The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-07
AMERICA BEST LAND FOR FAKIR
A Chinese Juggler Tells e Duluth
 Paper of His Travels.

A Chinese Juggler Tells Duluth
 Paper of His Travels. America is the best country in the world for a fakir." said An Wing to Duluth News Tribune reporter. An Is the jolly little Celestial in a mottled yell low robe who has been selling things worth nothing at ten times their value, near the corner of Third Avenue West and Superior Street for week or more. And he knows whereof he speaks, for he has trod the Orient and Occident in the successive roles of mystic, 1uggler and fakir.
 "An fellow has to do here" went on the Chinaman, who speaks excellent Eng fish, Ifs to go out and get the money. The people you relieve of their coin like 1t. and nobody seems any the worse. And at that, they are the wisest people in the world. Maybe that's the reason they don't kick on little things.
 It's entirely different elsewhere. The meanest people in the world for fakir fn work are the Hindoos. and the next the Turks The Hindoo knows the game too we'll and. although the Turk Is ig- norant, he doesn't want to let you know 1t. He brings you to court for little cause. and 1t Is a serious thing to go to court in Turkey, as I will try to prove by an actual happening to me in the land of the Sultan.
 ''When was a boy, nearly forty years ago. I learned few tricks of juggling and other styles of black art and thought I was all right. I started to make living in that line in Canton. but I encountered the competition of whole school of really good men, and people laughed at me
 From my native land I passed, with troupe of wandering jugglers, into India, where we half-starved. Then we went on to Arabia, and earned a precarious existence by following a pilgrim caravan almost to Mecca. As we approached the Holy City, the pilgrims got religion bad. and were not looking for amusement. Our band stranded. in the worst sense of the word. and every one had to shift for himself.
 For several weeks fared very badly. and square meals did not come with much regularity. In fact, I don't remember having one in the whole time. Finally got work as a camel tender with cara van going north. did very well until we reached their point of destinatlon' when was out of a job again. "A nomAd doesn't care much for sucn oc juggler and fakir and worked through Palestine and up to the Bosphorus, allve, and that was all. I was near Constanu- nople and the big European cities to the | west. and felt that at last had reached a land where I could make a name for myself.
 But my troubles had just begun.
 When I came into the capital of the great Turk, I got busy to amuse the l people at once. I set up my stand on back street. and, after doing tricks, eat ing chemical fire and making few fake | trees grow at my bidding, came down 10 | active business.
 "The Turks are all Mohammedans. ana
 deeply religious. I decided to turn tnat | fact to profit, and put a glowing display of relics-beads and shells from the Holy | City--on sale. I explained as best could the sacred things I was dealing In, ana | soon was doing a rattling business. was | thinking out a fairly good pun about
 Mahomet and the profit when the change | came.
 "A little squad of Turkish soldiers came | silently down the street. and one or them | stepped over and pointed at me "ltn his
 sword. I came near dropping dead. nu'
 managed to keep my feet. Two or the
 men arrested me. pinioned my arms and
 marched me along.
 Next morning I was taken before a
 maeistrate and sentenced. II learned af-
 ter that I was tried for profaning their | reliaion, but at the time l was sentenced had no knowledge of what crime hao | committed. The magistrate must have l known, however. He pronounced my doom | and after striking me three times over | the shoulders with three-cornered Whip' | turned me over to the guard. I was hur- l ried from the city, and at every stopping | place between there and the Greek bor- | der severely beaten on the feet. When | was placed on Greek soil I was without | shoes hungry, ragged and penniless. The | guard gave me not a parting look and
 rode glimly away.
 | "A number of mountaineers I met
 shortly after gave me food, but they had
 little clothing for themselves, and none | for others After several days got down | to the plains and gave few perform
 ances. earning enough to get a littla
 clothing. An old woman, however, ac-
 cused me of bewitching her cattle, and
 made it so unpleasant that left the dis
 trict by night Indeed. had'I waited un-
 til next morning the peasants would have | hanged me.
 "From Larissa I walked my way by | boat to Rome, ard thence to Mexico. | There the people were hospitable enough. | but in the country districts and smaller
 towns the Indians. who composed most
 of the population, thought l was legiti-
 mate prey, and robbed me about twice a | week. The church, too, intertered, and
 l came into the States.
 That is more than thirty years ago,
 and do not care to leave The American
 is all right. He doesn't take things seri-
 ously unless they are worth while. If
 you fool him with some clever trick. he just wonders how you did it, and lets 1t
 go at that. It's the best country in the
 world for my class of work"
 Wing said the Duluth people are pretty
 easy, but the softest people he has met