A Laundryman's Return to a Hostile City
A Chinese resident attempts to collect back pay after being expelled from Seattle.
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.
A China boy named Hun Lee, who kept a wash house below Front street near the cracker factory, and who was among the number expelled from here on February 7th, returned by the Mexico to settle up his business. He says there is considerable money due him for washing, and after he collects it he will go away again. He says the provisions and fixtures left in his house have been stolen, and a lot of his stuff, which was hauled and left on the wharf, has also disappeared and he can find no trace of it.
“He says the provisions and fixtures left in his house have been stolen, and a lot of his stuff, which was hauled and left on the wharf, has also disappeared.”
Following the 1886 anti-Chinese expulsion riots in Seattle, this short report captures the precarious reality of those forced out of their homes. Hun Lee's attempt to reclaim his livelihood and belongings is a haunting reminder of the systematic dispossession carried out by the city's mob during that period.
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