Wan Lee Answers Lawsuit From Former Laundry Partner
After twenty years in business together, the laundry proprietor denies hoarding profits and says he has offered his former partner the books and the business.
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.
Wan Lee, alias Lin Que, who is proprietor of the Chinese laundry at the corner of Main and Fifth streets, made a statement to a Post-Intelligencer reporter regarding the suit recently filed against himself, his wife and daughter by his old partner, Chinese Charley. Wan Lee and Charley ran a laundry in partnership for twenty years, but rarely made money, often struggling under debt. Wan Lee claims the business was burned in the big fire and that he has been using all profits to pay off old debts rather than hoarding money as Charley alleges. Wan Lee insists he has offered to let Charley take over the books and the business entirely, but Charley has not accepted. Wan Lee is known by all the other settlers as the 'honest Chinaman.' He gained this distinction largely through an incident about twenty years ago where he was washing for Hillory Butler. Upon finding $2,800 left carelessly in a room, Wan Lee secured the room, kept the money safe, and returned the key to Mr. Butler, ensuring every penny remained untouched.
This story reveals the intense racial scrutiny applied to Chinese immigrants in the 1890s, where an individual's character was reduced to a caricature of 'honesty' to justify their right to exist in the city. It underscores the fragility of immigrant livelihoods during a period of deep systemic exclusion in Seattle.
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