Chinese Student in School With Whites, Smiles and Irons Shirts, 1914

“Lem Leong Smiles and Irons Shirts” from the Raleigh News and Observer. The article was reprinted in The Review, High Point, N.C., July 30, 1914, with the following note from the Editor of that paper: “A whole lot said over nothing. Like the old man remarked about the cow licking the child: ‘Everyone to his own taste.’”

Raleigh--Those interested in Lem Leong, the young Chinese student upon whose entrance into the city schools considerable comment was rife last fall, will be glad to know that he continued in school until its close this spring, being in a class composed of as delightful and finely-bred American boys and girls as the most cultured families of High Point boast. And, too, in the class which was a second grade, were Greeks, two or three, and one or two Russians.

The predominant characteristics of Lem Leong is one different from that of all his race. As during the year he had through reading book after reading book with the agility of a literary acrobat he always smiled. He seems to have a great sense of humor; not boisterous and unrestrained but reserved and fulsome. At present during the hot vacation days he is engaged in social service work, one of the oldest sanitary reforms known to civilization. Than most people who advocate better sanitary conditions, Lem Leong is less theoretical and more practical. He is in the laundry business as first assistant to his father in the biggest establishment of its kind on North Main street. He discarded his pig-tail years ago, now wears a collar and cravat, and from the furtive glances at his school books during his work hours, at which you will detect him if you happen in the laundry, and always accompanied with that prophetically-knowing smile, it is evident that Lem Leong will not always be a sprinkler of clothes and an ironer of shirts.