Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-12-21
THE DEADLY DOOM OF SING LOW
The Story of the Merchant Of Madre
de Dios Who Deserted Fay
Lee for Felipia.

been weary of life, and but for the
vows of his secret society forbidding
would have put a summary end to it
a double quantity of opium in the pipe
is an easy wayl But Sing Low had
perservered and starved until one day
there was an exodus of many of his
own society (now renamed Sons of
the Silver Land'O to the western
coast of Mexico. With them jour
neyed Sing Low and his newly mar
ried wife, Fay Lee, for there was de-
mand for Chinese colonists, and the
promoters told it loudly that there
was plenty of money to be made in
the SILVER land" For once the truth
had been spoken by promoter!
Had you ten years after the exodus
known the Chinatown of Madre de
Dios, and the restaurant and tea
place" of Sing Low you would better
appreciate the fact For the Chinese
colOnists had made unto themselves a
place of their own in the western part
of the city, out beyond the marshes;
many narrow streets were filled with
the shops of the Chinese, who were no
longer the colonists, but full-hedged
citizens.
In the very centre of the Chinese
civilization, and fronting a view of
hot, blue gulf water, Sing Lows name
was blazoned in gaudy Chinese script
over tea-shop and opium den, while
uptown. where Mexicans and mining
men did congregate, another building,
made of yellow adobe and pine boards,
bore the legend: Chinese restaurant
of Sing Low: American pies" In
front of this restaurant generally sat
I I 80
Soo-Chow rice fields-far from it.
This was a very fat and important
Sing Low, in full and flowing Chinese
garments pigtail neatly wound about
a sleeke and shining head, and silk
shod feet thrust into tapping embroid-
cred slippers. A large gold American
watch dangled from his sash, and yell
low Mexican diamonds glittered on
his pudgy fingers-truly had Sing Low
head of the Sons of the Silver
Land" prospered and waxed fat in a
far land.
Inside the restaurant many Chinese
walters and cooks rushed about, serv-
ing all corts and conditions of men at
the manta covered tables. For
Madres de Dios was a steamer town,
whence hides and silver and bullion
even San Francisco and many men of
many sorts ate chilli con carne, and
tortillas and American pies" in the
restaurant of Sing Low. There were
dirty greasers and staggering,
bearmed Mexicans, who drank bottles
upon bottles of fiery mescal. and calm,
deliberate, mining Americans, who
consumed untold numbers of pies and
American canned beans, while Sing
Low smiled from afar, with a keen
eye upon collections. For 20 years
he had saved and toiled, but another
year would see the end. Then, with
Fay Lee, who was now old and fat, and
the 10000 Mexican dollars that they
had made he would go to San Fran
cisco. Back to China? No! Fay Lee
had once timidly proposed it-for she
no children and her heart was sick
for her native land-but Sing Low
said a decided NO" He had not yet
forgotten the rice fields. And be-
sides, in these American lands even a
coolie of low birth could be as mighty
as a mandarin; he, Sing Low, had
been of no import in China, nor would
even his $4,000 make him a mighty
man there. In other words, better
to reign in hell than to serve in
heaven, or ones native land.
To all of which poor Fay Lee had
to consent, of course, Sing Low being
| a husband of no small persuasive
power particularly when aided with a
bamboo stick And he hesitated not
| to chastise the wife Of his bosom
when occasion needed, for did not
even the laws of the Christians say:
wives, obey your husbands in the
Lord? Not that it often became
necessary to impress this latter fact
upon Fay Lee, for she loved the fat,
pompous Sing Low now in the midst
of his prosperity, even as she had once
loved humble Sing Low of the rice
| fields. 1t is the way of many women.
And, though there were few friends,
| and no children for her to caress with
| affection, she was content to live the
life that her husband babe, embroid-
ering his costly garments and waiting
on him as though she were his bonded
slave, instead of his wife. And dur
ing the long hours that he spent in
the opium house or in the secret
lodge of the Sons of the Silver
Land" she consoled herself with many
cups of tea and admiring thoughts OF
the brave figure that her honorable
lord" was at that moment of a surety
making as the head of his society
Poor Fay Lee
say "poorFay Lee" with purpose
as you will find. For, even as the
best-laid plans of mice and men &c
astray, so did the plans and hopes OF
Sing Low and his wife vanish into
naught-through the fault of the man
of course. Sing Low, to make a long
story short, fell in love one bright day
1t is not thing that Celestials are not
given to- for which reason Sing Low
made a bad mess of it, and loved far
more desperately than any other
Chinaman on record-at least, so his
signing protests to the lady in the case
ran. Not that he could be blamed
overmuch for Felipia was the prettiest
girl, out and out, who had ever been
seen in Madre de Dios-as well as one
of the naughtiest. Her brother "a
gambler from Mazatian) had used hel
many months as lure, and more thar
one hapless Mexican had come to grief
for her sake, but Sing Low was the
best game that she had ever caught.
There is in Spanish proverb set
ting forth the same eminent eX
pressed in our own, There's no foo
like an old fool" and never was there
an old fool so deeply in love as Sing
Low, who soon. became the laughing
stock of the entire very mixed popu
lation of Madre de Dios. Fay Lee
of course, knew nothing, and supposed
|