The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-23

The Graft in San Francisco's China
town.

natown, and one of the most interesting
characters. is Wong Gong. astrologer.
clairvoyant physiognomist. nalmist
and all-round wizard. who holds court
in the weirdest sort of little den in the
'Blingum" portion of the Celestial
quarter. Wong hangs his sign at the
entrance of the Jackson street Palace
Hotel.
At round table in the center of a
room about 10 by - feet sits the twin
of the doctor in The First Born" A
small kerosene lamp radiates light for
space of perhaps two feet and sends
queer shadows over the remaining por-
ton of the room. You are already fas-
c1nated by the mystery of 1t; you in
hale the faint odor of incense and look
about at the assortment of mixed pic
lures. Suddenly you are recalled to
earth by the fiowery speech of the re-
vealer, asking whether you will have
the past or future, want him to read
your palm, let the stars determine your
tate, or just choose your own fortune
by selecting sticks. There Is one pecu-
liarity in all the various methods of
Chinese fortune telling-you must ask
plainly just what you want TO know.
You announce the subject and the pro-
phet will do the rest.
fancy 1t depends a great deal upon
the color of your eyes and hair and
the tilt to your nose whether the an
swer to your question be propitious or
no. One old fellow in a communicative
mood told me that ne would not tell
any red-haired persons fortune. Titan
| locks and FURNISHED copper do rot APP
peal to the artistic soul of the Chi
nese. Priests, ministers, doctors and
undertakers are also tabooed, Il v any
chance their profession is disclosed.
! Their money, according to the Chi
1 Ea0 txtfll hAn1nA hn
Gong. sowever is a trifie more Amer
icanized than any of the others, so
| he does not draw the line quite so
severely, but he, too, has his supersti-
| tons.
Tourists generally take so cents or
| 81 worth of past or future, but those
| who know are more apt to decker for
| a quarters worth, for fortune in
Chinatown is sold singly or in guam
| titles, like fish or vegetables. Ten
| cents a question, three for a quarter,
| seven for a half and it is vastly more
! fun than buying it in wholesale guam
| titles. The stick process of divination
goes something like this: The customer
/ is requested to choose from a small
| jar full of sticks. These sticks are
about foot in length, pointed at the
end and painted red at the tips. The
! symbols and Chinese characters upon
| these determine your fate. There are,
| in all, twenty-six of these sticks, each
| one representing a block upon the
| shell of a terrapin a certain species of
| which, from the Chinese point of view,
is symbolic of all that is good. Some
| of the spots painted upon the sticks
are associated with words strongly ex-
| pressive of evil, as "hend," dragon"
or EVIL genii."
| Others are spirits of dead friends.
God, Heaven. earth, water, fire"
etc After choosing the required num-
Der of sticks they are deity gathered
up by the taper fingers of the diviner,
| who has in the meantime placed slip
| of red paper before him and has pre-
| pared the brush and pot of backing
| or Chinese ink. Then as he looks
| over the symbols and sorts the sticks
he murmurs a sort of prayer as he
writes in Chinese on the red slip. The
prayer as near as it can be translated
into English. goes like this: May the
| great felicitous star answer to it's
change without resting. May it dis
pei diabolical influences and bind mon
| sters, preserve life and protect the
person. In wisdom, Intelligence.
splendor and purity. may the heart
and spirit have rest and peace. May
the three souls of which man is con-
| stituted endure forever"
| You are then requested to state your
question. Perhaps you wish to know
If you are to travel. Very we'll A
| long jargon a lot of mysterious let
ter painting, the revealer all the time
! as serious as statute. Finally he
answers that you will be lucky, or
otherwise. Then he is ready for the
next question. If you happen to strike
| Wongs fancy he will tell you that you
| have a red heart" one of the great
est compliments that Chinese can
pay.
Just how well Wong Gong can divine
! the future l am not prepared to state;
| but he certainly is a clever judge OF
| human nature, and among his own
countrymen he appears to be quite a
| power, having many regular customers
| to consult him on every question be-
| fore taking action. Many fond fathers
| bring their small sons to see what the
| future has in store for them. Wong
| himself is a queer character, a mix
ture of native shrewdness and Irish
barney He speaks three languages,
| but is master of none.> His patois OF
flowery English. occasionally breaking
into the most popular of slang, Is GER
tainly a curiosity, especially as this
slang is spoken with Confucian dig
nifty and great seriousness. During
his twenty odd years of fortune-tell-
ing here in San Francisco Wong has
made quite number of American
of whom he is very proud.
The street fortune tellers are also
interesting characters. About every
four blocks one can be found. Some
tell with the sacred fish, others with
a tortoise shell, then, again, just a
few blocks of wood and three marked
coins is all that is required. On Wav-
erly place, off Washington street,
within the length of one block, there
are no less than four fortune tellers,
and they all seem to be pretty prosp-
porous. With a table the size of a
small sewing table, set up against the
walls of the Joss house, one old fell
low Is slowly piling up fortune. He
has for stock In trade a piece of tin
about fourteen inches square, which,
being cheaper than paper, is used as
a slate. When you have your for
tune fore told here you cannot take
the written sheet with you, as you
can from old Wong, who presents the
slip of red paper as a luck charm.
but your entire fortune rs, upon pay
ment of your Is cents, Immediately
wiped off the slate This old fell
lows answers to the euphonioIs
combination of Yen Sen, and he tells
you what the future holds by means
of a tortoise shell and coins.
The shell used for fortune telling Is
an importation from across the Pacific,
for the sacred species of tortoise does
not inhabit the waters of America. The
shell has also to go through long.
monotonous ceremony, during which
1t is scorched until all the veins are
clearly seen; then, after 1t is brightly
noIfshed and anointed with a perfun-