Chinese

1905 MEDIA RACISM REPORT CARD

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

One cheer for the 1905 Press Democrat: Racism that year wasn’t nearly as awful as in 1904. But a hiss for the Republican newspaper: What did you have against Japanese-Americans?

News items demeaning Chinese, Black, and Native American local residents appeared repeatedly in the 1904 Press Democrat. Reports of simple events, even weddings, were sometimes expanded into racist vignettes by someone at the paper who mistakenly thought he possessed a talent for writing dialect humor. Race was also just below the surface in writings about the 1904 election, particularly as Finley expressed shock over an African-American child appearing onstage at the Republican Convention, warning it was a portent of dreaded racial integration. But aside from editorial outrage that President Teddy Roosevelt had appointed an African-American to a position of authority, the PD was mostly silent on matters of race in 1905.

Compared here is Press Democrat and Republican coverage of the same event in the Chinese community. Press Democrat coverage is restrained, almost indifferent, except for the two regrettable uses of the old-timey “Celestial” stereotype. Aside for an inappropriate stab at humor (“post mortem spirito-creature”?) the Republican’s offering was superior in every respect, and included details about participation of members of the white community that will likely be interesting to sociologists.

The Shame Award for 1905, however, goes to the Santa Rosa Republican. Their description of a party of drunken Japanese workers was a throwback to the sort of crap the Press Democrat published the year before, filled with racial slurs, fanciful details that the writer could not possibly have known, and told in a manner inviting ridicule.

Even with all its ethnic bashing in 1904, the Press Democrat held back from attacking Japanese-Americans. The Japanese community had deep social roots in the county, and it probably didn’t hurt that Japanese-American businesses, such as the “Japanese Employment Office,” were regular advertisers in the PD. Over at the Republican, racist slurs were never found under previous editor Allen B. Lemmon, and the new owners, transplants from the more cosmopolitan Oakland newspaper scene, appeared to share his progressive views. So why did the Republican trash its ethical standards to crudely insult the Japanese community? I’m puzzled, but can offer a few guesses.

Although unlikely, it’s worth considering that the story, factual or not, was published as some sort of a swipe at Ernest L. Finley and his Press Democrat. When this item appeared, the PD-Republican feud had escalated leagues beyond the “flapdoodle” between Finley and Lemmon the year earlier. Finley had started the fight with the new owners in March 1905, ridiculing them with a series of parody ads (blog post coming) that were probably side-splitting funny when read loudly in a saloon, but now just seem mean. The newsprint jousting turned serious in August, however, when the Republican charged the rival paper with tolerating criminal activities in town on behalf of its cronies (blog post coming about that, too). From then on, the editors took op/ed potshots at the other side nearly every day. The fumes were so toxic that anything that appeared anywhere in either paper at this time should be considered a possible veiled attack on their foe. Most of the tie-ins to their fusty newspaper war are no longer apparent today, of course. Honestly, interpreting these old papers is sometimes like being a Kremlinologist.

Another possibility is that the Republican’s shameful article was motivated by new anti-Japanese racism within the California GOP. Earlier that year, San Francisco labor unions had created the Japanese and Korean Exclusion League, seeking to expand the ban on Chinese “coolie” labor to include other Asian workers. Their champion in Congress was Rep. E. A. Hayes (R-San Jose), whose March 13, 1906 Japanese exclusion speech launched years of discrimination that would cumulate about twenty years later with a ban on virtually all Japanese immigration to America. Neither 1905 Santa Rosa paper mentioned the formation of the discriminatory League (which is odd, considering both took every opportunity to editorialize about other aspects of San Francisco politics), so it’s unknown what, if any, influence the organization had on the editorial position of the Santa Rosa Republican.

A third option is that the story was intended as a strained metaphor to lampoon the Russo-Japanese War, which had ended with Japanese victory just three weeks earlier. After being almost continuously on the front pages since the start of 1904, readers knew well the names of Yamamoto and Ito, both Japanese admirals. Also note the descriptions of the prizes: a statue of the “Emperor of Japan doing Hari-Kari to the Czar” and an oil painting of the Japanese flag flying on the courthouse in downtown Santa Rosa. Don’t think so.

