The Slow Pace of Chinese Registration
A local official reports back to Seattle after an unsuccessful attempt to register Chinese residents, highlighting the tensions surrounding 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.
A. A. Putnam came in from Port Townsend this morning, where he has been registering each of the Chinese as cared to do so. 'I have been out eight days, and registered only three Chinese,' said he. 'I did not expect to register any, to tell the truth. One of these was a thoroughly Americanized Celestial, as much a Yankee as a foreigner can be.' After this, such of the up-country Chinese as want to register will have to come to Seattle or Tacoma, and the opportunity to register expires at midnight of May 6.
“I have been out eight days, and registered only three Chinese.”
This reflects the exclusionary policies of the 1880s and 90s, specifically the Chinese Exclusion Act, which placed immense bureaucratic and social burdens on Chinese residents in the Pacific Northwest. It serves as a reminder of the systemic discrimination faced by Asian communities in Seattle's history.
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