The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1907-05-16
CHINATOWN BLOTTED OFT.
San Francisco's Earthquake Has
Erased This Plague Spot.

For years the willy slant-cyed
Orientals, in their homes. often ou-
ried fifty feet or more below
the surface Of the streets of San
Francisco, have defied all the efforts
of the police TO ferret them out. Ma
ture has done what was beyond the
power of human agency and CHINA
town is broken up and laid bare.
says the New York Press.
Thirty thousand Cinnamon lived
in the Chinese quarter Of the city III
novels above and below the streets.
and their frightened exodus from the
stricken city presented q sight never
before witnessed in this Western
hemisphere. Their lives were gov.
9rned by laws and customs distinct
from those Of the whites. IN the DARK
alleys and winding, subterranoali
lanes. murders were freQHcrt. Mar-'
ring tongs met and fought oa their
quarrels, white and yellow slaves
were incarcerated, and the Pc ice
were powerless either 10 detect OF t,
punish the criminals.
Occupying more than ten blocks.
oaly six squares from VIVA; wa
known as Newspaper Cor1cr. the
Orientals had converted the frame.
buildings which cover the t.iatrtci
into rat-holes and beehiyss wherein
they gambled ceaselessly after the
manner of their kind smoked their
opium-pipes and burned joss-stic.is
f0I Cn IA
dents of this crlme-infested section
who were acquainted with ali its
.urns and probably no American
ever was permitted to explore it's in
ner Businesses.
White women who had become
slaves to opium lived out their mis-
cradle eXistences in superheated ans
~pungent smelling little cellar rooms
seldom, if ever, seeing the light OF
lay. Little yellow girls from the land
If the Dragon were smuggled init
mis- Western Chinese city and were
bought and sold like cattle. Living.
as they did in many instances. in
holes hurrowed into the earth, like
their coolie brothers in Canton and
Chefoo, it was impossible for The arm
of the law to reach them.
When the earthquake and fire
spread disaster through San Fran
cisco. Chinatown, unlike the rest of
the city, was marked ty twisted
lines of debris-illed caverns, with
broken tunnels opening on every side
exposing unknown caves. These
ruined caves, once the homes of the
mysterious Celestials, through fire
and earthquake have become their
tombs. How many people met death
therein will never be known. but it is
a certainty that Chinatown is gone
forever
For years San Franciscans have
agitated the purging of this plague
spot in the city's very heart Prac-
tically the entire district was owned
Wy Americans whose appreciation of
property values was sufficient 10 pre-
vent the Cinnamon becoming more
than lessees of the ramshackle
hskoler is-fhi r Bth tetEEdlot
buildings with which it wcs covered.
Year by year the rents have been
raised on the Mongolians until lat
terly they were paying almost pro-
hibitive rates for the privilege of re-
naming in this, their Pacific Coast
metropolis and the property owners
were reaping more profits. relatively.
than would have been possible had
the district been covered with Go3-
ern business or residential Struc-
lures. But it was doomed, neyerthe
less, and the earthquake has but
fastened the cleaning out OF PIC
turesque but hopelessly vile section.