The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-08-03
(From The Argonant.)

(From The A~rgonant.)
The Hop Sing Tong and the Bing
Kung Tong were fighting, in their vel
v~et-footed fashion, in the streets and
alleys Of the Chinese quarter. Such is
the mould Of the Celestial mind, those
same streets and alleys were empty to
~hollowness, and the sergeant, as he
tramped his round, wished with a bit
ter oath hat the hatchetmen would
come out and batter each other out Of
life, like men of thicker blood.
The orange banner Of the Bing Kung
Tong, outlined against the evening sky,
dropped it's silken triangle sullenly
against its staff high above the red and
green fortress of brick in which it's
henchmen hived. A stones brow away
across a narrow alley and an uneven
surface Of hudddled roofs, the yellow
dragon Of the Hop Sing Tong tapped a
lazy defiance. lifted by a vacant zephyr
which drifted up oppressive with the
undesirable doors of the street. The
golden sur sank behind the gate and
the lights blinked in the shops and
glared from the windows. The appear
ance of a fitting Chinaman now and
then, emphasized the warning. which
had long before been carried to temple
n kitchen. that death was skulking
in the shadows and that fear was ev-
~eryWhere. Everywhere except in the
clubhouse of the Hop Sing Tong. There
a delayed triumphal feast was in noisy
progress. A Bing Kung son of a dog
had been killed, and the heroes of the
slaughter were being suitably congrat-
ulated.
For months these Hop Sings had lost
ground before the Bling Kungs. 1t was
not a matter of courage but of COM
merce. The clientage and wealth Of
the Bing Kung Tong had steadily in
creased under the more active and ag-
gressive system of blackmail promoted
by it's elders. If opulence wasted their
courage, it s~harpened their cunning
the other was always to be had for the
buying, and in a cheap market. With
the growth of riches more and more
reptilian h~ighbinders had been engaged
to protect the property Of the Tong and
to carry the Ratchet against the restless
assassins of the Hop Sing faction, who
chafed under the strengthening suprem-
acy of their rivals and grew thin n
sallOw under the growing rewards post
ed for their p%recarious lives. -
Then the Bing Kungs became ar
rogant, and the ~slumbering feud had
broken out On one cloudy evening, when
Lucy Foo and two companions met Ii
Din strOlling carelessly near the Bing
Kung habitatiOnS, and vOlleyed their
pistols after him as he trailed his queue
in terror from the spot. With praise
| worth enterprise Ii Din, with Leu Suey
n Lucy Sing Tie, promptly sailed out
/ of a convent cellarWay, and, slipping
across the alley to o brothers
Joint" silently cracked Lucy Ming's
skull with a muff1ed iron bar n
planted a sharp little Ratchet in his
quivering neck.
Chinatown in a flash had been thrown
into a wild uprOar, which as quickly
had subsidized into a rectless quiet that
BODIED ill for peace and told of hasty
councils at the headquarters Of fright
ened merchants barring doors, n Of
nervous arming for the patient ambus-
cade or the sudden fray. The sergeant
and his squad investigated, but had
discovered nothing. The Hop Sings had
barricaded their doors for a week, while
the furious hatchetmen of the Bing
Kung Tong nightly ranged the streets,
armed ~cap-a-pie, daring their enemies
to come out and fight. For a week
| there mad been an industrious furbish-
ing up Of weapons and armor, Of dirks
| and hatchets and daggers, of tiny
| %cleavers and heavy pistols and queer,
handleless, "~sawed-off" shotguns, and
| Of red-ribboned lengths Of gaspipe, all
| nicely arrangeable in capacious sleeves.
| The ~pawnshops had been emptied Of
their owners rusting weapons. There
| had been examining Of doors and prac-
Using of signals. During the days
ominous quiet had reigned over empty
streets, while sullen, staggering, fight
ing men thronged to their household
affairs, burning punks and candles be-
fore the great war-god, Kwan Chung
the Roland and st. George of Chinese
chivaly-paying their blood money
towing and whining prayers to all the
iosses Of their ancient faith.
But now an air Of expectancy was
aboard, and in the Hop Sing Tong the
music and revelry told of relaxed vigil
ance n contempt for their foes. AT
the banquet-board clients and retain
ers gorged with food, were iercely
shouting and gesticulating-counting
in their after dinner game of odd-or-
ven The room was filled with a babel
of high-pitched voices. The whining
falsetto of the singer was rising now
and again into a shrek of some indie
scribable emotion Is his voice took it's
part in the Orchestra's Wagnerian din
or rivalled the droning fiddle in a solo;
there was thee intermittent bang OF
brass, the shrilling of flutes, and the
rumbling rattle of the drum. Cigar and
pipe mingled their smoke with the
clouds that drifted in from the Joss's
altar from burning punks, sandalwood
and spiced candles, and through this
eddying mist attendant coolies hurried,
like troubled ghosts, carrying refresh
ments to the hungry assemblage. The
gayly prepared women of the house
/ ia ~
tables, %favoring the with tiny
d%raughts Of gin that they poured CO.
quettishly from delicate vessels into
even more fragile cups.
In a luxurious space, latticed apart
ate Guam Him, clean and bland and
serene-eyed, minister of the society
seated at the round table with his lieu.
tenants and weather. supporters. Or
his right lounged Leu Suey, a sleek
~angel-visaged young man, a lamb Of