Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-06-06
WUN JUN G THE HEADLINER
 By WILLIAM HI. OSBORNE
Copyright, 1908. by Daily Story Pub. O.,
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 go by. Time flies like the old in- visible she dragon who visits the tenn pie every hundred years. It is not-so long ago that little Wun Lung and his neighbor, Tow Kee, sat at the feet of 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 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 ill natured. He and Wun Lung kowtowed, 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 Lung's short, soft pig tail-and Wun Lung would simply laugh. @&s,s=FsI ,.
 But Wun Lung had something be- side his good nature to recommend him and that something made him much admired by little Sun Joy and much envied by Tow 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 1t was an even toss up as to hands, head or feet. He could wriggle like snake in the grass He could tie himself intp knot like a skein of silk. And he didn't keep all this to himself. For the first great event in thei lives of Fow Kee and Sun Joy happened on the day when, under the admirable tuition of Wun Lung, they each were able to walk from end to end of the bamboo pole in the market place-tbe 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 lowing low at the shrine Of Sun Joy, grew up into young men-Sun Joy grew into 8 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 first injunction of Confucius. Tn 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 in the Street of the Six Hundred Roses. He went to make his fortune in the new land favored of all lands. But he went, as he said, but to return.
 In a 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 ono inter esting peculiarity 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 top. And he laughed as, he did it.
 One day 8 scowling, skulking China man, attracted by the crowd, stuck his head inside and uttered a guttural exclamation. Wup Lung responded with a smile and kind word. His wis., itor was Flow 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 Wun 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. Fow Kee disappeared. Time flew. Wun Lung moved to Chi cago. The crowd there admired kim also. He explained that his name, Wun Lung, really meant Agile Gibbon. It was in Chicago that he again met Tow Kee. This time Tow Kee looked pros porous, but he still scowled. If Wun Lung had not become rich on that twenty-five 1t was apparent that Tow Kee had. Tow Kee watched some of Wun Lungs antics about the laundry with considerable interest. Tn 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.
 Tn the Imperial Theater in the me- tropolis, the headliners 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 Tow Kee. The stage was rigged up like a Chinese laundry and what they did was done there even to the mild quavering songs of the inimitable Wun Lung. When they had first started, Fow Kee, whose evil mind strayed back to the Street of the Roses, again whispered in the ear of Wun Lung. Again Wun Lung had acquiesced-and he had done more. He had placed in the hands of one of the Chinese Tonps a. substantial sum of money for the transportation of the beautiful Sun Joy to America. He knew that the Tong would get her here or bust. And o11 Joxr H.