Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-11
CURSE OF THE COAST.
A Pittsburger's Investigation of the
Chinese Question.
PEEPS INTO CROWDED QUARTERS.
A Curious Fact as to the Disposal Of
Crippled NOngOls.
FOOD FROM THE FLOWERY KINGDOM
PEEPS INTO CROWDED QUARTERS.
FOOD FROM TIE FLOWERY KINGDOM
WRITTEN ron THE D1sPArcH.l

very obserVant man, and addicted to meas
uring propositions carefully, weighing
statements and analyzing theories and OBJ
serving their effects when carried into prac-
tice, and as when he travels he
does it with his ewes open, his gleanings
during ten weeks "Trip along the Pacific
Slope would make interesting reading.
But bis study of the Chinese question is
of more material interest than are all the
wonders of creative effort in the Rocky
Mountains. The materials were not only
inquiries on all hands as to the effect of the
pagan horde's competition on the happiness
of the working classes, male and
female, but personal inspection of
their haunts, modes Of living, religious
notions and practices generally. Mr.. Ben
nett encountered in Fresno q Canadian who
raises rsisin grapes in the San Joaquin Val
lev. This man, Forsythe by name, gives
employment to 1000 Chinese in gathering
his grapes curing 80 days each season, and
paws them 81 so day, they finding them
selves and saving much the greater part OF
their income. Mr.. Forsythe says that un-
less be could get this work done by Chinese
and at the figure named, be would be obliged
10 go out of the business, and is inclined to
be very angry at any one who suggests that
they are a curse to the coast. But Mr.. Ben
nett states that personal observations con-
WINGED him that their yearly migrauons
north and south along the Pacific
coast FOR !, 900 miles are more destructive to
the interests of independent, selfrespecting,
working people who, under proper encour-
agement, are the mainstay of a country in
times OF trouble, than would be a semi
annual visitation of locusts. He says
thar the competition of the Chinese
out there demoralizes the average
poor white man who must either become
q tramp and compete BY fitting from place
like the celestial or leave the country.
While it impoverishes independent pro-
prietors of moderate means, it makes few
like Mr.. Forsythe very rich. The latter
became hot when the suggestion was made
that the permanent employment OF 100
white families on his plantation would be
better for the country, if not so profitable
to him, he eontending that he should not be
held to any accountability as his brothers
keeper, and that success in life was devil
Observation-Disclosures matter. Mr.. Bennett
saws the system on the Slope is more de-
moralizing than was human slavery in the
South.
HOW THEY CAN DO IT.
Several DAYS explorations in company
with policeman, through Chinatown, ex-
plained how it was possible for heather to
float 200 miles each year picking fruit and
doing other harvesting in the succession OF
seasons in that breadth of latitude on 81 so
or less day, board himself, and yet amass
q competence Chinese competence. In
Chin .town %, 900 human beings crowd into
the same space as that bounded by Fourth
and Fifth avenues, Smithfeld and Grant
streets in this city, over 5000 people to the
acre. It is as if the entirr population of the
Southside were crowded between the bound
aries mentioned, If the same kind OF stow
age prevailed in Pittsburg all OF the go, ,0OO,-
600 population of the United States could
be placed in it, and there would be left a
surplus greater than the combined popula-
ton Of New York, Philadelphia, Brooklyn,
Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Cincinnati,
St. Louis, New Orleans and all the other
cities in the United States. Merciful
heaven, how we would sweat these balmy
January days! At this rate of packing, the
entire population of the globe could be placed
in two Pennsylvania counties and leave more
elbow room than there is in Chinatown.
Even San Francisco hoodlums have some
excuse for their dislike of the Chinese.
Their irruPtion into California may event
ually be more destructive than was that of
their relatives, the Huns into Europe some
hundreds of years ago.
Mr.. Bennett says he doesn't believe he
could ever have found his way out without
guide, as he could not tell whether he was
on the ground floor, in the cellar or upstairs.
The outlets be considers fully as difficult to
find as was that of the Cretan labyrinth,
where the Minotaur was confined or that of
any other mentioned in ancient history.
HOW THEY ARE PACKED.
In this vast hive, more populous than a
prairie-dog town, the Railways are so mar
row that 200-pound man is obliged to 60
sidewise to effect an entrance, and what an
ordinary American would consider a COM
Portable sleeping chamber will accommodate
80 Chinese in as much comfort as they ever
know indoors. Instead of windows in their |
sleeping dens they have auger-holes bored |
TO admit air, and person of weak stomach |
would faint in five minutes, ii confined in
one of their sleeping apartments, and in |
these dens children are born, and raised, |
whether their parents were given in mar |
riage by any known rite or not. How the |
babies exist is not understood, as the |
opium-laden air would poison a
viper. For they not only sleep in |
these deus, but shit the pipe" in them also, |
possibly the stupefaction resultant making |
the surroundings more endurable than other |
wise. The law does not interfere with this |
Celestial enjoyment so long as it is confined |
to the inmates but they are not allowed to
keep opium Joints for white custom.
As is generally known, the Chinese are |
inveterate gamblers, but nowhere else in |
America can the layout equal that in San |
Francisco. The gambling dens were orig |
inally built of fthree-eighths-inch boiler iron, /
doors as well, and all the police in the city !
could net effect an entrance. Finally the |
law laid its heavy paw on them, and they
were forced to substitute wooden doors for |
boiler iron ones. These, however, are very
powerful and heavily barred, and would re- |
sist considerable bombardment by the |
police were The inmates as good fighters as
The average Pittsburg tough.
THE COSMOPOLITAN CoCKRoACH.
There are no rats of consequence to be seen
In Chinatown. Whether or no the inhabi- |
tsnts eat them as last as they arrive is not
definitely known, but it is claimed that |
there is nothing in the vermin line mean |
enough to live in Chinatown save cock |
reaches, and entomologists who have studied |
the habits and tastes of the latter can doubt |
less divine the bond of sympathy. Some
charge the cockroach with being the genesis
of trichina. and il the minds Of San Fran
Ciseans, Chinese, rats, reaches and pigs are
intimately associated, and Mr.. Bennett
thinks that no one can imagine any virtue
self-existent in Chinatown, and Celestial
fondness for pork does not abate the disgust
Some of them contend that there is no YER
min mean enough to feed on an opium
soaked Chinaman except q cockroach.
There are open spaces among the houses
in Chinatown where cooking is done in the
open air, no artificial heat being needed to
warm their crowded sleeping apartments
All cook on stoves made of fve-gallon oil
cans. The top of the can is open and there
are perforations near the bottom 70 admit
air. Near the center are other perforations
to support cross wires, and on these fuel is
laid. The city furnished excellent ranges
cost free, to prevent danger from fire, but
neither persuasion nor force could induce
the Chinese to use them. They are more
tenacious in holding to fatherland customs
than are their brethren in this section.
NO cRIPPLEs AMONG THEM.
No one ever saw crippled Chinaman in
fhis city. This is not strange here, as a