The Abandonment of Ong Let
A Chinese domestic servant faces death alone in the hospital after his community fund dries up and authorities offer no help.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Mark Ten Suie, a Chinese merchant, is greatly exercised over the case of Ong Let, a Chinese boy who is seriously ill at Providence Hospital. Ong Let formerly worked for several of the best families of the city as a domestic servant. About a year ago he was taken seriously ill and soon expended all his savings. Mark Ten Suie reported the case to the boy's former employers, and a fund was raised, but it has now been exhausted. Ong Let is at death's door. He is a Christian and many of his race have cast him off for that reason. His bill at the hospital has become delinquent, and the sisters want their money. Those interested in the boy have appealed to city and county authorities for assistance without avail. Mark Ten Suie says he and other Christian Chinese give liberally to churches and charities for the benefit of white people, besides paying taxes, and he cannot understand why Christian white men and governments should refuse to aid a dying Chinese.
“Mark Ten Suie says he and other Christian Chinese give liberally to churches and charities for the benefit of white people... and he cannot understand why Christian white men and governments should refuse to aid a dying Chinese.”
This story highlights the systemic exclusion and precarity faced by Chinese residents in late 19th-century Seattle, where charitable safety nets were explicitly weaponized or withheld based on race. It underscores the long history of the Chinese community needing to organize their own mutual aid networks to survive state and social neglect.
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