The San Francisco call., 1896-03-14

CHASTITY to the sensibilities of the Cauca-
sian In these ''deadhouses, where the
dying and the dead are huddled together
In dark rooms within touch Of each other,
Is beyond the reach of legal process. There
is no law which prohibits the housing OF
dying man next to corpse-if the corpse
is removed and buried within the legal
i've days. Another corpse may be substi-
tuted for the one buried, often is, and thus
the dying man kept within constant sight
and touch OF lifeless forms-and there Is
no law beyond the moral code to prevent
1t II the dens are kept reasonably clean.
There is no law that can reach the case
OF family which hides the dead body OF
its member until enough money has been
raised to pay the undertaker's expenses.
This is frequently done in Chinatown.
Sometimes the corpse is hidden IN the
cellar or in trunks or boxes for week or
more at a time-and no white man knows
it or can learn the secret until at last the
necessary burial money has been secured
and the Chinese undertaken is called in.
The dead body is then hanled away to one
OF the Chambers of Tranquility" de-
posted on table beside the dying, and
left there till the coffin has been made and
all the formalities for burial concluded.
There is q great deal OF this sort of thing
IN Chinatown, but it is only among the
poor people; and, of course, they don't
count. This is Chinese philosophy, at
least; so vastly different from Caucasia
practice, wherein the poor are cared for in
health, nursed as tenderly when sick and
buried with as much honor when dead as
the rich. But the Mongolian is entirely
heartless toward the poor. The rich in
Chinatown are buried with great pomp
and ceremony, while the poor are left to
die amid all the horrors of the chambers
of Tranquility" and then are buried in
the City graveyard, in case their cousins
are too poor to pay for the shipment of the
bones to China.
Some of the things viewed by the visit
ing physicians yesterday are SO atrocious
in their nature, so CHASTITY and so filthy in
their surroundings, however, as to come
plainly within the law. DIR. McMurdo will
report, to Health officer DR.. Lovelace rec
ommending that these places be con-
demned as public nuisances.
Perhaps the worst of these was found in
a narrow alley running off the north side
of Jackson street, between Stockton and
Powell. The alley is foul and damp, being
the dumping ground for tie refuse of q
dozen families whose kitchen windows
conve niently open on it. The alley is
malodorous, and one must step carefully
or slip in the slime of the refuse. Near
the far end of it, on the eastern side, is a
rickety frame structure, from the door of
which when opened still fouler smells greet
the nostrils. 1t is dark and damp and
cold within. 1t is also bare and comfort
less, and squalid and unclean. Yesterday
the V isitors found no dead bodies here. for
there has not been death in Chinatown
within the past ten days.
But there were the tables upon which
the corpses are laid. DR.. McMurdo him
self vouched for it that many dead are
brought here. One patient was in the
dark and foul room. He was idiotic,
speechless from disease-his voice not as
strong as To- whisper-and his frame so