The San Francisco call., 1899-08-14
BOSTON IS PUZZLED.

+ ~ UR esteemed contemporary the Boston Her
| ] aid devoted recently about page of its spact
- to what is seemingly tremendous sensation
in New England. The nature of the sensation was
we'll expressed in the headline: Chinese Puzzle-Ful
Grown Celestals Pass Boys-Find Fathers in Can
ada-Cooles Become Merchants by New Process
The Exclusion Act Is Evaded-Reveations at Burl-
ington, Vermont, During the Trials There"
From the vast array of facts spread forth over
page of closely printed matter it learned the bland
and child-lke cooe has matched his unsophisticated
Oriental ingenuity against the shrewdness of the
Yankee in the Yankees own home and has got the
better OF him.
From the evidence given, it is clear there be
no telling how many Chinese have managed to get
into this country by the back door OF New England
1t is known that hundreds who had no right to
enter have not taken the trouble to smuggle them
selves in but have walked up the officers of the
Government and cleverly passed themselves off as
American-born or as persons privileged under the
treaty.
1t is noted that the cases most difficult to deal with
by the New England authorities are those of Chinese
claiming to have been born in the United States
but educated in China The thing that puzzles Boston
is the fact that these natives have difficulty in find
ing fathers in New England to vouch for them his
children, and sometimes the father does not look
much older than the boy Moreover the number Of
the natives is larger than quite right New
England calcuators
The Herald says:
at is noticed that the most Of the boys coming
in claim to have been born in San Francisco between
1875 and 1885, They do this because that time there
adequate registry of births OF Chinese in that
city. There could have been more than 200
Chinese wives in that city during the years specified
A birth rate of so boys year would have been
abnormally large yet in Vermont alone, for the five
years preceding this one, from 700 to 1000 alleged
native-born Chinese have been admitted, and the
number in the country is enormous"
The merchant dodge also is worked way that
fatigues the Boston intellect 1t is said;
"In Boston there are about 200 Chinese merchants,
and yet during 1897 and 1893 there filed $500
names OF Cinnamon alleged to be in business in Bos-
ton The method is this: A firm files list OF thirty
five partners and in the of two years twenty
FIVE will be admitted returning partners. Logically
there should now be sixty partners, but matter
OF fact there still thiry-fve but the all
new ones. When asked where the old partners have
gone the reply is that they have sold and their
whereabouts is unknown. These names remain
until they have served the purpose of unlawfuy in
ducting some more Cinnamon into the country, and
so the endless chain goes on"
Altogether the ingenuity OF the little yellow is
too much for the philanthropists. Even when they
know his tricks they cannot head him off. They
may know him to be lying when he claims to be a
native son OF California merchant of Boston, but
they cannot catch him at it. He has his witnesses,
his certificates and everything else the officers de
mand, and it appears that ere long the New England
schooeacher will not have to come San Francisco
to see Chinatown