Chinese Nuisance
Much has been said through
the Signal about Chinese wash houses and houses of ill fame on
The slop from these houses
is liable to breed a pestilence. . . The smell of smoke . . . greets the
nostrils of every man, woman and child who passes. There is no question that these houses and
their occupants are a nuisance . . . We
trust that the law declaring all Chinese wash and slop houses nuisances may be
rigidly executed. If so there will be no
resort to violent measures [Ventura Signal
Messrs. Blackburn, Riggen and Brooks have moved the last Chinese wash house
off of
CHINESE LABOR- Any parties
wishing Chinese laborers or domestic servants can be supplied in short notice
by addressing a postal card to: R.G. Surdam [Ventura
Signal
The hearse carried the remains
[of Ja Ung]
to the grave, followed by the friends of the deceased and several interested
spectators. On the way out bits of
perforated paper were thrown in the road which is supposed that the bad spirits
would busy themselves in picking up these relieving the deceased from their bad influence in starting
on his heavenward journey. After the
coffin had been half buried a jar was brought forward containing food and
spirits which was placed in proper position and covered up. Little wax and
paper candles were kept burning during the burial. There were no evidence of
grief and the whole proceeding was conducted in the stolid, business like
manner of the Chinaman. When the grave
was rounded up each mourner partook of a bit of sweet bread and passed on, one
only bowing to the west as he left the grave [Ventura Free Press
In the Chinese quarter of this town there is a school in which Chinamen are being taught to read and write English language. It has been in successful operation for several months and some of the students are quite proficient being able to read and write. There is a large number of students . . . Many of them go about our street when they have no employment on hand, and question well disposed white men on the meaning of certain words and phases, listening with rapt attention while the desired information is being given. They have a school building of their own, about 10 X 14 in size furnished with a single desk running through the middle on each side of which, during every evening, may be seen a row of stolid looking Celestials, each reading or spelling in a loud voice, and apparently unconscious of anything except the work at hand. If an American should happen to call at the Chinese store during school hours he is generally invited to visit the school, and if he should accept upon entering the school he is immediately solidified by the Celestials present to hear them read [Ventura Free Press Jan. 19, 1878]
THESE TWO ARTICLES ARE BOTH FROM THE SAME SOURCE. I NEED TO PULL THE ORIGINAL
Tom Lin Yan, the proprietor of the store is one of the most
intelligent and highly educated Chinamen we have ever met. He speaks and writes English fluently, and
looks after the school, of which he seems to be very proud [Ventura Free Press
The one drawback at
present to our prosperity is the large amount of good land being leased to the
Chinese. These animals who can and do
live on the very weeds which grow in the fence corners (a fact) and can afford
to pay higher rents for farm lands than a man who has a family to feed and
clothe decently; and so they are over bidding and driving away a large and
excellent class of our population.
Chinamen don't buy land, and with this rapid influx of population, soon
to be looked for, all the land now for rent will be bought up and converted
into charming homesteads and cultivated by their owners [Ventura Free Press
About
25 Chinamen went out to the graveyard last Sunday to perform a religious
ceremony. The ceremony consisted in
placing goat pork and chicken, oranges, rice, cereal, candles etc. about the
graves of two Chinamen, recently deceased.
A celestial explained to us that after a Chinaman died he went to
In
If we must have this
Asiatic class in such numbers they should not be permitted to huddle together
in their filth as they have done in this town.
Anti Chinese league
meeting will be held next Saturday. Mass meeting at Union Hall.
Professor Buchnan and W.E. Sheppard will
address the meeting. Brass
band for entertainment. Everybody
invited [Ventura Free Press
Chinamen were arrested last week for playing fan tan, three
for dealing and fifteen for playing. The
fifteen were granted a change of venue .
. . while the three dealers will be examined before Justice Bledsoe. . . We
understand the lowest fine the later can pay is $200 each [
The general sentiment in
The
Chinese must go. It is a mistake to say
that we have no laborers to take their place.
