The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-07-02
ORIENTAL NEW YORK.
A TRIP THROUGH THE HOMES OF
THE MOTT STREET ASlATICS

l
THE MOTT STREET ASlATICS
How They Herd Toeether-Description of
Their Lodging Houses and the Manner
in which They Smoke Opium, Gamble
pad Sleep.
| 1t may be questioned if any city in the
world can compare with New York i'll COS
mopiitan characteristics Like every great
metropolis, it has its French, German, Irish,
Jewish and Italian quarters Unlike NEST,
1t has colonies of Russians, negroes Swedas
Bohemians, Hungarians, and even TURKS
And still more unlike the great capitals Of
Europe, 1t has an oriental element VARYING
ioia ten to twenty thousand in number.
This element In New York is made I'D of
sailors, cooks, led'il rs, clerks, and coca
slonally uadesmeD and merchants They
are brought together by the mighty dollar,
anu usually remain IN Gotham until they
| nave secured what seems to them a snug
| sum and 10 their far-off fellow countrymen
| n fortune The Chinese preronderate and
| already have a settlement OF their own in
| Mott street After the Chinese come Japan
ese, Hindus, Marois, Hawaiians and Las.
cars In one 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, HinduStaui, Cochinese, aud French
| spoken here.
lheSe eastern races herd rather than liye
together Rent in their own lands is so
cheap that they can not bear the high rate;
OF tins country. For this reason they will
crowd ten and even twenty persons INTO a
room usually occupied by two Americans.
by cooperating similarly in buying and
preparing food, they succeed III reducing
the cost oil living to - cents day IL is
easy, therefore, 10 ses how upon 81 day
wages or profit, one OF them can amass
u, 100 III a few years, and with 1t buy
small farm III the frugal east
ORIENTAL LoDGlNG HOUSES.
The homes of these people are chiefly in
the Fourth and Sixth wards-Water,
cherry, Oliver, Raster and Pell streets be-
lnS their favorlteS-and comprise both
BOARDING and lodging nou-es. The proprie-
tors OF some of these are quite rich Chip
Chm, tochlaese, is wo til 5000; Ak
wah, $1,000 and La Cruz, SI5 900
These boarding houses are of one general
type You pass through 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 clerk perpelually sits
few chai's and pile Of trunks. boxes and |
barrels. Against the walls are shelves and |
cupboardS, on and in which are the goods |
In demand by oriental races. To one famil- |
Iof Win ME III Cathay most of the articles |
re tumillar. Dried dragon fish from tho |
Japan seas, bamboo tips from Cochin China |
ana siam, brown tobacco from Corea and |
yellow from FOrmosa, opium from India
and Hong Kong, hasheesh from Calcutta
ana singapore, ginseng root, preserved gin
ger, anu Manila CONNECTIONS, Aand but a few
Of the wares which supply the boarding
house keeper with a profit of seldom less
than 100 per cent
Behind the office is the main living room.
This is generally a long apartment of 20 by
~, whose walls are lined with hunks three
deep. These hunks are sometimes separated
by partitions as on shipboard but are zen
orally deep shelves running ali around the
room. With separate hunks the room de-
'cribed accommodates fifty dodgers or board
ers; with continuous shelves about eighty
In tho middle of the room are chairs
tables, and generally more or less lupoaoe
If the guests In some of the lower grade
where hygiene and the board
II health are bid defiance to. garbage and
llrt are piled up in the center of the living
DOM until miniature East river dumnp
5 produced In these hunks the dodgers lie |
lay or night and frequently day and
hight, according to their vocations. To-
'acco, opium, and hasheesh consume all |
heir energies and convert them for the |
lime being into almost veritabIe corpses Ii
5 no uncommon sight to see at noon at |
RUS hotel in Baxter street or ouoEe | .
ats IN Park street many as thirty per |
Gus lying in dead stupor. '
kiTCHEN AND LIvING-RooM
To the rear of the living room is the
itchen and work-room The furniture is
simple, and consists usually of a
ange or cooking stove, charcoal brazier.
chopping- block, table, and few culinary
tenslls. Here the meals are prepared and
he crude opium of commerce converted
lto the smoker paste Here also in the
arly morning each guest takes his tub
ath and washes his daily supply of linen
nd cotton.
No sight is more impressive or fearful
nan one of these living rooms at 10 or II
y.
l9omy and grimy furniture, the single 8
imp, Pickering aud smoking on the table ,
le silence, and every where the hunks. each
man counting slumber through a
'me narcotic drug, make up a strange pic c
ire You enter the apartment and each $
innate turns toward you-the japanese L
ercely and swiftly. the Hindu curiousIy
nd slowly, and the Cochincse with the
thargy of death. Every face belongs to q
n unfamiliar or unknown race: every arti :,
e is sealed book. \ word from the pro )
rietor and the eyes leave your face and re- al
lme their former occupations
Here and there at times are attempts at I.
The black statue of Rama d
orshiped in Ceylon, the bronze image of d
uddha, the allegorical portraits of Health. =
lenty and Strength of Confucins, the cruel -,
( of European faith, and even the sharks | +
I'd tigers Teeth Of the Malay, are attached | hi
the wall or displayed on some fragment b,
y mantelpiece.
The proprietor of one of these places said.
1t doesn't cost much to live. | can hoard
man for 5 Is week-perhaps even less dc
don make much money on the hoard but | 81
on tobacco, opium and the hasheesh Nv ca
eopie drink very little not so much as 10 | !"
nts day. When they go Off on a snroe'
ey order fashionable dinner and eat all :,
ey can hold. Then they smoke five shells
opium labout two ouncesl and sleep for
'enty four hours. How many houses are
ere like mine No one lust like it or So III
od, but about thirty in the same bust. \,
IS Five other nroprietors made the =
me remark New York Letter. N
She Felt Like Being Wicked.
The first thing you soc at the Corcore,