Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-28
At A CHINESE PLAY
One of the Curious Sights of
San Francisco.
A COMPLICATED PLOT
AND MUCH is LEFT TO THE
IMAGINATION
Runs on for Hours to the Great De-
light of the Audi
Written for The Evening Star.

Written for The Evening Star.
Nowhere in America can you spend a
night more weird than among the $4,000
Mongols of San Francisco.
One evening, recently, bent on going to
the Chinese theater. left the Palace Hotel
early with Lee Sam. / never got so much
in one night out of a playhouse.
Sam led me into the heart of Chinatown.
Clean little yellow urchins al play darted
past us; Mongoi women wearing big-legged
trousers, which tapped around spotless
white stockings. carried chubby copper
babies to and fro; grown sons of the orient
some of them lank and sallow, others fat
and smillng-passed u.s. wearing their long
black pig tails; youths in the street played
a queer game, throwing up a ball with
feathers on one side and keeping it in the
air by kicking 1t from behind with their
heels; around jugglers gathered small
crowds watching their sleight-of- hand feats.
We passed all kinds of shops-the big ba-
zaar of Sing Fat fun of tempting wares
from the east, sausage shops, vegetable
shops and barber shops where razors cleaned
the scalps of coolies for ) cents each. Johns
worked al many kinds of trades making
cigars. brooms. shoes, shirts, jewelry; here
was photographer there a dentist and
doctor. Over doors / saw queer names -
Sam Sang Lung & Co. Yee Chong Lung d
Co, See Poy Co., Shun Yuen Hing Co
and Mon Hing Vat Bo Pub. Co.. or 1.-THE
a few minutes In the Joss House or God
House-just long enough for me to glance
at the gold and silver trimmed fantastic
altar OF the Joss; to make a contribution
and have my n2me-written on a red slip
pasted on the wall; and to burn in sacrifice
splint OF sandal wood and catch a Whit
or the sweet Incense / wanted to go TO
the theater.
On the Stage.
For dollar we got two seats upon the
stage In full view OF those In the parouet
and balcony No fire curtain nor screen of
any kind swung before the actors bare
platform. The musicians of the orchestra
sat at the back of the stage. A big, round
clock glared from the rear wall upon which
was also hung a bill of the play. This read
Sun Che row," which In Sans English
was; Never go back on you"
AT sharp the orchestra struck UP a
blare not to cease one moment for many
hours. One musician held sticks and had
before him three or four kinds of wooden
Instruments and a drum on all of which
he beat. In the middle lean fellow sawed
on the one string OF a Chinese fiddle; an
other changed cymbals and pounded a gong;
two more played lutes; often we heard the
notes OF clarinets and horns. The stage
manager. careless chap dressed in "citi-
Gems clothes. arranged the first scene q
garden. No drop curtain hid him from the
audience as he fastened bush and bunch
OF stage flowers upon the backs of two
Chairs one VINO goes 10 q chinese thedter
must supply from his fancy most of the
stage settings, relying mostly on the move
ments of the actors to picture the scenery.
II robber wants to get into a mans house
right in the actual presence of the victim
he will lunge against an imaginary door or
mount a chair and make motions as If saw
ing a hole In the roof. Then he will walk
up and go through his victim.
The scenery is now set for the play
rich young lady named Let Louie But waits
for her lover. Lete Key In the garden made
OF the two chairs, the bush and bunch Of
stage flowers. Her handmade leads him In
cropping through the darkness. which he
makes by putting his hand before his eyes
AID stumbling over himself. Dressed in a
roor black garb, the lover meets his rich
sweetheart who sings TO him. telling him
her love. rhe handmade advises the poor
lover TO be true, after which the rich girl
gives her poor lover money that he may go
TO school. Let Louie But begs Lete Key to
be faithful to her. and as the lean Mongol
In the orchestra draws out plaintive chord
on his fiddle sings him parting love song.
Only Twenty Four Scenes.
This ends one OF the twenty-four scenes
cf the play. At the end OF each the actors
leave the stage By a coor to the right;