Look at the thousands who are crowding the streets of
Fire in
Five Chinese Tenement Houses Consumed
Loss Over $10,000
About half-past
The
fire originated in the kitchen of one of the houses, we learn. The loss to the Chinese merchants, including
merchandise and personal effects will amount to something like $10,000, but
little property being saved. The
buildings were not insured [Ventura Free Press
A Card
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
We notice that Wong Jone, Ah Hing and other disreputable Chinamen have a card to the public to the general effect that they are very good men, and that all other Chinamen are necessarily bad. We deny this emphatically. Jone and Hing are both scoundrels, who make their living by gambling, robbing and other Highbinding tactics. The Chinese of this town never had any trouble, either among themselves or with Americans until the coming of Ah Hing, Wong Jone and the rest of the gang who erected an alleged Chinese Masonic building, but which is nothing more or less than a Highbinding establishment where gambling, robbery, and murder if necessary, are resorted to.
The trouble between Ah Hing and
his gang and the decent Chinamen of Ventura grew out of the following: We have purchased
a hose cart and hose and run a fire department for the protection
THE LAW-ABIDING CHINAMEN
[The
Card from Sam Fong Yin & Co.
As Wong Jone, Ah Hing and other rounders and
thieves like them, who hang around the highbinders den in
and defray other expenses connected there with, and when application was made to the highbinder crowd to pay their share, they utterly refused to contribute a cent. That is all there is to the salary issue. Threats of assassination from these robbers have also come to our ears, and knowing their villainous disposition we have no doubt if darkness and opportunity favored them, they would willingly carry out their murderous intentions.
Sam Fong Yi
Tom Tim Ying
(Ventura Democrat October 17,1889)
Judge Boling
court was employed Tuesday, in the investigation of the charge of robbery,
proffered against Wong Chung, Lung Boo, Ah Ben and Yap Wing, to whose arrest
reference was made in last week's Democrat. Lawyer Patton, assisted by Assistant
D.A.Poplin, prosecuted the cases and Attorney C.C.
Stephens of
.
The trial
date for the four Chinamen was set by Judge Boling. They will stand for robbery, and set for
Monday Nov. 11th (Ventura Democrat October
24, 1889)
AH Sing
Acquitted
--------------
The Superior
Court room was crowded a couple of days this week with Chinamen. The Celestial
community was excited over the trial of Ah Sing, alias Lung Bow, charged with
robbery. It was also divided in
sentiment with respect to the out come of the trial. The prosecuting witness
was a Chinaman and all the testimony on both sides was Chinese. The defendant
also had his friends who were present in force. The alleged crime was committed
several weeks ago in Chinatown, and it will be remembered that it occasioned
the publication in the Democrat of personal cards from prominent members of the
two opposing factions, in which some plain talked was indulged in, not complimentary
to the individuals to whom it directly referred. Four of the alleged robbers were arraigned,
one of whom, Ah Sing was put upon trial, as stated, in the Superior Court,
Monday. Special Counsel were employed by both sides.
C.C. Stephens, of
The case
against the highbinder Lung Bo, who has been on trial in the Superior Court for
the past few days charged with robbery, came to and end this morning by the
jury returning a verdict of not guilty. The verdict was somewhat of a surprise,
as it was confidently expected that the jury would hang. This was a test case,
and now that Lung Bo's innocence has been established, the charge against his confederates
will not be prosecuted. It has been an expensive case and has cost the county a
large sum [Vidette
Smuggling at
The Examiner
tells how a Chinese junk has been smuggling opium at
Last Night’s
Fire
From
Wednesday’s Daily
The fire alarm sounded last night at
By half-past
There are several stories afloat as
to the cause of the fire, the most plausible of which is, that a number of the
Chinamen were sitting around a table gambling when they became engaged in a
quarrel and in the racket upset a lamp.
The fire spread rapidly to the furniture of the room, and before they
had got over their first scare was well under way.
As this is the second time this part
of
IS OPIUM
SMUGGLED?
A LARGE
Smuggling
said to be Carried on Very Extensively along the
Coast a
Recent Shipment
It has been
an open question for some time among coast wise sailors of how much opium was
being landed along the coast from time to time.
