The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1903-10-30
SOME TRICKS OF the
HEATHEN CHINEE
Sights That May Be Seen in the
Celestial Quarter Of New
York.
SUICIDE DONE TO ORDER

1t Is One of the Edlfyine spectacles
Tha: May Be Seen for a Fee
Opium Smoking and Gam
bling Are Industries.
New York Sun: BY far the most In
teiestlnS part of New York city in the
eyes OF visitors from out OF own is
CHINATOWN, which is invaded by thou
sands of sightseers every year. Ninety
per cent. OF them so at night and ure
Dent on seeing all The dreadful things
which Cinnamon and their Caucasian
associates are popularity supposed to
90. AS Il result OF this curiosity, a
custom of working off frauds on the
visitors has grown up in Chinatown.
it has proved to be a highly profit
able business all around.
Almost everything that visitors to
Chinatown see nowadays is more or less
Whether the visitors come
by night OF by day, the greater part of
the entertainment provided by their
guides is fraudulent, although they
never know it n go ava satisfied
mat they have seen the real thing.
The Cinnamon who live in Chinatown
are not fools, neither are the White
women who associate with them nor
tne white men WHO pick up a living in
more or less questionable ways in the
quarter. None of the Cinnamon, and
certainly very few of the women, could
be induced to, make public display of
their private lives for money. but they
are not at all aVerSc to arranging little
exhibitions for the e%diication of visit
ors, who pay we'll, thinking they are
seeing the real thing
The Guides.
There are sully Il score OF men Of the
chuck Connors type who call them
selves Chinatown guides. They have
IlVed in the quarter for years, know
every man and woman in it, know the
gambling dens, the joss houses, the
opium joints; in fact, are a part Of the
quarter and we'll qualified to show peo-
PIE about.
Inc minute a visiting party strikes
CHINATOWN 1t is taken in tow by one of
these guides. Sometimes the guide
meets the party by appointment, for
many of them have connections with
hotel clerks uptown who tout for them,
but oftener the party Wanders about
until a guide picks it up and makes a
bargain to show it Chinatown.
or course, the party wants to see
opium smoking, a game of fantan in
operation. the quarters of white wom-
en- who live with Cinnamon, and all the
other things that are Il part of the
Au"i l SulOe lcduS lHell up Ozark
alleyWays, through winding Railways
where they canont see their hands be-
fore their faces, and finally into little
boX-llke rooms where white women and
Cinnamon smoke what is supposed to
be opium for their amusement. All con-
V~ersation is carried on in whispers, q
good deal is said about the police and
other dangers of the expedition, and
the visitors are worked up to a propel
state of excitement.
Not Opium.
What the Cinnamon and womer
smoke is not opium at all. Generally a
small piece Of wax is cooked over the
lamp and inserted over the pinhole OF
the pipe bowl. A convenient cigarette
in The end of the pipes broad stem sup
plies the smoke.
a few puffs and the smoke r rolls owe,
In what appears TO be deep slumber
The guide leads the shivering party
out, and warns all hands to keep the
matter very quiet.
Next he n a Chinese gambling
den in full operation. Fantan, Chimes,
dominoes and games with the lont
strip of cardboard covered with Chimes,
characters are being played. The tabl,
is covered with money, the banker
hauls his coins from the center of the
table with his sharp-pointed stick ant
the players suck away at the gurglinl
water pipes. A carefully arrange pro.
test is made when the visitors enter
but the guide arranges matters and tn,
play is resumed This is just as com
plete a fake as the opium smoking. Thu
supposed gamblers are just p~lay-actine
for the benefit of the visitors, but they
do 1t very well, and the visitors, es.
pecially the Women-for there arr
women in all of these parties-go ava,
properly aWed. Visits to joss houses
restaurants and alleged lens are made
fake fights occur, dramatic scenes ar,
enacted, and by the time the trip il
over the visitors have seen about al
hey can stand.
Suicide" to Order.
For a long time there was a China
town woman who used to commit sui
eide every night for the benefit of Wis
itors. She was a good looking girl AM
had a room at the top of a Doyer
street tenement.
For q long while the fake opium
smoking took place in her room. j
romantic and touching tale of this girl
downfall used to be told confidential,
to visitors by the guides, SO thai sh
was an object of special interest. A
a certain stage of the exhibition cac,
night she would startle the visitors b
tossing her pipe aside, crying out, :.
am tired of all this!" and then, akin
a hasty swallow from a bottle labele
"carbolic acid" she would fall groan
ing to the floor, n the guide woul
hustle the visitors ava SO the
wouldn't be arrested as witnesses.
! The fake suicide was n bowling sue
, cess and a great money maker for tn
woman who did it. The wardman fror
the Elizabeth street station put tn
performance under the ban, however
and the guides had to cut it out of thei
, repertoire. The program described i
gone through as many as a dozen time
some nights, and the strange thing i
, that visitors never seem to detect tn
imposition. They swallow it all wit
!, perfect confidence, and pay as niue
as IS a head sometimes for the ever
ing's entertainment
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