The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1903-03-12
QUOY'S DRAGON:
In.
PELL STREET.

mouse had been Dul!t ne cOuiQ lGoN
across q socty bristle Of chimney pots
and frayeG tangle of clothes lines tc
the ;all buildings CT the Bowery.
From the narrow street below nc
could hear the gable Of his blue
bloused countrymen, rising gutturally
to him whom the weather permitted an
open window. All day they loungea
down there, in doorways, putting theiE
kong bamboo pipes and chatierlnS. OF
do!giug in and out CT the untidy shops
whose back rooms reeked with the
sweet smell of opium smoke. AT
night they were likely to have other
amusements-ne could see the lights
across the street then in Jim Quong' s
place. where he knew they were slap
ping down long, black backed fan tan
cards in the midst of heavily breath
ing crowd of 1aen. Sometimes there
was sick man at the Joss house fer
treatment, and the bong banged and
shivercd interestingly in his ears. AT
other times the patrol wagon came
amid much uproar, and the street
filled at once with chattering Chinese
and frightened sightseers and beetle
browed whites from the Bowery.
There was always something for
Ouoy to look a1 from his top floor win
dow. He could not go down stairs be-
cause he was very sick man with
several diseases. the surest being con-
sumption. A Cantonese-a fellow
townsman of his-brought him his
food ard opium for certain consider
alton, and burned sticks In the Joss
house for him now and then. But he
could never find Quoy's money, even
VIXEN he crept in after the old mans
pipe had rolled out of his hand, and
one could see only the whites Of his
eyes.
The only thing beside Quoy who
krew where the money was hidden
was the dragon.
No one ever saw the dragon except
Quoy, ard he only at certain times.
His father had been acquainted with
tit would seem-in Canton; it was
such a family institution that Quoy's
solitary. whole-room grandeur would
have been too lonely without 1t. Quoy
himself had first known 1t across the
Black Water at home. It had followed
him to America and he was touched,
when he thought of it, at its devotion
in q strange land. The split mating
he lay on might grow more and more
ragged; the little jade snuff bottle
might break and the odd far-traveled
Lares and penates might fall to pieces,
but the dragon was always the same.
So long as he kept the black smoke
pipe with the lotus mou;h-piece, and
the small can Of opium, and the pea
nut Gil lamp at hand, the dragon would
come and keep him company.
Every night when he was tired OF
his window and felt little lonely he
he would light the peanut oil lamp be-
side the mat and cock one fat, bub-
bling pill OF opium a(tc: the other on
his needle and smoke slowly. The oc-
casional time-killing pipes of the day
no more kept the pains out OF his
lungs, and it was the evenings smok-
ing that was the days event.
When the air was close and sweet
smelling from successive pipes and
the small lamp fame grew misty, then
at last, ont from behind the battered
erimv screen across the room, Quoy's S
dragon would come crawling little by
little into view. through the floating
smoke streaks and dusk, with his pink
and Furnished scales rasping, actual
". on the rough floor. When ne was
ali In view, his bulk seemed out of all
proportion to his screen hiding place:
His great head. with its horns and
long teeth and the saffron beard from
it's chin, was very near the little lamp
between the two big fcurDaws. Be-
hind, the scaled back and the folded
wings, ard long, silky tail blended
with the smoke streaks and dark
ness. So, very socially, it would set
tie down on one side of the lamp while
Ouoy, on the other, rolled his pills and
looked sleenily into its big red eyes,
and talked to it about Canton content
edly. AT the dragon had known his
father and Canton city from the Wall
Pagoda to tho Flower Boats, Quoy, in
isolation and solitude from his follows,
was never positively lonely.
One night, nearly 20 hours after the
dragon had gone, Quoy woke up from
a long dream very sick man indeed.
The several diseases and the Black
Smoke had pretty nearly finished him,
and for once the pipe was almost TOO
far away for him to reach. When his
fellow townsman came in presently
and chased the shadows off the mat
by lighting the peanut oil lamp. Quoy
fixed him with his eye and said:
60 to the missionary man tonight
and tell him to come here. Tell him
that I shall want him to take my
money and buy me coffin and send
me back in it to China
His friend sat down on his heels and
peered prospectively into the opium
can.
81 would dc that as we'll as the mis-
sionary man." he said 5olemn!y and
plainly. Qnoy's face cracked in a
ghost of a smile.
"No," he said Il would not put a
shadow on my friends conscience.
Bring him here quickly or no oIe will
ever find it,"
The friend got up silently and went
out. Quoy managed to pick up pipe
and needle and % light the lamp. He
smoked his makeup pipe febely. Once
he stopped and said. half aloud (which
showed that hc was not himselD:
MANY hide money in mating and
clothes and screens, but who would
hide it in the gnc;:e en- his head?" A
little noise startled him and he looked
up to see his fellow townsrlan grin
ming in at The door.
The man came in and deliberately
unwOund Quoy's rusty queue, while
Quov dragged at his hands furiously,