The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1923-08-10
MRS. CHU LIKES
HER HUSBAND
American Wife of Chinese
Laundryman Has No Apol-
ogies to Offer

American wife of a Chinese
laundryman on PoindcXtcr St.,
who has recently taken up her
residence in this city has no
apologies to make for being !
the wife of a china-man. In |
fact she has tonvFnced her
self that chinaman generally !
make better husbands than
white men and tells a reporter
for this newspaper that there
should be more Chinesc-Amcr- /
iCan marriages.
Mrs. Chu says such marriages are
, no longer uncommon and that she |,
personally knows several North Caro-
lima girls who have married China
men away from home in recent years.
One, she says, is an Elizabeth City
girl; another a former resident of
Moyock. But she doesn't recall the
names of either of them. Neither
does this newspaper.
Mrs. Chu even goes so far as to
declare that American men are rapid
! ly becoming physical dcgcncratcS be-
cause of their use of tobacco and
strong drink. and their general dis
regard for the primary laws Of health
and longevity. She pays Chinese
men are more simple and sane in their
habits and wear better than white
men.
! "Who ever heard OF Chinaman
diSSipating. or of one of them being
up in court for drunkenness? asks
, Mrs. Chu. who WAS born in Albany,
New York. of German born parents,
/ and who has been the wife of n
chinaman for more than - years.
| She is a woman Of considerable edu-
I
cation and attainmcntS. and says she
was engaged in welfare and cduca-
tional work among the foreign pOpu-
Iation of Norfolk, Virginia, before
coming to this city.
Mrs. Chu is the first wife of a
! Chinaman TO come To this city. Her
husband is operating the Chinese
laundry on PoindcXtcr Street. and is
known rs Walter Chu in English and
Chu Hin in Chinese. Mrs. Chu
would be call All Moo Chu i'll Chinese
which means Mrs. Chu in English.
She arrived here last week from
Norfolk. bringing with her. her two
sons. aged six and sixteen. the elder
Of which has spent several years i'll
China following the Is months his
mother spent there in missionary
work among her husbands people.
Mrs. Chu grew up under the Ger
man name of Dorothy Schmidt. Ac-
cording to her own statements, she
is very unusual person. Alth0 she
WAS reared under the watchful eye
Of the Roman Catholic church and still
,dhrrrS To the faith. she allows
her sons to attend the Baptist church
with their father. and says the rell-
rion of the children should be a mat
fer of their own inclination and per-
Sonal choice.
Before going to Norfolk. Virginia,
She engaged in welfare and nursing
work among the Chinese population
in the slumS of New York City, she
saws. She says she has had a deep
interest in the work all her life. and
quickly grew to love the Chinese as
her own people. Speaking the Ger
man language when Il child, and grow
ing up among Hebrews with whom
she WAS obliged to converse in ther
own tongue she never WAS Ammerl-
canizcd from infancy as the real loo
pcr cent American born child Is
to-day.
And then she came to Norfolk she
SAYS. There she was nurse III the
Roman Catholic hospital ST. Vincent
de Paul. where she met the aged
father of Chu Hin the Chnaman. III
the natural course of things she was
assigned TO nurse the dying Chlnamah
thru his last illness. There at his
bedside, more than y years ago, she
met the son Chu Hin. Drawn to him
in tho hours of his trouble and by
the tics of friendship forged thru
many wears of contact with his peo-
ple, she says she fell in love with
him. Soon afterward, they were mar
ried by a Methodist preacher by the
name of Hayes, who she says had
formclv lived in Elizabeth City, or its
immediate section.
Altho the Roman Catholic church
refused to recognize her marriage to
the Chinaman, she says she does MOI
regret the step. To-day her mother
church allows her the religious prlvl-
lcgc only of confession, and considers
her children born out of wedlock, as
far as the church is concerned, un-
less she and her husband both con-
fess and allow themselves to be unit