But there’s yet another explanation that’s simplest of all, and thus the most likely: Was this noxious anti-Japanese story in the Republican authored by the same reporter who penned the racist stories in the Press Democrat a year earlier? Articles were never bylined in these papers, but the writing style here is quite similar to the hateful vignettes found in the 1904 PD, and this piece is likewise rich in fantastic details. That the reporter (let’s call him “Racist Ralph”) was hired away by the other paper would also explain the decrease of anti-Black, anti-Indian, and anti-Chinese reporting in the 1905 Press Democrat (again, the PD was hardly bias-free that year; it was just less contemptible). Even if the writing of the detestable stories of 1904 and 1905 all can be blamed on Racist Ralph, however, the disgrace of these articles appearing in the daily papers still falls to the editors.

Deceased Aged Chinese Woman Buried Yesterday

The aged Chinese woman, Kee Haw, who died on Second street last Wednesday, was buried yesterday by her countrymen in the county cemetery. She had lived in this city for some time and her death was from natural causes. The woman was very poor and a number of Chinese with some of the white neighbors provided the burial expenses and several of the white children in the vicinity of her late home placed a few flowers on the cheap coffin. Somewhat different was the Oriental contribution to the dead — a bowl of rice and two chop sticks for her post mortem spirito-creature wants.

On the way to the cemetery a Chinese rode on the hearse with the driver and scattered prayer papers along the way. These were propitiate the unseen attendant devils who play the star part in the Mongolian’s religious belief. After a time, if the deceased has any friends either in this country or in China, her bones will be disinterred, sewed up in a little white sack and shipped home across the wide Pacific. If not, her dust will lie and mingle with those of the occident.

– Santa Rosa Republican, April 21, 1905

Chinese Woman Buried

Mrs. Kee Haw, a Chinese woman, who died on Second street on Wednesday, was buried Thursday morning in the county cemetery. A Celestial rode beside the driver on the hearse and let the customary shower of slips of paper fall en route to the cemetery. On top of the grave the roast pork and chicken was placed in due form and Celestials carried out the other fancies of their burial exercises.

– Press Democrat, April 21, 1905

YAMAMOTO’S EUCHRE PARTY
His Guests Pulled Their Guns and Shot the Three Prizes Into Ruins

Mr. Oki Yamamoto, the proprietor of a Japanese boarding house in Cloverdale, gave a progressive euchre party at his spacious shack Sunday night. He invited all his countrymen from the surrounding vineyards and hop yards and the guests assembled early. Four large boxes helped out the three tables and by 8 o’clock the little brown players were pitching “jokers” and “bowers” at each other fast and furious.

Refreshments were served bountifully in large glasses and this had a tendency to make the games over-interesting. Landlord Yamamoto noticed a spirit of battle breaking out in spots among his growing-noisy guests but with a section of hop-pole he knocked down several of the most truculent of his fellow patriots and kept white-winged peace present through roosting p [sic] on the roof to be out of the storm center below.

Presently Mr. John Kinno, who had gone oftenest to the fountain — said fountain being the host’s demijohn of red, red wine — broke out. He thought he saw Mr. Ito Hikikito lifting two jacks from a cold deck in his jumper pocket. With a frying pan which he grabbed from a near-by stove he soaked [sic] Hikikito over his dark brown head. Ito, bubbling with the war spirit of his great namesake, climbed from the floor where he had laid down and slept for a few moments just subsequent to his meeting with the frying pan, hurled several loud “banzais” and pulled his gun. Other guns appeared and white-wing peace turned in her hat check and left. One Jap got a chunk of lead driven into his muscular brown arm and another son of Nippon had one of his ribs scraped by a Smith & Wesson ball. The lights were shot out in true Caucasian style and the mirror in the proprietor’s sleeping room was put out of commission. Several shot holes in clothing and walls were made.

But the most desperate damage was done the three euchre prizes which were on exhibition in the room. One was a tiny statue group representing the Emperor of Japan doing Hari-Kari to the Czar — a masterpiece of art, the second an oil painting of the Court House in Santa Rosa with the sunburst flag of the Jap flying over the building, a prophesy, and the third prize a small keg of rare old wine from the Fountaingrove winery. When the smoke had cleared away the first two prizes were found ruined, but the keg had disappeared.

The gunners and their guns had disappeared when the Constable’s posse broke in the door and only Mr. Yamamoto was present. He assured the “honorable” American gentleman that no trouble had occurred in his “dishonorable” habitation, in fact he had just awakened from a dream of peace in his “mean” sleeping place. No arrests.

– Santa Rosa Republican, October 17, 1905

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THE WEDDING OF AH QUAY

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

A trio of stories that illustrate more of the casual racism against Chinese immigrants in 1904, but with a surprising conclusion, both in the events and the reporting. First, see this earlier post for some background on anti-Chinese bigotry in general and Sonoma County attitudes specifically.

