Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1881-03-09

if they are large enough to eat, even If
they could be caught
| had hardly turned away before L
heard Ah Choon's voice calling from
the chicken yard He had pair of the
largest fowls tied together by the legs
with his queue, and was weighing
them with the cock-scales. He GER
tanly was boy of resources. Was
anything broken, All Choon mended
it. He invented novel uses for pots
and pans that were past their prime;
made new articles out of old ones.-in
fact was sort of Ch nese Robert Pen
fold. Nor, though easily moved to
tears, as are all Chinese, was All Choon
without personal courage. Some in
cipient boodlums attacked him one
SUI day as he was returning from Sab
ba.h-school which he attended regu-
larly Just in time TO save the little
( heather a couple of passers-by inter-
fered. stopped the persecution, and sent
All Ch0on home with an ugly knife
cut that had almost severed an ear from
his head and slash across one hand.
He very reluctantly allowed me to bind
up his wounds, saying, All light; bym-
by get well; new mind
When | asked him how it happened,
he drew himself up with all the pride
of a fighting general, saying, 'One, two,
sixteen Ilish, bad Ilish boy, fight one
lilly China boy. Lilly China boy plen-
ty fight; lilly China boy no 'aaid; liliy
China boy no lun; too muchee like
fight =
Many times after that | had to rush
to The lilly China boys rescue. When
the schools closed, some of the boys
who mad taken up the feud rode their
ponies at All Choon, who ran out when
he saw them coming and stood in the
street. No expostulations or threats
could keep him in the house after he
heard the ponies hoofs.
Lilly China boy no faid die, he
would say 'Melican boy lide over
Cbira boy, kilee him; go Jail one, two,
sixteen years! Maybe p'leeceman hang
! Mclean boy. He no llkee that. Lilly
China boy lkee that welly much
An old man near by. retiring from
the Photographic business, presented
me with his camera and chemicals. l
had skylight let into the stable-roof
and made dark closet ir one corner.
Nothing could exceed AL Choon's de-
light and wonder at these mystic prep
arations Between the turning of the
mullins he would dash out to take a
look at the blood-red landscape through
the stained window. When everything
was complete, as the family were all
away, | took Ah Choon for a model.
Fear ng lest he should meddle with the
chemicals when / had my eye off him,
/ showed him bottle Of cyanide OF
potassium with skull and cross-bones
under the word poison upon the label.
'Savvy! savvy!' said he. Rapidly
opening an imaginary bottle, and swal-
lowing an imaginary piece of cyanide,
be dropped suddenly at full length on
the floor and went through all the
writings and contortions of fearful
death by poison. After one last, long,
struggling gasp he crossed his hands
upon bis breast, turned up his eyes,
and dropped his jaw.
| The stimulation was little too hOr-
ribly exact for my nerves, so / COM
PEELED a speedv resuscitation of the
corpse and placed him in front of the
camera. When he saw it turned tow
ard him he gave one start of dsmay,
then stood perfectly still as bade him,
grinning, in spite of his evident fear of
this unknown instrument that bad to
do witt deadly poisons and skulls and
cross-bones, at the comical appearance
| presented with my head under the
black velvet camera-curtain. Nothing
could exceed his delight at the result,
unless, perhaps. his disgust at the po-
sition be had taken; he was so unhappy
about it that | made another trial, al
lowing him to pose himself. He placed
himself stihy upon chair, elbows out.
both hands upon his parted knees, (the
Chinese position OF dignity, regretting
meanwhile that he had neither fan
nor vase of flowers at his side, both
of which, from Mongolian point of
view, are necessary accessories to
portrait
This picture, though a perfect sue
cess from his own aesthetic standpoint,
he had no desire to possess, but only
10 look at occasionally. / offered to
| give il to him TO send TO his mother,
but be said she would not be pleased.
hut. on the contrary, very angry. ex-
planning, as well as / could understand,
that the whole affair savored too much
of witchcraft, and she would probably
fear that in consenting to it be had in
some way placed himself in the power
of the white tarbarian;' adding, how
ever, with his favorite remark, Lilly
China boy no 'aaid; muddah he 'haid,
lilly China by be no '1aid'
All Choon'sie gn in the kitchen might
have continued until this day but for
an unfortunate accident; he set the
house on fire. AL the family but my
self and the little children were out at
the time (midnight), and All Choon.
who had been reading a Chinese novel
in bed, fell asleep and knocked his can
kle over on the chair. The light and
cracking noise woke me. instinct
lively knew what had happened, and
flew up to his room, where found the
poor boy almost dead from suffocation.
| threw pail Of water over him and
dragged him from the fire. He rec0v-
cred his senses in a few moments, and
| sent him for Ratchet to chop open
the floor, as the fire was running be-
tween it and the ceiling. 1t seemed
as though he YVES back in the twink
ling of an eve, but he had found time,
as | afterward discovered to carry the
two little children, without awakening
them, into the front garden, where he
left them wrapt in blanket quietly
sleeping on the grass. With less in
telligent ally than Ah Choon the fire