The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-05-31

eyes" said Detective Block, tive made a
good haul of the Chinese gamblers early in the
week, but / am not sure that it will do any
good to put stop to, or even give check
to, playing fan-tan and smoking opium. These
men are inveterate gamblers, and they will bet
the last thing they have on their favorite game.
l believe they would even wager their lives,
and pay the penalty if they lost the bet.
Otherwise they are quiet and law abiding set,
and have never given the police any trouble.
In fact, they have a holy horror of American
courts"
care all the Chinese laundries places de-
voted to fan-tan and opium smokingg"
'sNo, sir. The laundrymen work like slaves
nearly all the week, from early morning to late
at night, but on Sundays and Mondays they
have but little to do, and they devote those
days to blowing into the hands of the Chinese
sharks their hard-earne wages. Just as is the
case with Americans in gambling Matters
there are sharks and there are suckers, and
there are forty or fifty of the former who dono
work. but sit around the fan-tan houses and
look out for the latter to catch and swallow
them. There are but two fan-tan and opium
houses in the city, and they are on Four-and
a-half street below the Avenue. Ostensibly
they are Chinese groceries, but the fact is they
are both gambling-houses and opium-smoking
dens, and all the Chinese elaundrymen through
out the city and Georgetown and Anacostia
flock there on Sundays.''
''Do you think the Highbinder Association
that rules the Chinese in New York and San
Francisco has any foot-hold here, or that the
Six-Companies Association levies assessments
upon the laundrymen here?'
'sNo, do not. For the reason that there
has been no case, SO far as | know, where
Chinaman has been seriously assaulted or
w fpllOW-oOnOtryman
course, don't know whether or not assess
ments are made upon the laundrymen by the
agents of the SiX-Companies. Another thing,
when one of them has complaint against an
other he is ever ready to go upon the witness
stand and swear against the other to the top
of IL e notch. never put any dependence in
q case of the kind, for they do not understand
the solemnity of an oath, although they are
always ready to swear upon the holy evangel-
lists and kiss the book, and then to make the
most transparently lying statements in sup
port of their own side of the case. | always
seek to get eXtraneous evidence in such cases.
| understand they have form of oath in San
Francisco where they cut off chicken cocks
head, and the Chinaman dips his hand in the
blood. Then he considers that he is bound by
his oath. You see the difficulty we have to
contend with in dealing with this sort of
heather. But there is certainly connection
between the laundrymen OF this city, to what
extent am unable to say, with the big-bugs
of the Chinese quarters in Mott street, New
York City. All the groceries and other sup
plies needed by the Cinnamon here are shipped
directly from Mott street, and there are two
restaurants with Chinese delicacies down on
Four-and-a-half street. On their working days
the Chinese laundrymen go to our markets and
get their ducks and vegetables and SO on, and
they cook them in the laundries, but on Sundays
and Mondays the restaurants do a rafting
business. 1t is certain that these grocery,
restaurant, and gambling establishments get
the bulk of the earnings OF the hardworking
laundrymen. For example, the man Phillip
| Moy, who kept the fan-tan establishment on
| Four-and-a-half street before Sing Sing Lung,
| whom we arrested last Monday, made fort
une in less than year, sold out, and went
to China to live in splendor. 1t is said that
| Sing Sing Lung has been making money hand
over fist, and hopes to do likewise, but we'll
endeayor to balk him If we have to raid his
| establishment every week."
"You say the Chinese laundrymen never
| give the police any trouble"
''Never, but the duty of the police, under
the law against gambling and opium smoking,
| is to try to protect these men from the ma
chinations of their vicious countrymen, who
take advantage of the innate vices of the race. -