The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-09-24
WHERE THEY PLAY POKER.
An Opium Joint Under Cloak of a
Charity.
low THE HEATHEN PROGRESS.
A Familiar Method of Evading the
Law Hitherto Overlooked in
Chinatown.

The Chinese Merchants Association,
organized for social and benevolent pur-
poses," held house-warming yesterday at
their clubrOOms over Fook Lungs grocery
store en- Washington street.
The club comes as an innovation to
Chinatown and to San Francisco at large
it is another sign of the evolution of the
heather toward the estate of the modern
Christian.
To be sure the step is not clean and
clear-cutting away at once FROM the ways
of the heather and adopting a new order.
But the Chinese Merchants CLUB for
benevolent and social purposes" carries
TO the average clubman that sense of sur
prise with which patient mother hears
her hither to silent child speak up plainly
the WORT mamma"
"AhI it can speak-it is learning
rapidly" she says.
The great Christian populace has long
been familiar with the merchants or other
clubs ''organiZed for social and benevolent
purpose 1t is thing of such common
rel ort. has stood SO long and openly for
inspecliOu, like, for instance, the wearing
OF the old plug hat, and the Chinaman has
refused TO recogn re il. iDSOmuch that it
was thought TO be thing peculiar to the
Christian aud. like the wearing of the old
plug hat, would remain to the heather
wholly anu forever foreign.
But great light broke in upon the mind
of the adaptive Celestal-that peculiar
mind, 20 receptive of some things and so
dark and impene ira bic to others. No one
VIII ever know, perhaps, VIVA: penalties
he has laid upon himself since his dis
covery, because of ;he long years he has
so stupidity shut MS eyes to the "heneyo-
LENT and ''sOcial" idea.
But the Kicking of himself (Which goes
on continuously because he so sincerely be-
lieYes be deserves iD has not iDterfered for
one moment with his activity in the prem
ises. In the person of Look See, wearing
a nat with red button, qDeue tipped
with SILK, strictly white stockings, clean
shave, his nails and ears beyond mant-
cures criticism, he appeared al Sacramento
ana desired a charter for the Chinese
Merchants Club"
The forms Of law are fixed and immuta-
bic, perhaps, and however irreconcilabla
may be the idea of social and benevolent
purposes with the smells af Dupont street,
the name OF the Secretary of State was
fixed to beautifully engraved form that
gave to the G Inese Merchants Club the
sanction of the Government Look Soc
came back in triumph, and this certificate
wearing the autograph Of Secretary Waite,
all In an eXtTaVagant gilt frame, is hanging
IN the rooms of the dub above the grocery
store of FoOk Lung and is All hourly VIII
ness 10 strange things.
For. in discovering and absorbing this
AmeTlcanlsm the CDiuee has not forgotten
that be Is heather. He has fitted up his
rooms with new paper on the wall, TO be
sure, and hung the ceilings with chande-
liers and the chandeliers with pre- ty
cOlored globes; the furniture is of black
walnut; there is a kitchen attached where
tea is forever being made just as in one of
q han fnaN I'M q Il
heather gOd-the god, no doubt. of chan ce.
For lu>t as eternal as burns this prayer
the eli Of the poker chip sounds dis
antly-distantly If the visitor be white.
Perhaps, If h. Is very well known and
Of proper kind. he may be allowed TO
draw near the game. But, 10 the casual
visitor (Who Is not wholly barred, but has
an alarniist go before 10 give warning of
his approach. the poker chip resolves
itself into dOminOs and the poker game
itself becomes innocent of jack pot. The
game goes on, for, as Gee Sun inquiries, SIS
not that what social and benevolent club
is fOTY'
The rooms are small and arranged in a
fearful and wonderful way. with a narrow
labyrinth of halls connecting or dividing
them In such way that a white man
might easily get lost
But for Chinese the whole club rooms
are luxurious innovation. Red Dortieres
the alcOves of every ronm, where the
oplum-smokerS with their lamps and pipes
lie stretched on handsome couches, are
granted not even that secusiOn.
There is a room to which some Chinese
artists were yesterday adding tho finishing
touches which is to be especially devoted
10 the entertainment of white guests when
they come, as zee Sun explained. Here
will be tables for poker or fan tan. no
doubt, and the usual couch and lamp and
pipe and opium.
Yesterday at the house-warmiug all the
rooms were crowded with Cinnamon OF the
Uetter class with their red-tpped hats and
silk ard fine linen. Every bench in the
place had its occupant aud the smell of
opium even drowned that of the burning
incense. y doubt the Chinese Merchants
Club will be a mine OF wealth to its $50
cial and benevolent proprietnrs.