Sent Back to China: Two Men Ordered Out of Walla Walla
Wong Look and Ah Doan were taken from the county jail to Seattle and a steamer for China after a federal commissioner found them without the papers required by the Chinese Exclusion Act.
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.
Wong Look and Ah Doan, arrested and ordered deported some time ago by Court Commissioner Strong, were two sorry-looking subjects of the Flowery Kingdom as they were taken from the county jail last night and started for the Sound en route to China. Deputy United States Marshal Pugh, who arrived in the city yesterday morning in connection with the Schmidt perjury case, received a telephone message from headquarters to convey the two Chinamen to the Sound, as the steamer on which they will take passage will sail early on the morning of the 17th.
The two Chinamen were arrested by Chinese Inspector Scott several weeks ago on the charge of being illegally in the country. They were unable to dig up their credentials, and in a hearing before the court commissioner were ordered deported.
Dong Look was picked up at one of the Chinese gardens east of the city, where he had been employed for nearly five years. During an inspector's trip to Walla Walla he would keep out of sight, and in this way managed to elude detection for a long time. He was finally ferreted out, and being unable to show a certificate, was taken along.
“They were unable to dig up their credentials, and in a hearing before the court commissioner were ordered deported.”
The Chinese Exclusion Act turned legal residency into a paper chase and deportation into a routine local event. Walla Walla's Chinese gardeners and laborers lived under constant inspection and the threat of removal. The story echoes today's fights over detention and documentation, though the exclusion laws were explicitly racial.
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