Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1886-05-29
THE HEATHEN cH1NEE.
His Habits, Customs, and Life in
Chinatown.


Editor Standard.
In former letter l spoke princi-
pally of the Chinese and the objections
to them in a general way f; of the con-
illusions the Californian and others
have come to from being intimately
connected with them in various ave-
nues of labor and trade. Generalities
are seldom satisfactory as convincing
arguments, and though founded on
real facts, like the Rocky Mountain
peaks seen through the clear atmos-
phere of Colorado, however approach
able they may seem at first sight, one
has a consciousness of their great dis
lance which forbids any attempt to
reach out for and appropriate them to
his own purposes.
Tell an old connoisseur that you
have a bottle of Malmsey of the vim
tage of 1856 and he is likely to mani
fest his enthusiasm by requesting a
sight of the cobwebs or a Whit of the
cork, and the extent of his credulity
is generally in proportion to his in
diligence, every draught adds twenty
five years to the age of the sample.
So that, for those who read my first
letter with indulgence, Ishall chroni-
Gle my experience in "China-town,"
the portion of San Francisco occupied
by the celestials. 1t is the very best
part of the city, and for blocks and
blocks is devoted exclusively to the
purposes of these pig-tailed citizens.
A bakers dozen of us from the
hotel, all strangers and sight-seers
from "the East" having procured
guide from the police station, started
for Chinatown about 9 o'clock in the
evening. There are several of these
so-called guides who loaf about the
station seeking whom they may de-
YOUR. They know nothing but "the
ways that are dark and tricks that are
vain" Of the heather Chinee, but it
must be allowed that their eXacting
compensation of eight and ten dollars
trip goes long way toward digni-
flying the profession. They have
tradition that a guide is absolutely
necessary as security against the high
binders and other terrors of China
town, and they are certainly indis-
pensible for another reason-they
"know the ropes"
AT the Chinese theatre we saw a
play that had been on the boards
since the first of the year and will
probably not end within twelve
months-each night being continu-
alton of the plot. What the actors
said was jargon, of course, and the
music something like the Warren
House Band made in its infancy,
their instruments being tin pans of
many sizes and with tones of various
degrees Of hideousness. After the
curtain was once raised it was not
lowered again until the last scene.
One poor creature, the heavy villain
struck violently to the stage floor
with club was supposed to be dead.
He remained there long enough for
the American portion of the audience
to say "good for him." then jumped
up and walked leisurely out.
The Chinese are great gamblers,
Around long table sat thirty OF
more of them. The banker stood on
one side, and when he had received
dime from each, dealt out to them
from long stack of dominos, nine
chips each. After turning them up
and for sometime wrangling in theil
peculiar wah sun, hoi SEX kind o.
tongue, one shoots a chip across the
board to the banker, who turns him
over the pot, after taking out the
banks share. No one but the init
ated could ever divine, upon what
principle of chances the pot is won
sometimes the highest, sometime
the lowest claimed it. Two of oul
party took chances by getting one o
the heathens to engineer for them
The Pennsylvania man won the pot
Induced by his good luck to try i
again and again, he lost each time
"Twas ever thus from CHILDHOOD
hour" These gambling dens ma!
be seen at every turn and are KEEP
open all night.
Following our guide through darl
and narrow alleys, we descended b.
narrow, treacherous stairway int
an underground cellar, the resort o
opium fiends. 1t was lighted only b.
the dimly burning lamps of thesmok