The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-01-15
CHINESE DENTISTS
AND THEIR TRICKS

fist Even the name had an English
sound. Certainly there were lot or
Chinese hieroglyphics scattered about
the wall, but who could tell what they
meant?
1 decided to watch the place for a
while. A lot of Cinnamon went up,
but they did not look like dental pa
tients. They were we'll favored and
dressed, and were evidently bound for
the Shanghai Club, a mysterious and
exclusive institution which occupies
part of the same building. But by and
by a young European woman. neatly,
if not fashionably dressed, went up the
narrow stairway. carrying a baby and
followed by a smart looking Chinese
maid, who seemed to be acting as
guide. A little later respectfully clad
workingman sought the establishment.
and then, emboldened by these exam
Piles, I thought it time to offer myself
as a patient.
The narrow stairway brings one with
sudden twist face to face with the
closely barred doorway of the Shanghai
Club which seems to monopolize the
greater part of the building. The place
was not so dirty as it might be, which
is saying a good deal for Chinatown.
4 But on the other side of the narrow
@passage the door of a cupboardlike
\ room stood open, and from it a cook
A
Nfilled with strange comestibles, which,
|after much ingenious maneuvering he
%managed to get through the doorway
Aof the Shanghai Club. Evidently the
members of this ar'stocratic institu-
Ttion live well. 1t needed no other
<proof beyond the smell to show that
<the cupboard was used as a kitchen,
Aand 1 did not penetrate farther into its
dismal depths.
glass door at the end of the mas
Usage led into the dentists waiting
%room. 1t was small and clean, fur
finished in strictly European style with
4 a few chairs and a table. Here ]
found the workingman waiting his
turn.
\ rs DR.. Landon European" 1 asked.
4 mo, he's a Chinee right enough,
T. though his name sounds like a white
MANS"
= And how do you like being treated
%by q Chinaman?"
\ Don't like it much"
y Then why do you come here?"
u Cant help myself. You see, I'm a
cleaner at the car house, and my wages
~ won't run to fancy prices. But I've
y got to get teeth somehow 1 know a
y fellow that had been here, so 1 came. "
y What has the dentist done to you?''
y See here, and he opened his mouth.
~ Nearly all the teeth in the lower jaw
y were gone, and the cavities
\ whence they had been extracted just
healing over. He took the teeth out
\ right enough, and now I'm come to try
on the new plate"
Just then the room door of the ope-
*rating-room opened, and the young wo-
imam With the baby, holding her hand
y to her jaw, emerged. The working
y man went in.
4 Presently my turn came, and found
myself confronted by a smiling little
man, dressed in we'll cut Engllsh
= tweeds. There was not much or the
\ Chinaman about Landon. Al hrst
l. sight, from the manner in which ne
wore his foreign clothes. l should nave
~ taken him for Jap. A Chinaman can
r rarely wear Western garments win
\ grace, whereas a Jap takes TO them
\ with the greatest ease.
The operating room was well Ighteu
'Nby a window looking on Dupont. IL was
y furnished exactly after the fashion OF
y an American dentists chamber or nor
rors. There was the same curlously
y shaped chair, with all sorts OF devices
y for raising it up and down. ana grip
\ ping the patients head as with an IRON
Il wise. There were the same little steer
Instruments for prodding and poKlng
p laid out on the table. and in the corner
+ stood one of those fiendish wheel ma