The Tomahawk., 1903-06-11
WUN LUNG
THE HEADLINER
BxwILLIAr1 HI. OSBORNE
- 96&
Copyright, 1908, by Daily Story Pub. Coz

THE world is small, and the years
go by. Time flies like the old in
visible she dragon who visits the tenn
pie every hundred years. 1t IS not SO
long ago chat little Wun Lung and his
neighbor,s Fow Kee, sat at the feet or
the smaller Sun Joy in the Street OF the
Six Hundred Full Blown Roses. Wun
Lung and Fow Kee were men-or
thought they were. Sun Joy was a
woman. Their combined length did not
exceed nine feet. Sun Joy was demure
and coy and winsome. Wun Lung was
lively and good natured. Fow Kee was
burly and Jealous and i'll natured. lie
and Wun Lung kow-towed, as it were,
at the shrine of Sun Joy-and at that
shrine, SO it would seem, Wun Lung
had the inside track. And for that FoW
Kee would pull Wun Lungs short, soft
pig tail-and Wun Lung would simply
laugh.
But Wun Lung had something be-
side his good nature to recommend him
and that someth hing made him much
admired by little Sun Joy and much
envied by Fow. Kee. For, Wun Lung,
although he never realized it for many
years, was a natural born acrobat.
Many believe that feet were made to
walk upon. With Wun Lung it was an
even toss up as to hands, head or feet:
He could Wriggle like snake in the
grass. He could tie himself into a
knot like skein of silk. And he didn't
keep all this to himself. For the first
great event in the lives of Fow kee
and Sun Joy happened on the day
when, under the admirable tuition OF
Wun Lung, they each we're able to walk
from end to end of the bamboo pole in
the market place-the pole where the
rickshaws are all lined up. And when
they had learned they did the trick,
not once but 20 times day.
Wun Lung and Fow Kee, still bowing
low at the shrine of Sun Joy, grew up
into young men-Sun Joy grew into
young woman.
And one day something happened.
Fow Kee was in trouble. Over what no
one knew. He had looked upon the
glowing opium too often-he had lived
too hard. He had disregarded that
commandment which to us is the
eighth, being also the three thousand
and fist Injunction of Confucius. In
other words, he disregarded the law
of private property, and one night he
silently stole away. And that left
Wun Lung only to kowtow before Sun
Joy. But one day he too went-went
in the daytime, with the good will, OF
his neighbors i'm the Street of the Six
Hundred Roses. He went to make his
fortune in the Lew Hand favored Of all
lands. But he went, as he said, but to
return.
In little side street in San Fran
cisco Wun Lung set up the inevitable
laundry. And as he washed and ironed
he thought Of little Sun Joy and his
spirits rose and he sang in his mild,
quavering oriental voice, the songs of
his home land. And many came to
look upon him, for he had one inter
esting popularity which others OF his
race did not have. For if Wun Lung
was on one side of his ironing board
and desired, to reach the other side, he
merely vaulted high in the air-and
there he was. He made quick little
side steps over to the stove, and he
whirled round and round on the ball
of one foot, like a top. And he laughed
as he did it.
One day a scowling, skulking China
man, attracted by the crowd, stuck his
head inside and uttered a cultural
exclamation. Wun Lung responded
ftor was Fow Kee. Fow Kee came in.
He explained that he was rich and pros
porous. He did not explain why his
clothes were Slightly ragged, but he
did suggest THAT If WFun Lung could
put up twenty-five American dollars he
could make Wun Lung a rich man.
Wun Lung put them up and waited to,
become rich. Fuw Kee disappeared.
Time flew. Wun Lung moved to Chi
cago. The crowd there admired him
also. He explained that his name, Wun
Lung, really meant Agile Gibbon. 1t
was in Chicago that he again met Fow-
Kee. This time Fow Kee looked pros
porous, but ne still scowqed. If Wun
Lung had not become rich on that
twenty-five it was apparent that Fow
Kee had Fow Kee watched some of
Wun Lungs antics about the laundry
with considerable interest. In the gath
ering dusk he whispered in Wun Lungs
ear. Wun Lung grew wide eyed in sur
prise. The next day Wun Lung shut
up shop.
In the Imperial Theater in the me-,
tropolis, the head1iners were the Kee
Lung troupe-the Chinese '(not Jap
anese mind, but Chinese) .grotesque
acrobats. They had been running
for four weeks and were still popu-
lar. The troupe consisted only of
Wun Lung and Fow Kee. The stage
was rigged pike Chinese laundry
and what they did was done there
even to the mid q,iavering songs of
the ininitable Wun Lung. When
they had first started. Fow Zee,
whose evil mind sfrayed back to the