Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-09-13

Jake the DOy dCTOSS the ftlO STdHu
under cover Of darkness or in dis
guise, or even to slip him through
some isolated pass on the gulf cost
There are thousands Of small island
along the coast of Louisiana which af
ford retreats for Cinnamon who ar
trying to evade the law, and sometime
the illegals are rounded up in the bay
Gus like so many fish in a net.
"Of course, the Mexican border Il
the place we have to watch closest,
said Inspector Sisson. You see
Chinaman has to pay a head tax o.
$500 to get into Canada In the frs
place. Let me tell you, we know from
our Investigations that there Is very
little smuggling Of Cinnamon into
Canada. There Is no tax upon China.
men entering Mexico, so it costs them
exactly $500 less to get into this coun.
try across the southern border. How.
ever, a good many do try the north.
ern frontier, mind you, after all. 1t Is
sometimes inconvenient for a China
man to get to Mexico, and they are Sc
wild to get into this country that $500
will not stop them II 1t seems the
quickest way to work the trick.
This office in New York is charged
with supervision Of the states Of New
York and New Jersey. The Buffalo
waterfront Is about the. hardest prop
osition we have. There are fifteen or
twenty miles Of waterfront on Lake
Erie, along which 1t Is perfectly prac-
ticable for Chinese smugglers to land.
We must keep a lookout for them
constantly-although, at that they
put 1t over us, now and then, I pre-
sumo. We have only had two or three
cases in the last few months, however
two or three cases that were de-
tected, I should say.
II should say, offhand, that by far
the bulk of the smuggling goes on in
the west, along the Pacific coast,
which is SO much nearer to China,
The smugglers even succeed in land
ing boat loads of Chinks right in San
Francisco. It was not 80 long ago
that boat load was caught in creek
near Oakland. A schooner full OF
them had been brought up from
southern California, steered In through
the Golden Gate, and sailed up the
bay. She was fishing vessel, and
the cargo Of coolies was concealed
under piles of nets. AS remember,
our men were tipped or in advance.
Otherwise, the waole load would have
got ashore, and all or many Of them
might have managed to escape US by
some contrivance or other.
"They are conioundedly clever at
getting hold Of forged certificates. 1t
goes without saying that anything in
the shape of an official paper that ever
gets into q Chinaman's hands Is re-
ligiously preserved to the last scrap,
and handed down from generation to
Cinnamon are always
coached before the attempt to enter
the country. Nowadays they even
have their hair cut and wear Ameri
can clothes, like the five who were
captured this week. That was a near
squeak. They were taken just In time.
A few more hours and they might
have been lost to US. Despite our best
efforts it would have been at best a
long and tedious task to run them
down. They have the trick Of swap
ping papers down to fine art"
To get back to the question of the
Imported" Chinaman. II he has been
successfully smuggled past the immi-
grafton officials, the illegal Celestial
dutifully goes to work for the man
who furnished him with transporta-
ton. He does not think Of jumping
his obligation to this master. There
has not been such a case within the
memory Of the oldest immigration In
spector. Partly, this Is because OF the
Chinaman's sense of honesty and in
tegrity toward all obligations. Partly.
too, 1t is due to the fact that while q
Chinaman is hard at work he is in
conspicuous, and the inspectors are
less likely to get on his trail.
So each week he contributes q per-
centage of his wages toward the re-
payment of that $500. never attempt
ing to jump his contract. And 80 day
by day he trudges to his work with a
tranquility that is incomprehensible
to the western mind, and In due
course of time, not a very long time to
the expansive vision Of an Oriental
he becomes a free agent. By now ne
has habituated himself to the ways
of the country; II he had no adequate
papers he has certainly managed to
secure them, and he Is in every sense
of the word his own master-sub-
ject merely to a certain form OF es-
pionage by the Federal authorities.
On the other hand the smuggled
Chinaman knows that he Is never al
together safe from the prying eyes OF
the law. He probably will not be
found out; the chances are against It
The Chinese Exclusion law, by the
way, is a very peculiar document. II
defines laborers and merchants, and
stipulates that Chinese laborers hav-
ing once departed from the United
States, may not return, unless they
show that they have a lawful wife
child or parent in this country
property that Is worth at least $1,OOe
or debts Of like amount falling due
and pending settlement. Now, there
is not a Chinaman in the country who
will not enthusiastically lend a wife
child, parent and documentary EVIL
dence. money. or even debts to assist
the return Of a countryman, ano
swear himself blue in the face to per-
petuate the fraud. Anything goes with
a Chinaman, so long as 1t Is on the
United States government. Indeed
after a slight examination Of the ques-
ton of Chinese smuggling, one Is In.
clined to discredit the old theory OF
the lack of humor in the Chinese
character.
One of the cleverest tricks worked
BY the Chinese Is the way they carry