Gold Rush laundry to Hawaii, revisited
Nathan Tenny
Some time back, we encountered on one of those lists of factoids the claim
that miners in the California Gold Rush of 1849 sent their laundry to
Honolulu because of the unavailability of local laundry services. We
discussed it at some length, with the conclusion that (1) laundry services
really were sparse and expensive in the beginning, and (2) the bit about
Honolulu may be a contemporary joke that escaped and went feral. Judy
Johnson, I think, traced a serious but skeptical instance of the claim
back to the 1880s.
Current bedtime reading in the Tenny household is Herbert Asbury's _The
Barbary Coast_, a history of the San Franciscan zone of misrule that went
by that name. (Asbury is the author of _Gangs of New York_ as well, by
the way.) The book dates from 1933 and so far is damn good, but I digress.
Long about chapter 2, Asbury informs us that the City in 1849-1850 had
essentially no laundry services, so laundry was sent to Honolulu OR CANTON
to be washed. He claims a three- to six-month turnaround for the service.
He may be vectoring a falsehood; however, it's in the midst of what seems
to be a fairly well-founded account of the outrageous prices in the City
at that time (basically, cost of living seems to have been close to what
it is *now*, with some items like eggs selling for even more than today),
so while he doesn't footnote the specific claim, I think he's likely to
have some non-stupid reason to believe it.
In trying to put all the pieces together, here's what I think:
1) For a while, until the Chinese-laundry industry really got off
the ground, it was virtually impossible to get your laundry
done (as opposed to doing it yourself) in SF.
2) A few people with enough money and spiffy clothes, the equivalent
of modern dry-clean-only stuff, might well have shipped those
clothes out to be washed elsewhere, and Honolulu might well have
been the natural place.
3) The turnaround times, and the fact that there eventually *were*
laundries in SF, mean that it can't have gone on for very long.
4) There's no way in hell that the average miner was doing this as a
routine thing; apart from the expense, those guys didn't have any
three months' worth of clothes to wear while they waited. Gimme
a break.
5) Lots of people just walked around in dirty shirts (Asbury quotes
a contemporary newspaper article that mentions it).
6) The story applies to the City, not the gold fields; there's nothing
to indicate that laundry was going from Coloma or Dutch Flat to
Hawaii. I can't *prove* that it wasn't, but again, gimme a break.
7) Is there *ANY* conceivable reason why it would make sense to send
laundry all the way to freakin' Canton? Honolulu at least was the
closest substantial town by sea, apparently.
I swear I spotted a couple of other familiar ULs in there, but now I can't
remember what they were. Buther.
NT
--
Nathan Tenny | Space is where your ass is.
Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA | -William S. Burroughs
<nten...@qualcomm.com> |
TMOliver
A great and traditional tale, but I can suggest a substantial
potential deniability factor....
1. Back in the "Days of Sail" when they mattered, currents and
prevailing winds in the SF vicinity were far from optimal for
voyaging off to Pearl or even Canton. While seasonal sailing
back from Canton was a "doable" deal, merchant ship routing of
the Gold Rush period did not use SF as a regular waypoint when
calling at Pearl or the Pearl River.
If I'm sending out my laundry, it's down to Monterrey where
Espanyard washerwomen are well accustomed to the evolution.
I suspect that the somewhat couthless swelling population of
diggers did their own when it needed doing, collateral with
their semi-annual or quarterly riverine dousings. As for the
affluent, history indicates that "service industries" (from
hoors to pyanny players") develop at a rate consistently lagging
only a bit behind with local societal demand curves.
...and in a few years, Mr. Strauss had perfected his
riveted denims, never in need of a wash, and eventually so stiff
with grease and crud as to be able to stand in the corner,
allowing their owners to simply jump into them each morning.
TM "More popskull, less clean laundry on the packet boat, Roy
Gene!" Oliver
Alan J Rosenthal
>...and in a few years, Mr. Strauss had perfected his
>riveted denims, never in need of a wash, and eventually so stiff
>with grease and crud as to be able to stand in the corner,
>allowing their owners to simply jump into them each morning.
Analysis revealed that the "crud" contained seven different kinds of semen!
