Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1886-07-09
ORIENTAL NEW YORK
A PHASE OF CITY LIFE.

1t may be questioned if any city in
world can compare with New York in
cosmopolitan characters. Like every
great metropolis, it has its French, Ger
man, Irish, Jewish and Italian quarters.
Unlike most, it has colonies of Russians,
negroes, Swedes, Bohcmians, Hunga-
rians, and even Turks. And still more
unlike the great capitals Of Europe, it
has an oriental element varying from ten
to twenty thousand in number.
This element in New York is made up
of sailors, cooks, peddlers, clerks, and
occasionally tradesmen and merchants.
They are brought together by the
mighty dollar, and usually remain in
Gotham until they have secured what
seems TO be a snug sum and to their far
off fellow -countrymen a fortune. The
Chinese preponderate and already have
settlement of their own in Mott street.
After the Chinese come japanese, jaw
anese, Hindus, Maoris, Hawaiians, and
Lascars. In one large boarding house
on Water street no less than 12 Asiatic
languages are spoken; in another on
Baxter street the proprietor has on his
business card: "Englsh, Chinese,
Manila, japanese, Danish, Hindustan,
Cochinese, and French spoken here"
These eastern races herd rather than
live together. Rent in their own land
is SO cheap that they cannot bear the
high rates of this country, For this rea-
son they will crowd ten and even TWEEN
ty persons into a room usually occu1,ied
by two Americans. BY cooperating SIM
lIarly in buying and preparing food,
thew succeed in reducing the cost of liv.
ing to 20 cents a day. 1t is easy, there.
fore, to see how upon So a day wages OIL
profits one of them can amass $500 in q
few years, and with It buy a small farm
in the frugal east
The homes Of these people are chiefly
in the 4th and 9th wards Water, Cher
ry, Oliver, Baxter, and Pel streets being
their favorites-and comprise both
boarding and lodging houses. The pro-
prietors of some of these are quite rich.
Chin Chin, a Cochinese, is worth $40,
900; Akwah, $4,000, and La Cruz,
s15, 900.
These boarding houses are of one gen
eral type. You pass through a dark
hallway or plunge down gloomy cellar
stair and find yourself in the ante-room
or office. 1t has a small desk or counter
behind which either the proprietor or a
clerk pcrpetually sits, few chairs and
a pile of trunks, boxes and barrels.
Against the walls are shelves and cup,
boards, on and in which are the goods
in demand by oriental races. To one
familiar with life in Cathay most of the
articles are familiar Dried dragon fish
from the Japan seas, bamboo tips from
Cochin China and Siam, brown tobacco
from Corea and yellow from Form sa,
opium from India and Hong Kong, has
heesh from Calcutta and Singapore, gin
seng root, preserved ginger, and Manll-
la confections, are but few of the many
wares which supply the boarding-house
keeper with a profit of seldom less than
100 per cont.
Behind the office is the main living
room. This is generally long apart
ment Of 20 by 40, whose walls are lined
with hunks three deep. These bunks
are sometimes separated by partitions as
on shipboard, but are generally deep
shelves running all around the room.
With separate hunks the room described
accommodates fifty dodgers or boardersi )
with continuous shelves about eighty
In the middle of the room are chars,
tables, and generally more or less lug
gage of the guests. In some Of the low
er grade establishments where hygiene
and the board of health are bid den
ance to, garbage and dirt are piled up
in the center of the living-room until a
miniature EAST river dump IS pro
duced. In these hunks the dodgers he
off day or night and frequently day ana
night, according to their vocations To-
bacco, opium, and hasheesh consume ali
their energies and convert them for The
time being into almost veritable corp'eA
1t is no uncommon sight to see at noon
at Cruz's hotel in Baxter street or Quohg
Fats in Park street as many as thif'y
persons lying in dead stupor.
To the rear of the living room IS tae
kitchen and work-room. The furniture
is painfully simple, and consists usually
of range or cooking-stove, charcoal
brazier, a chopping-block, table, ana a
few culinary utensils. Here the meals
are prepared and the crude opium Of
commerce converted into a smokers
paste. Here also in the early morning
each guest takes his tub bath and washes
his daily supply of linen and cotton
Life begins in these strange caravan
series at 6, when the proprietor or elerk