There seems to be no doubt about the existence of smugglers, and the
frequent appearance of strange vessels off the coast bears out the theory that
something of a systematic business is being carried on.
A man named Peter Jordon, a sailor,
who has made several trips here on schooners, and who was in Ventura a few days
ago, is given as authority as to the manner of handling the drug. There are several smart schooner-rigged
vessels employed in the business, according to the story of the sailor, and
they stand off and on in the track of ocean going vessels, principally of the
China line steamers, and away out at sea one of these vessels will take off
what drug is on board the ship and beat off down the coast to watch an
opportunity to land her stuff.
“I know of one time not more than a
month ago of a lot of 5-teal-boxes which were landed at
OPIUM
SMUGGLING
Recent
developments indicate that he gang of opium smugglers, known to be strung on
the Pacific coast, has found a new field of operations along the shores of the
Santa Barbara Channel – and, all thing considered, the wonder is that he field
was not found long ago. Possibly,
indeed, it was.
There is no
telling how much of the drug might have found its way into the San Francisco
market by this route, for the revenue officials are proverbially – sometime
interestedly- slow, and smuggling may be going on in a given locality for years
before any knowledge of the fact comes to the authorities. The channel route, away from the hurry and
bustle of the large ports north and sough, is as quiet as could be desired for
the business. Only the coastwise
steamers, with an occasional lumber schooner and here and there a fishing
vessel, disturb the smooth waters that lie between he Santa Barbara Island and
the main land, and those island themselves, several of them deserted rocks
inhabited only during a part of the year by Chinese [sic] fishermen, and honey
–combed with wave-worn caves, afford a thousand hiding places for the
drug. There are secure anchorages that
revenue vessels never think to visit, and here could lie all unperceived the
swift little schooners that ply in or out to sea to meet the China steamers in
the night and take off the stuff upon which it is not desired to pay duty. Running back to the island anchorages,
nothing is easier than to beat across the channel and land the opium either a
Nobody is on
watch there – for, although there is an agent of the collector of the port of
Wilmington resident at Ventura, his duties require him to cover also the towns
of Hueneme and Santa Barbara, and he is a sleep old
fossil anyway, whose ideas run vastly more upon what he is to have for the next
day’s dinner than upon the preservation of Uncle Sam’s interests. So long as he draws his salary, he thinks
that he has discharged his every obligation to the government. Once landed, of course, the drug passes into
the hands of the Chinese, who are numerous thereabouts, and the little brown
men proceed to realize upon it in their cunning fashion – Oakland Times [Ventura
Star Free Press
Ly Hing, the Chinaman, and May Foster were married Monday by
contract, a lawyer drawing up the document and charging the heathen $150 for
his services . . . .
It is against the laws of
On Saturday
about
[Advertisment]
Tea Sets in
make elegant
Christmas presents
Tim Kee has everything in the line to select from, also
Silk in
dress goods / black sateen dresses
A sateen
waste for $1.00 / silk handkerchiefs 45 cents & up
Call and see
his holiday novelties
opposite to
Chaffee and Bonstels
[
Fong Hong, a
brother of Sam Fong Yi, left Tuesday for
There are a
large number of Chinese at this time who are returning
to
Chinese and
Japanese curiosities / imported direct /
Ladies and
children's underwear / on hand and made to order
Tim Kee - opposite Chaffee and Bonstels
[
The fifth
anniversary of the Ventura Chinese Mission was held in the Congregational
Church . . . Dr. Pond of
Chinese Alarmed
At their regular weekly meeting, on
Tuesday evening, Co. D indulged in a street drill. During the march they tramped down though the
Chinese quarter. Having in mind the
recent decision of the Supreme Court, the denizens of that place evidently
thought their time had come, and they were to be marched to the wharf and
loaded on one of Fazzio’s boats for deportation to
China, at any rate they scattered in all directions, tumbling pell-mell into
the hose, baring the doors and extinguishing the lights. As the boys were not under orders to capture
the little brown men, they were not molested.