“Melican” was supposedly pidgin for “American.” It often appeared in 19th century writing about Chinese immigrants at least as far back as 1858, nearly always in a “humorous” snatch of dialog intended to make the speaker appear unintelligent. As with most of those writings, the examples below reveal more about the prejudice of the author than anything about the smarts of the speaker.

To what degree people actually spoke in such heavy pidgin is unknown — and if they did, it sometimes may have been a feint. White Americans at the time seemed uneasy when Chinese men didn’t fit their racist Coolie stereotype; also on Oct. 27, the Press Democrat noted with suspicion that several “hightoned” Chinese men who arrived in town were “dressed in most approved American style and were minus their ques [sic]. The party attracted some attention on the street and at the depot.” That the locals were gawking at nicely-dressed visitors shows how unaccustomed they were to having their prejudices challenged (and also says much about their ill-manners).

“I no understan’, you heap savee [savvy],” the Press Democrat quoted Ah Quay as he asked his business parter for help in obtaining his marriage license. Ah Quay was a prosperous hop farmer — the Santa Rosa Republican even called him “wealthy” — who had succeeded against all odds. If he actually did say anything like that, he was likely playing the game of diminished expectations. Ah Quay certainly had a grasp of American bureaucracy and could make himself understood in English; a few weeks later, he confronted Santa Rosa’s Superintendent and refused to allow the city to haul sewer pipe down the farm’s private road because of potential damage (much to the annoyance of officials). In this situation, perhaps he feared County Clerk Pressley might obstruct or even reject his coveted marriage application on some interracial or citizenship pretext, but would be less likely to hassle a prominent white landowner.

The Press Democrat’s following description of the wedding was insulting, with pidgin dialog and details to accent foreignness and race of both bride and groom. (The Republican’s coverage was almost as offensive, with the headline, “Very Peculiar Combination – A Chinaman and Half Breed Indian are Married ‘All Same Melican Man’ Wednesday Night.”) Weddings of whites were reported solemnly and respectfully, of course; never would the bride’s trousseau be described as a “blue something or other.”

Ah Quay’s marriage came to a morose end a few weeks later, and this time the Press Democrat’s news coverage was strikingly different. No pidgin english and no demeaning references to “Chinaman” or “Celestial” — in fact, this was probably the most respectful coverage of any event in the Sonoma County Chinese community to appear in the newspaper that year. Why the change? It’s impossible to be certain because stories were never bylined, but the likely reason was because editor Ernest L. Finley was then on vacation, taking a trip east to visit family and tour the World’s Fair.

As this journal continues with the 1905 newspapers, it’ll be interesting to see if the “Celestials” return to the pages of the Press Democrat along with Mr. Finley.

CHINAMAN WILL WED
Ah Quay Wins the Hand of Rosie Hacket, a Native California Girl

When Ed Hall, the well-known hop grower presented himself before Cupid Lawrence Pressley at the County Clerk’s office on Monday morning he announced that his mission was to obtain a marriage license, not for himself, however. He came at the request of Ah Quay, 45, native of China, and Rosie Hackett, 32, native of California and of Spanish descent. Ah Quay having lost his heart to the dark-eyed Spanish girl, confided his secret to Mr. Hall and asked him, “you fixee up alie same license me, I no understan’, you heap savee way ‘Melican man.” The license was procured and the wedding will take place at the Hall hop yard where Ah Quay has a partnership interest in raising hops. Mr. Hall had to put up with some little joshing from friends to whom had been passed the word that, “Ed Hall had got a marriage license.”

– Press Democrat, October 25, 1904
WED AFTER STYLE OF THE MELICANS
UNIQUE CEREMONY IN “CHINA HOUSE” AT THE J. E. HALL HOP YARD
Ah Quay Claims Rosie as Bride But First Thought That He Was to Figure as the Whole Show

If anyone fancied for a moment that the Wednesday night wedding of Ah Quay, hop grower and Celestial, and Rosie Hackett, thirty-two, pretty in the eyes of Ah Quay, half Spanish, half Indian, and a native of California, was to be utterly devoid of the Melican way of doing things, reckoned without a desire of the couple to have Melican etiquette mixed up with the ceremony.

