Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1902-03-29
THE YELLOW LILY.

1t makes no difference what happens,
man should keep to his own race and
breed. | said it then and preach it now
with moral to clnch the tale.
No. it could not have been prevented,
for we were not wise men, and Dennis
had a will of iron for all of his treating
life like a jest-until it happened. 1t
the beginning he treated lit as a Jest,
too.
We were a number of young men liv-
ing IN lodging house on the downward
slant of Mob hill in Frisco. Our place
was the dividing line between the "Nobs"
and the other kind. Struggling over the
bay slope Of the hill was Chinatown. We
knew more of that then we did of the
ascending grade Up there the gold
kings had built their palaces. Frisco
was unveneered i'm those times. Men
were near to nature in the rough and
were IN too much Of Il money-gettng pas
SION to hide the savage under a coat of
polish.
The year when it happened does not
concern you. 1t is not so long ago but
that ! remember, and it is not so recent
but that most have forgotten.
As | said we were q party of young
Fellows living under one roof, expecting
every hour to strike it rich, and not
wearing away with worry when we
talled in our expectations. Dennis
Burke-yes, that was his name-was TAX
en- into the fold like a lamb. We called
him Dennis before he had been in the
house n day. He was that kind of a
man. lie came in the evening when the
elan had gathered and we were loafing
III our rooms talking over affairs of no
Importance Not a door was closed be-
tween us. There was not woman in
the place except the landlady, and she
knew 10
when the youths OF her household were
dlsporting. There We're only six of us
1lture nsnrsi0is es. h,lt q had mad liFfg
CROUCH and made noise enough for sixty
There was John Whitley, he's coined
his million; and Bob-but the rest of Tie
crew does not matter; it is Dennis
BurSe's story I'm telling.
You'd think from the name that he
was an lrshman. Well, he was, and
he had all the best traits of his nation.
lie was a big-Gmbed siN-foOter with
voice like a pipe organ. ! can hear him
booming annie Laurie" now. He could
throw out notes from that grand chest
of his that made the rafters SILVER. |
told YOU his voice was like a pipe or
gan, and when he put the soft taps on
you thought of home and mother.
He fell into our ways at once and eX-
changed neckties like Il gentleman. We
did that for the sake of variety. We
were not lucky enough to own more than
one apiece at Il time, owing TO Il pre-
vailins and universal stringency in the
money market. Denni5 would have been
equally free in exchanging clothes, only
his size preveuted-though we were none
of MS pigmieS.
We all liked Denuis, and when he got
the madness on him We petted him like
n sick baby. He had brain sickness and
we couldn't get him cured. His room
was ON the Chinatown side, and from his
window he could see into q ramShaCkle
house set in the middle of the block.
They built houses that way III Frisco;
a row on the street and another row be
hind. You got to the rear ones through
an alley.
The first saw of Dennis bad symp
toms was when he called me one day to
come and see his flower of the Orient.
He was standing at his window look
ing down and smiling Mt the house set in
the middle of the block. 1t was a woman
smile | looked and smiled, too, for
was young then
Yes. the woman was there sitting on n
balcony dcckcd with gaudy paper Ian
terms and queer plants in ugly Chinese
pots. She was Chinese woman. She
may have been rs or II years old, but
at that age her kind are women. She
knew Dennis was watching her; you
could tell il by the way she held her
head. Heather or Christian, women can
see those things without looking.
In the beginning it was only fun for
Dennis, but he took chances when he
played with the willy CelestialS. Pres
emily he commenced To rave over the
strange beauty of Orientals. | could
never find any beauty in Chinese wom-
en- myself, with their straight, black hair
stiffencd into wooden coils, their painted
lips and their yellow skins. Old ivory,
Dennis said, was the tint of their com
pleXionS-but he was mad.
We joked him about his Yellow Lily
until he showed temper. Then We
realized that his attack was serious. He
used to sit at night in his dark room
with the window open. singing in that
pipe organ voice of his with the soft
stops on. Sometimes he would get an
answer. and sometimes not. When he
did il came through the dismal fog in
thin, little tones, chanting heather, Ii
sounded like Il nasal Groom to me. | sap
pose to Dennis il was the song Of q
siren
l don't know when he was ever with
the Chiuawonan. Ii must have been
difficult TO re@ch her. but when a man is
bent on making Il fool of himself his
opportunities are astonishing. There
were days when Dennis scarcely left his
room. He stayed there alone playing
Robinson CruSOc. Again. he would seem
TO pull himself together and do nothing
but work heavens, how that man did
work when lie was trying 10 regain his
reason,
The Chinks who owned the girl dis
covered what was going on. You can
not fool a Chinaman; they are not Con
| fucians for nothing. | felt sorry fol.
| Dennis. though | thought him the prince
of idiots. He would stand looking down
AT the Yellow Lily WITH an expression
| on his face as if he was worshiping the
Deity. Several times it happened that
while they We're talking with their eyes