, 1871-02-23
JACKS OR PAUKs.
WHAT HAD AH-sIN IN HIS SLEEVE
CoMICAL DISCUSSION.

turbs or alters them assumes very grave
responsibility. America has several ma
tional songs. (" Hail Columbia" "ShOo
Fly" g The Star Spangled Banner"
"John Brown" Sc Yankee Doodle" and
the " Heather Chinee" constitute the chief
lyrics of this Republic. They ars univer>
sally accepted, reeited, quoted, sung, and
the people care very little who make their
laws. in comparison with their concern
about the preservation of their songs.
The most celebrated and popular of our
national songs is "J'he Heathen Chinee."
In that remarkable lyric America pours
out her ridiculr upon the narrow bigntry
that would drive the "pensive and child
like" Oriental from our shore. 1t grasps
the mighty subject of " Chinese cheap la
Dor" with a mastprful hand, and SCOTS at
The "ruin" that General Thomas and Judge
Kelly profess to dread as the consequence
of the introduction OF Ah-Sin and his un-
sophisticated fellow -countrymen into the
workshops of the United States. The
{" Heathen Chinee" has become house
hold god. With sudden bound Ah-Sin
has seated himself, =" with his sleeves
which were long" upon the throue Of
American popularity, aud he grasps in his
taper finger the sc pter of the national
poet. Longfellow, Bryant, Hrpkinson,
Key, DrskA, Julia Ward Howe, Whittier
and all the rest fall back respectfully as
the Heathen Chinee comes across the Sier-
ra Nevada, with his "ways that are dark
and tricks that are vain" and plays it "
upon that typical American, William Nye
" in way We despise," but which we can
NOT but I" admire likewise.
And now, into this song of the times
comes an audacious in.erpolator One
rises up and improves upon the Heather
Chinee." A new reading of one of the
most touching passages is put forth, and
it remains to be seen whether great Ieo-
pie will iamely perfait its national lyrics
to be tampered with. The author Of this
&" emendation" is known, but we shall not
expose hin. Heis already paying some
portion of the penalty OF his rashness, and
is shut up in his house. partly in conse-
quence of fall on the ice, but principally
on account of TIE febrile excitement fol-
lowing his treatment of All Sin.
truthful james sang of Ah-Sin:
"In his sleeves, which We're long,
There were twenty-four packs.
But this bold emeudator thus prints the
passage:
" In his sleeves, which were long,
There were twenty-four jGeks!"
and the worst of it is that this gloss has
just enough virtue in it TO commend it to
a considerable class of American people,
and there must inevitably spring up a
bitter party division in the world Of song
and letters brtween the Packites and the
Jackites. For there is much to say in de-
fence Of Jacks Like Ah-Sin, we do 50 not
unders and" euchre, bnt "jAcks" are GER
tain cards which exercise such controlling
influence over the desiinies of that small
game" that there would have been nothing
improbable in the statement that twenty
four of them had been discovered in the
flowing sleeves of the deceased. All S'nl
Thoughtless Athenians, always desiring to
hear SONS new thing, will plunge in
TO this new theory, regardless of history,
deaf to the voice Of that Truthful James
who gives us his pledge that he states
only facts Ah~Sin might have had
twenty-four jacks in his sleeves. had lie
been so minded But it must be remem-
bered that Truthful James was an eye
witness of the whole scene. Although not
a barticipant,in the combat between Mr..
Nye and Ah>Sin, he was present and as
sisted at the post mortem examination,
which revealed the presence Of wax on the
taper nails of the deceased. He was evil
IDENTIFY calm, dispassionate witness, and
his testimony cannot be successfully inns
peaehed. He his given that testimony,
not only through the medium of the OUer-
land Monthly, but in an authorized edi-
tion of his works, just Published by that
reliable house, Fields, Osgood & Co.,
Boston, and be emphatically declares that
The floor it was strewed,
Like the leaves On the strand,
With the cards that Arising had been hiding
In the game he did not understand"
Here is the general statement Of the
very large number OF concealed cards.
And tben-showing how carefully Truth
ful James collected the material of the
aggregate contents of the sleeves, so rude
ly scattered by the onslaught of the manly
defender of high American wages:
"There were tN enty-fOu packs"
Truthful James anticipates the doubts of
the incredulous. He admits that 'eit
seems coming it strong," but he boldly as
serts that he " states only facis," and
these fancy commentators are silenced,
plausible as their case appears al fIst
sight, by the official statement of the
affair. He would have pleased euchre-
| nlavsrs hefter had ba eDoLar oe ft = l.. -