Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-07-08
ORIENTAL NEW YORK.
A TRIP THROUGH THE HOMES OF
THE MOTT STREET ASlATICS.

Their Lodging Houses and the Manner
in which They Smoke Opium, Gamble
and Sleep.
1t may be questioned il any city in the
world can compare with New ork in COS
moplitan characteristics Like every great
metropolis. it has its French, German, Irish
Jewish and Italian quarters mike most
it has colonies of Russians negroes S"ed"s'
Bohemians Hungarians, and even iur"s
And still more unlike the great capitals OF
Furope. il has al oriental element varying
from ten to twunty thousand in number.
This element in New York Is made up OF
sailors cooks, peddlcrs, clerks, and occa-
sjoually tradesmen and merchants They
are brought together 10y the mighty dollar,
and usually remain in Gotham until they
have secured what seems to them snug
sum and TO their far-of fellow country men
a fortune The Chinese preYonderate and
already have a settlement of their own III
Mott street After the Chinese come Japan
ese Hindus, Marois. Hawaiians aud las
cars In ore large boarding house on
\ Water street no less than twelve ASiatic
languages are spoken; in another on Baxter
street the proprietor has on his business
card: English, Chinese. Manila, japanese,
Danish, Hi iustani Cochinese, and French
spoken herr
These eastern races herd rather than live
together Rent in their own lands is so
cheap that they can not bear the nigh rate
of this country For this reason they Will
crowd ten and even twenty persons INTO a
room usually occupied 10y two Americans.
BY cooperating similarly III buying anu
preparing food, they succeed IN reduclns
| the cost of living to 20 cents day. IL Is
easy, therefore, TO see how upon - a day
wages or profits one OF them can amass
81 ,OO in few years. and with 1t buy a
small iarm in the frugal east
| ORIENTAL LUrGING HOUSES
The homes of these people are chiefly in
| the Fourth and sixth wards-N alter,
| Cherry, Oliver, Baster and Fell streets be
| ing their favorItrs-and comprise both
boarding and lod sing nou-es The proprle-
tors of some OF these are quite rich Chin
| Chin. a Cochinese, is wO til $4,000; Ak
wah, $1,000, and La CRU, Sl5,"On
| These boarding houses are OF one general
type You pas through a dark hallway or
| plunge down a gloomy cellar stair and find
| Yourself in the ant.-room or Office 1t has
| a small desk or counter behind which either
the proprietor or clerk perpetualiy sits,
| a few chairs and a pile OF trunks, boxes and
l
cupboards, on and in which are the goods
in demand by oriental races To one famil
lar with life in Cathay most Of the articles
are fumiliar. Dried dragon fish from the
Japan seas, bamLoo tips from { Iochin- China
and siam, brown tobacco from Corea, an
| yellow from FormoSa, opium from India
| and Hong Kong, hash e>h from Calcutta
AMI singapore. ginseng root, preserved gin
| ger and Manila confections and but IA few
OF the wares which supply the boarding
house keeper with profit OF seldom les
than 100 per cent
Behind the Office is the main living room
This is generally long apartment OF - by
| 40 whose walls are lined with hunks thre,
deep These hunks are sometimes separated
by partitions as on Shipboard, but are zen
orally deep shelves running all around the
room With separate hunks the room de
scribed acc commodates fifty lOlgsrs or board
ers: with continuous sheiN eS about eighty
In the middle of the room are chairs
tables and generally more or less luggage
of the guests In some of the lower grad,
! establishments where hygiene and the boar,
of health are bid defiance to, garbage an,
dirt are piled up in the center of the living
room until miniature last river dump
is produced IN these hunks ths dodgers lii
day or night and re4uen,ly day ant
night, according to their vOcAtious- To
bacco, opium, and hasheesh consume al
their energies and convert them for tb
time being into almost verltabIe cOrpses. /
Is no uncommon sight to see at noon a
Cruz's hotel in Baxter street or Quonl
Fats in Park street as many as thirty per
sons lying in dead stupor
KITCHEN AND LIVING-ROOM.
~ of +l, lf,., L 81
kitchen and work-room. The furniture i
painfully simple. and consists usually of
range or cooking stove, a charcoal brazier
a chopping- block, table, and few cuiinar,
utensils Here the meals are prepared an,
the crude opium Of commerce cOnverte,
into the smokers paste Here also in th
early morning each guest takes his tu
bath and washes his daily supply of linel
and cotton
No sight is more impressive or fearfu
than one OF these living rooms at 10 or l
u m The dark floor and ceilings, tn
gloomy and grimy furniture, the singl
lamp. Pickering and smoking on the table
the silence and every where the hunks eacl
containing a man coUrtinS slumber thrUug
some narcotic drug, make up strange PIC
ture You enter the apartment and eacI
inmate turns toward you-the JapaneS
fercely and swiftly, the Hindu curiousl.
and slowly, and the Cochinese with tn
lethargy of death Every face belongs /
an unfamiliar or unknown race; every arti
Gle is a sealed book. A word from the pre-
prietor and the eyes leave your lace and re
sumo their former occupations
Here and there at times are attempts a
ornament The black statue OF Rama
worshiped in Ceylon, the bronze image o
Buddha, the allegor.cal portraits OF Health
Plenty and Strength OF Confucins, the cruel
fix of European faith, and even the sharks
and tigers teeth of the Malay, are attache
to the wall or displayed Oh some fragment
ary mantelpiece.
The proprietor of one Of these places said
at doesn't cost much to live ! can boar
man for Sl.15 a week-perhags even les:
| don't make much money on the board, bu
dc on tobacco, opium and the haSheesh Nj
people drink very little; not so much as |
cents day. When they go oil on a spree
they order a fashionable dinner and eat a
they can hold Then they smoke five shell
of opium [about two ouncesl and sleep 70
twenty four hours How many houses ar
there like mine No one just like 1t or 5
good. but atout thirty in the same bus
ness" Five other proprietors made tn
same remark-New York Letter.
| The Monitors Narrow Escape