It was a “chrysanthemum wedding,” if you please. The decorations of the “China house” at the J. E. Hall hopyard near town, which was the scene of the wedding, was en fete with the gaudiest combination of colors in the way of chrysanthemums. There was also a wedding bell. It was fashioned out of chrysanthemums and the ribbons used in the creation matched those in Rosie’s hair.

Ah Quay, who is not altogether a novice in the marriage business, according to the manners of the Chinese in their country, having had a wife there twenty-five years ago, engaged Justice A. J. Atchinson to marry him and Rosie, his lady love. It was necessary that the jurist should have a very simple ceremony. Ah Quay was asked if he had ever been married before, and he replied, “Yes, me melly befo. Long time go, China. That’s all lite. I tell her. She no care.” The “she” was the bride-to-be. Rosie said with what might have been a blush if her complexion had been lighter, so as to reflect changes of tint, that this was her first marriage.

“Very well then,” quoth the magistrate. “Ah Quay you take this woman to be your lawful wife?”

“That’s all lite. That’s all lite.”

“You should say yes,” prompted the one officiating.

“All lite, yes. I no savee yes.”

Rosie said “yes,” the ceremony was completed, the kissing of the bride was omitted and the bottle was passed around by way of an appetizer for the wedding feast which followed, and which consisted of cakes, pies, candies and chicken, spread on a gaily arranged table in another room.

It should have been stated that the bride wore pink silk and blue something or other. The groom wore conventional black. Among those present were a number of white people and a select gathering of Chinamen. The wedding was a novelty in more ways than one, and the feasting and merriment continued until a late hour. The honeymoon will be spent at the hop yard.

At the outset of the ceremony Ah Quay though that he was the only one necessary to figure as principle in the ceremony. For a minute or two he stood alone before the magistrate. Ed Hall and McBride Smith were the attendants, or rather they figured as official witnesses, and when Mr. Hall told Ah Quay to bring Rosie to the wedding as well as himself he did so. And after it was all over the groom paid the officiating magistrate a fiver for his trouble and all was happy.

– Press Democrat, October 27, 1904
SOON TIRED OF HER CHINESE HUSBAND
AH QUAY BUSY SEARCHING FOR HIS BRIDE OF A FEW DAYS WHO HAD ELOPED
She is Said to Have Found Some One She Liked Better, and Ah Quay Believes That Marriage May be a Failure

On Saturday and Sunday Ah Quay, the hop grower on the J. E. Hall place who was recently married to a Spanish girl in a ceremony by Justice Atchinson in the “China” house at the Hall yard, was in Santa Rosa and vicinity searching for his bride. It was rumored a few days ago that Katie had tired of her Chinese husband and there was no one more convinced of the fact than Ah Quay on Saturday and Sunday. He confided his troouble to several people and he could find no one who could offer him any suggestion where she could be found. It is said that she departed with another man who was evidently more to her liking. Ah Quay feels all the more bitter about the matter on account of the fact that the nuptials caused him an outlay of considerable capital, and that too much attention was paid to the event for it to become so soon a failure.

Ah Quay drove into town a few days ago, having hired a fine rubber tired rig to take his bride out riding. While he was in a store making some purchases, she disappeared and since then he has not been able to find her. Since the wedding a little item of expenditure he met was a doctor’s bill for a number of teeth filled with gold to improve his wife’s mastication of delicacies.

– Press Democrat, November 15, 1904

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THE SHOCK OF CASUAL RACISM

Jeff Elliott Leave a comment

Read enough of the old newspapers and turn of the century Santa Rosa can seem nearly idyllic, as if it were the next cute little town down the line from River City in “The Music Man.” Life here followed a comfortable routine of church socials, women’s club meetings, and appearances of third-string vaudeville acts, the bucolic pace interrupted only by the occasional gruesome accident or runaway horse. It’s the pleasant, yet numbing, sameness of each day’s news that makes the first item below such a slap in the face.

Much has been written about America’s shameful past of anti-Chinese bigotry, which was rooted in the Long Depression of the 1870s. The 19th century excuses for discriminating against the Chinese immigrants mirror exactly the anti-Latino immigrant bias of today: they were scapegoated for “taking jobs away” from citizens, accused of not wanting to assimilate into American society, and viewed with suspicion for having close ties to their homeland. Prejudice became law with the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which put a cap on immigration of 105 Chinese annually (down from about 30,000/year) and blocked any Chinese already here from becoming citizens.

