Evening star., 1899-03-25
FOREIGNERS I'M LONDON
APloating Population of Some Ten Thousand
Asiatics.
They Go a Long Ways Toward Max.
ing Up the Crews of the Big
English Ships.
From the Paris Messenger.


London has a floating population Of some
10000 Asiatics-equaling that Of a small
town; and. IL little malodorous some
times, and inclined to linger outside the
pale of modern civilization, it is interesting
to make their acquaintance, note their hab-
Its and the places they frequent. Even
their vices have a certain element of pic
turesqueuess, and-especially among the
Chinese-Some of their ceremonies obtrude
upon the attention. For high life among
the Asiatic population you must go to
Bayswater which is spoken of among for
eigners as Asia Minor" Here reside the
rich orientals who are engaged in commerce
or have come for purposes of education or
pleasure. These are the small and cul-
tured minority. For the large majority,
the Asiatics of the slums, you must go out
to Poplar and Shadwell-to the neighbor
hood of the East India docks by preference.
1t is here the oriental is to be seen in all
the richness of his infinite variety. Poplar,
it may be remembered, is the original home
of the Asiatic in London. The East India
docks were the docks of the old John Com
pany, which first brought oriental labor
into repute in British shipping. Bow Com
mon, hard by the docks, where the COM
pany's Asiat IS were housed in huts, has
long since been built over, and the foreign
er has had to mingle with the dock laborer
in the slums of Poplar and Blackwell.
Inc HrSt tninS one mas out Is the in
defniteness of the term "Lascar'' so COM
monty used. Properly speaking. it is only
applicable to sailors from India; but In
general the term is bestowed upon ali
foreign seamen. There are about twelve
shipping companies using Asiatic and Afri-
can labor OF these the Peninsular and
Oriental Company is the largest. 1t is in
terestfng to ferret out the details. Take
the Peninsular and Oriental COmpany'S
large ships. They are vessels of some seven
Thousand a wi
have at least 120 foreigners on board.
Starting with the deck crew, you will find
that they are all from India. mostly from
the vicinity of Bombay, and Mohammedans
as matter of course. The engineers crew
will be a mixture. There will be, in all
probability, twelve men from the Punjaub
and among the others, Pathans from At
shanistan, and number of Swahils. or
what they call Sidi boys-boy, of course
being corruption of the Indian bhai
which means brother.
Humorous are some of the corruptions of
Indian words used on board. Khabadar
which means take care" becomes cup
board door, "khrab," which means bad,
makes an easy descent into crab" There
will also be Arabs and Africans-every i'm
aginable class of people-from the Red sea
the Nile, Alden, Zanzibar and even the in
terror of Africa. These last mentioned are
rescued slaves from the interior and first
rate men in the engine room, standing any
amount Of heat and working well. They
are easily recognized. for they are black
as ebony, with woolly heads. The only other
foreigner on board is the barber who
somewhat curiously, is always a Cingalee
While this Is the usual proportion of Ash
atics on Peninsuar and Oriental boats
other companies employ only Arabs, and
others only Chinese The British Steam
Navigation Company. the next largest to
the Peninsuiar and Oriental. employs most
~ Bengalese; the Clan Line favors Hin
dooS, mostly from Madras. but they only
come into 1ilbury dock and the Arab Line
only carries Arabs. On the other hand. the
DucaI Line has ceased to carry LascarS
Win such large oriental population one
naturally expects to find an orienta! quar-
ter. But they are not so gregarious as the
Jews, and do not exclusively occupy streets
ana districts. In many parts of the East
End the Jews object TO Christians living
among them; but out ShS dwell way the
Asiatics are scattered. though there are
many houses devoted entirely to them. and
presided over by Chinese Malays and In
dams, most of whom have married English
women. 1t is curious to hear these women
addressed as Mrs Munhamed Chinese En-
ma, Lascar Sally. according to their hus-
bands NATURALIZATION they rarely ADOPT
the proper name of the men they consort
with They seem entirely on the down
grade. but the half-caste children one sees
running about are often decidedly good
looking, and it is amusing to hear them
praftlng Chinese or Swahili, and singing
native dittieS