Connecticut western news., 1886-07-07
ORIENTAL NEW YORK.
A PHASE OF CITY LIFE.

A PHASE OF CITY LIFE.
 It 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, Bohemians, Hunga- rians, and even Turks. And still more unlikethe 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 snug sum and to their far of ffeliow-countrymen fortune. The Chinese preponderate and already have settlement of their own in Mott street. After the Chinese come Japanese, Jav- 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: English, Chinese, Manila, Japanese, Danish, Hindustani, 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 req son they will crowd ten and even twen- ty persons into room usually occupied by two Americans. By cooperating sim ilariy in buying and preparing food, they succeed in reducing the cost of liv- ing to 20 cents day. It is easy, there- fore, to sec how upon $2 day wages or profits one of them can amass $500 in a few years, and with it buy small farm in the frugal east.
 The homes of these people are chiefly ihthe 4th and 9th wards-Water, Cher ", Oliver, Baxter, and Pell streets being their favorites 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, s1o,oo0, and La Cruz, $15,0OO.
 These boarding houses are of one gen. eral type. You pass through dark hallway or plunge down gloomy cellar stair and find yourself in the ante-room or office. It has a small desk or counter behind which either the proprietor or a clerk perpetually sits, few chairs, and 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 Manil- Ia confections, are but few of the many wares which supply the boarding house keeper with profit of seldom less thar 100 per cent.
 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 bunk are sometimes separated by partitions a on shipboard, but are generally deeI shelves running all around the room With separate hunks the room described accommodates fifty lodgers or boarders with continuous shelves about eighty In the middle of the room are chairs tables, and generally more or less lug gage of the guests. In some of the low CT grade establishments where hygien and the board of health are bid def ance to, garbage and dirt are piled u in the center of the hving-room until miniature "East river dump" is pro duced. In these hunks the lodgers Il off day or night and frequently day an night, according to their vacations. Tc bacco, opium, and hasheesh consume a their energies and convert them for tn time being into almost veritable corpses It is no uncommon sight to see at moo at Cruz's hotel in Baxter street or Quon Fats in Park street as many as thirt persons lying in dead stupor.
 To the rear of the hving-room is th kitchen and work-room. The furnitul is painfully simple, and consists usuall of range or cooking-stove, charco brazier, chopping-block, table, and few culinary utensils. Here the mea are prepared and the crude opium commerce converted into smoker paste. Here also in the early mornir each guest takes his tub bath and wash his daily supply of linen and cotton.
 Life begins in these strange caravan ' & shaa the proprietor or cle'