Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1883-10-13
THE CND.RGRorND RAILROAD
FROM CHINA.
Correspondence v. Y. S,..

Il
ous industry. About all of the Chinese
who come TO British Columbia land al
this port or at New Westminster. neal
the mouth of the Fraser river. Some OF
these stay M Victoria, where there Is
already Chinese population Of LOO OF
200. aud very little work for mors
MANY are employed IN the construction
of the Canadian Pacific X ,ilroad The
rest vriggie into the L Iit-d States.
SO far a. tni- corner of the country j.
concerned. II II practically impossible
To nforcs the Law excluding Chinese irn-
migrants. From Vancouver Island Ia
the nearest point on the American
mainland IL only seventeen miles. The
Strait of San joan de Fuca NAV he
crossed In ordinary weather in small
boats, even at night. That is to the
south. Then tn the east Of Vancouver
IL the San Juan archipelago, a COMPACT
group of American islands. spar5ely iu-
habited, and atforain9 by easy stages an
excellent way of surreptitious passage
To the msinl md. The Cinnamon in Vie
toria have the least trouble in finding a
British subject or coast Indian who
will engage for three, five, or ten dollars
as the case may be, to set him ashore on
As rule, the Chinese prefer to trus,
themselves and their fortunes to white
ferrytnen. They are afraid of the In
dians. Even the Chinooks, the most ig-
noble and eowardly of all the remain
ing descendants of the aborigines, bully
and buildoZe the Chinese. Yet IN many
Instances the passt tge to Washington
Territory is made by the Chinaman in
Chinook's dugout.
Another route Is up the Fraser and
Chiliicoaten rivers and across the inter
national boundary near the Cascade
range. Then they straggle into What
com and other northern settlements.
good many Cinnamon who have been
laboring on the Canada Pacific make
their way az far east as the Kootenay
region and then drop down into Wash
ington, striking civilization at some
such point as Spokane Falls.
To guard our northwestern frontier
eifectuaily against the stealthy approach
of the irrepressibie Chinaman would re-
quire fleet of revenue cutters i'll Puget
Sound and the San Juan waters, and en-
shore along the forty parallel an
army of revenue police about ~ numer-
ous as the entire present Chinese popu-
lttIDu Oh ttlt l. dclllG COAST.
When the Chinaman gets his feet on
the seaweed that fringes our free and
hospitable republic. his trsubles are not
quite over. He may be arrested, inves-
tigated, and forcibly removed for defy
ing the law. In point of fact. however.
there are few such removals. Unless
the invader is caught in the very act of
entering, il is not easy to lind him; and
it is necessary to find him in order to
eject him. In the first place great
many Cinnamon look very much alike.
In the second place, the Chinese who
have right to be here stand by their
smuggled brother TO the last, swearing
roundly that he came to America
months or years before the Exclusion
act went into operation.
Only short time ago the United
States customs officers arrested party
Of II Cinnamon. At least six of them
we're known to be contraband; but no
body could pick out the SIX. At first
they all declared, with every appear
ance of wounded dignity, that every
one of the dozen was An old inhabitant.
When they discovered that this story
would not wash, they affirmed with
equal unanimity that they had just ar
rived in body from Victoria. and that
if any one was sent back all must be
sent back. rhe perplexed officers
locked them up. and attempted by means
of moral suasion and mild intimidation
TO force the Innocent to separate them
selves from the guilty. 1t was of no
use. The whole dozen had to be re-
leased for lack of evidence identifying
the smuegied six.
Since the establishment of the Cana
dian protective tariff. the smuggling of
general merchandise il not so profitable
business as formerly. The United
States revenue officers in this region
are ckietlv concerned in looking out for
opium, wool, and Cinnamon. The
headquarters of the collection district
for Puget Sound are ut Port Townsend,
thirty eight miles from Victoria. At
Port Townsend, at Whatcom, at Seat
tie, and elsewhere, the inspectors do all
they can to enforce the Anti Chinese
law. Once in while they seize a
smugeled Oriental and send him back
to this side Of the Strait. Three or four
DAYS Age revenue boat from Port
Townsend happened upon British
subject who was attempting To land
three Cinnamon on Whidby's Island.
The Chinese were returned to Victoria.
In the vast majority of cases, however,
it il probable that landing is effected,
and the newcomers manage To make
their way To the American ont %.
How many get ini Not 10 many a.
before Congress passed the act: but a
great many, nevertheless. Mr.. Francis.
the excellent gentleman who has served
for twenty two years as United States
Consul Mt Victoria. and who printed the
Illinois State Journal years ago, when
his friend Abraham Lincoln wrote edi-
torial articles for him, thinks that few
dozen Cinnamon may pass the bound
ary. An intelligent revenue officer at
Port fownseud, who certainly il not
disposed to magnify the ineiiiciency of
his service, smiled when he was asked
If AS many as "A hundred Cinnamon had
managed to evade the customs authori-
ties.
"a thousand. then. in the last ten
months I"
al should think" he said, "that n
Thousand WAS an exceedingly low esti-
mater
The Chinese themselves look upon
British Columbia merely AZ an open
gateway to the United States. With
the exception of few wholesale opium
merchants, they do not thrive here rs
they do at Portland and al Seattle.
Their colony in Victoria Is manifestly
unprosperoas, and they are An untidy
set, as compsrad with the correspond
ing population in Portland and Seattle.
The fortunes of the Chinese theater,
ths. always appears wherever thou
sand or two Of the race are congfegafed,
afford a quite Trustworthy index TO the
general prosperity of the quarter.
There were two. Chinese theaters IN the
Victoria Chinatown. One Of these e.
Establishments has closed after losing
$1,000, and the other has transferred
its talent aud its wardrobe to Seattle.
Every new conner TO this coast is
struck first of all things by the strength
and As il seems 20 bin. the unreason'
ahleness If the anti Chinese sentiment
Ii is bard to get a satisfactory expisn,
alton from the old resident. de VII
tell you that he hates the Chinaman BE-
cause he is nasty, and then he viii ad
nit At onoe that the Chinaman - scru
lousiy clean in his personal habits ht
will tell you that the Chinaman Is dan
gerons, and then he will admit that ths
Chinaman Is psaoesble and almos
uniformly polite. He will say thai ths
Chinamsn threatens American labor Q,
working too cheaply; in the next breaff
.,..x, faa vo that fhs fsftfxan of tbfeQpu q!