The Savannah morning news., 1902-05-06
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CHINESE LAUNDRY CHECKS.
Ingenious Celestial Method of Iden-
tifying Customers.
From the New York Post.

From the New York Post
The ingenuity of the Mongolian
mind is well displayed in their sys-
tenn of accounts and checks in the laun-
dry business. If their written Ian
guage were as scientific and accurate
as our own, it would be an excellent
creation, but they labor under many
disadvantages which are unknown to
the civilized people Of the world. There
are no characters in Chinese for let
tiers or any such simple variations as
Roman and Arabic numerals. 1t is
therefore. impossible to translate or
transliterate into Chinese such COM
mon marks as "a. j. or Nv s. In
place of this the Chinaman uses the
ideographs for the commoner facts of
life. such as house" moon" dog"
lion" bear" table" chair" and
street"
In addition to these he employees the
numeral characters from one up to
one hundred.
A customer comes to laundry I'M
able to speak Chinese. and delivers
his wash to a man unable to speak
English. He receives in return a check
containing two characters. One rep
resents the day of the week or month,
and the second one of the facts men
toned such as moon" or Zion" The
slip is torn through the middle, upon
the principle of the legal indenture. 1t
is impossible to initiate the torn piece
so that it will fit the half retained by
the laundry. Then upon the day-book
of the laundry the proprietor enters
under the day of the week or the
month the telegraph moon or lion as
signed to the customer, and beneath
this the articles left to be laundered.
He then takes down from a hook a
lot of muslin tags on which are writ
ten in indelible ink moon" or
lion" /, 2, 8, 4, and so on. One
of these tags is affixed to each article.
excepting the cuffs and collars. To
these, one tag is affixed, which is fas-
tened by a strong thread or cord tied
through the button-hole in each arti-
Gle. In addition TO this they often
put a private mark upon the article to
be cleaned, although this is not very
common. When the goods are washed
and ironed, they are done up in a pack
age, and the day and special character
written on the outside. In addition
to this, the half-ticket is fastened to
it with a pin. When the customer en-
tiers, he gives his half ticket up, and
If he is known by sight, the package
is handed over to him. If he is not
known. or is suspected of being a con-
hdence operator, his half-ticket is fit
ted to the laundry half-ticket before
the package is handed over.
The day-book is often amusing read
ing. 1t is difficult to write Western
names in Chinese characters, and IN
most cases impossible. The laundry
man, therefore. writes down some sa-
lent feature of the customers. In do
ing this they manifest quick percep-
ton and considerable humor Two
Gold Tooth" appears on the same
page with Red Head Scar Cheek"
"Red-Nos Man" follows "Old Wo-
man with White Hair" Man Who
Looks Like Horse" Man With Much
Long Hair" Very Tall-Thin," and
Man Very Fat-Jolly," are familiar
entries. Often the customer is de-
scribed by his calling, grocer, butcher,
policeman. carriaee-man. or express
man; doctor and dentist are frequent
titles Upon this system the little
laundryman transacts his business
with great smoothness and satisfac-
ton. 1t may be asked If an American
would do as well in the Flowery
Kingdom.