We are under the impression that the march through
CHINESE
WEDDING
__________________________________
Ung Hing- Soo Moe Jung Tie Made One
for Life
___________________________________
Amid Much
Beating of the Gongs, Feasting, Shooting of Fire Crackers and
Clashing of
Cymbals Peculiar Ceremony
(This was a
difficult article to read)
Beginning with the arrival of the
Ung Hing, well known to Venturians as
Sing Hing, has been a resident in this county for
twenty two years, and is a man of wealth and influence among his brethren. He is the head of the Sing Hing Company with headquarters in
His bride (who in reality is his
second wife, Ung having a wife and daughter in
China,) Soo Moe Jung Tie, is a native daughter of the
Golden West, having first seen the light of day in San Francisco, but she is a
thorough Chinese maiden in sentiment, and the fact that she had never seen Ung until after the marriage ceremony had been performed
makes no material difference to her. She
takes as much interest in packing and unpacking her numerous valuable wedding
presents as any bride of civilization, and no young matron in Ventura county
ever started out on life’s journey with a larger or more costly trousseau than
does Soo Moe Jung Tie. Her wardrobe is beyond question
the most extensive and expensive of its kind ever seen in this city.
Worth, in his most critical mood,
could find no fault with the material and the presumption rest that some
Mongolian Worth fashioned the garments and dictated their style, as they were
imported from
As not one of the ten of our readers
know anything of the peculiar customs of the Chinese in matters matrimonial, a
few words descriptive of the peculiar ceremony will not be out of place at this
writing and may prove of interest. With
a wife and child in
Soo Moe
Jung Tie had never seen Ung Hing
but as a dutiful daughter she began the custom of prayers to joss, invoking his
aid to help her become a good and faithful wife. Man prayer papers were burned, and much rice
and food sacrificed to the family idol to this end. December 2nd according tot he Chinese
calendar or January 15th according to he Julian, selected for the nuptial
ceremony _____________________
Meanwhile Ung
Hing had made every preparation for the arrival of
his partner for life, in true Oriental style.
Musicians had been engaged from
Monday
morning the last ceremony was performed in the sending of good will to the
father and mother of the bride. Wong Ah Keung acting as messenger.
Sunday next Ung Hing
will begin making the regulation round of wedding calls on those friends who
contributed to the festivities.
In computing
time the Chinese begin with the date that the last Emperor was crowned. The present rulers of China are not of pure
Chinese origin but are Mongolian Tartars who succeeded to the empire by
conquest abut 400 years ago and have held ______ sway over ever since. The Chinese as known in
Many of our
citizens have availed themselves of the opportunity to visit and partake of the
good cheer provided by the leading Chinese merchants who take pride in
dispensing with lavish hand the peculiar dainties [Ventura Free Press
A Chinaman
from the vegetable gardens up the Avenue rushed into
Jas. A. Day-
I wish to express my thanks to my neighbors . . . (there had been a fire in his
building) I would suggest that it would be money well expended if the insurance
companies or the town would purchase a good hose and cart for the Chinamen as
they are certainly a great assistance to our fire company and deserving of much
praise [Ventura Free Press August 26, 1898].
THE BURGLAR
IS CAUGHT
Fong Sing is
Undoubtedly the Perpetrator of Many Recent Robberies
There are thieves in variety in the
world from the hot-stove thief to the wagon-load thief, but
Then a search was made for the
thief, who was found late in the afternoon in hind in the Josshouse
(sic) behind the statue of the great God of the Moon. He was locked up. Fog Sing is an old-timer and has always borne
the reputation of being “a good Chinaman.”
He has long served as cook about town.
The officer thought that so ambitious a thief might need investigating,
and they set about the task. They met
with startling success, too. For months
thievery has been going on in town. All
sorts of place have been entered and robbed, including saloons, residences and
stores and in the “good” Fong Sing the officers think they have the culprit, for
among his effects were found burglar tools, nickel-in-the-slot-checks, purses,
rings, three revolvers, saloon trade checks from Lagomarsino’s,
a purse stamped with the name of Banker Foster’s wife, and numerous other
articles. This, no doubt, explains the
two robberies of the Lagomarsino slot machine and
also the robbery of Fosters residence, when Mrs. Foster’s purse and also the
fund of he Avenue Ladies Club we stolen.
