The morning news., 1899-03-30
FLOATING AsIAr1os.
The Great City Harbors 10000 "a
Them,
From the Paris Messanaar

Ihems
From the Paris Messenger
London has floating population OF soma
10000 Asiatics-equaling that of a small
town, and. IL little malodorous sone-
times, and inclined to linger outside tho
pale of modern civilization II is interest,"
ing to make their acquaintance. note their
habits and the places they frequent. Even
their vices have a certain element OF pic-
turesqueness. 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
elgners as Asia Minor" Here reside the
rich Orientals who are engaged In COM
merce or have come for purposes of edu-
cation or pleasure. These are the small
and cultured minority. For the large ma
jority, the Asiatics of the slume you
must go out to Poplar and Shadwell--to
the neighborhood of the East India docks
by preference. IL Is here the Oriental is
20 be seen in all the richness of his inf
mite variety. Poplar. Il may be remem-
bered, is the original home of the Asiatic
in London. The East India docks were
the docks of the old John company, which
first brought Oriental labor into repute
IN British shipping. Bow common hard
by the docks, where the company's ASH
atics We're housed In huts, has long since
been built over, and the foreigner has
had to mingle with the dock laborer in
the slums of Poplar and Blackwell
The first thing one finds out is the in
defniteness OF the term 'Lascar," so
commonly used. Properly speaking, II is
only applicable to sailors from India; but
in general use the term is bestowed upon
all foreign seamen. There are about
twelve shipping companies using Asiatic
and African labor OF these the Penineu-
lar and Oriental Company is the largest.
1t Is interesting to ferret out the details.
Take the Peninsular and Oriental Com
pany's large ships. They are vessels of
some 1000 tons. On such a vessel they
win 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 Mo-
hammedans. as a 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 Afghanistan and a number
of Swahils, or what they call Sidi boys
boy, Of course, being a corruption OF the
Indian bhai, which means brother.
Humorous are some of the corruptions
of Indian words used on board. Khaba-
dar, which means take care" becomes
cupboard door," ''khrab," which means
bad" makes an easy descent into crab"
There will also be Arabs and Africans
every imaginable class OF people-from the
Red sea, the Nile. Alden, Zanzibar, and
even the interior of Africa. These last
mentioned are rescued slaves from the in
terror, 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 woody
heads. The only other foreigner on
board is the barber, who, somewhat Gu
riousy, is always a Cingalee. While this
lis the usual proportion of Asiatics on PEN
insular and Oriental boats, other compa-
MES employ only Arabs, and others only
Chinese. The British Steam Navigation
Company, the next largest to the Penin-
sular and Oriental employs mostly BEN
galese; the Clan line favors Hindus, most
ly from Madras, but they only come into
Tilbury dock, and the Arab line only car
ries Arabs. on the other hand, the Ducal
line has ceased to carry Lascars.
With such a large oriental population
one naturally expects to find an oriental
quarter But they are not so gregarious
as the Jews, and do not exclusively occu-
py streets and districts. In many parts of
the East End the Jews object to Chris
tians living among them; but out Shadwen
way the Asatics are scattered, though
there are many houses devoted en-
tirely to them and presided over by Chi
nese, Malays and Indians, most of them
whom have married English women IL is
curious to hear these women addressed as
Mrs. Muhamed. Chinese Emma, Lascar
Sally, according to their husbands ma
tionality-for 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 booking, and Il is
amusing to hear them prattling Chinese or
Swahih, and singing native ditties.
notwithstanding Gen. Fitzhugh Lees
declaration that he viii not be a candi-