The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-05-28
THE ATRE PLAYSIMPORTANT PART IN
THE LIFE OF NEW YORk'S CHINATOWN


game, tried TO get in. Threats Of shoot
| ing and even one or two actual gun plays
| failed to move the On Leongs.
Then the Hip Sings turned reformer
! and began to inform the jealous Park
hurst society. which found 1t rather
easier to make record in Chinatown
than in the Tenderloin. The string of
shootings- which followed, the gradual
drawing in of the precinct police the
district attorneys office and finally Of
Commissioner McAdoo and his headquar-
ters staff are incidents of real history.
| The calculating Chinese politicians at 70
Bowery and IA Moot street have pulled
the strings and the white authorities
have danced.
All Chinese affairs go by syndicates.
Oriental society Is honeyeombed with Sc
cret and open associations. Besides these
two tongs. whose membership comes
mainly from the Enthusiastically trou-
blesome 1000 whp live in. the, quarter there
are three associations of great influence
in Chinatown. These are the chinese
Empire Reform ton. the Chinese
Masons and the Chinese Court, or Ching
Wah Gung Shaw.
OF all these the Reform association is
the most important It's success in the
five years of its existence measures the
progress of the American Chinese toward
European ideas. Formed with the idea
of lifting China from her rut. just as ia
pan has been lifted from hers. 1t boasts a
membership of nearly 5000. or more than
half the Chinese in and about New York.
The association maintains a big club
house in Mott street. 1t is drilling a boys
F, brigade, not, its leaders say, with any
idea of starting revolution. but solely to
keep the boys off the street.
IT maintains a school tho anIv nna. nut
side the mission schools. where Chinese
children can receive instruction both in
their own tongue and in English There,
every morning. a horn specialized old
schoolmaster instructs the silk clad ma
/ bies In the ideographs and In the after
noon American school ma'am hears
| their "b-a b-o."
Reform Associations Aims.
| The association has social meetings
from time to time, and every week there
are lectures, either by members or by
visiting Chinese. The heads of the re-
| form movement, which has membership
of 100000 all over the world, are coming
this summer for a series of lectures.
| 1t is harder to say anything of the
| Chinese Masons. Their charter, say the
American Free Masons, was obtained
from clandestine source. Their ways
are dark and hidden, and they are popu-
lar neither with the tough tong men nor
with the reformers.
Once or twice they have put reform
| lecturer on the road They are almost
certainly an offshoot of that ancient Triad
society Of China from which sprang both
the boxers and most of the highlander
| tongs.
The Chung Wah Gung Shaw, the Chi
| nese court. is the high justice, the middle
and low of the triangle. For American
| justice, whose rules and logic are not
theirs. the Chinese all have more or less
contempt. They use it sometimes for a
| tool as the tongs are using 1t now; but a
| straight appeal made in good faith is as
| rare as blue moon.
All serious disputes over property. and
even crimes against property. come be-
fore this tribunal. Its members are rich
merchants. and its president is changed
every year The court meets at 1s MOTT
street, and its operations are shrouded In
considerable mystery.
Theatres Important Part.
| The theatre plays an extremely impor-
tant part In the life of the triangle. Hera
all manner of factions meet in an nm
| formulated truce. Hip Sing beside ON
Leong Reformer beside Mason. Only tbe
| women are barred; the theatre is not for
| respectable women, and the Chinese wo-
! men of the other class number less than
dozen.
| II Chinese is in the quarter looking
| for friend, he is likely to hunt for him
| first In the theatre. 1t Is a school m
ethics. too-the only regular instruction in
the philosophy of Confucius. Twice q
| week at least they play one of their old
moralities of the Chen cycle. It is =
school of Chinese history as well: half
the plays deal with the gIories Of the old