The Saint Paul globe., 1900-06-03
FIsHERMAN,s LUCK

lad from the Orient came across seas to
this coast in the steerage. of a steamer.
He had first opened his almond eyes in
the province Of Sun Ming, a farming dis
triCt
STARTED ALOTTERY SCHEME.
- FARMERS in China do not live on the
land they cultivate. Space Is too
precious. They bunch their families into
compact, little houses. separated by al
geys, and go daily forth to their tilltng
of soil. In California, where ranches
sometimes cover thousands Of acres, a
farmer turns a colt to pasture in ten
acre lot In China a man who owns ten
acres is considered wealthy
The boy farmer had heard fabulous
tales Of the New World. They lured him
from the raising of vegetables. He left
mis- ancestral home and Travelled to Ogden,
Utah There he went to work in some
bodys kitchen as a cook.
But Chin Tan Sun, amid his new sur
roundings. thought of other things than
bread making and stove polishing and
dish washing. He dreamed Of wealth
and power, though none would have
Guessed that he was other than an eX-
Cellent household machine, content to go
no farther afield than the slip slip OF
sandaled feet on q kitchen floor would
carry him, until he could save enough
from his wages to insure the sending of
his bones back to China should he Gle
In the land Of the white devils.
! a girl of Scandinavian parentage, good
Yooking and industrious. was employed
as domestic In a neighboring family.
Chin Tan Sun courted and married her.
They came to San Francisco and COM
menced housekeeping on Jackson street.
In Chinatown. with the dollars that had
been earned in the Ogden kitchen.
Now. every Chinaman is a natural born
gambler Chin Tan Sun. keenly on the
alert for an opportunity to begin the
amusing of a fortune, conceived clever
fdea,-an idea which, initiated since then
by white-skinned spectators, has made
them rich. This idea was the oTtginat>
Ing of the lottery scheme.
+ SUCCESS FOLLOWED AT ONCE.
!. There were at this time fifteen Chinese
lotteries running at what is colloquially
termed ''fUl blast" in Chinatown. Each
Conducted two drawings daily-thlrty
winnings per day. He opened what he
called the American Lottery company.
selling tickets with numbers duplicating
those of the fifteen gambling concerns.
He sought American patronage and
white people began to play the Chinese
lottery. He paid with instant prompt
!
became a comparatively rich man.
It was better than cultiVating vege-
fables in the province of Sun Ming.
2 It was better than wearing out sandals
In a torrid Ogden kitchen.
= A Chinaman rarely banks his money.
FIe invests it instead in countless ways,
and what he does not invest he secretes
underground.
Chin Tan Sun developed marvellous
u oil
terest liz numerous stores. He learned
TO speak English with fiuency. His deal
Ings were invariably on a cash basis, no
matter how large the sum involved. He
opened up a dozen gambling houses in
: Oakland whose show windows displayed
fans and punk sticks and bazar articles
In general as a blind to conceal the ur-
lawful operations In the locked rooms
back of them. He kept the police busy
raiding his gambling joints and himself
busy Juggling coin into court with which
TO deposit cash bail for his employees who
had been gathered in by the blue coated
arm of the law. Fines he paid with sto-
icial Indifference.
TURNED OAKLAND UPSIDE DOWN.
But one day an Oakland judge imposed
n fine OF ten times the usual amount, in
f1is determination to teach Chin a lesson
Gyhen Chin showed fight. Through his at
1orney he had the municipal records
searched. and the result turned Oakland
Upside down, for, to relate briefly. it was
discovered that the charter was invalid
that the court in which Chin's agent had
been convicted was not even a de facto
court, nor would Chin consent to have his
man set free. though the superior court
itself, sitting in bank on the case-an event
Khat had never occurred there before