The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-07-27
ORIENTAL NEW O R
A PHASE OF CITY LIFE.

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, Swcdcs, Bohcmians, Hunga-
rians, and even Turks. And still more
unlike the great capitals of Europe, it
has an oriental element varying from ten
20 twenty thousand in number.
This element in New York is made up
of sailors, cooks, peddlers, clerks, and
occasionally tradcsmen 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
OFT fcllow-countrymen a fortune. The
Chinese preponderate and already have
q settlement of their W in Mott street.
After the Chinese come Japanese, Jaw
anesc, Hindus, Maoris, Hawaiians, and
Lascars. In n large boarding house
on Water street no less than 10 Asiatic
languages are spoken; in another on
Baxter street the proprietor has on his
business card: "English, Chinese,
Manila, japanese, Danish, Hindustarl,
Cochincse, and French spoken here"
These eastern races herd rather than
live together. Rent in their W land
is SO cheap that they cannot bear the
high rates of this country, For this rca-
son they will crowd ten and even twcn-
ty persons into a room usually occupied
by two Americans. BY cooperating sim
ilarly in buying and preparing food,
they succeed in reducing the cost If liv-
ing to 20 cents a day. It is easy, there
fore, to see how upon So a day wages or
profits one of them can amass $500 in a
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-Watcr, Cher
ry, Oliver Baxter, and Pell streets being
their favorites-and comprise both
boarding and lodging houses. The pro-
prietors of some of these are quite rich.
Chin-Chju, a Cochinese, is worth $40
900; Akwah, SO, 900, and La Cruz,
SIS, 900.
These boarding houses are of one gen.
cral type. You pass through a dark
hallway or plunge down a 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 perpctually sits, a few chairs, and
q 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 Formosa,
opium from India and Hong Kong, has
hcesh from Calcutta and Singapore, gin
seng root, preserved ginger, and Manil-
Ia confections, are but a few of the many
wares which supply the clearinghouse
keeper with q profit of seldom less than
100 per cent.
Behind the office is the main living
room. This is generally e long apart
ment Of 90 by 40, whose walls are lined
with hunks three deep. These hunks
are sometimes separated by partitions rs
OIL %shipboard, but are generally deep
shelves running oil around the room.
With separate hunks the room described
accommodates fifty dodgers o. Aoarders;
with continuous shelves aksut 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 estab"s hmcnts where hygiene
and the board of health arc bid def
ance to-, garbage and dirt are piled up
in the center of t.. living-room until n
miniature EAST river Dump is pro-
duced. In these hunks the dodgers lie
off day or night and frequently day and
night, according to their vocations. To-
bacco, opium, and hasheesh consume al;
their energies md convert them for the
time being into almost veritable corpscs.
It is no uncommon sight to see at noon
at Cruz's hotel in Baxter street or Quong
Fats in Park street as many as thirty
persons lying in a dead stupor.
To the rear of the living-room is the
Kitchen and work-room. The furniture
is painfully simple, and consists usually
pf range or cooking-stove, q charcoal