Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1890-11-08
THE CORNER OF STEEPLES.
A Story of Contemporary New York Life
Told by the Principal In 1t.


Told by the Principal In 1t.
From the New York World.
This is the story of the corner of the
Twelve Steeples. My friend Wong Fee
| told it over pipe:
at took me nearly year to find
it, | knew it was in New York. But
where?
sit is ten years since [ came to New
York. My English is pretty good. 1t
had to be. got my lett arm slashed IN
fight one night in San Francisco. !
couldn't do any work. So l studied
English and became translator, sign
writer and Interpreter for my people.
"Loy Tsoon is the man who cut me.
He was my rival, and always my enemy.
He was quite handsome. He took my
sweetheart away. / feared him, even
when we were children at home.
81 thought [ was rid of him when,
poor and hungry, l stole out of San
| Francisco. | made some money after
two years in New York. In those two
wears | lived in a cellar in Mott Street,
like rat. After | had saved few
hundred dollars | sent to San Francisco
for my sweetheart, the little Yu Ling.
| told her to dress like a boy. [ sent
enough money to buy a tirst-class pass
age. She came. A month after came
Loy Tsoon. She promised to live with
me. She kept her word for six months
Then | missed her one afternoon when
l came home little early.
"A friend of mine told me that he
had seen her in strange part of the
city. She was standing on a corner,
waiting for some one. My friend read
no English He did not remember the
place. All he could tell was of the
steeples he had seen at the corner.
| They were twelve.
81 tried to make him come to the
spot, but he was weak with much smok-
ing and not fully witted at times.
''Then | bought telescope in a shop
on the Bowery. | went to the roofs of
a great many buildings. | saw domes
and spires; many of them. | was look
ing for cluster of twelve. [ stopped
working; | gave myself up to the search
| hunted Broadway and the streets that
cross it.
81 never smoke much, but now l
smoked and drank. | did not eat. |
wandered along the Fifth Avenue all
night counting the spires. Once | went
up the hill towards Forty second Street.
Their.
Il climbed to the iron railing of the
reservoir. | got over the spikes and
threw myself down in the grass.
at was early morning when | awoke
in the sunlight. AS my eyes looked
along the great avenue | began to count
the spires again; saw eight. | came
down to the street. | counted once
more; still eight. Hooked to the south,
two spires; east, one; west, one; in all
twelve.
81 stayed close by all day. At the
end of the afternoon Yu Ling came.
She was dressed Ikea boy. She waited
for some one.
II moved away before she came
closer. Going to Broadway l passed
10y. He did not see me. | walked
down the street.
at was midnight when I got home.
There was light within; | knew that
Yu Ling was there. She alone had the
second key. | went away from the
house to wait. In three hours I came
back. [ unlocked the door. / vent to
the inner room. Some one was living
on the shelf where she used to sleep.
| felt for my knife. | went to the shelf
| struck three times the curtain Then
| lit my lamp, 10y Tsoon came from
t he outer room.
''I have killed our discord, | said.
You can bury her in the morning
Let us sit down.
81 brought pipes. We crossed our
legs and sat on the floor. 10y smoked
nervously. He did not speak. By and
by he stretched out and went to sleep.
81 got a sheet from the shelf of Yu
Ling. | tore from it four lengths, each
about foot wide. | twisted the pieces
small and hard, like a rope | tied a
| length to Logs right wrist, another to
! his left; then one about each. ankle.
There was an old mantel on the wall
opposite to 1u Ling; on either side of it
were two spikes, with brass heads.
tied an end of the sheet to one
81 Ike, on each side of the mantel. The
other ends | fixed to a pair of
shelf brackets above the couch of Yu
Ling.
''There l left 10y Tsoon suspended in
the air, with his head down. His legs
and arms were apart, his tongue
was hanging out, black, like a par
rot's.
Il made the place dark and locking
the door went out. In year I met a
man who knew me. He told me about
a fire that happened in my street. Nv
house was burned in the night of the
middle day of June. Two charred
bodies were taken from the ashes"