The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1882-07-21


Who the Smokers Are The Sights of Mis-
cry and Disease at Every Turn Eulks on
the Old Barbary Coast-How Tea is Recon-
structed in Chinatown.
No one who has passed through
the Chinese quarter can have failed
to notice at the doors of many of the
buildings and along the wall side of
the sidewalks large, round, fiat bas-
kets, upon which is spread some
thing which looks like mass of
small dried wood stems, and which
is taken by most observers to be to-
bacco in the process of manufacture.
A Daily Report representative
thought SO until yesterday, when he
found out that he had all along been
making a mistake about it. The
stuff is tea, IN
PROCESS OF RECONSTRUCTION
AS it were. The thrifty Mongolian,
when he has enjoyed his tea in the
Chinatown restaurant or habitatlon,
or when he has washed the dishes in
the boarding house or private dwell
ling which employs him. does not
throw away the used leaves. he even
buys the leaves left over in our num-
erous hotels and restaurants, and
keeps watchful eye on wasteful
Caucasians who fling they tea
grounds into the barrels. Every
available tea leaf, no matter how bad
ly soaked out and used up, the Mon
golian carries in his pockets, in his
baskets, in his pocket handkerchief,
in every conceivable fashion and YES
sci to the Chinese quarter, where the
reconstructors or renovators take
charge of it. These ingenious and
patient scoundrels first soak the
leaves en- naasse, by steaming them.
Then it is treated with Prussian blue
and indigo. After that the renovat-
ors roll it between their diseased or
dirty hands and give it a certain
form, so as to initiate the crisp new
leaf, gypsum being plentifnliy mixed
with it to give it weight and then
soap stone is added to make it bright.
The result is put into packages, is
shipped down town to the wholesal-
ers or to the Chinese stores with
which foolish Caucasians trade and
is sold as an extra fine quality of Jap
ancse green tea. Aside from the
filthiness of the process from first to
last, it win not be comforting to
tea consumers to think that they
are imbibing a solution of cyanide
of potassium in their s'tca;" yet
Prussian Blue is largely composed
of that deadly poison.
ANOTHER FAvoRrTE FRAUD
by which the Chinese turn many
penny at the expense Of the un-
sophisticated Caucasian is that of
importing from China the very
commonest brands of tea and doc
toring and repacking them i'll
Chinatown, so as to look like the
finest brands. The unanimiry with
which Chinese domestics prefer
coffee in Caucasians' households and
defer their tea drinking until they
visit the Quarters would seem to
indicate that if the whites don't
know much about the treatment
tea receives, the Chinese do. The
only way for people to do, who DO
not want to drink decoction from
such tea leaves as has been describ-
ed, is to buy their tea only from
firms of undoubted standing and
respectfully and to let the rest
severely alone. The doctored tea
can easily be detected. II it leaves
a green sediment on the cup or if
the inside of the canister when
rubbed leaves dark blue Of green
ish mark upon the hands, then be
sure you have some Of the stuff that
has lain in fiat baskets upon the
sidewalks of the Chinese quarter.
A Daily Report representative
took short walk through the Chi
nese. quarters last night and looked
into the opium dens. They were
all filthy loathsome holes. There