Connecticut western news., 1899-07-13
All LON.

An Lon was 18, and, considering that she had grown up in China Town, re- markedly sweet, albeit with tinge of bitterness She was also pretty, with soft curves in her face and intelligence in her large, oblique eyes. She wore a i neat frock of dark blue linen, made with long square Chinese jacket and full trousers. A round club of wood fit ting the nape of her neck was her pill low. She could only afford to have her hair combed with the seven combs, and worked into shining cues, stuck fast with pomatums, then pinned fast upon her head
 For Ah Lon was not the daughter of | a rich merchant, but of a poor seam- stress, who lived in rickety old build ing, more respectable than many in not by opium fiends. Ah Lon and her mother, 8 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 An 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 was banquet almost every night, and the wealthy merchants in their satin and crepe garments sat about the little tables and dined of tiny plates of tinier portions, while women sat close by and sang in monotonous | discordant voices. The opium smokers | lay on marble couches in the recesses of the rooms and looked with filmy scorn upon the beasts who cared for food Once week An Lon went with her mother to the josshouse 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 no scenery, she admired the gorgeous gold embroidered robes of the actors so much that she forgot to be l bored, and finally went to sleep on her mothers shoulder.
 Beyond these brief experiences, and what she saw from her eyrie, An Lon knew nothing of the world. Her mother had told her once that outside of China town-a swarming precinct not 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 Ah Lon had never seen it., although strange foreign looking people came sometimes with policeman to poke their noses about China Town, to the phlegmatic contempt of the race that bled and despised them.
 Mother" said An Lon one day, ''some girls have fathers. Have not onef''
 Perhaps" said the mother, whose wrinkled eye sockets suddenly contract ed
 "Where, then, is hef"
 "Under the pavement in 8 bunk, smoking opium night and day-unless he is dead" !"
 An 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.
 Twill be never come back"
 "Ask no more. interrupted her mother fiercely. 'I 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 I have strength in my right arm to beat you.
 But are all men alikef'' asked An Lon naively. She had seen slim and prosperous looking young men sit down to dinner opposite.
 "An that you will ever meet Talk no more.
 But week later An Lon came home one day after delivering a dozen little jackets for 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. It was the first time that Ah Lon had seen her mother excited, and she dropped the little bag of silver to the floor and stood wringing her hands.
 What is itf" she asked. What is itf"
 Wo 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 deads'' asked Ah Lon in a whisper.
 Wo 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 never caught by the big white police men with the clubs; he has done mur- der and all kinds of terrible work for one of these societies. do not know which-and the other knows of 1t at last and is hunting him down. He sends me word that he will come here tonight and that must hide him.
 In spite of her horror An Lon thrilled with the first excitement which had come into her life.
 'tHe will cemef" she gasped.
 "Yes, but he shall not stay. When the highbinders follow, they can have him.
 An Lon had never contradicted her 1 mother-indeed, she had thought her second in wisdom only to the priest in the josshouse. But the inherited in- Btinct rose in rebellion, and she said timidly:
 He is my father. should like to protect him. '' II