Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-07-30
SUITS BY CHINESE ACTORS.
They Demand Damages for False
lmprisOnment Dy tnefr Managers
In San francisco GmnpOWder
PiOts n AhsassfnattOus Follow

- 80 AMaCN9C0 HuOI
PiOts and AhsassinRttOus Follow
ing.
San Francisco Chronicle. July 9th.J
Ia June, 1876, a company of nine Chi
nese dramatic artists arrived in the port
OF Sac Francisco under a years engage
ment to Ngn Fun Choy, lessees and gem
eral managers Of the Royal Chinese
Theater GU Jackson street. The cen.
tract had been prudently made in China,
where the laws regulating ever the EN-
ployment of theatrical people are as Sc
we're as those of New Jersey in regard to
prize-hghting, and as unalterable as
those of the Modes and Persians and
other people in the vicinity. The star
actor was to receive $500 for the first
year, the walking gentleman of the
troupe W a to receive $500, and the man
who acts the part of leading lady was to
receive $500, and 80 it went down in
automatically accurate graduation till
the general utility man was paid off at
the comparatively modest stipend of $50
per annum The company opened in q
brief Chinese comedy, which had very
nearly been fully played, when a few
weeks ago, in June, 1877, the year the
engagement was, according to the reck-
oning of the actors, fully complete and
ended.
In the meantime, during the rapid
progress of the light piece, and on the off
nights, the troupe had learned that for the
regulation Asiatic tragedy in 5000 acts,
with which the proposed following up
their little humorous representation, they
could make much more profitable terms
with the LUX Suhn Eung Company, mau-
ayers of the Oriental Academy of Music,
directly opposite the Chinese Royal
Theater. Between the two theaters there
is a bitter rivalry, wherein, as in most
other things, the Chinaman is not an ex-
eeption to any other nationality. So the
troupe engaged itself to appear upon a
certain night at the Academy of Music.
But the lessees of the Royal Chinese
Theater, by reference to original docu-
ments in their possession, pretended to
have discovered that the year Of engage
ment would not be fully terminated until
after the performance OF one more night,
so at the conclusion Of the play on the
night which the actors supposed termina-
ted the contract, they were all driven by
the Ngn Fun Choy managers up into a
dingy room over the flies and there inn
prisoned. In this land Of freedom this
reads like q high handed outrage. In
this place the troupe was detained .hir-
teen days. Upon gaining their freedom,
they have each instituted action in the
Fifteenth District Court to recover from
the company 81, 200 for false imprison-
ment, aud the lessees of the Academy of
Music have, in the same court, likewise
commenced an action to recover from
the same company 5000 for preventing
the tuItillment Of their contract. A week
or two ago the released artists opened at
the opposition theatre.
The excitement in Chinese circles had
been intense, with the sentiment all in
favor OF the oppressed actors The thea
tire was packed as only the Chinese know
how to pack anything. The prelimina.
ry sentences were very fine, and closed
early Saturday morning. On Saturday
afternoon following, a drayman vent TO
obtain a load of wood from an immense
pile laid up against the rear wall OF the
Academy Of Music. In taking up the
sticks the whole pile accidentally tum-
bled over. There were several persons
present, and one of them happened to
notice the faintest trace of smoke ascend.
ing from the ground that had been COW
cred by the fallen pile. Upon examina-
ton it was found to proceed from a piece
of punk, which communicated with a
slow fuse, and which, in turn, was con-
nected with q deposit OF from ten 10
twelve pounds OF powder, so tamped and
arranged that it would, on its explosion
that night, have blown Messrs. LUX Suhu
Fung Company Academy OF Music and
their talented histrionic celebrities and
their patrons even further from China
than they are OF present. This well.laid
plan of Wholesale murder, which WAS 90
accidentally aver.ed, is not the only evil
growing out Of the contention Of the
theatrical companies. Last night q Chi
nawoman, a friend Of the Ngn Fun Choy
Company, died Of wounds received at the
hands OF IN unknown assassin, but be.
lieved to be a hired desperate Of the op-
position company, and there has also
been at least one desperate attempt to
kill q Chinawoman for reasons growing
out of the same complications. To the
Eastern reader all this would seem like
the widest kind Of hyperboIe, but every.
thing stated is an actual fact, for which
actions have been commenced in the
civil aud criminal courts. There was an
attempt made also to blow up the house
Of one of the leaders of the Ngn Fun
Choy Company, but it failed. A flight
of steps was, however, torn off and tossed
up into the air.
A Boulevard journalist tells a charm.
iny Ettla etorv .hout a French motor who