Litchfield enquirer., 1874-09-10
From Ecribner's Monthly. sNAN LEE, THE PAcAN.
BY BRET HARTE.

E- ! As I opened Hop Sings letter, there Huttered to the ground square strip of kellow paper covered with hieroglyphics xhieh at first glance innocently took to be the label from 8 pack of Chinese fire crackers. But the same envelope also contained a smaller strip of rice paper, tlia ink. that 1 at once knew to be Hop wards literally translated, ran as follows: a'To the stranger the gates of my house are not closed; the rice jar is on the left, and the
 sweetmeats on tse right as you enter.
 Two sayings of the Master:
 | Hospitality is tine virtue of the son and the
 wisdom of the ancestor.
 The Superior man is light hearted after the crop-gafhering; he makes festival
 When the st;anssr ger s ID your 1 melon Padcn oS o9-
 the highest form of civility.
 Z Happiness, Peace and Prosperity. Ia HoP SING.' Admirable, certainly, as was this moral " and proverbial wisdom, and although his last axiom was very characteristic of ny friend Hop Sing who was that most sOmber of all humOristS, Chinese philos- pher, I must confess that, even after a very free translation, was at loss to make any immediate application of the message. Luckily 1 discovered a third enclosure in the shape of little note in English and Hop Sings own commercial hand. It ran thus:
 ''The pleasure of your company IS re- quested at No.-Sacramento St. on Fri day Evening at o'clock A cup of tea at 9-sharp.
 HoP SING.''
 This explained all. It meant a visit to1 Hop Sings warehouse, the opening ana and c,s1 eos If some rare Ghipesa eaI n0KffceeAs 0Kffce. cup of tea of perfection unknown beyond these sacred precincts, cigars, and a visit to the Chinese Theater or Temple. This was in fact the favorite programme of Hop Sing when he exercised his functions of hospi- tality as the chief factor or Superintend- Hent of the Ming Foo Company.
 At eight o'clock op Friday evening en. tered the warehouse of Hop Sing. There was that deliciously commingled mysteri. ously foreign odor that I had so often no- ticed; there was the old array of unconth looking objects, the long procession oi jars and crockery, the same singular blending of the grotesque and the mathe. matically neat and exact, the same endless suggestions of frivolity and fragility, the same want of harmony in colors that were Kites ln the shape of enormous dragons and gigantic butterflies; kites so ingen- iously arranged as to utter at intervals, when facing the wind. the cry of hawk; kites so large as to be beyond any boys power of restralnt-so large that you un- derstood why kite-fying in China was an 7,1k H. oe ol>: bronze so gratuitously ugly as to be be- yond any human interest or sympathy from their very impossibility; jars ot Esweetmeats covered all over with moral sentiments from Confucius; hats that slooked like baskets, and baskets that looked like hats; silks so light that he's itate to record the incredible number o1 square yards that you might pass through the ring on your little finger-these and great many other indescribable objects were all familiar to me. pushed my way through the dimly-lighted warehouse un- where found Hop Sing waiting to re- ceive me.
 Before describe him want the aver age reader to discharge from his mind any idea of Chinaman that he may have gathered from the pantomine. He did not wear beautifully scalloped drawers fringed with little bells-I never met a Chinaman who did; he did not habitually carry his forefnger extended before him at right angles with his body, nor did ] ever hear him utter the mysterious sen- tence "Ching ring ring chaw," nor dance under any provocation. He was on the whole, a rather grave, decorous, handsome gentleman. His complexion, which extended all over his head except where his long pig-tail grew, was like a very nice piece of glazed brown paper. muslin. Ills eyes were black and bright and his eye-lids set at an angle of 15 Q his nose straight and delicately formed, his mouth small, and his teeth white and clean. He wore Q dark blue silk blouse: and in the streets on cold days, a short jacket of astrakhan fur. He wore also a pair of drawers of blue brocade gathered tightly over his calves and ancles, offer ing general sort of suggestion that he had forgotten his trousers that morning, but, that so gentlemanly were his man ners, his friends had forborne to mention the fact to him. His manner was urbane, although quite serious. He spoke French and English fuently. In brief, I doubt if you could have found the equal of this Pagan shop-keeper among the Christian traders of San Francisco.
 There were 8 few others present 6 Judge of the Federal Court, an editor, a high government official, and prominent merchant. After we had drank our tea, and tasted a few sweetmeats from a mys- terious jar, that looked as if it might con tain preserved mouse among it's other nondiscript treasures, Hop Sing arose and, gravely beckoning us to follow him began to descend to the basement. When we got there, we were amazed at finding il brilliantly lighted, and that number o1 chairs were arranged in half-circle on the asphalt pavement. When he had courte. ously seated us he said /:
 "I have invited you to witness a per- formance which I can at least promise you no other foreigners but yourselves have ever seen. Wang, the court juggler, ar. rived here yesterday morning. He has never given performance outside of the palace before. have asked him to en- certain my friends this evening. He re- quires no theater, stage accessories, ol any confederate-nothing more than you see here. Will you be pleased to examine the ground yourselves. gentlemen"
 's Of course we examined the premises. It was the ordinary basement or cellar oi the San Francisco store-house, cemented to keep out the damp We poked oul sticks into the pavement and rapped on the walls to satisfy our polite host, but fol no other purpose. We were quite con. tent to be the victims of any clever decep. tion. For myself, knew was ready to be deluded to any extent, and if had been offered an explanation of what fol lowed, should have probably declined it.
 Although am satisfied that Wang's general performance was the first of that kind ever given on American soil, 1t has probably since become SO familiar to many Of my readers that shall not bore then with it here. He began by setting te flight, with the ald of his fan, the usua number of butterflies made before you1 eyes of little bits of tissue paper, and kep them in the ar during the remainder O the performance. have a vivid recollec tion of the Judge trying to catch one tha had lit on his knee, and of it's evading hin l with the pertinacity of living insect A. AG