-- aj "special sauce" r
Ben Zimmer
>
> Some time back, we encountered on one of those lists of factoids the claim
> that miners in the California Gold Rush of 1849 sent their laundry to
> Honolulu because of the unavailability of local laundry services. We
> discussed it at some length, with the conclusion that (1) laundry services
> really were sparse and expensive in the beginning, and (2) the bit about
> Honolulu may be a contemporary joke that escaped and went feral. Judy
> Johnson, I think, traced a serious but skeptical instance of the claim
> back to the 1880s.
Credit is also due to Yehuda Naveh, who checked with the makers of a
website citing Bancroft's _History of California_ (1888) on the matter,
and determined that Bancroft merely included the factoid as an
unvorified bit of hearsay: <http://tinyurl.com/511p>
> Current bedtime reading in the Tenny household is Herbert Asbury's _The
> Barbary Coast_, a history of the San Franciscan zone of misrule that went
> by that name. (Asbury is the author of _Gangs of New York_ as well, by
> the way.) The book dates from 1933 and so far is damn good, but I digress.
>
> Long about chapter 2, Asbury informs us that the City in 1849-1850 had
> essentially no laundry services, so laundry was sent to Honolulu OR CANTON
> to be washed. He claims a three- to six-month turnaround for the service.
> He may be vectoring a falsehood; however, it's in the midst of what seems
> to be a fairly well-founded account of the outrageous prices in the City
> at that time (basically, cost of living seems to have been close to what
> it is *now*, with some items like eggs selling for even more than today),
> so while he doesn't footnote the specific claim, I think he's likely to
> have some non-stupid reason to believe it.
[snip]
Even if Asbury had a good reason to find this credible, how trustworthy
is his judgment? In the wake of the _Gangs of New York_ revival, much
has been written about Asbury's historical embellishments. Here's what
a Salon reviewer of _The Barbary Coast_ had to say (quoting Adam
Gopnik's essay about Asbury in the Nov. 11 New Yorker):
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/12/20/asbury/
As for the accuracy of Asbury's history, it too leaves
something to be desired. As a historian, Asbury must be
taken with more than a few grains of laudanum: He relies
heavily on the daily papers of the time, and "the merry
gentlemen of the Western press" (as an East Coast writer
called Twain, Harte and their ilk) were known to
distribute large quantities of taffy to their readers on
a regular basis. Asbury cites some correspondence with
figures who had contemporaneous knowledge of the events
in the book, but his books are mainly, as Gopnik says,
"glorified clip jobs."
For the claim about long-distance laundry (to Hawaii, let alone Canton),
we don't even have a cite from a contemporaneous taffy-puller, just
Bancroft's (perhaps humorous) reference a few decades after the fact.
Ben "it just doesn't wash" Zimmer
ctbishop
[real research and thought out opinions snipped]
> 7) Is there *ANY* conceivable reason why it would make sense to send
> laundry all the way to freakin' Canton? Honolulu at least was the
> closest substantial town by sea, apparently.
The best one I can think of is that the ships were going there anyway. If
there were *no* laundry services available (not because there weren't any
prior to the gold rush, but because the workers had left for the gold
fields) there where else would the people who had clothes that had to be
cleaned send them? The ships presumably ran on a schedule, though with a
long time before coming back and someone could have set up a business to
keep track of them.
The only thing that would mitigate the possibility for me is finding out
that ships called at other American cities with a shorter turn around
time. Possibly there was regular travel between SF and other cities on the
West Coast or even the East coast, though this may have taken as long as
going to Canton.
Would be nice to find a laundry receipt though. Or even a contemporary
mention in someone's diary.
Charles, I suppose Samuel or Brett never mentioned it
TMOliver
> In article <b16i8j$f...@qualcomm.com>, nten...@qualcomm.com
> wrote:
The ships presumably ran on a schedule,
> though with a long time before coming back and someone could
> have set up a business to keep track of them.
Schedule? More of "Well, they left in April and ought to be
here in July..." Although seasonally predictable within modest
parameters, 1849 era service was by sail, dependent upon
nature's whims.
>
> The only thing that would mitigate the possibility for me is
> finding out that ships called at other American cities with
> a shorter turn around time. Possibly there was regular
> travel between SF and other cities on the West Coast or even
> the East coast, though this may have taken as long as going
> to Canton.
