The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-03-22
CHINATOWN DEPICTED.
Pen Picture Of a Curious Quarter
of San Francisco.
Correspondence of the Press. /


Correspondence Of the Press.l
SAN FRANCISCO, March 13.-.Twenty
years ago l thought myself pretty well
acquainted with this town; but today q
good deal of it has grown not only out of
my remembrance, but grown since my
remembrance. For instance, the Chi
nese quarter is two-thirds larger than In
1870, when l left. Alphabetically it is
greener, more dragon like, more oriental.
The stores are larger and more preten-
tious. Most of them are neat, or
derby and well arranged. They use
the large window panes. They hang
out signs both in English and Chinese.
Thus, "Yung Suen, dealer in CLANS"
wong Hor, manufacturer of white
shirts" Long Suen, manufacturer of
brooms, New York branch" chung
Tso, Fancy Goods. Step in and examine
for yourselves" They keep ready made
clothing in pattern American and Chi
nese. In these shops I observed white
men bargaining for pantaloons. They
have invaded and monopolized street
after street, where none of their race
dwelt and carried on business twenty
years ago. They stretch along these
thoroughfares for miles. When you look
up street and note in color q mixture
of green, yellow and gilt spotted with
red hieroglyphics you may know the
Chinese are there in force. Green
and yellow seem their favorite
colors for house fronts, especially
green. The Chinaman paints only such
part of the house as he occupies. The
rest of the front he leaves in the original
hue. In San Francisco this is usually
dust or mud color. Their six months of
dry summer weather gives the dust time
to settle, drive itself into the wood and
leave its tinge thereon. San Francisco
is largely as yet wooden city. If the
Chinaman occupies a second floor, he
streaks its front green or yellow and
leaves it sandwiched between the I'M
painted first and third stories 1t is sug-
gestive of boys play when they have full
access to paint pot. 1t is on his large
restaurant fronts that he most piles on
paint, gliding, carvings, verandahs from
bottom to top, glass globes, colored
paper lanterns, large and small, and
diminutive statues. His displays in this
respect are glaring and pyrotechnic. Gull
ture, of course, condemns his taste
like it. Itisnovel, if glaring, and breaks
the monotony of our American dull hued
streets. 1t is like the big sunfiower in a
bed of pinks, or spotted leopard in
flock of sheep. San Francisco's China
tc IN cfr
of curiosities in things displayed in the
windows of which none but the China
man knows the use, and things to eat in
his provision stores which, if abominable
to us, are curious. He has open air
stands of hardware, tools, etc., like the
New York outbreaks of such wares in
Vesey street. His fruit stands abound
with long stalks of sugar cane. The
Chinese little boy, arrayed in fashion
just like his father, but in color more
luxuriant, is also far more numerous
than in "'70."
These seemingly little old men go about
in pink or red silken loose trousers, up
per garments of red or yellow, red or
blue button on their hat like head gear,
embroidered Chinese shoes, and youth
full pigtail extended into silk braid. So
attired they race about the street and
squeal sportively in their lingos as our
boys squeal in theirs. Females at night
may be seen chattering on the pavements,
gorgeously dressed in robes of pink
trimmed with many colors. If you are
in certain neighborhoods at night, the
Chinese man will dog you for blocks
and pour most serious suggestions into
your ear regarding the possibilities Of
seeing oriental female society. John is
not at all good man. He seems in cases
corruptible, but how much he was cor
rupted before he came here, and how
much he gained in corruption after, is
more than know.
This glare and color is confined to
what seems the fashionable center of the
Chinese quarter Reaching far beyond
on its outskirts is block on block, reach
ing high up the hills on which the city
is built and far down to the wharves on
the level made land, all filed with China
men at work. Buildings which wealth
and fashion once occupied are full of
them. Ramshackle sheds rotten with
decay are full of them.
The air reeks with the peculiar odor
of Chinese population. What makes
it ! don't know. 1t is not as fragrant as
a rose, neither is it so pronounced as the
whiffs New York gets when the wind
blows from the Hunters Point coal oil
refineries. 1 am not defending China
dom; but in seeing and being very much
alive to the faults Of other races, it seems
to me that we do yet strain at some gnats
and swallow few camels.
A drunken Chinaman is rare. An I'M
clean one in person ditto. Look at their
hands and finger nails and compare
them with those of some other races
among us. He was the first washer
man California had, something a little
less than forty years ago, and she then
needed him badly, for dirtier popula-
ton has rarely been seen than that in this
city in 1862. 1t was sort of forced I'M
cleanliness. There was hardly time to
wash. There were few conveniences.
The pioneer hotel often ran but one towel
for horde of guests. 1t paid better to
buy new shirt than expend an hour in
washing it. But under these circum-
stances you can imagine how long some
men would wear some shirts. AT this
juncture the Chinaman came, jumped
into soapsuds and cleaned the people
at least outside.
p. M.