The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-05-11
THEY ARE UNDESIRABLE.
Another Phrase in the immigration
From the Lands Of the
East.
The Japanese Are Taking the
Places of the Excluded
Cinnamon.
Contract Laborers and Women Landed On
tho shores of America ut the
Pacific Coast.

nOIAio SOSHs
New York has often been said to be q
dumping ground for the refuse of European
countries, and if it ia San Francisco occu :
pies the same position as regards the coun-
tries of Asia-or, more particularly, China
and Japan, says the San Francisco Bulletin.
In fact, when the number of immigrants
arriving il taken into consideration, New
York has the best of 1t, for the proportion
of undesirables arriving at this port far
exceeds thoEo of the eastern metropolis.
Chinese immigration long ago attained
such proportions hat congressional action
WAS necessary to relieve the people of the
Pacific coast from further floods of the
Acknowledged subjects of the emperor
of China. and tic number that now arrive
in this country leaitimately is COM
paratively few. OF course. it ia vol known
that they come into the United States
in greater or less numbers by the under
ground routes, and the small force Of
men ratroling our borders on the north
and south is insufficient to prevent this
state Of affairs, although occasional arrests
are made. just at present, however, We arc
threatened with another invasion, not Of
Chinese, but Of their next-door neighbors,
the subjects of the mikado.
1t is now a little over a year since the
Bulletin first called the attention of the
federal authorities in this city to the unde-
sirable class of this people that we're being
brought to the country. Prior to that time
they had been arriving in small numbers
say one or two to a steamer, but their num-
bers we're gradually increasing, and in soms
localities there were small colonies of them,
for, like the Chinese, they prefer to herd
together. On the outskirts of Chinatown
there are many of them, Clay place, Pros
pect place and other small streets above
Stockton and between Washington and Sac
ramento being their favorits places of resi-
dence. The sight of one on q downtown
street a few years ago was an exceptional
thing. Now they are so common as to create
no wonderment, but tbs average citizen has
no idea how common they are. Passers-by
along Stockton street can see them, how
ever, in large numbers az q goriefal thing,
summing themselves on the corner of Clay
a stockton streets, and in some of the
small streets south of Market whole tone
ments are taken up by them. Like the
Chinese they come in direct conflict with
our white girls in this lighter occupations,
1870 A""hJ ~ hfa,AisJ hup "oAiA Aod1l w
employ a Chinaman gees nothing wrong in
hiring japanese as cooks, chnmbermaids
and h~ousemaids. In other occupations that
do not require hard work they are crowd
ing their way, and have nearly s%upplanted
all other n%ationalities as porters in tho var
lous saloons of the city. Not a few of
them are employed as gardeners, somo have
gone into the restaurant business and the
stores devoted to the sale Of japanese
curios and goods are almost exclusively in
their hands. Now they are branching out,
and not a few are clnuloyed on the fruit
farms and ranches of the interior, not only
as house servants, but as farm laborers.
OF their women, the least said the better.
The first of them to arrive were imported
for Immoral purposes. and since that time
scarcely a steamer arrived from tho Orient
that did not carry one or two recruits for
the army OF abandoned women In this city.
This colony Increased slowly but surely UNI
til inquiry at police headquarters revealed
the fact that one whole block was occupied
exclusively by them, and that several were
to be found Ill houses of ill-fame in the
outskirts of Chinatown, their %neighbors be-
ing the very lowest class of French women.
When this fact was published in the Bulle-
tin the federal authorities in this city
deemed it time to look into the matter,
and for a time every female Jap was sub
iected to q strict examination as to her
reason for coming to this country, and her
~ VI oNPIo' 'hAAo "a
answers were gen rally given and the women
allowed to land. Finally two women, OF
rather girls-the eldest only Is years Of age
and the other 14-wete refused u land
ing, and writs of habeas corpus were sued
out in their behalf. A t the time it was
openly stated that they had been imported
for immoral purposes by a Japanese known
as Captain Jack, who was we'll known to
the police us the keeper of two hOnses of
lll-fame. Whom the cases were tried the
Japanese owner of a curio store on Market
street came forward and testified that the
girls were relatives OF his sand that he would
see to their support. AT the same time he
stated that they were expert crystal polish
ers and that he intended putting them to
work in the window of his store as an at
traction and advertisement. A prominent
attorney of this city who at that time was
largely interested in the Chinese habeas
corpus mill volunteered the statement that
he had investigated the matter and was sat
lstied that such was to be the occupation OF
the girls. On this showing they wero al
lowed to land and went to work in the Mar
ket street store.
Their labors there. however. were of short
duration, and they soon disappeared from
the view of pedestrians on Market street.
Soon after this disappearance it occurred
TO the Japanese interpreter OF the United
SthteS Immigration commission to pay n
visit to the Japanese quarter to sec whether
tho hodN 1 lin ollICO ud0 DcSH imposed
upon, and one of the very first houses in
the street he saw the two children who had
been released on the testimony of the Jap
anese storekeeper. The following night n
posse of police was procured, the house
raided and tho girls taken therefrom. The
next steamer conveyed them back to Japau.
Then again TIE United States authorities
rested on their oars, until the arrival of the
tramp steamer Remus from Hong Kong
and Yokohama.
This vessel brought a number of Japan
csc, and a motely crew they were. When
the United States officials vent aboard they
found that they had to deal with about the
lowest class of JRps that had ever srrived
in this port. The men were clad partly in
European clothing and partly III that of
their native land, and looked like a choice
collection of tramps. For two days Collec-
tor of the Port Phelps and United states
Commissioner of Immigration Thornley,,
with their interpreters. laborod with these
people, but were finally obliged to admit
them, rs they all had money enough to
keep them and denied point blank that they
had been imported under contract.
On April - tho German tramp steamer
Pcmpto arrived here from Kobe and Yo-
kohanla with another large consignment of
Japanese, and Messrs. Phelps and Thorn
ley carefully examined the crowd and re-
fused admission to six men and thirteen
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