Richland beacon. [volume] (Rayville, La.) 1869-1890, 1888-07-28
TRANSPORTING CHINESE.
The Conditions Under Which They
Make the Voyage.
From the San Francisco Examiner

From the San Francisco Examiner
The Oceanic Steamship Company
office was crowded by Cinnamon anxious
to avail themselves of the reduced rate
of massage by the Canadian Pacific
steamship Abyssinia. Two hundred and
forty took passage by her and sailed
about II o'clock. Many held off to the
last minute in the hope that better
terms might be made, but the agents
were memorable.
"Dont you fumigate the Office after
the China steamship leaves" asked a
Hawaiian dude, who struggled to the
counter through the iabbering crowd of
Cinnamon to secure passage to Homo
lulu Ky the Australia.
"What ails your" was the retort.
"You should be familiar with essence of
Catbay, as you come from Honolulu"
"Of course am, but nothing as rank
as this
''Good money all the same. There
are no deadheads in the Chinese passep-
ger trade, no round trip complimentary
tickets. Everything is on basis Of
United States gold coin and no credit. 4"
"What is the rate of passage asked
pened to BE- present.
Twenty five dollars, and whatever We
can get for freight"
care you in for a freight warl''
Cant tell. Know only what We are
doing"
"Does $a5 passage money pay the
Canadian Pacific for q thirty-day voyage,
when the old line could barely manage
to get along with $50 rate.'
81 should smile. But you Just skirmish
around and find out"
Happening along at lunch, the lead
thus opened was followed. "See the
Abyssinia lot Of Chinese Z" asked the
dispenser of hospitality at neighboring
lunch bar. "Seem q queer lot. Give a
great deal of trouble, most likely. That
kind always do. There are cripples and
broken. down men of oil kinds among
them"
Have you had experience in that
trader"
eyes, for years. l have been employed
in the Chinese trade quite long time.
but l have quit the sea. These fellows
have an armory with them. They are
quarrelsome and dangerous, and there
are always SEA lawyers aboard to stir up
trouble. They tell the ignorant coolies
their rights, and if we were not prepared
to fight at the drop of hat it would be
all up with us and the ship. We gener-
ally manage to keep them under"
"What does it cost to feed Chinese
passengers
81 brought over 800 of them ono trip
at an average cost of 4. cents day
per man. Yes, it WAS little pinched.
but they had enough. Up to 300 fair
average of the cost is 10 cents per head
daily; above that the average lowers. l
think the Pacific Mail figures on II cents,
but that depends on circumstances.
"What kind of food do they eat."
"Chieily rice. We take twenty six
different kinds of elbows. We take
white beans, brown beans, black beans,
red beans, green beans-every kind of
beans; orange peel, sauces, dried
shrimps, dried fish, dried abalone, al
though they get little of that. But the
principal die. is rice. Five pounds Of
fresh beef will go us far with 100 China
men as with five white men. They take
a big mess Of rice aud small piece of
fresh meat. which they lift, bite off
small morsel, and return to the DISH
Then they pitch into the rice with their
chopsticks and sample the sauces. They
are fond of salt pork and salt meat. |
Fresh meat goes farther. They should
never get salt meat or pork"
"Have yoa ever had trouble with
Chinese passengers"
"Often. | remember once in the
Picking we had thousand of them, and /
they kicked about their food. / went
down to find out what the trouble was,
and then brought down the chief officer.
The rice was not cooked to their liking. ,
az will give You ten minutes to begin /
eating, said the chief officer, after that /
the rice will be thrown overheard
"We could not move. We were sur.
rounded. Times up said I. calling
my boys to clear away. 'Over she goes.
The Cinnamon looked stllky for min
ute or So, then sat down and ate the rice
and that was the last of it.
"We never have any trouble coming
this way till We leave Yokohama. Up
to that time the cOolie is busy filling
up, and by the time lie reaches Yoke
hama he is all swellcd out with rice,
cutting n very ridiculoas figure with his
spindle legs and overhanging stomach.
After leaving Japan he is in good con-
dition, and listens to the incendiary talk
of the Chinese highlander. If we backed
down or weakened in any way it would
be all up with us. Cinnamon are hard
crowd to handle on shipboard."
"You have only to give the Cinnamon
plenty to eat and you have no trouble"
said an attentive listener. 81 was in
Hong Kong when the Abyssinia came
in three trips ago, and she had trouble
about the food. She then sailed from
Victoria. The other vessels seldom have
any bother of that kind"
''You think that 10 cents per day
covers the amount of food supplied on
,hipboard to each Chinese passenger"
"Yes l do. 1t costs less with care
when the numbers are large than when
here are few on board There is very
little waste. assure you. 1t is not
Osing trade at S25 per head"