space for well-patronized lodgings de-
partment. There is a little open space
IN the center of the store, just enough
tor three or 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.
artist; 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 ePo-Lan-Gung-Se, a 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 all
the Chinese seem to smoke opium to q
moderate extent without suffering any
harm from it. There are no Chinese
| liquor shops, and drunken Chinaman
| IS exceedingly rare, although most of
them drink little beer. They have no
temple here as yet, and no theater. but
in course of tine hope to have both,
when they are here in sufficient num-
bers for the support of such institutions.
In neither devotional nor histrionic exer-
cises have they any disposition to favor
amateur effort. The one vice most
prevalent among them seems to be
| O. h n1n
stakes generally, but with an eagerness
and infatuation that no other people can
excel. Their games no white man ever
dreams of undertaking, and hence it is
that when IA party Of Chinese gamblers
are arrested it is hardly possible, except
by stretch of presumption under the
law, to convict them. They have, how
ever, a wholesome respect for American
law, and are extremely cautious in ad-
mitting stranger to any knowledge of
their sports of chance. Reporters the
more ignorant of them fear more than
policf men, for their interpreters have
taught them: at is only by the publi-
cation in the newspapers of the matters
you permit the reporters to know about
you that the police ever find out any
thing. So long as the policeman is left
to the resources of his own intelligence
you have nothing to fear from him"
So it is very hard to get any informa-
tion from them about their lives and
habits. When Chinamap is very sick
and feels that he can afford it, he goes
to an American physician for treatment,
but for ordinary ailments, Just beyond
the limits of his own knowledge of the
resources of Wo-Kee's red boxes. lie
goes to the one of the two Chinese
physicians located here, Chun. Man
Wy, their principal physician, does
quite thriving trade upon basis OF
prices regulated to meet the financial
abilities OF his countrymen. Sometimes
a Chinaman pays him as much as So
for being thoroughly cured. Quong-
Lee affirms that there has never yet
been a case of leprosy among the China
men in New Yolk.
There are six fiourishing stores on
Mott street, dealing almost entirely in
imported goods, paying high rents, and
doing a thriving business. Not the
least amusing feature of the transactions
in them is the frequent occurrence o.
Cinnamon coming in to have reweighe6
on the honest scales of their countrymeI
the small packages of goods purchased
from grocers and other shopkeeper!
who are not Chinese. They say that i
is rare thing for them to find a pack
age that is of full weight. "No sucl
business in my store" - d Wo-Kee
proudly. 81 give full W, sht of all
SELL" There has been two Chimes
women here, but one of them starte'
for Havana with her husband. N,
i