The Irish standard., 1895-10-12

IN IL this time. That is the greatest Eng
fish speaking actor on earth. !" John tore
his cue II horror and walled & Him
actor man? Me believe him minister
man. Me heap d-n foolee.''s sss
The opium joints! thstanding
the stringent statutes against this evil,
there are 5000 hop heads, or "opium
fends' In San Francisco today and In
Chinatown nearly 800 joints. This is the
greatest evil this fair city has to deal
with. A menace anywhere, it is here a
positive threat One Of the most famous,
or infamus joints is that kept by Blind
Annie" who is one Of the catchpenny
fakes to delude the dimes out Of tourists
pockets .'Blind Annie" with her thou
sand CATS is the bait which lures the
tenderfoot who fancies he is to behold a
marvellous sight.
The joint is dingy cellar reached by
a foul alley. It is room of about 100
square feet. There is not a bit of vent.la-
tion. On a, greasy, rotten bed sits the
little old bag, fondling her four or five
cats and NANCY, wheezy dog. She
is not so blind that she cannot see De-
tective Glennon's hand as he holds out
coin, which she eagerly clutches and
'mumbles over. This joint is frequented
by white girls who wish to hit the pipe.
There are plenty others, dozens OF nasty
holes, with tiers. of hunks waiting for the
victims Of the '<dope" In one Close foul
room / stood and watched an old, old
man, who looked to be $50 at least, roll
his pill and heat it at the nut oil lamp.
Around the room lay women in various
stages Of drunkenness and dishab.lle.
There is yet another feature OF China
town which is quite as loathsome-the
traffic in Chinese women which goes
steadily on in spite of laws against 1T.
These girls are at the bottom OF the many
terrible murders committed In emma
town. This IS the way of it: There is a
Chinese vendetta, organized and carried
on as Systematically as any in Italy. Say
that a highlander, a member Of the Lee
family, has young pretty slave, who is
worth from 81 900 to So, 500 a year to him;
that a member of the Wang family, real
ling her commercial value, abducts that
girl. The Lee family Immediately sets
forth and kills every member of the Wang
family caught out on general principles.
If anything is left of the tribe, it retorts
on the Lee family. The highbinders use
As oaliber Colts and carry them lying over
their arms. And a. majority OF these muir
ders are committed over some handsome
young slave.
Cinnamon raise nearly all the vegeta-
bles grown in California They are first
class market gardeners. They are good
shoemakers, and many fashionable San
Francisco women have their shoes made
in Chinatown. They are splendid cooks
and are very useful as solutions and are
employed to do chamberwork in hotels
They will quit domestic service quicker
than any other servants KNOWN and they
have some SECRET and mysterious way OF
leaving a record of their dissatisfaction In
their rooms for the benefit of their sue
cessors thus establishing a. boycott diff
ficult to combat unless the mistress of the
house can discover the warning. They
are very tenacious of theirsrights as they
understand them. =.
Their profanity is something appalling.
Their curses and oaths are ingenious and
novel. They hope that their. enemies
may be chopped into mincemeat, that
they may rot by inches and other choice
anathemas. They have perfect control Of
their features, rarely laugh Or cry, never
show any affection and have no fear OF
death.
When you have done Chinatown and
emerged at midnight from one of it's FAM
Gus restaurants, you go home wondering
if, after all, it wasn't a nightmare. And
for days you see the black beetles sour
rying' h:ther and yon, diving into the
earth, burrowing there, then sticking up
their ugly heads and crawling out again.