Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-22


The day of the Great Confusion,
When the quake in its wrath uptort
The roots of the town, and the Reaper
Moved us with hame-then l saw
The faith Of race that's deeper
Than any Exclusion Law.
Bong was the name of our coolie-
Long fin gered Canton boy
Went al his job with a truly
Pagan sort of joy,
Serving man. cook and waiter,
Roustab bout, general slob-
That's what the Chinese hater
Calls taking a white man S job"
We lived in the Rincon section
Alice, the kid and l.
Bong was the Home Protec tion,
And held his position high.
Gentle he was with the baby
Never was cross or grim.
Used to explain, "Oh, maybe
l catchem Ill gal like him"
When I left for the city early,
In the era before the wreck,
After Ia kissed my grille
III. And the kid clpng close to my neck, eek
Take e. care ar ee Of 'em both. dye see?"t
So the coolie would grin like a tinker
And answer. You sabe me!"
Bong, though his head was level,
His conscience ironed to n gloss,
And sneered al the "Christian joss
He learned from the hea then sages
A budget of useful lore.
And I found him investing his wages
In a Chinese general store.
Those years that spent with Alice
On the hills of our merrirnent!
Every mans house was his palace
(We're living now in a tent.
BY the sweet bay we slumbered.
From the gay height looked down
Who thought that our days were num-
And he'll was beneath the town?
was away in Seattle;
The earthquake rumbled through
Like the jar of mighty battle
Then the news of the horror grew.
San Francisco Is shaken
Half the buildings DOWN
Dead from the ruins taken
Fire is sweeping the town."
How tore to the station.
Drunk with a mans despair;
Chaos was on Creation
My wife and my child out there
We sou ezed in the trains like cattle
Packed in the slaughter stall;
And when we pulled out of Seattle
The night was beginning to fall.
Travelling men and sailors.
MilliOnaires, merchants. sports
Two-penny clerks and tailors,
ToutS from the coast resorts
Spoke of their homes like, brothers
Bonded in grief-and when
prayed. God pity the mothers!
A gambler whispered. Amen"
Oakland. a pail of terror.
Blinded the sun on high:
The bay. like a broken mirror,
Glared TO the smoking sky.
Tattereu and smoke bedeviled
Crowds upon crowds poured through
/ inn digbaNp1
And the glare from the city grew.
Day was short. And the darkness
Out of the smoke clouds fell.
The ferry spire stood black in the fire
Like a crag at the mouth of hell
All night long swung the ferries
Listed end cramped and crammed
And all night long came the fleeing
Like, ne hosts of the haunted
Twenty four hours at the ferries
l searched the mad Thousands
through.
Haggard and wan I looked upon,
But never a face / knew.
Beggars, burdened with riches,
Muttered and toiled ahead
called aloud in the face of the crowd
Who looked with the eyes of tn,
dead,
Then some one spoke from the clamor
with a voice that l seemed to know
"They are safe back there on Ports
mouth square
I saw them an hour ago.
| They were warm under cover.
Close to the monument.
| It wasn't so bad for the Chinatown lat
Had stretched up a sheet like tent
He had brought them food from tn
And seemed to be keeping house.
Squat on his heels he was cooking thei
meals
The kid was wrapped i'm his blouse.
Bong's face was black from the burn
ing.
But his grin it was good to see,
care of 'em. BonG!'
And he answered You sabe met"
This was my neighbor's story
And well you may understand
| How j could not speak TIL the tear
from my cheek
Splashed over his outstretched hand
| And OF all the pure Christian blessing
Which pulpit and church employ,
! | hope one sDed to the pig tailed hea
OF my heather coolie boy.
One night more at the ferry,
could see her heaven be blessed!
out OF the mob she came with sob
| And tainted away on my breast.
| Bong sat near with the baby
Fast asleep on his knee.
| And he said. as he smiled and looked a
the child
! Il fetchem-you sabe mel