Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-23
have notions of honor unknown to many

Au6rlCanS.
HOW CONTRACTS ARE ENFORCED.
They do not make promissory notes and
therefore know nothing of the beauties OF
Endorsement, but all that the agent OF the
Chinese Six Companies has to do to protect
his employers is to read the contract before
the mans entire family, and then even
should he die Immediately after reaching
this country, his relatives in China are
bound under the Chinese law to Keep the
contract which he has made.
The Chinese laundry business thus started
has grown to an enormous extent. Charile
Sing, of Grand street, Williamsburg, and
G. r. Charles, a ChristIanized ChinamsD,
who can pronounce his "r's" as well as the
most cultured American, have for the last
eight years made an excellent livelihood
by starting laundries, obtaining leases on the
properties, and then disposing of the busi-
ness at handsome profit to their fellow
countrymen Sing has already started and
sold so laundries Fook Long and Wong
Ching Foo. the only Chinese reporter, and
who, as well as Long, speaks most admira-
BILE English, have each made as high as
81, 900 yearly by negotiating these transfers.
Chinese laundries in New York vary in
value from S20O,upward. The most valuable,
which is on the Bowery, near Chambers
street, and employs 12 men, had an offer for
it recently of $4,000, which the proprietor
refused.
COMPARISON OF SYSTEMS.
The laundry system of New York as con-
Quoted by the Cinnamon is managed far diff
ferently from that controlled by Americans,
and the Celestials do not suffer by the COM
parison. The Chinese propretors are
banded together for mutual interest
in what in this country would be
called union" and their employees are as
sociated together in like manner and for
like purposes. The men are given board
and lodging and are paid wages, the latter
varying according to the season of the year,
being often twice as much in summer when
business is brisk, and they work sometimes
IA hours a day, but in winter they are
rarely employed longer than from four to
six hours.
1t is interesting to compare the rates of
wages paid in Chinese and American laun-
dries In the former, if it is place of any
size, a boy of about 15 years is employed,
ceIves from 81 to S12 a week; an ironer
S14 to S23 a week, and in the very large
places, where bookkeeper is employed,
that master of the mysteries of the Chinese
multiplication table is paid from $8 to
SIS a week. Bear in mind that these
employees are in addition given their
board and lodging. They eat at the same
table and of the same fare as the proprietor.
If one of them is taken sick his employer
nurses him, and does not cut his wages dur
ing the enforced idleness. If the sickness
is serious or the disease incurable the man
is transferred to the care of one of the three
benevolent unions which the Chinese in this
city have organized among themselves and
for themselves, independent of American
assistance. The largest of these, the Lon
Gee Tong, has handsome clubroom at No.
6 Mott street, and membership of 1900
Cinnamon.
REVERSE OF THE PICTURE.
What about those employed in laundries
conducted by Americans?
The washing and ironing done in these is
BY women or machines. The paw is either
by wages or piecework and in the former
case varies from IS cents to 81 for days
work of from 10 to II hours and neither
board nor lodging is furnished. In
case of sickness there is no pay
for the i'll person and if she
is absent more than one day she is dis
charged. Women employed at piecework
have harder toll and earn IS to $40 month,
averaging about 81 the year around. Where
machinery is used the "whizzer" girl who
runs the centrifugal machine receives from
81 to Sc week, and the girl who manipu-
lates the ironing machine is paid from IS to
81 weekly.
In the matter of prices charged customers |
there is very little difference between Chi
nese and American laun1ries, but where it
exists the American, and not the Chinese, is
found to be the man who is cutting rates. /
As to the question of relative cleanliness it
may be interesting to state that the China |
man alone, when soiled clothing are brought |
to him, throws them into weak solution, |
which not only has a slight bleaching effect, |
but also thoroughly disinfects each garment. |
All things taken into consideration, 1t |
does seem that. notwithstanding the capi-
tslized opposition of the Caucasian Master |
his Celestial brother has come
to stay.