Griggs courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., Dak. [N.D.]) 1885-1902, 1900-04-26
A Siren Of Ciudad Juarez
BY Hewett Darrell.


der, tirs,-class American restaurant.
in hot. smelly Mazatlan. Toy had had
some experience with restaurants; in
Mexico City. quite lot more. In both
these places he had cleared a consider
able amount of money, with which,
had he been a wise Celestial, he would
have remained content. But. no; 10y
believed that on the Mexican side Of
the Rio Grande he could win out with
at least two thousand year. The Mel
icans," as he we'll knew, pay any prices
asked for clean beds at night and hot
cakes in the early morn, with lard y, in
digestibe pies in the interim-"all
right
From the very first poor little Toys
restaurant was a bowling success. as
much with the McNicans as with the
Americans; this in spite of the fact
that with a good knowledge of the
Spanish tongue Toy combined "a thor
ough ignorance of and dislike for the
gringo language. Besides which, in
his secret heart, Toy cherished
strong dislike for the American nation
at large-the same being finally his un-
doing This dislike was based princi-
pally upon the fact that while on the
Mexican side of The bridge over the Rio
Grande he was a man of might and
weight owing to his ten thousand Mex
foam dollars and his tlourishing restau
rant; on the other Tor tmerican) side.
he was only a "slit-eyed Chinaman," al
lowed therefore no rights or perqui-
sites as a citizen-yea. hooted at and
ridiculed by even the children playing
in the streets. For all of which reasons
Toy had never deigned to take out nee
essary papers permitting him to cross
the bridge to the American side. nor
had he even put his sabot -shod foot on
American soil. a populous Chinatown
had grown up quickly in Ciudad Juarez,
verging even to the banks of the great
river that divides Mexico from the
United States Of Amcrica-which river
no ChinaElan must pass without his
identification papers and passports.
Cinnamon jostled YOU in the aduana.
in the hotels and i'm the very streets on
the Mexican side; shy, narrow-eyed
Chinese women, with plastered hair
and native dress. battered hurriedly by
You when you made your way into
Chinatown; roly-poly Chinese babies
played their native games within Il
stones throw OF the Mexican Eagle
and Snake" over the aduana. or custom
house. and any evening you could see
dge-dressed Cinnamon hurrying to
the Native Lands" daily conclave: in
short. he "woods We're full of China
men. And of all these the head and
front, the very moving spirit. was Toy
Lung Lee. honorable possessor Of ten
Thousand heavy Mexican dollars. head
OF the secret society, owner of the
longest and most admired pigtail in
Citdad Juarez. and Il great man gen
orally.
Owing to all these facts. any unmar-
ried female Celestial in ]uarez China
town would gladly have taken Toy
Lung Lee for better or worse. and UNI
til death did them part. Unfortunate
1y. of these enterprising females Toy
would have none He had been mar
ried once before. in Canton, and of mat
rimony Toy had had a Sutticiency. At
present. as he contided to his cousin. Jim
Sing. he was on what the Americans
call 1.-The makee." with which women
nese or otherwise. Toy Lung Lee
wished none. AS Confucius had said
centuries ago. women We're at the bot
tom of all evil. and provolers of mis-
chief generally.
ANY man of whatever color or ma
tionality is inevitably paid out for
speeches of the above seditious sort,
and Toy Lung did not escape the usual
fate. One fine day when the Mexican
sun was shining brightly overhead and
the stars and stripes, just visible on the
other side of the bridge, tiuttered wild
1y in the November breeze. and the
smell Of hot break fast cakes was giving
place in the restaurant to savory whiifs
of pies designed for the gringos'
l,ncheon--on such a day and hour poor
Toy fell wildly unreasonably and ire
trievably in love. Not with a demure.
smooth-haired and tinyfooted Chinese
maiden: not with an Alpinehattcd. bi-
cycling American tourist girl. but wit h
the black-eyed, rosy-mouthed. man
tillaed Mexican senorita. Chona. whose
one laughing glance. as she passed by,
attended by her cousin, Juan ,JimeneZ.
had been the undoing of poor Toy Lung
Lee. and. as Il matter of natural Sc
quence. the start on that downward
road which leads to ruin.
He had already heard of Chona, the
daughter of ilnpecunious old Carlos.
runner of the lot terry on the other side
OF the street: she was the betrothed
OF Juan .Iminez. and the prettiest and
wiclledest hirt in three countries. Had
She not already driven two men to the
verge of distraction, one (more unfor-
tunate.) to the other side Of the river
or grirgo-land. and a fourth (Juan
.Imenez himsef) to drink and the lot
terry? Knowing all these things. Toy
was yet powerless-,otally unable tc
rest rain his love and admiration for the
fair being who had on that fatal morn.
ing passed by. and in the passing had
taken away on her careless smile the
whole of his adoring Celestial heart.
\ow nc ,nnftar of fact hard finn