The Annual Departure
As Chinese residents in Walla Walla plan their customary New Year return to their homeland, federal inspectors arrive to manage the complex certification process required to ensure their return to the United States.
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.
Residents of Walla Walla's Chinese quarters are beginning to plan trips home to the Flowery Kingdom soon after the first of the year. Chinese Inspector Scott of Spokane arrived in the city this morning and has been busy arranging the certificates of several Walla Walla residents who are contemplating a visit to their old home. So far about a dozen have signified their intention of making the trip and are arranging their affairs so that they will experience no trouble in effecting a landing on United States soil on their return. 'Our department will be pretty busy the next month fixing up the certificates of men who wish to pay a visit to their old homes,' the inspector said this morning. 'It is a peculiar fact that they invariably select the first of the year for making the trip. Times this year have been prosperous, and I expect there will be a great many make the trip. They are always particular about having their certificates just right so that they will have no trouble in coming back.' The inspector reports that cold weather has put a stop to the smuggling of residents across the border. The mountains are full of snow, and the smugglers find it hard enough to combat Uncle Sam's inspectors without contending with the elements.
“They are always particular about having their certificates just right so that they will have no trouble in coming back.”
This article highlights the bureaucratic burden imposed on Chinese residents during the Chinese Exclusion era, when returning home required rigorous federal documentation to regain entry. The 'Flowery Kingdom' was a common period euphemism for China, and the piece reflects the casual, often dehumanizing tone of immigration reporting in 1903.
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