The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-08-30

| THE Devil of Ben Chlng-HO" Two
Men Died in Panama" Contributed to
the Argonaut by an Advertiser man.
And in their books it is written:
Man was born to ask; woman to re-
fuse. And elsewhere it is written:
| With the thread of Beng Chem
shall the husband avenue his hon
or. The trader Jean Pigelle, who
| gave US fare from Saigon, died
| without the door of native wo-
man of a sudden apoplexy, without
confession, but two days ago.
About his neck was the moose OF
the devil known as Beng Chem,
but no blood at au.''-Letter of Sc
bastian, S. j., 1857 A. D.. written
| during his mission in China.
There were three of us who worked
on ouinine and whisky, and a fourth
lately come down from the States on
mis- way to New York. This last was
a person with dull red hair and no
presence Of a man, but it's poor pick
| ings on the Isthmus at any season of
the year. and this was winter-rainy,
| blowy, steaming winter, with the ther-
Il
mometer I'D in the air and the mud
| boiling under foot. So we made the
most Of him with tobacco, cocktails,
and song.
| He left us very suddenly for place
he had not intended going to, and he
took with him Big Donald, the SUPER
intendent I and the doctor witnessed
the whole affair, though we never re-
fer to it. But he knows that it's all
true. It was a matter of a foolish
white man not knowing a few things
about Chinese.
Big Donald was six feet high, huge
ly jointed, and with little eyes set in
under the heaviest brows imaginable.
His hands were rather smallish, and
| the blue veins ran in and out of the
| brushy hair on the back of them in
most curious style. BY profession he
was civil engineer; in practice he
ran the freight end of the Panama
Railway Company's wharf. and had
under him many native stevedores and
three donkey engines.
All day long Dig Donald toiled and
drank whisky and ate quinine, and at
| evening the three Of us sat in the
j doorway of the cafe opposite the rail-
way station and slipped amer pican for
our nerves. I say the three of us,
though the doctor, an American dentist
| from Oregon, hardly counted in the
drinking, he having theories about such
things. Il had no theories and an in
Iclusfve thirst.
This wasn't very interesting to three
able bodied men, but it was the best
amusement we had, until this fourth
| individual wandered ashore from the
Acapulco with a suitcase in one hand
and queer brown duck trousies on his
crooked limbs.
i 1T don't look like much,'' said Big
Il Ben, when Fate deposited this specimen
of tailoring before our eyes one night,
"but maybe it knows how to bet on
a dog fight" \
So he whist1ed his big bull Yank
from under the bench, and went up the
road to taunt Jose Rivela, who was
The newcomer fell in beautifully
and put up so much that we had the
best fight of the season over chairs,
benches, bar, furniture. and under the
floor of the warehouse behind. Then
the stranger. giving his name as Saw
lyer, paid for a drink all around. and
expanded. He was a banker and
newspaper man, according to his own
marvellous tale, and Donald grew fidg-
ETY. and the doctor sleepy before the
tale was told.
Its too bad" grumbled the doc
tor, when the Individual had evaporated
|. in the direction of his hotel, that
Providence doesn't send more enter
tanning people down here. That fell
lows an ass"
HE is" assented Donald, with a
rumbling oath, but he's Irish; low.
sneaking. bog-trotting Irish. He brings
trouble"
Both the doctor and I are Irish,
though not extensively SO, and we Won
dered how Sawyer had so roughly gone
against the Scotch grain of Donald.
But we said nothing about it, for the
superintendent had too much quinine in
him to be a pleasant opponent in an
!, argument.
Two days later Big Donald told
Sawyer in so many words to shut up
for good or there would be trouble.
Sawyer had been telling story-of his
sort. The fellow looked at Donald, and
laughed easily Sort of touchy, my
friend?"
Donalds eyes grew very small under
his brows. and I saw the veins Of his
Hands swell. Sawyer was taking large
chances. The doctor stepped into the
breach and saved the day. But Dom
aid was terribly sulky.
The next day Sawyer found us
sprawled in the veranda of the cafe,
and the first thing he did was to flip
the ears of Yank in the French fashion.
Donald was up in an instant. and the
doctor and had a hard time to quiet
him. Sawyer was ugly, too, and be-
fore I could impress upon him the
lcrudity of his conduct, he had engaged
Donald in an argument.
II know men," said Sawyer in his
high voice, that beat their wives and
fight for a hair on dogs tall
k