The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-30
CHINESE DEAD HOUSES.
DISMAL HOLES OF saUALOR IN SAN
FRANCISCO.

cret IN CHINATOWN. Two explorers in its
service saw a sick Chinaman carried out
of house and loaded into an express wa
gon. For certain reasons they followed at
a run.
The wagon halted near the Chinese un-
dertakers. Man Fook on. at 72l Pacific
street. The poor dying heather was yanh-
ed out OF the wagon and carried up a mar
row passage and into a room in the rear
OF the undertaker's shop. The stencil that
greeted our nostrils As she door opened
was simply sickening. II was a smell sug-
gestive Of decOmposing human flesh and
musty bones. The wagon quickly deposited
its burden and hurried OFF.
We pushed our way into the dismal den.
mummy-faced object blinked in the light
of the open door and evidently objected
to our visit. The sick man was Leung All
Suey, Hoy Ping man. and this was the
deadhouse of the Hop Woh Company. on
one side was a coffin and on either side Of
it We're trestle beds, one of which con-
tanned the sick man. almost within touch
of a corpse. We lighted a candle that was
on the table and lifted the coffin lid with
flesh creeping sensation. Inside was
dead Chinaman, his face as black as a
coal The coffin was stuffed with paper
clothes and other articles supposed TO be
needed by tho deceased in the world OF
shades. The adjoining room was filled with
boxes containing the bones Of Chinese be-
longing to the Hop Woh Company that
had been exhumed in different burial
grounds, some having come from the east
ern states all scraped washed, sorted and
labeled, ready for shipment to China,
where they would receive proper intcrment
in the sepulchers of their fathers, and
where those Buddhist and Taoist masses
would be said and sacrifices offered to Sc
cure their peace in the other world.
Some imaginative Chinese boys declare
they can hear these bones rattle every
midnight. Several other charnei-houses
were in the same alley, the one next door
south belonging to the Nine Yeung Conn
pany and the one next door north belong
ing to the Kong Chau Company. These
other doors were locked, but, Judging
from the stencil that poured through
broken window of the Kong Chau Ossu-
ary worse horrors were inside than those
already described
In the basement of the undertaker's on
Pacific street was another row of these
chambers of peace" Several collins
We're here, and amidst scenes Of death
was another sick man grooming upon
bed. An old woman kept the place, who
made her living by waiting upon the sick
and acting as a professional waller over
the dead, her lamentauonse being regu-
lated by the amount of money paid her.
Farther up the street, at 7i0 Pacific street
was the deadhouSe OF the Yam Woh or
Hakka Company. where a great hullaba-
A dead Chlnaman was being boxed up
while a TaOist priest was droning forth
his liturgies. on the floor surrounding
the coffin were flaming wax tapers and
several plates Of sacrihcial meats, includ-
ing rice, chicken and crab, offered to
appease the dead mans ghost.
At No 742 Pacific street was another
deadhouse, bearing the sign Tseng Yeong
Sho, or Quiet Nursing Place" of the
Yeong Wah Company. Here, again. was
the same dismal hole of squalor, with
beds for the dying and collins for the
dead Dying Chinese, who have no
friends to take care of them, are invari-
ably brought to these horrible abodes to
breathe their last breath, lonely and for
saken. AS long as a Chinaman is likely
to recover, his clansmen VIII provide him
with bed and food and medical attend
ance in the homes Of the living; But
woe to the patient without blood rela-
lions. When the native doctor gives him
up, the news spreads. The landlord and
fellow tenants get alarmed and clamor
for his removal. The room OF a dying
Chnaman is supposed TO be filled with
devils; the tables and chairs and beds
utter mysterious sounds which fill the
supers titious mind with horror. There
are certain ceremonies which are said to
drive off these diabolical visitors, but
they cost money and no one will go to
this expense on behalf OF stranger.
The landlord is alarmed at the prospect
of a general exodus of his tenants and
an empty, haunted house on his hands.
A death happening in his rooms is suf-
ficient to put his house in ceremonial
quarantine for twelve months. The dy-
ing man must be packed Off. Where?
No hospital in San Francisco will take
In another article on the day follow
ing that from which the above extract
is taken, the Call said:
The Calls expose of the deadhouses of
Chinatown came as a surprise to almost
everybody in the city. Certainly II was
a great surprise to the health office, and
for the most part, to the police as well.
Some of the Chinatown policemen knew in
a vague sort of way the existence of these
CHASTITY dens, but they had never before,
SO far as is known been penetrated by
white men until those who made the in
! vestigations for the Call secured an en-
trance into the Pacific street chamber of
tranquility"
And SO the Calls story yesterday morn
ing was news not only to its general read
ers. but TO the officials of the city as we'll
No complaints have ever been made be-
fore, and no policeman ever had occasion
to penetrate these noisome and CHASTITY
thresholds. Their occupants are quite or
| derby; they are called chambers OF tran
And the name is true enough in a ma
terial sense. Those who pass the portals
of these chambers" make no disturb
ance, do nothing of their own will to
break the peace or attract attention. They
go in dying. They come out in rude cof-
fms Oh yes, they are chambers of
tranquility If the absence of noise de-
notes tranquility.
that is a circumstance the Chinese
code takes no cognizance of, and then the
living corpses inferred in these dead
houses cannot suffer long-they US
ually die within a week, or a fortnight at
most, and sometimes within a day or
two SO why bother about that part of
it? This is the Monaghan view of the
case.
The Christian reasons from different
basis and does not measure time alto
gether by mathematical calculation. Time
is relative and dying man, housed in a
dank and foul room, within touch, sight
and smell of grinning skeletons and rot
ting corpses, may suffer, perchance, even
though a heather, eternities Of agony in
q week or a day.
And this humane view Of the case is
sufficient, 1t is thought to secure the
prompt action of the officials. The health
office will act promptly. DR. Lovelace,
the health officer, was greatly surprised
when he read of the horrors of these
chambers of tranquility" in the Call, yes
terday.
Il had no idea" he said. that such
places could exist in this city, even in
Chinatown, and / believe the public owes
a debt of gratitude to the Call for max
ing known this state of affairs. I shall
make a personal examination of these
places at the very earliest possible mo-
ment and have them suppressed.
"erhey are a menace to the health of the
entire neig'hborhood, Of course and at all