Show I A New Yorker at ait Large t t- t ti i S I By Br GILBERT I SWAN NEW YORK June 2 It was Wah Shoe the Oriental gentleman who removes scattered notes from mi my cuffs ho who supplied the taut tant information that the anniversary anniversary anniversary sary of or the first Chinese laun laundry dry in A America mer i c a is close to c- c I Within a low few days it will be ex exactly exactly ex- ex J. J I achy 80 year years since i tho the first Chine Chinese s e L laundry sign ap ap- ap in t this h ar s land T The h e year was 1851 and J 4 the scene was Cal Cal- hernia Just two years prior to this h hi 1 I s s- s tonic event I. I the h e 49 days day were getting under way In a large man man- ner nero Something like Chinese e had numbered themselves among tho the pi pioneer pioneer pi- pi residents of the gold rush country And the time times bein what hat being they were a clean shirt was of slight consequence These hardy pioneers did not leave behind them a reputation reputation tation for changing underwear or collars or socks Some of tile the more primitive pictures portray them more interested in washing gold cold i ithan than washing wool shirts and linens If it any Furthermore most everything brought a a. fabulous sum and many mans were fortunate to leave with a shirt There were others however who managed to buy up whole haberdasheries haberdasheries haber haber- and still have plenty of ol l gold old for their heirs and a assignees assigned forever for cr 8 8 The occasion of Chinese a laundry opening was considered front page news in the mining camp belts and andin andin I in n and around San Francisco o and I Sacramento Paragraphs were de dc- dc I voted to tho the f fact t that tha shirts shirt 1 now be washed at 20 so o ma many d doUar doUan per bundle and hundred it n was a an c. c extreme drop In price from form forn figures and later records revealed COUll that tha never had so many cia clean shirts been seen in lii the length at breadth of the golden state Today the thc Chinese laundry laundr i j one of our quaint and colorful ir 1 No matter what the 1 city th thi home homo town Chinese laundry Is 15 likely to be housed In sonic some dingy cUngy basement or J beyond some back street In a n. building that possibly wai UI an art old shed or a barn Few mem members I of ot the populations ever see the pro or his fellow tellow- workers eT ex when laundry Is 13 delivered Ha methods have hao remained pretty well unchanged during the years jears The old washtub and washboard will wUl not no nh perish from the earth so rolon Ions as th thi Wah of the country survive l In my own town it roused a youthful curiosity second only t to the blacksmith shop and the m aal mill g 9 Q 0 l lAnd And Anti speaking of or things Chinese New Yorks York's Chinatown now 81 sits and between en smiles sighs and re lief liet J i A A feverish ih t tension n lon has finally b e ea broken Two tongs with a a. long record rec ret 1 ord for wars and feuds chose to nolia noli a convention in Manhattan at tho the same time No one could account f for this parallel of dates daks unless trouble was anticipated 1 Tong wars are arc no longer longcr in fa faor favor vor or and had one broken at this Urn tima It would have been most bloody and furthermore would havo have been con by leading lending Chinese as thi worst possible sort of notoriety Every public gesture in the direction tion of peace and good oed feeling wai outwardly made a what at with dragon parades and lanterns bobbing In the streets No one knows what went on behind behind be behind be- be hind tho the scenes Still on the night both conventions opened the delegates delegates dele dele- gates were invited to the native play play- house A crowd or oror of or about a a. hundred hundred hundred hun hun- dred stood up Inthe in tho the rear W V When h hen C fl their pockets were frisked by police more than a dozen guns were found T That hat was t thelast the tho h last menacing note Overnight an all hints of Chinatowns Chinatown's tensest tense t mo moments mo-a mo ments meats had b been n peacefully P passed Copyright 1931 NEA Service Inc 1 When building their nests birds seldom u use uso o bright colored or conspicuous con 1 materials as the these WOUd d draw attention to their hom homes w ro makin making discovery by an enemy pos pos 5 sible A tomatO i Seventy five years ears ago were called love lo apples and weri cultivated for or ornaments not tOE for food cod |