The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-06-12

tain the good viii of the people anon,
whom they have east their lot
| A notable exception to the prevail
ing anti-Japanese feeling ing Portland !
that all business me-. speak highly ..
one Japanese railroad labor contractor
He IS Mr.. S. Ban, who came here from
Toxic twelve years ago, and who ha
succeeded so well that he is now rate,
at 100000. Els principal business i
furnishing Japanese labor to railroads
although he also conducts gene-i
merchandise store, sawmill and 8
dairy. Mr.. Ban is universally respected
by Portland business men, and the anti
Japanese sentiment exempts him from
Its condemnation because of his high
character. The Portland exporters u
grain, -four and lumber are on exc.
lent terms with the great importing
houses Of Japan, and are inclined tc
deprecate any agitation against the
japanese. But in spite of these excep-
tons the Portland public opinion is
well-nigh unanimous.
In Portland, as in Seattle and other
Coast cities, the japanese are EMPLOY
ed as servants, although the majority
of householders say they are unrelia-
bic and unsatisfactory. One complaint
is that Japanese servant has no COM
junction whatever about leaving his
employer in the lurch. A gentleman
who lived many years in Japan had
favored certain Japanese family by
giving the children exceptional edu-
cational advantages. After a time
this gentleman came to Portland to
live and brought with him one of the
boys OF the Japanese household. The
boys mother made him promise that
ne always would be loyal to his Amer
lean benefactor and stay with him.
After living in Portland for a while
the employer was called away and
could not take his servant with him.
He turned him over to a neighbor,
with a history of the circumstances
and promise that the boy would
stick. 1t was but a short time, how
ever, until the boy demanded his
wages. He even declined to stay until
another servant could be obtained and
threatened his employer with the law
unless he was paid in full on the in
slant
Another housekeeper hired a Japa-
nese cook only to find that he spent
quite as much of his time locked in
his own room as he did in the kitchen.
He was quite ready with excuses that
he fell asleep, or that he was tired, or
something else. One day he left the
door open by accident and the man
OF the house walked in upon him. He
jumped up from the table where he
had been porting over a number Of
maps and drew knife to defend his
secret. He was discharged, of course,
but in that household the belief in the
japanese spy system is still firm one
Japanese are employed as bellboys
in the hotels, but there is much COM
plant from guests that they are mat
tentive and inclined to become impu-
dent upon the least excuse They will
not subordinate their feeling of equal
ity or even superiority, to the de-
mands of the position they occupy. At
Seattle the red-cap porters in the rail-
way station are Japanese. At Port
land and San Francisco they are ne
groes, and the travelling public is al
most unanimous in declaring that the
negroes are much preferable, being
more polite and attentive as we'll as
more efficient. The same verdict is
heard from travellers on trains where
the buffet porter's job has been taken
away from the negroes to be given to
Japanese.
The admirable negro servant of the
Southern cities sometimes gets objec-
tionab1y set-up when he goes to a city
where there are few of his race, but it
IS certain that the Pacific Coast towns
would welcome an immigration of ne
gro servants from Dixie. If Mr. !
Booker Washington could turn out ten
thousand weII-trained cooks and wait
IT'S from his Tuskegee school, they
would all find jobs in these thriving |
titles of the West and the Japanese |
would disappear from domestic SER
ice. To be a waiter is the natural
'irthright of certain type of jolly,
'olite and solicitous Southern negro,
nd he will find that heritage await
ng him out here. Portland has tried
he little brown man from Nippon and
as found him wanting.
A. |