Driven Out of Tacoma, a Chinese Man Lands in Seattle's Jail
Armed and defiant after being expelled from Tacoma, a Chinese man spent a night in a Seattle cell — carrying a printed card warning that any Chinese person with a concealed weapon would be arrested.
Tacoma has gotten rid of another Chinaman, and last night he slept in the Seattle city jail. Chinese Inspector Coblentz brought him over and took him to the police station. He attracted considerable attention. About fifty people gathered around and inspected him. He could talk a little English, enough to say that he belonged to the People's party, and would like to shoot the Tacoma policeman who took his pistol. Coblentz took him to the Wa Chong store, but the Chinese in that quarter were afraid of him.
As near as could be learned, he was wandering about the streets in Tacoma when a policeman asked him his name. The man replied by pulling a revolver and showing it in his face. The officer gave him a cuff on the side of the head, took away his gun and took him to the police station. He said something about Seattle, so they sent him over with Inspector Coblentz. When he was searched the following paper was found:
'If you catch a Chinaman with concealed weapons arrest him.'
He had a ticket from San Francisco to Alameda, Cal., and a small amount of money. The general opinion among the onlookers seemed to be that he was crazy.
“'If you catch a Chinaman with concealed weapons arrest him.'”
Seven years after Tacoma's 1885 mob drove out its entire Chinese community, a single Chinese man could still be passed from one city's police to another's jail, carrying a printed card that singled out his race for weapons enforcement. The paper's 'crazy' verdict is the era's contempt speaking; what the record actually preserves is a displaced, defiant man caught in the machinery of exclusion.
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