In 1886 Sonoma County, racial discrimination became civic duty. An Anti-Chinese League formed in Santa Rosa vowing to “rid themselves of the Chinese evil,” and a banner hung over the Mendocino/ Fourth Street intersection: “THE CHINESE MUST GO. WE MEAN STRICTLY BUSINESS.” (MORE on Santa Rosa’s anti-Chinese racism.) Contributing to the highly-charged atmosphere that year were the murders of Jesse C. Wickersham and his wife, members of a prominent Petaluma family. The only suspect identified was the couple’s Chinese cook, Ah Tai; although no motive was ever presented, he was presumed guilty because he was missing. (A man identified as Ah Tai is arrested in Hong Kong a few weeks later, and allegedly hanged himself in his cell. Jailhouse “suicides” by Chinese were not rare; in 1900, the Press Democrat reported an inmate hung himself with his own queue.)

By 1904, the local newspapers routinely portrayed the Chinese as a troublesome, often criminal, underclass. Alleged crimes were reported prominently; in June, Ah Sam is arrested for filching 15 cents of potatoes. Ah Wing, who “misbehaved” in February, is in trouble again six weeks later for harassing the same woman, and the front page Santa Rosa Republican story about this “heap bad Chinaman” reveals that the woman didn’t press charges in the earlier incident, which it turns out, was actually just an invitation to the theatre. Wing is arrested on a concealed weapons charge, which was a misdemeanor at the time, with a $10 – 20 fine.

Bigotry in the Press Democrat was active, not only passive. While 20th century owner/editor Ernest Finley is (rightly) considered less than a Neanderthal than predecessor Thomas Thompson, Finley still disgraced himself by bashing the Chinese minority in a racist 1904 screed. And the news item below wasn’t even the most hateful thing published in the newspaper that year; scholars of anti-Chinese bigotry are directed to the Oct. 14 edition for that nugget of filth.

CHINAMAN SAID TO HAVE MISBEHAVED
CHARGED WITH HAVING MADE LOVE TO A WHITE GIRL UNASKED
Arrested and Put Up a Cash Bail of Fifty Dollars for His Appearance in Court This Morning

On Wednesday morning Constable Sam Gilliam and Police Officer Boyes arrested a Chinaman named Wing something or other, charging him with disturbing the peace. It is charged that the Celestial when he delivered the washing at a residence in this city insulted the young woman who answered the door and attempted to make love to her. It is said that he even went so far as to try to hug the girl. Anyway his behavior was very distasteful to her. A complaint was sworn out to Justice Atchinson’s court and the defendant was allowed his liberty on putting up a cash bail bond of fifty dollars.

– Press Democrat, February 18, 1904



BREWER AND THE CHINESE

In a speech delivered recently in Milwaukee, Justice David J. Brewer of the United States Supreme Court expressed himself upon the subject of Chinese exclusion in a manner that has occasioned some comment, particularly among Pacific Coast residents who have noted a close range the results of the unrestricted immigration for which the distinguished jurist pleads.. Among other things, Justice Brewer said:

“I think that the time will come when the people of the United States will look back to the barbarous laws excluding the Chinese as citizens of Massachusetts now look back to the hanging of the witches. America is the great composite photographer of nations, with a duty to take all the various races of the earth and all the various elements of those nations and put them all on the canvas to make one picture, one race.”

This line of argument is so incongrous that it can only be accounted for upon the grounds of the distinguished speaker’s lack of familiarity with the subject he attempts to [illegible damaged microfilm] ever given for the exclusion of the Chinese from our shores is that they never assimilate, and that such is a fact all in any way familiar with their habits and customs must admit. If Justice Brewer will come to San Francisco he will find a large number of adult Chinese who were born in this country, and who have had every opportunity of becoming American citizens in fact as well as in name. Yet all have retained the customs, laws and manners of the time of Confucius. They dress exactly as their ancestors did 3,000 years ago, enjoy precisely the same amusements, worship the gods and idols of their forefathers and only die happy in the knowledge that their bones will find a last resting place in the Chinese soil. They are in our country but are no part of it, nor have they any desire to become such, and they tolerate our peculiarities only because it is necessary to the accomplishment of the ends they desire, which is the accumulation of sufficient wealth to enable them to return to China and end their days in affluence. To the other arguments in support of excluding the Chinese — their immorality, proneness to loathsome diseases and above all the way they undermine and drive out the white laborer — it is perhaps not necessary here to defer, but in view of the above facts question that naturally suggests itself is why Justice Brewer should compare the exclusion of an undesirable and permanently alien population in practice that was based entirely upon superstition and ignorance.

– Press Democrat, July 29, 1904

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