New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-03-05
LONDON'S ASIATICS.
A FLOATING POPULATION OF TEN TIC
SAND ORIENTALs.
From The Paris Messenger.

From The Paris Messenger
London has q floating population Of SON.
thousand AsiatCs- eqLalling that Of 70
town; and, II little maiOdOr0us sOmetlno3.
inclined 10 linger outside the pale Of !.
civilization. il Is interesting % make -
quaintance. note their habits and the Is
they frequent Even their vices have a css1,
element II piCturesqueness and-espscl
among the Chnese-sOme Of their GERM 4
obtrude upon the attention For high life an
the Asiatic population you must 90 TO Bgl|
water, which is spoken Of among fOregen 1
Asia Minor" Here reside the rich 0nsEa
who are engaged in commerce Or have \
for purposes OF education or pleasure. II
are the small and cultured minority. F1 4
large majority. the Asiatlcs Of the slums /
must go out 10 Poplar and ShaGwell-io 4
neighborhood of the East India Docks by II
crence. 1t is here the oriental is to be ses 4
al the richness Of his infinite variety PgJ
it may be remembered. Is the original hons 4
the Asatic in London. The East India Did
were the docks Of the old John Company, VII
lirst brought Oriental labor into repute In B-.|
ish shipping. Bow Common. hard by the ODD
where the cOmpany's Asiatics were housed
huts, has long since been built over and !.
foreigner has had 10 miugle with the dock y
borer in the slums Of Poplar and BackEA
The first thing one finds out is the rsSi'
ness of the term "Lascar' so comacIF IS-
Properly speaking, II is only apphcaoenSaa
from India: but in general use the terms 9
slowed upon all foreign scamen. -
about twelve shipping companies using ID
and African labor. OF these the Peninsck
Oriental company is the largest II Nv
ing to ferret out the details. Take the PENN.
and Oriental vompanys large ships Inc
vessels Of some seven thousand tons. VI -
a vessel they vii. have at least lD l0fe-s-
on board. Starting with the deck crew %. I.
find that they are all from lnIla' mosH
the vicinity Of Bombay, and MahomelaE ,
matter Of course The engineer crew 80
a mixture. There will be- IN al p'V01.-
twelve men from the PunJauD, ana ann:
others. Pathans, from Afghanlstan. ana anu -, -
Der OF Swahlis. or what they call 90. ~
boy, Of course, being corruption Oh 'H' -
bhai. which means brother. ..,,,,,
Humorous are some Of the corrupu
Indian words used on board. hhavSSLI AZ
means take care" becomes cupvoAs ~
"khrab." which means bad. mdheS a
descent into crab" There VIII slso :, "a
and Africans every imaginable class -.
from the Red Sea the Nile Alden, a.
and even the interior II Africa ines s.a 20
toned are rescued slaves from the lhr ssl.,c
first-rate men in the cngine-room' s'ae rs-s 4
amount Of heat and working w ven a. 81
easily recognized. for they are pld' rH..saiyrs,i
with wooly heads The only other iV' 's,;s,s
board is the barber VINO. sohiSH "T - me 81
is always Cngalee. Whlle thls - and q
proportion OF Asiatics on Peninsula a,ir All
entail boats. other companies employ D., vs ~
and Others only Chinese. The br,ust 70 d
Navigation Company, the next Iarss,l, 81
Peninsular and Oriental employs Us us rs.
galese: the Clan Line fayors hlhG ~, tn
from Madras. but they only come r H.. A,
Dock. and the Arab Line only az AZ 'c,e.s..
on the other hand, the Ducal Line HS'
carry Lascars. .., ,onu,atc,
With such 4 large oriental - crsa
naturally expects to find an ore ,hu rsEs
But they are not SO gresarious as Wv na ass
do not exclusively occupy streets 80 si Issy ~
In many parts Of the East hnd ti brt om y
TO Christians living among them; ous Do
we'll way the Asiltics are sca,. tssi 10 N
there are many houses devoted s ems ard ,
and presided over by Chinese Ma..;sS Esg
ians. most Of whom have n htra WORK,
women. 1t is curious 70 hear mir csjrese e.
dressed as Mrs. Muhamed, hrsbarts
Iascar Sally. according to their ~ nrooe, y
they rarely adopt tn nv seer
OF the men they consort WITH i ,Ss hsto
tIrelv on the down grade, out t az. crs
children one sees running about ,sing to
cidedly good looking and II IS s an End 81
them prattling Chinese OF S"ahA-
native dittieA