ordinance, Julie presented herself at the back and side entrances of establishments, pretending to be a laundry worker collecting soiled linens.
She had learned her first week in San Francisco that entering disreputable establishments through the front door while wearing a gray wool Salvationist gown was guaranteed to get one unceremoniously escorted out the door and off the premises. She barely managed to whisper Su Mi’s name to the girls in the front parlor before the madam’s hatchet men had ushered her out the door. And her second week in San Francisco had taught her that missionary “ladies” were not allowed entrance to the back and side entrances of disreputable establishments either. Especially missionary ladies asking questions about Chinese girls. She’d been forced to wait outside the establishments in order to question customers entering and exiting the premises about Su Mi under the guise of soliciting donations for the mission. Unfortunately, that had lasted only as long as it took for the customers to complain and for her to be escorted away from the area. She had been threatened, intimidated, spit upon, and shoved off the plank walkways and into the street.
No one looked twice at Chinese laundry workers collecting or delivering linens. They were permitted access to all the boardinghouses and a few of the cribs lining the streets and alleys.
Chinese laundries were plentiful in San Francisco. Most operated seven days a week; all she had to do was find one that needed the business she promised to bring it. She began by befriending the laundry girl who collected the linens used in the female dormitory at the mission. After that, it was a simple matter of paying Zhing Wu a better-than-average price to keep quiet and to look the other way while Julie took her place at the boardinghouses, and eliciting a promise that Zhing would do any laundry Julie brought back and never question its origin.
The ruse worked like a charm. As it turned out, Zhing Wu hated collecting soiled linens and clothing from the Chinese-owned boardinghouses. She was rare in San Francisco: a free Chinese woman. The young widow of a mine worker, Zhing Wu had come from the interior of China to work for her father-in-law at the laundry he’d established on the far end of Washington Street, past the ladders that led to the underground housing derisively known as the Dog Kennel. Zhing Wu was terribly afraid of being kidnapped by the madams in the boardinghouses. She was especially afraid of being kidnapped by the notorious Li Toy, who owned a dozen or more boardinghouses, brothels, and cribs. Zhing was terrified by the possibility that Li Toy or one of the other madams might force her into becoming a
baak haak chai
, a Cantonese term that meant “one of a hundred men’s wives.”
Julie couldn’t blame Zhing Wu. Li Toy’s name was enough to put the fear of God in all but the most hardened Celestial. From what she’d learned during her two weeks in San Francisco, Li Toy was not a person one wished to have as an enemy.
Julie had spent three days collecting laundry, from the boardinghouses on Dupont Street to the brothels lining both sides of Montgomery and Stockton streets, slipping silently into the back and side entrances during the midmorning hours and going from room to room, retrieving dirty linen while making quiet conversation with the girls working in the houses, asking as many questions as she dared about Su Mi. Did anyone know her? Had anyone traveled from Hong Kong to
Gum Saan
,
the Cantonese term for California,
with her? Or heard her name mentioned?
None of the girls she’d questioned so far admitted to knowing anything about Su Mi, or admitted to even having heard her name. But there were dozens of brothels in Chinatown left to investigate, along with the second-floor businesses in the saloons surrounding Chinatown on streets lined with cheap cribs, as well as Li Toy’s establishments like the Lotus Blossom and the Jade
She had learned her first week in San Francisco that entering disreputable establishments through the front door while wearing a gray wool Salvationist gown was guaranteed to get one unceremoniously escorted out the door and off the premises. She barely managed to whisper Su Mi’s name to the girls in the front parlor before the madam’s hatchet men had ushered her out the door. And her second week in San Francisco had taught her that missionary “ladies” were not allowed entrance to the back and side entrances of disreputable establishments either. Especially missionary ladies asking questions about Chinese girls. She’d been forced to wait outside the establishments in order to question customers entering and exiting the premises about Su Mi under the guise of soliciting donations for the mission. Unfortunately, that had lasted only as long as it took for the customers to complain and for her to be escorted away from the area. She had been threatened, intimidated, spit upon, and shoved off the plank walkways and into the street.
No one looked twice at Chinese laundry workers collecting or delivering linens. They were permitted access to all the boardinghouses and a few of the cribs lining the streets and alleys.
Chinese laundries were plentiful in San Francisco. Most operated seven days a week; all she had to do was find one that needed the business she promised to bring it. She began by befriending the laundry girl who collected the linens used in the female dormitory at the mission. After that, it was a simple matter of paying Zhing Wu a better-than-average price to keep quiet and to look the other way while Julie took her place at the boardinghouses, and eliciting a promise that Zhing would do any laundry Julie brought back and never question its origin.
The ruse worked like a charm. As it turned out, Zhing Wu hated collecting soiled linens and clothing from the Chinese-owned boardinghouses. She was rare in San Francisco: a free Chinese woman. The young widow of a mine worker, Zhing Wu had come from the interior of China to work for her father-in-law at the laundry he’d established on the far end of Washington Street, past the ladders that led to the underground housing derisively known as the Dog Kennel. Zhing Wu was terribly afraid of being kidnapped by the madams in the boardinghouses. She was especially afraid of being kidnapped by the notorious Li Toy, who owned a dozen or more boardinghouses, brothels, and cribs. Zhing was terrified by the possibility that Li Toy or one of the other madams might force her into becoming a
baak haak chai
, a Cantonese term that meant “one of a hundred men’s wives.”
Julie couldn’t blame Zhing Wu. Li Toy’s name was enough to put the fear of God in all but the most hardened Celestial. From what she’d learned during her two weeks in San Francisco, Li Toy was not a person one wished to have as an enemy.
Julie had spent three days collecting laundry, from the boardinghouses on Dupont Street to the brothels lining both sides of Montgomery and Stockton streets, slipping silently into the back and side entrances during the midmorning hours and going from room to room, retrieving dirty linen while making quiet conversation with the girls working in the houses, asking as many questions as she dared about Su Mi. Did anyone know her? Had anyone traveled from Hong Kong to
Gum Saan
,
the Cantonese term for California,
with her? Or heard her name mentioned?
None of the girls she’d questioned so far admitted to knowing anything about Su Mi, or admitted to even having heard her name. But there were dozens of brothels in Chinatown left to investigate, along with the second-floor businesses in the saloons surrounding Chinatown on streets lined with cheap cribs, as well as Li Toy’s establishments like the Lotus Blossom and the Jade
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