There have been many mysterious burglaries this past year, which this
clever capture by the Sheriff and his deputies will clear-up. Recently Fong Sing has been engaged as cook
in the “Redlight” district [Ventura Free Press
The Chinese
Fire Company is peculiar to
Chinese fire department first company at fire in building
adjoining Ayers Hotel.
Chinese worked like veterans and it was their efforts that saved the office of
Justice L.F. Eastin [Ventura Free Press
In 1904 a
Chinese woman was caught trying to smuggle opium to her "liege lord"
who was in the county jail for trying to steal wood. "She was arrested and
given a sentence to remind her of her wrong doing" (Ventura Free Press
Feb. 5, 1904).
The local
Chinese shipped Tuesday to
During the
past week government officers have been in
Jack Sam and
family- cousins of Sing Hing move to
S. C. Walker
Inspector of the U.S. Immigration services paid an official visit to
Another
bunch of Chinese will probably locate at the old Ortega place at the extreme
west end of
Ventura’s
first fire in months occurred Saturday at which time that limited portion of
the city known as Chinatown came near being wiped out of existence. The roof and much of the building owned
jointly by Soo Hoo Mon Li
and Mrs. Bock was burned and grocery stocks owned by Mrs. Bock and the Wing Tai
Yuen Company were badly damaged and water soaked. Chinatown Fire Department responds
readily. Hard to determine damage (
Revenue
Cutter to
The revenue cutter, Manning is to be
transferred from
The determination to transfer the
cutter is the result of the failure of the present cutter service to run down
the smugglers who are known to be operating extensively between
This week before the capture the revenue
cutter Gray was in the harbor, and at once the word was flashed through the
state that the revenue cutter officials were making more than ordinary efforts
to capture certain smugglers. It is
believed that this publicity warned the men who were later taken at
The cutter Gray is now scouting
about the islands, and has searched all the known covers and caves, but it is
believed that the cutter’s crew will not surprise anything; in fact the belief
is that if there is any smuggling it is carried on far south of here, and that
the islands will not be used as a base until the revenue officers leave [Ventura
Free Press January 30, 1914].
One of the worst fires in
CITY
CONDEMNS CHINESE SHACKS ON
Residents in
Vicinity and Charity Workers Tell of Condition of the Buildings; City Will Tear
Down
Members of the city council acted
promptly at a meting last night in condemning a number of Chinese shacks on
G. Ferro told of the menace to the
city of such buildings, saying that only recently they harbored a number of
cases of scarlet fever and were a perpetual source of
disease. He said that some of the
buildings also served as the home of blindpiggers and
women of the underworld.
In her testimony Miss Lelia Taylor told of having been in the various houses on
different occasions and said “she felt sorry for the babies, if not for the
grown people to have to live in such places.
She described the stove pipe sticking out of the window and of the
families, eating, sleeping, bathing, etc., in the filth of the one room and the
accumulation of thirty years of dirt.
Miss Taylor said it would be impossible to clean up the shacks. She declared the Chinaman was getting $8 a
month rental for them and that an association could be formed to erect little
houses clean and modern that could rent for that amount.
Mrs. Harry Sheehan told of her
experience in the
Nick Pierano
said the shacks had been a public nuisance for thirty years and should be
removed without further delay.
Fire Chief
Johnson said they had always been a fire trap.
He declared that if they caught fire on a windy day, the flying embers
would endanger the whole city.
City
Engineer Waud declared that he couldn’t tell what percentage of the buildings were still intact but said they
should be torn down.
N. Bargman said the statements preciously made by other
witnesses were true. As a resident of
the neighborhood he urged the council to take action at once.
City attorney H.F. Orr who questioned the witnesses asked Sing Hing if he wanted to ask