Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-24

strike just such tangled attitudes, and
the commingling Of trouser legs and
sleeves until one is dazed to dis.
cern which is which, is the same in
the costumes and postures of the drama as
on the fans. The ladies are personated by
men who rock around on minute wooden
soles, in disguises which do not deceive
anyone but themselves. The performance
is anything but satisfactory to q person not
educated up to its fine points. Aside from
this, the orchestra, which is seated at the
back of the stage, keeps mp an appalling
clamor. An ascetic-looking Chinaman
banged with all his might and main on a
pair of cymbals; another thumped on what
seemed to be an inverted dinner pot; an
other plucked hysterical shrieks from a
stringed instrument, while a fourth patiently
hammered with chopsticks on a hardwood
block, and among them they made consider
able noise.
The ladies who attend the drama are
cooped in q gallery 10y themselves. They
are not permitted to mix with the male por-
ton of the audience, who keep their hats
on and smoke and chew sugar cane, which
is hawked among them by a prototype of
the peanut boy of the circus.
The later the hour grows the less the ad-
mission fee gets. As there was no possi-
that being some time the next evening, we
hastened to remove our hearing from the
tender mercies of the orchestra.
A BAND OF AssAssINs.
Next we went to the joss house of a So
ciety who claim to be Masons, "alle same
like Melican," but they are nothing less
than powerful clan of Highbinders. They
have gorgeously fitted up lodgeroom where
they meet to conspire, and in it an altar, on
which rests an efigy of the founder of their
society, who, they claim, lived to be $50
years old, grew very rich and died with all
his teeth intact. An incense lamp Is kept
constantly alight before the altar, and the
place is strewn with paper flowers, and all
the paraphernalia and gimcracks peculiar
to heathen worship.
There is a Joss in Chinatown for all oc.
casions, and every one has his own private
God to whom he pas devotion. From the
temple of the God of Charity they take
paper money and scatter it before their
doors to keep out the devils of poverty, be-
lievipg the imps will be too busy gathering
up the bits of paper to think of venturing
in. A smart devil would certainly venture
still nearer, taking such reckless generosity
as a pointer to stay right along with so
much wealth.
1nere are several 1acLlOnS OF hlgnDlnQerS,
and their murderous enmity to one another
causes them to slaughter right and left in
the dark, and not seldom does an open out
break or riot place some of them behind the
bars. They are the most rascally set OF thieves
and murderers that ever populated a fair
city, and though their crimes, in general,
are confined among their own countrvmen,
an occasional outsider gets stab in the
dark, and their strength and numbers make
the matter of detection rather a difficult
undertaking.
We visited, too, the swell tea house, or
restaurant, and were paid for the effort of
climbing many stairs to reach the banquet
hall by seeing some splendidly executed
wood carvings which decorate its walls. 1t
is here that the merchants and bloods have
their feasts, and from its verandas can be
seen one of the most beautiful views of San
Francisco. MARIE LANE.