Evening star., 1902-03-01
DINNER CHINESE FASHION.
A New Year Spread With Celestial
Fare and Slave Girls Galore.

From the Los Angeles Times
Of the many days of the Chinese New
| Year gala season set apart for different
celebrations, yesterday belonged to the
merchants They say it was a day long to
| be remembered for it's feasting and good
| cheer. The Kong Chew Tong or Mer-
chants Society, spread the biggest cost
| llest banquet of the year. and there have
| been many big ones of late: Il tremendous,
| noisy affair with music and gin and slave
| girls. George Lem the Apab.asca street
merchant. had charge of it, and it was no
stingy meal, lasting, with recesses from
o clock in the afternoon until the small
hours this morning
Two hundred Cinnamon sat down to the
feast. The Oldest and most influential the
sleekeSt and most prosperous merchants OF
the region, gathered together sedatey at
several exclusive tables, while the lesser
members of the Kong Chew Tong and the
invited guests from the country round
made merry with the girls and the music
Ihe banquet was straight, unadulterated
Chinese through and through: there was
nothing to detract from its barbaric din
and smell and splendor; the only white
men present during the exclusive festivi-
ties when the painted girls were in evi-
dence We're reporter and one of the old
hapltues and guides of the Little China
of Los Angeles.
There We're between twenty-five and
thirty slave girs-unfortunate, rented
thlngs. pretty, some of them and gorge
ously arrayed-who played cards with the
men and smoked cigarettes, saw that the
tiny glass bowls of wicked gin were kept
filled and generally added Zest to the oc-
caslon. They were furnished to the So
ciety by the rich Chinatown slave owners
Ii was funny to see how they carried on
and coquetted with the young gallants-
and sometimes the old ones the rich old
ones. who had gin-loosened purse strings
They piled their fans with effect RAINING
the fellows the head bn do
| pertinent remarks in their ear and feign-
ing, with exaggerated gestures anger
scorn, aHectlon or excessive merriment as
the occasion required. 1t all seemed to be
lots Of fun: but the little women-creatures
looked about with lustreless eyes and were
stu when nobody was pressing them to be
mirthful.
The famous Hop Sing Tong Orchestra
with it's blind leader was there i'm the mn
SIC room of the main hall where the opium
smokers dais is, and banged out and
Scraped on even weirdor music than usual
For While during the evening to most
lugubriouS strains, woman sang looking
always lntenIy at her fan as if reading
the notes there; and a crowd gathered In
oellsht to hear the falsetto voice. A still
more popular part of the program was the
song, or rather recitation to music of a
male actor, who contorted his face in a
eIleNouS way as he sang an endless trag-
edy to the clashing Of the cyu,bals and
humping of the tom-toms. The linked
strains long drawn out which he uttered at
the end of each stanza We're as indescrib-
able as the wall of a coyote who sits on the
mesa top complaining to the moon.
There was birds nest soup of course
and all the other fine things In fact, il
was a banquet Of banquets. and the red
satin. and heavy geld furnishings of the
place with the big lanterns strung on the
balconies made it gorgeous affair. A
block away, while the wild music was raw
ing and the slave girls were pouring gin,
the organ of Chinese Christian mission
in hy-yv1 n,I -@;x
hoated the songs up to the balconies. A
street preacher, too, pleaded loudly I'm
Christs name. And the rumbling trains
always passing, shook Chinatown from top
to bottom; but the ancient ways of the
east carried the revelers on through the
feast and to the wanton end of ii without
change. Chinatown is a canvas that bears
human picture of startling contrasts.