The St. Johns herald., 1891-07-30
A sMuGGLER's PARADISE.
How Chinamcn Cain Access to the United
 States.

How Chinamcn Cain Access to the United
 States.
 Looking at the map one may see that the northwest corner of the state of Washington is torn off. and the space that is left is filled with water, dotted with an archipelago. The island of ] Vancouver fits partially into the gaping corner as if it had been torn out by some gigantic convulsion. The tatters and debris of the rent form the archi- pelago. Our national interest centered in that corner long ago when that DOT tion of the boundary was in dispute, and the tension of war feeling was only relieved when foreign arbitrator set tied the boundary, and gave us the island of San Juan, the most important in the group. The city of Victoria, writes Julian Ralph in Harper's Maga- zine, confines nearly all the population on that corner of Vancouver island; the city of Vancouver is the main settle ment on the British Columbia shore, and on our borders are such little placee as Whatcom, New Dungeness, and Port Angeles, in the state of Washington. Port Townsend, on Puget sound, is the principal American town near by, and the headquarters of the scanty force of customs officials who are supposed to guard against the smuggling, and who are entitled to the presumption that they are doing their best in this direc- tion. Victoria has only twenty thou sand population, Vancouver fewer still, and the islands only here and there house. Deer abound upon these islands, which are heavily tirnbered, and the waterways between them feel the kcels of but few vesSels-of none at all, eE- cept the smallest craft, outside the main channels It would be hard to imagine q more difficult region to police, or a fairer field for smugglers. Old London itself has scarcely a greater tangle of crooked and confusing thOroughfareS than this archipelago possesses, and these waterways are so narrow and sheltered that mere oarsmen can safely and easily travel many of them. It is smuggler's paradise.
 Those who transport the Chinanen are all white men. The resident Chi nese act as their confederates and as the agents of the snuggled men, but do no part of the actual smuggling, that is to say, the boating. The great snug gling is of opium. The introduction of the Chinese themselves is of small ac- count, so far as the defiance of our laws is concerned, as compared with the in- troduction of opium. Yet that eXten- sive business also is carried on by white men. The Chinese can not pass to and fro as white men can, therefore they leave the traffic to the whites.
 These white men are of the class one would expect to find in such business. A government employe in Victoria told me that I would ''be surprised to know what important and respectable per sons were connected with the snug gling," but as he gave me no further enlightenment, and as 1 failed to ob- tain any proof that any number Of so- called respectable men prOfted directly by the business, l did not and do not believe that there are many such. Those who do the smuggling of the Chinese are unprincipled and reckless charac- ters. They make their bargains with those Chinese whose business it is to arrange for the carriage of their coun- trymen into our country. The boats employed are small sail-boats, and quite as small steam-launches. When the owner of one of these boats has secured a sufficient number of Chinese to make the venture profitable if it succeeds, the tourney is made at night, without com pliance with the law which requires vessels sailing after dark to display lights at their sides. At times the con- trabands are landed near Whatcom at times near Port Angeles or New Dunge- ness. San Juan island, within our border, is only twelve miles from Vie toria, and has a few Chinese resident upon it. At times Chinamen are car ried there. Once there they can cross to the mainland with more freedom, and with possibility of obtaining testi- mony to the effect that they are and have long been domiciled on American soil. The smugglers charge twenty dol lars to twenty-five dollars for landing each Chinaman on our coast; twenty dollars is the ordinary and usual charge. Wherever the Chinamen are landed they find either men of their own nationality to secrete them, or white men awaiting their arrival, and ready to take them to some Chinese quarters. Once on land the danger of arrest is greatly lessened, and after newly-smuggled Chinaman has made his way to one of the larger towns or cities near the coast, his fear of detention by our government vanishes entirely.
 <
 Descendants of Great Men.
 It is e noticeable fact that great men