Miscegenation: Wedded Bliss Denied to Jap.
Los Angeles Daily Mirror
1910-03-16/1910-03-17
Seeks to Marry Los Angeles Woman in Nevada.
Gets License, But Finally Surrenders It.
Couple Get Cold Shoulders in Two Cities.
(By Direct Wire to the Times)
GOLDFIELD (Nev.) March 16.—[Exclusive Dispatch.] George Masaki, describing himself as a Japanese gardener, accompanied by Juliette Schwan. who admitted to 36 years, both from Los Angeles, appeared at the Courthouse this afternoon and applied to the Sheriff for permission to be married. That worthy referred them to the County Clerk for a license, which was issued after a short pause, and then the candidates for matrimonial chains made a tour of the building in an attempt to induce some of the judges to pronounce them man and wife.
Judge Stevens, who performed the first and only Asiatic marriage in Goldfield, said he would not repeat the experiment, as the feeling over his former action was so intense that he thought it would imperil his chances in the fall election when he will be a candidate for the bench.
The Sheriff sent out for the Justice of the Peace, who refused to be inveigled into the former marriage, but that officer, when he learned the object of the visit, told the waiting couple that they would have to go elsewhere.
By this time a large crowd had gathered at the Courthouse, and it began to look unpleasant for the prospective bridegroom.
Finally the under sheriff spoke to Masaki and told him it was against the law to perform marriages between whites and Japanese. Masaki was induced to surrender his license, the money was refunded and the pair were rushed into a closed carriage and taken to the depot where a Tonopah suburban train was about to pull out. They were shoved aboard as the whistle blew, and the telephone was used to advise Tonopah of the coming
Tonopah gave the couple a chilly reception as an advance canvass had been made of the town and every judicial officer and clergyman was pledged not to officiate. Masaki on his arrival trudged up town with his bride-elect a hundred paces in the rear.
The first stop was at a Chinese restaurant, where the pair took their supper, and then they adjourned to a cheap lodging-house where they rented rooms for the night.