An Undocumented Arrival in Whatcom
A Chinese man found hiding in a tool box on a rail car bound for Seattle illustrates the brutal reality of the Exclusion era.
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.
At Whatcom this morning, Inspector Flanagan captured a Chinaman named Ah Qui, who was trying to get to Seattle while concealed in a tool box under a baggage car on the Seattle & Lake Shore Road. He carried a letter to Ah Lee, a resident of Seattle, and was purportedly to pay $100 upon arrival. He was brought to Whatcom and lodged in jail.
“He was trying to get to Seattle concealed in a tool box under a baggage car.”
This arrest occurred at the height of the Chinese Exclusion Act era, when systemic state and federal policies made movement a life-threatening risk for Chinese laborers. It serves as a stark reminder that the borders of the Pacific Northwest were constructed through active policing of human mobility.
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