The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1899-04-04
All LON.

IOA All AOA Was AOb bu6 OF
a rich merchant, but of a o seam
stress, who lived in a rickety old build
ing, more respectable than many in
China Town but patronized by rats if
not by opium iends. All Lon and her
mother, a withered old woman with a
determined temper, lived on the third
floor, and sewed week in and week out
for the Chinese women who spent the
dollars of the rich merchants.
Until All Lon passed her fifteenth
birthday she was happy enough. From
her window she could look into the
grand restaurant opposite, whose walls
were of carved wood gilded, and whose
balconies were crowded with palms in
beautiful vases and hung with Chinese
lanterns. There vas a banquet almost
every night, and the wealthy merchants
in their satin and crepe garments sat
about the little tables and dined off tiny
plates of timer portions, while women
sat close by and sang in monotonous,
d%iscordant voices. The opium smokers
lay on marble couches in the recesses of
the rooms and looked with flmy scorn
upon the beasts who cared for food.
Once a week All Lon went with her
mother to the j~osshouse and worshiped
the magnificent idols of ivory and gold,
and once she went to the theater and
listened for three hours to a play she
could not understand. But. although
there was nc scenery, she admired the
UoroaOuG cold arn hroi6arad rohoe oe a.
actors 81 much that she forgot to be
bored, and finally went to sleep on her
mothers shoulder.
Beyond these brief experiences, and
what she saw from her eyrie, All Lon
knew nothing of the world. Her mother
had told her once that outside of China
town-a swarming precinct not a half
mile square-was a great dust colored
city called San Francisco, wherein only
an occasional washhouse bore the faint
est resemblance to any of her native
place. But All Lon had never seen it,
although strange foreign looking people
came sometimes with a policeman to
poke their noses about China Town, to
the phlegmatic contempt of the race
that bled and despised them.
Mother said All Lon one day,
''some girls have fathers. Have 1 not
one2"
Perhaps" said the mother, whose
wrinkled eye sockets suddenly contract
ed.
"Where, then, is he ?"
"Under the pavement in a bunk,
smoking opium night and day-unless
he is dead"
All Lon stared at her mother with
expanded eyes. She knew that life was
not particularly interesting for little
girls whose mothers were poor, but it
was her first intimation that it might
be ugly. Usually, when her mother
spoke at all, it was to give her daugh-
ter brief orders. Upon rare occasions
Wo Ling talked of the Flowery Kingdom
Of her youth, rocking herself back and
forth and grooming the while.
"Will he never come back2"
"Ask no more" interrupted her
mother fercely. 81 have told you this
that you may know what will befall
you if you marry. He beat me and he
beat you, but you were too young when
he deserted us to remember. We were
not SO poor then, and had saved money.
He took it all to buy him opium in a
hole underground, and left us to work
our fingers to the bone. Never shall you
marry SO long as l have strength in my
right arm to beat you"
but are all men alike?'' asked All
Lon naively. She had seen slim and
prosperous looking young men sit down
TO dinner opposite.
"All that you will ever meet. Talk
no more"
But a week later All Lon came home
n day after delivering a dozen little
jackets for a merchants child and
found Wo Ling pounding her knees
with her clinched hands. The woman's
patient face was contorted, her eyes
glittered with the sunken fires of her
nature. 1t was the first time that All
Lon had seen her mother excited, and
she dropped the little bag of silver to
the floor and stood wringing her hands.
"What is it," she asked. "What is
it?"
We Ling clasped her hands hard to-
gether and set her face.
"Your father, she said. And it was
some moments before she could speak
again.
HE is dead2'' asked All Lon in a
whisper.
We Ling shook her head. Finally she
spoke. He has been doing work for
one of the rival secret societies-those
who rule us here in China Town and
our own souls, who murder and are
nev caught by the big white police
men with the clubs; he has done muir
der and all kinds of terrible work for
one of these societies. do not know
which-and the other knows Of It at
last and is hunting him down. He
sends me word that he will come here
tonight and that l must hide him."
In spite of her horror All Lon thrilled
with the first excitement which had
come into her life.
"He will come 2" she gasped.
Eyes, but he shall not stay. When
the highbinders follow, they can have
him."
All Lon had never contradicted her
mother-indeed, she had thought her
second in wisdom only to the priest in
the josshouse. But the inherited in
stinct rose in rebellion, and she said
timidly:
HE is my father. I should like to
protect him"
We Ling sprang to her feet, and
catching All Lon by the shoulder hur-
ried her out to the little balcony and
pointed downward to a large shop,
whose windows glittered with masses
of rich stuffs and delicate china.
"You see that, she said hoarsely.
ut is owned by the rich merchant,
Wong Tee. Such another would your
father have been had he not loved opium
more than the girl who followed him
from China-cast forth by her parents
to grow old and bent and weary in
an attic. And l was as beautiful when
he left me as you are today-and at 80
you, too, will be old and bent and
weary She wheeled All Lon about
and pointed to the little dingy, i'll fur
nished room with the holes the rats had
made and the great pile of work. ''It
will be like that as long as you live, :"
she said. ''Shall l not take vengeance
on the MANI"
All Lon, deeply impressed, did not
know what answer to make, so she fell
to weeping bitterly. Her mother releas-
ed her, and prepared the evening meal