The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-12-23
POOR PORTUGUESE.
Living in Comfort, but
Ready to Beg.
THRIFTY WEST OAKLANDERS.
From Being Paupers in Honolulu They
Come to This State and Become
Property-fiOiders.

II am so vera poor; da man he lisa sicka
so mama monts and ds littla babes da
hungry"
liz was big. fat Portuguese woman who
was delivering herself of this dirge in a
most musical and funereal voice TO CALL
reporter yesterday afternoon in Oakland.
She, at least was far from looking ill or
hungry, and the urcbn Juggling at herbreast
showed vig0r that promised him happy
athletic future. She had two other tots.
perhaps three. tumbling about in happy glee
over the road whence she had come TO
intercept the scribe, who she had learned
was on mission of mercy, seeking out
needy families among tile Portuguese resi-
dents OF Oakland Point station with view
10 furnishing them some few indispensableS
10 nave pleasant Christmas.
NOW. TO 90 back little. Honolulu has
peen feeding this coast with Portuguese
laDorers, and several hundred of them have
taken up their abode in Oakland, while
others have scattered throughout this and
other States. Nearly all these people had
gone to the Hawaiian Islands under con-
tract to work on plantations, the first year
or so OF their S15-a-month wages to go
toward defraying the expense Of their
passage around Cape Horn from Lisbon to
Honolulu.
Hearing of better chances i'll the United
States. many of them spent the first money
they succeeded in handling to purchase
their passage here, where they found ready
employment in the Oakland JutemiIls, mai il
factories ara rallroad-yards at wages they
na9 never before dreamed OF.
Ihey proved themselves thrifty and
saving, and ct the present time Lewis and
Henry streets, in the neighborhOod OF
Fourth and Atlantic streets, in Oakland.
are built up more or less with one and two
story cottages owned and occupied by these
Latin people.
Few if any other people of other national
Tues mix with them, which fact is probably
the cause Of the TumOr recently spread that
they simply existed in the midst Of poverty,
squalor ami dire distress.
mat is the reason CALL reporter got in,
mixed among and fraternlZed with them
yesterday, allowing ill-smeling youngsters
TO maui him about and pick his pockets of
everything worth taking while the parents
told their tales.
AT first. labOriag under the impression
that thelr visitor was contractor or other
labor-hiring individual, the matrOns Of the
households met him on perfett equality.
Da man. he wOrka da jutemill-two
dola da day." one of them said. But ii
was only little while after that that she
cut the hgure down to 81 80 for the husband
and 40 cents for her 12-year- boy. They
were both employed, she claimed, most of
the time; but she would be willing to offer
their services at slight advance on these
figures. providing the visitor promised
steady employment.
Ii was quite evident this family was not
IN distress, and the same conclusion was
reached in every Portuguese household
along the line.
But IL was so very different as soon as the
women heard that the reporter was not out
10 employ laborers, but TO seek those fam-
lies whose poverty created pangs incon-
sIstent with good American Christmas.
They all became the poorest, meekest and
cringInE hepQaFS rnnlu nugSihiu M
agine.
The big fat woman alluded to heretofore
furnished the TWEEN tieth repetition of the
old story told by the others. The husbands
were sick or had been sick, and the little
ones. who widowed about, saddled with no
other III but malOdOrous dirt, were, accord
ing to their mothers, just recovering from
some sickness, or about to tumble into some
mysterious disease.
AT this time especially. when every one
who can Is anxious to brush off a crumb
from his table into tho lap of the needy it
Is particularly CALLING 70 know that so many
unworthy people are palming themselves
on as being In distress. hence this plain
statement of the situation among the Porlu-
guese Of West Oakland.
Most of them living on Lewis and on
henry streets are employed and earning
fair wages. Their homes are their own
belongings. and but in one instance was a
father and a husband found without en-
ployment and at his home.
There Is one unfortunate woman in the
Portuguese colony, however, who is In dis
tress. She is Mrs. Maria Travena, at 754
Wood street. Her little babe is very i'll and
she is unable 10 care for her as her own all
ments are not few. Among them are the
effects OF an operation by which DR.. Miller
removed fourteen-pOund tumor from her
less than month ago. The woman's nus
band is hard-wOrking man who had saved
up little money and built the home in
which they live. But, sickness coming on,
he spent all he had for medicines and then
this sale lasted but a short while and now
the protector and provder of the family has
had 10 leave his home 10 go out and attend
to his work near Napa junction.
That Is the worst case of poverty among
the Portuguese of Oakland.