Best laundry deal? By far, the regular (when crews could
be maintained) packet service to the West Coast of Central
America, where supplies and travelers were transhipped from the
Atlantic, apparently much quicker than the cape Horn
passage....Warm Water, Pananamian washerwomen, etc. .
Unfortunately, space/weight on the Northbound legs at a premium,
since every inch of deck space filled with 'baccy, black powder
(the miner's friend), victuals, and expectant miners.
>
> Would be nice to find a laundry receipt though. Or even a
> contemporary mention in someone's diary.
>
> Charles, I suppose Samuel or Brett never mentioned it
>
TM "No tickee, no washee!" Oliver
Crashj
<>
> since every inch of deck space filled with 'baccy, black powder
> (the miner's friend), victuals, and expectant miners.
<>
Crashj 'and when are you due?' Johnson
TeaLady
news:Xns931256B23BCD...@216.166.71.233:
> since every inch of deck space filled with 'baccy, black powder
> (the miner's friend), victuals, and expectant miners.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
To bear the next crop of minors ?
--
TeaLady (mari)
"We need love and understanding. We need to remedy this cultural
gulf. Half-hour cultural group therapy and urban spelling lessons
can now be scheduled M-Th 7:30-9 EST." - David Wnsemius on the new
feel-good afu standards.
Eric Bohlman
news:b16i8j$f...@qualcomm.com:
> 7) Is there *ANY* conceivable reason why it would make sense to send
> laundry all the way to freakin' Canton? Honolulu at least was
> the closest substantial town by sea, apparently.
Wasn't there an old Rocky & Bullwinkle plot that involved sending laundry
to China?
Ben Zimmer
This one?
http://www.bcdb.com/bcdb/detailed.cgi?film=7881
Bull's Testimonial Dinner
Frostbite Falls is going to honor Bullwinkle for acting
as a snow plow during a blizzard. But first he needs a
clean shirt, which takes him and Rocky to China.
Ben "hi ho, culture fans" Zimmer
TMOliver
> TMOliver <olive(DEL)@calpha.com> wrote in
> news:Xns931256B23BCD...@216.166.71.233:
>
>> since every inch of deck space filled with 'baccy, black
>> powder (the miner's friend), victuals, and expectant
>> miners.
>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
Impregnated by the vicious gangs of New York, D. Day Lewis's
hirsute visage or the downy-applecheeked appeal of DiCaprio,
and having been intensely mined, the fecund, blowsy wenches of
the lower East Side had their packet boat fares paid by the
Lower Manhattan Presbyterian Doyens Missionary Society and were
dispatched Westward to legitimize their soon to be offspring by
offering to do the laundry for the panners and sluicers up the
Sacramento, and conning them into matrimony by the future
promise of regulaly washed skivvies.
TM "Bret Harte could'a wrote it." Oliver
Rick Tyler
wrote:
>Impregnated by the vicious gangs of New York, D. Day Lewis's
>hirsute visage or the downy-applecheeked appeal of DiCaprio,
>and having been intensely mined, the fecund, blowsy wenches of
>the lower East Side had their packet boat fares paid by the
>Lower Manhattan Presbyterian Doyens Missionary Society and were
>dispatched Westward to legitimize their soon to be offspring by
>offering to do the laundry for the panners and sluicers up the
>Sacramento, and conning them into matrimony by the future
>promise of regulaly washed skivvies.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you this week's winner of the R.
Casady/E. Hemingway Award for Contributions to the Literature of AFU:
TM "Charles Dickens" Oliver.
- Rick "I'm glad you newbies were here to read this" Tyler
--
"Not that I am worried about you, but there are some
unsavory characters at AFU." -- Burroughs Guy protects
Usenet from the Bastards of AFU
John Francis
bizbee <tub...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>On 28 Jan 2003 10:30:43 -0800 in <b16i8j$f...@qualcomm.com>,
>n_t_e_nn_y_@q_ual_c_o_m_m_.c_o_m (Nathan Tenny) graced the world with
>this thought:
>
>> Honolulu at least was the
>> closest substantial town by sea, apparently.
>
>place have to be to have laundry service?
Larger than Yerba Buena?
