The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1910-07-12
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About four weeks ago Dong Gain, a
Chinaman, opened laundry In the store
next to THE News Office. 1t has been the
custom of the Chinese, when new man
arrived In town to compete with them, to
try and get him to leave, peaceably If pos
sible, If not that way then other means
were to be employed. This was tried with
Dong Gain. He had hardly established
his place when he was waited on by rep
resentative of the laundry which has
been in existence up sHigh street over
twenty years and was asked to sell out
and leave town. This he declined to do.
There had been various stories In circu-
lation about the other laundry and Dong
Gain soon had more work than he could
attend to. He tried to get help, but 1t
seemed impossible for him to secure any
aid from Philadelphia. According to the
stories that have reached here the lodge In
that city to which the old laundrymen
belong had sent out orders that Gain was
not to be helped and that everything pos
sible was to be done to endeavor to get
him out of town. So much had his nerves
been worked upon that he was afraid to
go to Philadelphia, and he was constantly
In receipt of messages from his uncle and
cousins In that city to the effect that II he
did not get away from here they would be
made the object of attack.
The thing reached a crisis last evening
So scared had Gain become that he refused
to receive any laundry and it did not take
long to have q story circulated that he
was going to leave the town. To make
matters worse Chinsman who was work.
ing with the uptown crowd visited Gain,
and some who saw him enter the shop of
the latter thought trouble was brewing.
A crowd quickly gathered and as person
after person entered the laundry only to
be refused, indignation soon grew. The
idea that man could not enter business
here without being interfered with by a
rival concern was not according to the
general custom. There were several who
openly gave expression to their opinion
and the feeling was general that If Gain
was compelled to leave the others must go
also. A crowd gathered In front Of the
laundry of the others later In the evening
and gave vent to their feelings by yelling
and deriding the inmates. As the excite
ment grew some one threw stone through
the window. That was enough and 1t
was not long before there was lombard
ment.
The police were soon on hand and gave
the Cinnamon protection, and finally,
under the direction of Chief Mason the
latter were taken to the jail where they
were locked up for the night and early
this morning they went to Philadelphia.
What will occur later remains to be seen.
There have been stories about the High
street laundry which shows that 1t should
have been closely watched long ago. That
there was truth in these rumors have been
plainly corroborated, yet no one took the
trouble to have the matter corrected. The
Board of Health. after having the matter
called to its attention, looked into the
case, but the report, privately given, was
that the conditions were not as bad as rep
resented and possibly no worse than ex-
listed In places of more prominence. 1t is
quite certain, however, that there are
some things, not under the control of the
Board of Health, but known to the authori-
ties and to the agent who has the renting
OF the building they occupied that might
have been easily corrected.
Mob rule is not desirable anywhere and
the occurrences of last evening are not to
the liking of our people, but 1t Is quite
certain that the time has gone by when
any one business can come to this or any
other town and dictate the actions of
others who wish to enter the same line.