The Newtown bee., 1904-05-27

SmOklng, put as general rule they
 seem to prefer the company O.
 one another, and so congregate in tn,
 regular opium dens. In this one there
 were only men,-of course the thing
 becomes 1mmeaSurably worse wher
 men and women both mingle, as they
 do in many places. forgot to men
 tfon the presence of beautiful, but
 much depraved cat in this place, who
 climbed on the shoulders of the men
 "meowing," fGf them to share their
 pleasures with her, and only satisfied
 when the opium smoke was blown in
 her face. l don't know how long she
 had been addicted to this habit, but it
 seemed to agree with her, for she was
 pect that the Chinese must be fond o1
 cats, for l saw them almost every
 where, and while they were not fat or lazy looking, they all had the appear
 ance of being fairly well fed. I did | not see any sort of dog, however, during the evening. Our next visit, tho not so interest,"
 ing to me, was from other points more
 agreeable. The guide took us to the most famous Chinese musician in the town, and sitting down in his little,
 bare, unfurnished, but cleanly paper
 ed and whitewashed den, we listened to his playing on six different Chinese
 musical instruments. The "Chinese
 piano." (zither) was the first, piano without a key board, with the wires stretched from side to side on pegs set
 in frame similar to the square piano arrangement, except some were dia- gonal, and there seemed to be no bass
 notes. This he played by hitting the
 strings with two slender pieces of rat
 tan, peculiarly twisted at one end. similar fn fha ff0n 0r xuho fau
 stuff is that your older chair bottoms
 were woven of. He managed s'March-
 ing Through Georgia" quite success
 fully. Then he gave ussome examples
 of the Chinese violin, an instrument
 with long handle, and the violin part
 round piece, perhaps six inches in
 diameter. It is two stringed, and the
 DOW is between the two strings, in-
 stead of outside of both. Then came
 flute, a mandolin, and banjo, of pe-
 culiar Chinese make and sound. There
 IS said to be no other musician in
 Chinatown who can play so many in-
 s1ruments. or who can manage Ameri-
 can tunes at all. Our visit to the
 Chinese Theater was amusing. A play with them runs for month, a chap ter being enacted every night. The orchestra sits on the back of the stage.
 There is no curtains, and no scenery, save the few seats occupied by the
 players. The front of the house was
 packed, the galleries fairly full, except the woman's balcony, which only had few occupants, and two or three
 rows of seats on each end of the stage were also filled. The stage seats are, on the whole, considered best. No
 women are permitted to act, so the fe- male parts are all played by men or ooys dressed and made up to resemble
 women. One of these women imper- senators was so skilfully gotten up. that I should never have dreamed that s'She" was a ''he," if I had moi been told. don't know much about Chinese women, but this one, so far as could judge by voice and everything else, the makeup was perfect. From my standpoint, I shouldn't consider the acting much, but it evidently car. r1ed the audience, and as that is the final and only test of acting, suppose 1t must have been fine. Much of it l was Operatic, consisting of singing, ac- companied by the most internal bang ing Of drums and clashing cymbals l and wailing of stringed instruments that one almost wished that they might become temporarily deaf. Most in our party would have gladly sacri- iced their noses as we'll as their ears during most of the excursion. l got along better than many, inasmuch as the odor of incense that pervaded all the nicer places, and which is distaste- [ul to many, is rather pleasant to me. The theatrical costumes were gorge 9us, and the jewelry worn was real.
 some of the costumes are said to be worth several hundreds ot dollars. We
 vent in to visit one family where the CiY in ro1nnhor fn Do | I, ;ist mission school and they were as bright and pretty as any American 'hildren could be, and twice as funny md amusing. They all wore na- i've costumes, and they spelled their It names for us, giving their ages and !, ang several songs: "Our Country 'tis if Thee," "Halleujah, Amen," and evera! others. They do not speak a English very we'll, but still they can I nake themselves understood and can i understand anything that they wish , s};;noHa Q; Our M last visit was to be to a banqueting hall, tor high rade restaurant.) At two, we were
 efused admittance, as two of the nu- t aer0us Chinese secret societies were C olding banquetS where no white spec l. atOrs could be permitted. About 400 i n each case. We did catch glimpse ( one or two high grade Chinese wom- I however, Tn their black satin coats t nd trousers, their heads mass of c old and jewels. At the third place c 1e were m ore successful, and were t here in time to see the final end of a anquet, and a jOllier lot of fellows it f. 'ould be hard to find than those Chi- k ese were. One of the head dignitar- s $ insisted on our joining him, and we a ere given tiny glasses, that would O old just about thimble full,-I just q ouched mine, partly to please our self k ppolnted host, and partly from curiosi- s, 7: It was as pale as the very weak fl tt tea, very sweet, and I should judge p )nta1ning considerable alcohol, a sort S) Chinese gin. The nuts and candy o1 ere nice, likewise the cake. l have a present of a pair of mahogany chop W icks which 1 will show you when 1 gi tt home. The prices at these stylish dt ninese restaurants are quite astonish- Cl g. At one the proprietor told us m lat the cheapest meal he served was al , and from that up. After the ban sa let they played a peculiar Chinese m me. Two would stand up and count a,