Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1886-06-30
ORIENTAL NEW YORK.
A PHASE OF CITY LIFE.

A PHASE OF CITY LIFE.
1t may bo questioned If any city in
world can compare with New York i'll
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, Bohemians, 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, pcddlcrs, 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 snug sum and to their far
off fclow-countrymen fortune. The
Chinese prepondcratc and already have
settlement of their own in Mott street.
After the Chinese come japanese, Jaw
anesc, lIindus, Maoris, Hawaiians, and
Lascars. In one large boarding house
on Water street no less than 13 Asiatic
languages arc spoken; in another Oh
Baxter street the proprietor has on his
business card: English, Chinese,
Manila, japanese, Danish, llindustani,
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 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 of liv.
ing to 20 cents day. 1t is easy, there
fore, to see how upon So day wages or
profits one OF them can amass $500 in a
few years, and with it buy small farm
in the frugal cast.
The homes of these people are chiefly
in the 4th and 9th wards Water, Cher
ry, Oliver, Baxter, and Pell streets being
their favorites-and comprise both
boarding and lodging houses. The pro-
prictors of some of these are quite rich.
Chin Chin, Cochncsc, is worth $40,
900; Akwah, $4,000, and La Cruz,
SIS, 600.
These boarding houses are of one gen.
cral type. You pass through dark
hallway or plunge down gloomy cellar
stair and find yourself in the antc-room
or office. 1t has small desk or counter
behind which either the proprietor or a
clerk pcrpctually sits, a 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 ono
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 Corca and yellow from Form sa,
opium from India and Hong Kong, has.
heesh from Calcutta and Singapore gin
scng root, preserved ginger, and Manil-
Ia confcctons, are but few of the many
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 apart
ment of 90 by 40, whose walls are lined
with hunks three deep. These hunks
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 boarders
with continuous shelves about eighty.
In the middle of the room arc chairs,
tables, and generally moro or less lug
gage of the guests. In some of the low
or grade establishments where hygiene
and the board OF health are bid def.
ance to, garbage and dirt are piled M
in the center Of the living-room until ;
miniature Fast river durp" is pro
duced. In these hunks the dodgers Ii,
off day or night and frequently day anc
night, according to their vocations. To
bacco, opium, and hasheesh consume al
their energies and convert them for the
time being into almost vcritablc corpscs
| 1t is no uncommon sight to see at moor
ut Cruz's hotel in Baxter street or Quone
Fats in Park street rs many as thirty
persons lying in dead stupor.
To the rear of the living Is thu
kitchen and work room. The furnitur,
is painfully simple, and consists usual.
of range Or cookng-stove, Il charcua
brazicr chopping-block, table, and I
few culinary utensils. Here the meal
arc prepared and the crude opium o
commerce converted into smoker
past Hero also in the early morning
each guest takes his tub bath and woshc
his daily supply of linen and cotton.
Life begins in these strange caravan
series vt O, when the proprietor or clcrl