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To the north of the railroad tracks lay "Chinatown," a
huddled group of shanties built on railroad land. All kinds of material
were used in the construction and the houses resembled the work of
half-grown boys more than that of men. When lumber gave out, packing boxes
and building paper were substituted, and many of the roofs were made of
tin oil cans flattened out. Here lived a few merchants, half a dozen
laundry men, and vegetable peddlers who cultivated truck gardens near the
river. They irrigated them by means of water wheels patterned after those
of their native land. On the end of each of the rough wooden spokes an
open tin can was nailed, which was filled, by the flowing tide. The weight
of the water made the wheel revolve, and on reaching a certain angle the
contents were emptied into a wooden trough that led to the irrigating
ditches running between the orderly rows of hardy vegetables. At a time
when white men were too doubtful of the short summer to attempt gardening
or farming, these thrifty people raised a crop that supplied the town.
From a pole across his shoulder from which hung two baskets so heavily
loaded that few white men could lift them, John Chinaman trotted through
the streets with his delicious "lettucie, cabbage and ladishee", and such
peas as grow only in these high altitudes. Root vegetables were in his
stock, too, and his potatoes were justly famous.
During the daytime most of the houses seemed deserted, but when the
whistles of the Almy coal mines blew, Chinese miners to the number of four
hundred or more came traveling into town, some walking, some riding in
lumber wagons. In 1880 there were less than twenty white miners in the
Almy mines, but from that time on the number gradually increased, the
recruits coming mainly from England, Scotland and Wales. There were
Chinamen, too, working in the railroad section gangs, and they, too, made
Evanston their headquarters. All crowded into the shanties, many of which
were opium dens and gambling houses, and among them were to be seen many
sickly and yellow faces, but there was much laughter and friendliness. All
wore their queues in that day, and all worshipped at the Joss House. This
and the Masonic Temple were the most imposing buildings in Chinatown.
There was a two-story porch in front of the Joss House, and a flag pole on
the roof- The door was flanked with carved panels and within hung many
banners and richly embroidered draperies. Behind the gates of carved
teakwood was an elaborate altar, on which fragrant Joss sticks burned
before their idol, whose placid face looked out from between deeply carved
wooden panels covered with gilt.
For many years this Joss House was one of three in the United States, and
during the '70s and early '80s thousands of Chinamen came to worship here
on "China New Year". The date was about the tenth of February. The popping
of hundreds of firecrackers would announce the coming of each trainload,
and the early arrivals were stowed away in some inexplainable way until
"'China Big Day" arrived. Schools were dismissed-most wisely, for all the
inhabitants of Evanston attended the celebration, and were courteously
received. There was a parade led by the great dragon, a curiously
constructed monster about two hundred feet long. It was made of gaudy
embroidery, which hung down to within two feet of the ground on both
sides, and revealed only the legs of the fifty or sixty men who carried
the writhing reptile through the streets with its massive head swaying
from side to side.
Games followed in the great open space before the Joss House, and the
chief excitement centered around the explosion of a large rocket which
sent up a wooden ball. All of the Celestials watched breathlessly its
course, for the lucky man who caught the ball as it f ell was to be keeper
of the Joss House the coming year. So intent were they upon gaining this
honor that a struggle was inevitable, and at one time several were killed
in the melee. After this, town officers were on the ground and things went
more tamely.
With the passing of the mass of Chinamen from Evanston and the change of
the ideas of the latter generations, the Joss House lost much of its
meaning. On January 26, 19,22, it was burned to the ground, and its
destruction was lamented only as the loss of a historic relic.
Ah Say was for many years the Chinese contractor of coolie labor. He was a
well-educated Chinaman and a citizen of the United States, though he never
gave up his queue. There is a story that he was the original of Bret
Hart's "Heathen Chinee", and whether true or false, his character
possessed much of the shrewdness of that famous Celestial. He was the one
Chinamen who brought his wife here, a dainty, small-footed woman seldom
seen outside his home. There were five children born here, and they were
often seen on the street attended by a throng of -admiring coolies, at
least one to a child. They made a pretty picture in their bright robes,
each head surmounted by a red and green cap with a hole in the top,
showing the shiny stiff hair of blueblack. Ah Say was most hospitable, and
a dinner at his house was an event long to be remembered. The table was
set in the room entered from the street. At one end stood an altar with
smoking censors, before which the host prostrated himself with libations
of steaming tea before sitting down to eat. The furnishings of the room
were a strange mixture of elegance and shabbiness-wonderful embroideries
and carvings against a background of grimy walls and rough furniture.
Dinner favors were in vogue and sandlewood fans, embroidered shawls, silk
handkerchiefs, boxes of choice tea and cigars were among the gifts.
