The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-07-01
CHINESE LIFE.
A Lady's Observations Of the Aristocrats
and Plebeians OF Chinatown.


TFrom the San Francisco Press.l
On Jackson Street, near Stockton. are
two tall brick buildings, separated from
each other by narrow alley without q
legitimate name, but christened by TIE
boys" on account of its inhabitants,
:" China Alley" On either side Of the
alley these tall brick buildings rear up and
are surrounded with a series of narrow
porches, which nearly shake hands with
each other over the dirty chasm below
From the wide seams in their flooring
comes a constant drip, drip of dirty water
and down the brick walls it trickles 10
never ceasing stream, forming in the alley
4 shiny pool, whose odor is the essence Of
4 thousand garlics. Descending steep
| flight of sloppy stairs into the alley, one
day last week. we met the inQuirlpg gaze
of scores Of Cinnamon, who were engaged
in scaling fish. and scraping vegetables.
byway. We picked our way carefu. ly
through the filth and finally reached lit
tie wooden shanty in the rear of the right
hand brick building, whose front door
stood open. From the depth of the house
issued a strain of Celestial song, Chinese
mother lulling her babe to sleer; and one
would pass on without imagining that III
this dreary abode, whose front room Is
carpetless, dirty, and barren of all fur
niture or other articles, excepting the
short row of jars of drinking water, lives
the only
CHINESE PRIEsTEsS OF SAN FRANCISCO
Dark and close as the alley is the house
is much darker, not even lantern light
ing us through the narrow passage which
precipitated us into the temple of the
priestess. She lighted long, red caLdles
figured with gilt and placed them before
the bronze figure of Confucius. and be-
fore the idol of Commerce. This was
worship for a merchant who had rather
pay $25 than perform the onerous duty
himself.
The altar is series of long tables, grad
uated in height until the last one nearly
reaches the low ceiling. They were filled
with dishes of vegetables, meats, pastry,
rice and oranges, lighted candles of all
sizes; punk straight and spiral; floating
wieks, in glasses OF fieh oil /; sandal-N ood
incense; bouquets of natural and artificial
| flowers, in handsome vases or broken bot
es. On the highest table were the idols,
either in pictures or images-ConfuciuS
and the sages in gilt box with a glass
door. Before this altar sits all the live
long day the old priestess, patroniZed by
the wealthy and poor, but more especially
by the women who wish children who
wish husbands; who are tormented with
evil spirits; who are unhealthy; who
have enemies and women who have sick
children. In short, almost every Chinese
woman calls upon the priestess, Ii Mo
for some purpose. Her bedroom-the
bedroom of this modern Diana lis dark
close room of the temple, enveloped ii
mystery. Various articles of house-keep-
ing ware, including a washboard. and g
bar of brown soap, were piled in the cor
ner of the temple, on our visit. y bit o.
gilded pastry-remnant of Diana's lunch
eon-stood on an old box before bowl Of
burning incense. In the last corner was
lighted feast before the images of dog,
cat, and hideous looking Chinese devil
These are intended to guard Chinese chill
dren from all i'll
The sides of the room, guiltless OF
paper or plastering, were hung with
punches of punk, candles, etc., ready
for use at shortest notice. And Diana
herself?
A short, thin woman, with thin gray
hair, face pitted with small. poX, kindly
eyes dim with age, Soiled dress tipped of
at the neither end with feet three inches
! long, by measurement. The wee black
shoes looked for all the world like doll's s.
| The old woman has bit of a history.
She came to California twenty years ago,
/ in search of her son, and never has been
able to find him. After wandering fruit,
lessly around in his search for several
years and exhausting considerable por-
ton of her funds, she became, like many
virtuOus Chinese widows, a priestess. She
saves her money for her "boy," when be
comes. an event which she is confident
will take place, as she never ceases her
daily invocation to the idols that it may be
so. She claims to be the first small footed
woman who entered California. She has
had no communication with the whites,
and neither speaks nor understands Eng
lish in the slightest, but very politely she
left her gaudy shrine TO accompany US to
the door.
A CHINESE HOTEL.
A Chinese hotel is quite different thing
from any other hotel in the heavens above,
in the earth beneath, or in the waters I'M
der the earth. There is one common pub
lie entrance to the whole affair, but after
leaving this, the labyrinth OF passages and
courts rivals the catacombs of Rome, and
requires well posted guide to conduct
one through. He came to us-Ah Sin
was his name-with large canvas bag in
his hand, ready to accompany us and col
lect the monthly rental for the rooms.
We were more interested in the ladies,
of course, so we were taken to the quar-
tiers of
MRS. PING FAN.
She occupies suite OF seven rooms, be-
side servants room and kitchen. Her
money was ready, but she thought her
rent was rather high, and should be re-
duced ten cents at leasti TO be sure her
husband was a merchant, and usually does
a good business but, oh, the times were
so very hard We remembered that we
were already privileged in being admitted
TO the rooms of an aristocratic Chinese,
an almost unheard of thing, which the
man of the house would rant over
fiercely enough if he knew.~it; but we
had come for purpose other than seeing
the rooms, and, encouraged by Mrs. Fans
pleasant greeting, we dared to touch her
limb and try to pull her foot into notice.
Quickly she drew back, and pointed to the
collector. We soon put him out of the
way, though he would peep through the
keyhole occasionally land up came the
little shoes, whose extreme outer length
was but three inches and half. But the
foot and the limb! The foot was simply a
shapeless mass gathered up over the in
step and the toes run into one another.
She is five feet three inches in height, and
slender. She was exceedingly pleasant
and polite with us, sitting on the side of
the canopied bed and entertaining us with
gestures and pantomime. Another men,
Der of her household, Mrs. Yung, IL years
old and about five feet high. waddled into
the room with the help of her servant, and
without request or hesitancy tipped up in
our laps the cHnningest bit of gilt en-
broidered scarlet shoe just two and hall
inches long!
Mrs. Yung's joy eclipses all joy that has
gone before il, because her husband or his
servant has to carry her everywhere she
goes. She is better looking than Mrs.
Fan, but marred her beauty considerably
by the amount Of paint and powder used
on her face, and the Pan Ton oil on her
pagodaiZed head. Both ladies waved
their hands significantly, and the train Of
servants maintained a strict silence, which
we interpreted correctly-"NOtt tell their
husbands
We went into a room off the court,
where the commoner people live in two
nj cor