The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1883-05-19
Our New York Letter.

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Our New York Letter.
Regular correspondence of ADVOCATE.
New YORK, May 18th, 1888
1t looks very much as If. thanks to tb
efforts Of the Young Mems Catholic As
scciation. the damning vice of opium.
smoking, and the infamous trade of the
Chinese in this connection, was about to
be broken up. Perhaps it would have
been better for the sake OF the eventual
conviction Of the Monaghan fiends ii the
society and the two clergy men at the
head Of it had q1ietly gathered all the
evidence they could, went before the
Grand Jury, had the miscreants indicted,
and then given the results of their dis
coveries to the press. The pressure OF
public opinion would then have secured
not alone their indictment but their
speedy punishment. As it is. evidence
in the legal sense will be somewhat diff
cult to procure now, as every Chinaman
is thoroughly scared and keeps as shady
as possible. You must understand, that
this agitation is not SO much against the
vice of opium smoking per Sc, as because
the almond-eyed Asiatics make it the
vehicle of debauching young girls, and
running them, mentally. morally and
physically to such an extent that they
become practically beyond redemption.
Let me explain this Chinese question:
of ours. The facts I have obtained from
agentlemau who is thoroughly acquaint-
ed with what he speaks of, ami believe
most of his points are unknown to the
public at large. and fully deserved tn,
greatest ventilation. OF the Chinese
population in this city, fully 80 per
cent. do nothing for u living. The othei
10 per cent. consists of laundrymen
principally, few servants, but all work
for their daily bread. The 80 per cent.
keep opium joints, run fern tan tables,
levy blackmail, and in general grow rich
by cheating or swindlIng the others out
of their hard earned money. On Satur-
day evenings the Cinnamon who work in
the laundries and factories Of Jersey
City, Belleville and other surburbs. con
to town to purchase their stock of grocer
les, etc., for the week. They rarely 60
pockets. for the sharps manage to get oil
their money away from them. Now for
years this colony has been under the
thumb of Tom Lee, former Deputy
Sheriff who few weeks ago was indicted
for extorting money. dismissed from the
Sheriff's Office and is now in prison. This
fellow is one of the shrewdest bosses
seen for long time. Tweed, Shepherd
and other notabilities of the Caucasian n
race would not be able TO hold candle
to him. He is clever, quick witted,
adroit. urscrupulous and speaks Eng
lish like native. He ruled tue Chinese
quarter, aud there was not an opium
joint, not a gambling house from which
he did not draw weekly stipend. In
fact it was said that there was not a
Chiuaman in town who did not pay Linn
tribute for protection. And the best
part OF this Wholesale confidence scheme
was that his hnAd never appeared in any
OF these confidence transactions.
When 1t became necessary to raise the
wind, or when member of the colony
was refractory TO tine chiefs rule, he was
either individually arrested, or raid
was made. Arraigned iu court the ext
day, Of course the judge could not grant
them bearing on account Of this Lam
guage. Then there were always two as
SistantS of Tom Lees in court TO inter-
pret for them, and they interpreted just
as it would suit Tom Lee. Many and
many a poor devil, it is said, was thus
punished for crimes and offences which
he never committed. II he agreed to
yield to the power OF the chief, matters
were so arranged as to get him clear, for
consideration of course. Two Tombs
shysters were the legal advisers of the
king harpy and they aided and abetted
him in every way. The courts of course
knew nothing of this inside history, but
whether the police were acquainted with
it, is to say the least. open to doubt.
Now rs to the female side of the ones
tion. 1t is well-kno~n fact to those
''in the know" that there are scarcely a
dozen respectable Chinese women in this
country. Some even assert that the
number does not reach half a dozen,
Nov the Chinamen of course have no re-
spect for womanhood, and particularly
white Womanhood. Their instincts are
british. At the same time they never
beat women the same as white or oolort d
rdfians do. This is perhaps because
they are not physically able to do so.
They thus make friends of the abandoned
women With whom they take mp. Nov
the strange part comes in A woman OF