Two large mercantile establishments of Evanston had Chinese clerks, men of
ability and undoubted honesty. Sisson, Wallace & Company employed Ah
Young, and he gave lectures to has countrymen on subjects dealing with
their daily living. Ah You was in the employ of Blyth and Pixley. He was a
fine-looking, intelligent man, and the big words rolled glibly from his
tongue-"superior quality", "excellent material", etc. Like all Chinamen,
he was capable of strong friendship, and he still keeps up a
correspondence with Mr. Blyth. In 1917 Mr. Blyth and his daughter, Mrs.
Keith, were his guests at a magnificent banquet in Hong Kong, where he
occupied a position of prominence. It was an all-night entertainment,
eating being interspersed with music, dancing and theatrical numbers.
One of the prominent Chinamen on the western division of the Union Pacific
was Sam Sling, whose life, as written by his son for the Union Pacific
Magazine of July, 1922, is a veritable romance. Well born but poor in this
world's goods, frail in body but of fine mental capacity, he began work on
the section under a foreman known as Tim Riley. His promotions, first to
the position of office boy, and later to that of stock clerk and general
assistant to the superintendent, are a tribute to the far-sightedness and
kindness of W. B. Doddridge as well as to the ability and faithfulness of
the youth. When the O. S. L. was built he became storekeeper and
stationery clerk for that line, and was one of the most valued employees.
At the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago he was manager of the
Chinese exhibits, but at the end of two years returned to the Union
Pacific as passenger agent, with headquarters first at Chicago and later
at Hong Kong, where he is one of the most progressive citizens.
On the hillside east of town lay the graveyard, where yellow men were
buried near their white neighbors. A Chinese funeral was the occasion for
a great procession, a mass of fluttering red papers to keep the evil
spirits away, and roasted pigs and chickens to put on the graves for the
use of the departed. But the bones of the Chinamen did not rest long in
foreign soil, and a few years later all were dug up and sent across the
Pacific.
In 1877 a Welchman by the name of David Jones came to Evanston. to work
and to teach among the Chinese, and to learn the language preparatory to
entering the "Inland Mission", a religious movement in China. He was a
Presbyterian and was assisted by that denomination in his services, though
he made no demands of a financial nature and supported himself as a miner.
A schoolroom was fitted up, and it was usually crowded to its full
capacity, especially on the nights when singers from the various churches
met with them to teach the gospel hymns, in which the Chinamen joined with
fervor. Mr. Jones remained a year or more, and doubtless reached many by
means of his self-sacrificing life and sincere message. He never reached
China, for shortly after his departure from Evanston word was received
that he had laid down his life in New Orleans, where he had gone as a
volunteer nurse during an epidemic of cholera.
Occasionally a dozen or more Chinamen would march in a body into the
church, and it is to be hoped that some received a more just impression of
the meaning of the service than the one who gave his description to Mrs.
Charles Strong, by whom he was employed as cook on the work train. He told
of their entrance into the sacred edifice where Mr. Arnold was "big boss",
how the people gathered round the stoves near the door and shook hands
with each other and with them, and then seated themselves and joined in
singing, "everybody velly happy". He considered the prayer as a break in
the joyful occasion, saying that the pastor swore, and the ladies bowed
their heads and wept. He thought this moved the leader to regret, for
again they sang, Mr. Arnold "talk velly kind", and after more singing they
went happily to their homes.
But these picturesque scenes were soon to end, for there came a day in the
fall of 1885, when Chinamen huddled together in frightened groups and
white men listened with horror to the story of the Rock Springs massacre.
A few agitators of the Molly McQuire type, then common in the coal fields
of Pennsylvania, had attacked the miners at that place, and the scenes
rivaled those of the Coeur d'Alene riots. Defenceless Chinamen were driven
from their homes and hunted to death in the hills, and some were burned in
their huts. The survivors were brought to Evanston and troops from Fort
Bridger under Captain Green and Lieutenant Carr, were sent here for their
protection. Barracks were constructed. near the freight house and for a
time the town had a military air. Finally, a delegation of six miners was
sent to confer with Governor Warren, who had come to look into the
situation. They were Leban Heward, John Haldane, John Shaw, William Reese,
Samuel Young and Hezekiah Turner, men who owned their own homes, and so
thoroughly did they impress the governor with their loyalty to their
adopted land and their law-abiding spirit that the original plan was
changed. The Chinese miners were moved to Rock Springs and Almy became a
white man's camp.
In the ensuing trial at Washington it came to light that not one of the
leaders in this horrible tragedy, the foulest blot on the fair name of
Wyoming, was an American citizen, either by birth or naturalization, and
some had not even taken out their first papers.
Gradually race prejudice, that cruel offspring of the selfish and narrow
mind, has been conquered by a more just and wider understanding, and we
see today our Chinese inhabitants in their true light. Honesty is one of
their outstanding virtues, and is found in the vegetable peddler, who is
still a welcome visitor at our back doors, as well as in hotel and
restaurant proprietors.
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