Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-17

Ew YORKS China town Is on edge.
The slightest incident Is sufficient
~ to turn the pent-up excitement or
4 PelL Doyers and Mott streets into
riot Since the Chinese theater
3 massacre the police force In the district has
been trebIed. At certain points, Ike the
headquarters OF the rival tons and the Chi
nese theater. policemen are constantly On
! guard and squads of bluecoats rush from one
point to another on emergency calls to ouell
disturbances before they reach the riot
pitch A war was barely averted the other
evening when a white man attired In even
ing clothes rescued one of the white slaves
OF Chinatown In a hanson cab. A shop
window robbery the same evening created
n furore out of all proportion to the fire.
duency of such events in that part OF the
city. The Chinatown war of the tongs is
responsible for these conditions.
Sunday is the most popular murder day
I'm this moral plague spot. but so keen
has become the warfare between the rival
societIes that any day Is becoming coed
enough for an outbreak. And 1t isn't
steaIthy murder of the Caucasian fashion,
either 1t is feud murder, done by whole
sale and with thoroughness and grand
stand quality that make II more like Dor
der war than common killing. The Chinese
consul has taken 1t under consideration, in
order to devise some means of putting an
end TO II. The police are at their wits end
about it. For year past the best efforts
of Mulberry street have been devoted to
getting the whiphand of the gun and knife
artists of the Mott street ''tongs" or So
Cieties. the On Leoug and Hep Sing. But
IL all amounts TO nothing.
The highbinder, or tong man. does not
stump about in first precinct Shoes" nor
does he swagger through Mott and Peli and
Doyers streets with chip on his shoulder.
He is the peaceful washer OF shirts and
collars. scuffiing like half animate image
along the way. He steps aside into some
one of the hives that line these narrow,
shadowy thoroughfares, joins by preconcert
some three or four more of his clique.
There Is a rattle OF firearms, an agonized
shrek or two, and he comes out again
and resumes his walk, with immobile face,
looking as innocent an old woman But
behind him he leaves, as one policeman
said after the shooting ARRAY of a recent
Sunday night. "a room that looks like n
slaughter house"
Then there is a great hullabaloo. In a
few minutes a squad of blnecoats rushes
red-faced upon the scene. Any one Of these
giants could put dozen Chinese out OF
business in half as many minutes If it were
matter of bare hands. But the China
man has a fan-tan face. the nerves of
mollusk and the brain of chess champion.
1t is an even chance that your murderer,
most likely with the weapon still hot under
his blouse will mix in a crowd of sallow
and solemn-faced ones that always swarm
In the street at the sound of a pistol shot.
and will wear the most innocent visage of
the lot. He will swear and a hundred of
his "tongs' stand ready to corroborate him,
that the murdered men are his cousins and
that the Scoundrels that did the shooting
are members of the other tong"
And the victims, If any happen to be left
alive, are silent after the stole manner of
Indians and east side gangs upon such oc-
cssions. If they are to die they die gans
and close-mouthed. for they know to a GER
tainty that before much water has flowed
under the bridge" their own tong will
have Cancelled the debt and taken an extra
life or two for good measure
What makes Sunday the favorite day for
handwriting in Chinatown is that on Sun
day morning Cinnamon from everywhere
within a hundred miles of New York come