Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1897-04-24

Emperor. Upon the result may depend
the fate of the Six Companies. and this
system which has grown w
around them, to which China
men look as an American looks
TO the Constitution. II the Six Com
panles disband. as they have decided
TO DO should the present conditions
continue. every Chinaman will be
thrown upon his own resources, to be
cheated and robbed and murdered with
out redress or r%etribution except
through the American courts. The APP
peal which is being made by the lead
ers OF the See Yups to Minister Yang
Yu represents a final effort to save the
political fabric of the Chinese in the
United States. How the structure has
peer weakened and finally split by the
growth of dark and mysterious secret
societies, which have involved the lead
ers in bloody feuds, is a story which
only a Chinaman could tell in all its
details-and no Chinaman would think
for an instant of telling it. Enough
has become known to enable a general
outline of the trouble to be given. The
first OF the six companies was founded
for mutual benefit and protection by
the Chinese who led the way across the
Pacific. They found themselves in a
strange land, surrounded by men whose
customs they could not understand and
whose way of thinking they could not
adopt. Therefore they chung to their
own ways and organized themselves in
to a company on the tribal plan as it
still exists in China, where the family
clan is ruled by it's head. Those who
came later started other companies, I'M
til there were six, and these combined.
Their authority regulates dealings be-
tween Cinnamon, taxes them, protects
them, brings them over or send them
home.
Then came the secret societies, off
shoots of parent organizations in Chi
ma, impenetrable to foreigners. Some
of them had mutual benefit for their
object, others vice and crime, others
murder, and still others concerned
themselves with the web of reasonable
political intrigue which o~verspreads
China. Two of these, the See Yup and
the Sam Yup societies, at last became
involved in the feud which has induced
the present crisis. Il
The See Yup society is incorporated
under the laws of California. Its GER
tificate sets forth that its purposes are
good, the relief OF the poor and the sick,
education, the finding of employment,
and the protection of it's members. 1t
is composed of four Of the Six Compa-
nies-the Ming Yung, Kong Chow, Hop
and Shu Hing. Of the other two
companies one is said to be independ-
ent, with See Yup leanings, and the
other constitutes the rival society of
the Sam Yups.
The See Yups claim the wealth and
intelligence of the Chinese in America.
Fong 70 Kaing is their president. who
Fong 70 Kaing is their president, and
among them are Lee Kaing Chow, who
is worth $4,000, 900; Lee Fook, credited
with $500, 900; Wong Shat Shung, whose
is $500 900; Chan Lee Doom,
Ching Wang Wal, zee Ho Chung, Yee
Hop Wo. Loui Shook and others well
known in Chinese commerce.
The most conspicuous leader upon
the other side. that of the Sam Yups,
appears to have been the late Flung
Ching, commonly known as Little
of San Francisco. What Pete
lacked in responsibility he made up in
cunning. For money he manipulated
iuries. doctored horse races, struggled
his co.ntrymen into the country and
secured the taking off of those Of his
a whom others were willing to pay
to have put out of the way.
There was a conflict of interests be-
tween the two societies. How it be-