The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-06-21


America
Millionaires are not necessarily interest
ing But here is a novelty in the SIX
ciphered class. Where else on American
soil may be found a millionaire with
queue, who thinks nothing at all of owning
whole towns; who employs hundreds o.
white men and women in his factories ano
canneries; who pays taxes on ranches, city
real estate, gold mines, and diamonds
who runs lottery games; upsets city
| charter when he wants to; imports con-
tract laborers by hundreds from China; Is
a power in highlander tong; conducts
real estate business in Hongkong and sew
| eral merchandise stores in San Francisco
| and is genuine Monte Cristo in his bust
ness methods?
| Chin Tan Sun does all these things. and
more. He is a self-made man. He is
| wider awake when he is asleep than many
of the persons with whom he comes in con-
tact during business hours. Some thirty
| years ago a lorg-legged lad from the
| Orient came across the seas to this coast
| in the storage of a steamer. he mad
first opened his almond eyes in the prov
| ince of Sun Ming a farming district.
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 alleys, and go
daily forth to their tilling OF the soil. In
| California, where ranches cover thousands
| of acres, a farmer turns a colt to pasture
| in a ten-acre lot. In China 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 his ances-
! trail home and Travelled to Ogden, Utah.
| There he went to work in somebody
| 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 excellent house
hold machine, content to go no further
afield than the slip-slip sandaled feet on
kitchen floor would carry him, until he
could save enough from his wages to en-
sure the sending of his bones back to
China should he die. in the land of the
white devils. >.
a girl of Scandinavian parentage. good
looking and Industrious, was employed as
domestic in a netghboring family. Chin
Tan Sun courted and married her. They
came to San Francisco and commenced
housekeeping in jackson Street in China
town with the dollars that had been earned
in the Ogden kitchen. Chin Tan Sun,
keenly on the alert for an opportunity to
begin the amassiIg OF a fortune, conceived
clever idea. This idea was the orig
mating of the little lottery scheme.
There were at this time fifteen Chinese
lotteries running in Chinatown. Each
conducted two drawings daily. Chin put
his idea into immediate practice and brill
liant success followed. 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 peo-
pie began to play the Chinese lottery. He
paid with instant promptness all winning
claims. and in a year became a compare
lively rich man.
Chin Tan Sun developed marvellous bust
ness sagacity. He bought a small interest
in numerous stores. He learned to speak
English fiuently. His dealings were In
variably 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 bazaar articles in general as a
blind" to conceal the unlawful 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 stoical Indifference.
One day On Oakland Judge imposed
fine ten times the usual amount in his |
determination to teach Chin a lesson
Then Chin showed fight. Through his at
torney he had the municipal records search
ed and the result turned Oakland upside |
down, for, to relate briefly, 1t was els |
covered that the charter was invalid; that |
the court in which Chin's agent had been |
convicted was not even de facto court;
nor would Chin consent to have his man |
set free, though the Superior Court itself, |
sitting en- banc on the case-an event that |
had never occurred there before-wanted |
to dismiss the troublesome matter. And |
SO Oakland had to provide itself with |
brand new charter, while the shrewdest |
Chinese that the law had had to deal |
with laughed in his flowing blouse sleeve; |
laughed and went on piling UP wealth that |
could buy every little garden patch in his |
native province, and still have enough to |
burn out all the punk sticks that China
town could import.
During these years the influence Of Chin |
Tan Sun had been increasing until it made |
itself felt with respect and fear, not only
in the Asiatic quarter, but beyond its linn
its, He was a member Of the Chinese Six
Companies. He was one of trio at the
touch OF whose yellow fingers the fortunes
of their countrymen were nodded, made.
and unmade. These three were Big jim.
Little Pete. and Chan Chung. Big Jim
was now the name by which Chin Tan Sun
was known throughout San Francs SEQ. The
long legged lad from the Orient had grown
into some six feet of very good looking,
smooth shaver Chinaman, better proper
toned than the majority Of the Chinese In
business matters he was regarded as The
soul Of honor. Said man who knew m
well: 'If Big Jim were to tell me that he |
would meet me at certain place within
the hour to pay me $4,000 in coin ! would
know that he Would be there if he were
alive
When big JIM was starting one OF his
fruit canneries he went downtown and ne
gotiated with white firm fer $4,000 in ma
terials Then he gave directions for tie
supplies to be shfpped-at once.
What security have you to Offer"
asked the white merchant.
Big Jim drew himself up with scorn.
81 have no security to Offer he re-
piled. 81 have money. l want credit of
no man." From his pocket he drew
wallet out of which he counted the SIS. 900
in gold notes and the trifing incident of
purchasing was closed.
Big Jim Town, Chinese settlement
near San Jose, was at one time owned by
Chin. He also has ranches scattered over
the State and contemplates starting n |
steamship line along the Chinese coast.
His wealth is declared to reach the multi
millionaire mark. rich Chinaman lives
|