The Washington herald., 1920-04-11
CHINESE LEAVE
n. Y. CHINATOWN
Younger Orientals Desert
ing Quarters Fathers
Made Famous.
MOVE OVER TO JERSEY
Mott Street Succumbing to
Advances of Sicilians
And Italians.
MOVE OVER TO JERSEY
Chinatown, my Chinatown,
When the lights arc low,
Whittier wander all your sons
And wherefore do they go?


And wherefore do they go?
The Chinese are leaving China
town in New York. There is no
longer any question about It. but
there is much mystery about 1t,
says the New York Evening Sun.
The old men in the cotton jackets
and straw slippers are slipping away
and the young men in their Ameri-
can "ready-mades" are drifting of
from Mott and Pell and Doyers
streets.
Mott and Pell and Doyers streets
are still there. The old gaudily
decked store fronts still allure. The
old banners-and the new ones OF
the Chinese Republic-still wave.
There is still meat for the thought
less who ride the Seeing China
town" buses. Yet the Chinatown of
the Chinese, as distinct from the
Chinatown of the siGhtseer, Is 60
ing-going. and. at the present rate
OF disappearance soon will be gone.
Some $50 West,
Some say the thrifty Chinese has
at this late date heard the advice
Go West, young man." and is go
ing West-as far as New Jersey,
which In the last year or two has
reported remarkable accessions to
Its yellow population. During the
war the New York Chinese wan
dered over into the munitions dis
tricts to open laundries in the new
mushroom towns. He found that
there were more lucrative ways or
making money than relying on the
doles of the tourist; and he came
back to tell his less energetic breth-
rem what he had found.
So John is going West-to New
Jersey. Yet that does not explain
the whole of the mystery. All of
the wanderers from the sacred Joss
house fires of Chinatown cannot be
going to the Jersey laundries
They're going" says a doctor
who has ministered to many of the
slant-eyed Orientals of the quarter.
I don't know where, but 1 do know
that Chinatown isn't the bustling
place it was five or ten years ago.
1t isn't even Chinese any more"
Hatchet Wars End.
What's the matter with YOUR
people: Where are they disappear
ing to?" queried a reporter of the
proprietor of one of those Chinese
antique shops. the prices of which
20 up few score yen every time a
visitor from outside the city ap-
pears on the scene. He glanced at
the reporter suspiciously and shruC-
Sed his shoulders. He evidently
considered that any information he
might give on the topic would be
used against him.
Mott street already is succumbinr
to the advances of the SiciIian. the
Nespolitan and the Corsican from
Bayard street. and the Gurgling ac-
cents OF Chinese are scarcely heard
more frequently than the volubIe
tongue of Sunny It"
or course. it is long since that
Chinatown ceased to be the inter-
esting If hellish spot a person was
wont to read about. Joss houses
and hatchet wars don't seem to be
the fashion in Mott street or Peu
street any more. Instead there are
Chinese chambers of commerce and
places where young Chinese-Ameri-
cans in corset-f1tting coats play kel-
ly pool.
The observance of the Chinese
New Year is just coming to a close
put the old ones of Chinatown
those who still cling to the old GUS
toms and cherish the hope that their
bones eventually may be carried
back to the land of their ancestors
sadly admit that it wasn't much
OF a celebration. judging by stand
ards OF bygone years, when the Chi
nese hadn't begun to desert China
town.