The New York Tribune of October 24, 1871, under the title “Paddy Attacks Ah Sin”, reported on the Irish laborers on the Midland Railroad who would not accept the presence of the Chinese laborers who had been brought to Belleville to work for the Passaic Steam Laundry. As the laborers were returning to their dormitory from a class in Belleville, they were attacked by a group of Irish laborers. The Chinese were carrying revolvers, due to previous experiences of Irish antipathy, and they fired on the group of Irish workers, one of whom was injured. One of the Irish rioters was arrested and held in Hackensack jail. His fellows threatened to destroy the laundry and Hervey’s house should the incarcerated Irishman be injured. The account of the incident in another newspaper ends by saying: “The residents of Belleville resent the actions of the laborers unqualifiedly, and are determined the lend Captain Hervey assistance.”
The Chinese had been brought to Belleville by James Hervey, a retired sea captain who was at that time operating the Passaic Steam Laundry, which prepared newly-manufactured shirts for sale in the retail establishments. The laundry, established in 1856 in what is now North Arlington, was originally staffed by Irish women. They were generally good workers, but Hervey was annoyed that they would sometimes strike for better wages, or leave his employ when a better job came along.
On September 20, 1870, sixty-five Chinese workers arrived to work in the laundry. Hervey had learned of the Chinese laborers who were working in San Francisco, and thought that he would have better luck with Chinese workers than he had had with the irish women. On September 21, an anonymous letter was sent to Hervey, with a threat to murder him if the Chinese were not gone by October 1. A reporter who asked about the general feeling in the village was told, “Oh, the Irish don’t like it, and threaten vengeance, but the other people don’t seem to be much worried. The demands of the trade will regulate the trouble.” One of the laborers working on the main road was also interviewed, and answered, “be jabers, if the pig-tails are kipt we’ll slather the viry life out o’ them.” The other laborers, the reports continues, “gave a grunt and sloked their black clay pipes the faster.”
The Springfield [Mass.] Republican, reporting on Hervey’s employment of young Chinese men, reported that “he has heretofore employed only Irish girls, but has not only found them oftentimes dishonest and irresponsible. but has had entirely been unable to procure as many as he needed, who were competent to do the work as nicely as it must be done to please his patrons.”
The New York Tribune of September 29, 1870 reported on a mass meeting held to protest the employment of Chinese in Belleville. One of the speakers denounced the importation of “Coolie laborers” and called upon laborers to raise their voices against held the importation of “idolatrous heathens.”
On August 21, 1872,the Daily Constitution of Middletown Connecticut reported that Hervey was bringing in another group of workers, and erecting a dormitory to house them. The animosity between the Irish girls and the “haythen” had subsided, and they were getting along very amicably together.
The January 18, 1873 issue of the Jersey Journal carried the story of a love-smitten Chinese Man. A girl “apparently of Irish parentage” approached one Detective Nugent, telling him about a Chinese Man who was following her and, if not arrested, would go to New York with her on the ferryboat. She had been an employee at Hervey’s laundry, where Nimba-Shing was smitten with her. He followed her around and became affectionate with her. While they were speaking, Nugent espied the Chinaman, who looked “anxious, care-worn, and love-sick” and who had cut off his pig-tail and dressed in American clothes. Nugent arrested him and took him to the station house. A different newspaper’s account of the incident refers to him as “Ak Sin,” an allusion to the name of the fictional Chinese immigrant in Bret Harte and Mark Twain's Ah Sin (1877)
By April 1873 Hervey eventually soured on his Chinese workers, and cancelled his order for more. According to one account, he had found that, rather than being “celestial,” they do not hold to their contract, run away, develop an opium habit and are lazy. In addition, they are not as “spry ironers” as the Irish.
Of course, all of these stories from newspapers have to be taken with a grain of salt. Newspapers at the time were quite biased, and even made up stories at times. (Unlike today, of course!) But certainly the animosity between the Irish immigrant laborers and the Chinese working for Hervey was real.
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