--
As evil plans go, it doesn't suck -- Wesley critiques The First, on "Angel"
R H Draney
>
>> Wasn't there an old Rocky & Bullwinkle plot that involved sending laundry
>> to China?
>
>This one?
>
> http://www.bcdb.com/bcdb/detailed.cgi?film=7881
> Bull's Testimonial Dinner
> Frostbite Falls is going to honor Bullwinkle for acting
> as a snow plow during a blizzard. But first he needs a
> clean shirt, which takes him and Rocky to China.
>
>Ben "hi ho, culture fans" Zimmer
Further keywords: "the corner of Chow and Main", "perhaps you would rather I be
John Phillip Sousa"....
R H "there's something you don't see every day, Chauncey" Draney
TeaLady
news:Xns93136558697E...@216.166.71.233:
Very good, but you hacked the part that my attribute went to.
One of these days I'll be good enough to write one of these, just
y'all wait and see...
--
Tea"But the newbies of then aren't even borned as yet, I wager"Lady
Charles Wm. Dimmick
> The only thing that would mitigate the possibility for me is finding out
> that ships called at other American cities with a shorter turn around
> time. Possibly there was regular travel between SF and other cities on the
> West Coast or even the East coast, though this may have taken as long as
> going to Canton.
San Diego was a thriving seaport since 1785. There were ships
between San Diego and San Francisco, even after the gold rush
started. Admittedly, San Diego's population, once in the
thousands, had dwindled to about 650 by 1849.
Charles Wm. Dimmick
--
"And some rin up hill and down dale, knapping the
chucky stanes to pieces wi' hammers, like sae mony
road-makers run daft -- they say it is to see how
the warld was made!"
TMOliver
> ctbishop wrote:
>
>> The only thing that would mitigate the possibility for me
>> is finding out that ships called at other American cities
>> with a shorter turn around time. Possibly there was regular
>> travel between SF and other cities on the West Coast or
>> even the East coast, though this may have taken as long as
>> going to Canton.
>
> San Diego was a thriving seaport since 1785. There were
> ships between San Diego and San Francisco, even after the
> gold rush started. Admittedly, San Diego's population, once
> in the thousands, had dwindled to about 650 by 1849.
>
Monter(r)ey, likely an easy run with the Humboldt current and
with its partially sheltered anchorage and mild surf would have
been the first choice (and likely had some potential laundresses
among the families of dispossessed local ranchers). "Reina de
los Angeles", located a bit inland, had no docking facilities
and (according to Melville?) required cargo and passengers to be
landed/embarked by "surf boat", never recommended for clean
laundry.
With San Diego's decline, favorable winds and currents would
have made Acapulco, semi-defunct by 1849, but for a couple of
centuries home port of the Manila Galleon, sailings annually for
Guam and the Flippings with connections to Whampoa and Canton.
Acapulco, long a sailors' respite and port for transhipment to
thirsty Californenos for the mescals of Central Mexico and the
unsubtle clear cana from nearby canegrowers, was a likely place
to have one's shirts and last Winter's duty longjohns pounded on
the rocks at Quedabra(?).
TM "Get off the table, Mabel, the peso's for the mescal." Oliver
Ben Zimmer
Nathan Tenny wrote:
>
> Current bedtime reading in the Tenny household is Herbert Asbury's _The
> Barbary Coast_, a history of the San Franciscan zone of misrule that went
> by that name. (Asbury is the author of _Gangs of New York_ as well, by
> the way.) The book dates from 1933 and so far is damn good, but I digress.
>
> Long about chapter 2, Asbury informs us that the City in 1849-1850 had
> essentially no laundry services, so laundry was sent to Honolulu OR CANTON
> to be washed. He claims a three- to six-month turnaround for the service.
Another literary sighting of the SF-China laundry route:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4527904,00.html
Sunday October 20, 2002
The Observer
The Lost Daughter of Happiness
Geling Yan
Faber & Faber £6.99, pp276
San Francisco, 1800s. Chinatown heaves with underpaid
coolies and - a favourite with American youth - Chinese
girls sold by their parents into prostitution. It is a
place that manages to maintain an existence almost
entirely independent from the rest of the city, a
community of secrets, of seductive red satin and
slavery, bound feet and gangland rule, where even the
dirty laundry is sent back to China. [etc.]