Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1898-07-22

which to vtRit this most interesting
locality. 1t Ia, as the name implies.
the Chinese quarter Of the city. 1t
covers an area of ten square blocks
and into this small space are GRO wded
some fifty orsixty thousand people. 1t
may be we'll to state by way Of ex-
PLANTATION, that l took many OF our
xnide's stories with grain OF salt"
but in the main they were true and
his figures and statistics were at
least approximately correct.
On our journey through Chinatown
we stopped first at the large whole
sale and retail Chinese and Japan
csc bazaar of Sing Fat & Co. This
Arm handles Chinese and Japanese
goods ex> lusively, and employs
about a dozen clerks, all OF whom
speak English. lenclose one OF their
cards and recommend them to be all
that the card represents to them be.
In case you should go to San Fran
cisco GU will do well to patronise
them.
We next went to a lodging house
giving shelter to 4OO people. 1t is q
rickety old building apparently
ready to fall to pieces. and yet those
400 or mole Cinnamon live in IL In
what they regard comfort and &C.
curity. In one OF it's halls was
Joss altar-a sort Of shrine to a
Chinese deity. Before the idol were
placed articles Of food; and through
out the entire building, as well as
every where we went in Chinatown
we found posters lettered in Chinese
characters. and bits Of paper strewn
about to drive the devil away.
Hurrying from the foul smelling
lodging house, we proceeded to an
deliberately appointed tea garden
the Delmonico of Chinatown. Here
the Cinnamon come to enjoy their
tea, and the rest of the bill Of fare. all
of which they eat backwards, start
ing with the dessert and ending with
the soups.
Continuing on our tour OF inspec-
ton, we visit Il barber shop. The
chair is not u reclining one and the
barber works with great delibera-
ton, using nosoap or lather. Our
guide tells us that the hair cut
off ia preserved. He doesn't say
what they save it for, and it Is I'M
possible to get him to stop talking
and tell us what is done with it.
Going to a women's Joss house or
temple, we attended their service.
They were celebrating some religious
festival, and the noise of their drums
and strange musical instruments
was peculiar indeed. The singing was
wierd and monOtOnous and 1t was
a great relief to escape from 1t. AMI
60 to the hall Of the Highbtnders.
This was something after the
order of the lodge hall. and furnished
a meeting place for the famous
secret society of Cinnamon known as
the "Highbinders."
We were conducted by our guide
Mr.. George w. Theobald, to the o.
flee of the "Oriental," a Chinese
newspaper published by Celestial
named War Kee. Mr.. Theobal1,
who ia an ex-newspaper man, In
formed us that he sold War Kee the
press he was using and gave him all
the necessary instructions In the use
of an American printing press.
thought would get copy OF the
"Oriental" to send to you, but when
learned how large it's circulation
il, l decided Immediately that 1t
must be on your exchange list.
Our next stopping place was
theater, where instead Of producing
an entire play in an evening, a book
or story is taken and put on the
stage night after night until finished,
which sometimes requires several
weeks. Next door to the theater
was q meat market carrying a stock
consisting principally OF pork, chick
ems and ducks. The Chinese are
great hands for poultry, but I
could see no rats or mice for SALE.
In front of this meat shop number
of Chinese children were playing and
by applying the old saying that
"pretty babies make home)yl grown
people," could readily account for
the lack of beauty on the part OF the
men and women we met. The
children were extremely pretty and
played without any apparent incli-
nations to quarrel. The little girls,
hardly large enough to run around,
were carving babiesinstead OF dolls.
In speaking of the 'theater / forgot
to say that the Chinese have no
actresses. all the acting beng done
by men.
After visiting some gambling