Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1906-05-02
cHINATowN,s SECRETS
Earthquake Lays Open Yawning
Underground Tunnels

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Not until the earthquake shook
the rickety houses to the earth, to
be destroyed by fire, did the
authorities of San Francisco realize
what manner Of place was the
much advertised Chinatown, the
Mecca Of all tourists in California,
the spot in which twenty-five
thousand Chinese lived like so
mary prairie dogs.
When the high winds which
ccre after the fire blew the ashes
away the yawning mouths of tun-
nels, which the police had long
suspected, were revealed. Entrance
to these passages was 80 carefully
hidden that only the leader Of the
Tongs, who used the damp dun
geons for places OF meeting or to
plot Tire death Of q victim-the
saue room often acting az the ex-
ecution dungeon once the marked
man was taken below the level of
the street-knew.
One of San Franeisco's- alert
dGtet tiYes, said to be the best
posted man on Chinatown, stood
at the corr er of Bartlett Alley and
declared:
"For years 1 have been trying
to reach the tunnels which l know
tC exist under this Chinese city.
What goes on down there ore can
only orjecture, but it is thocs-
and times worse than the sins and
vices which are precticed by these
Mongolians in the streets and
gambling touses you can see from
this corner. Girls in the bloom CT
youth are struggled over the
Canadian border, brought he:e in
the night and confined in dun
gecns, perhaps never to look upon
the light of the sun again, although
they pay live for years"
Very few white men have visited
the underground passages, certain
ly more of San FranciscO's police
| force, for every man in the depart
ment WIS watched when he enter
ed Chinatown, and the surveillance
did not cease while he remained
there. Secretary Tsing, q promi-
nent mem Der of the Chinese aristo-
cracy, stationed for political reasons
in the Chinese legation at the
capital of Peru, was member In
high ftandIng in society OF con-
siderable political influence in
China, with a powerful branch in
San Francisco. He took two white
uen to the theatre In Chinatown
and boastfully declared that the
real secret of Chinatown had never
been revealed. he conducted the
men tf the rear Of the stsge, sid
a secret door back and motioned
for the men to follow him.
For ore hour, STOPPING until
their bccks were strained, the men
silently followed a guide to look
upon a complete new Chinatown,
the tunnel leading pact scores Of
doors to dungeons, against the bars
of which some unfortunates pressed
their faces, to Jump back from the
flare OF a pickering miners light
which Tsirg carried.
Under this Chinese city were
hundreds of women ard children.
Their voices mingled refrain or
ectced the gloomy murmurs OF
some who were suffering. Huddled
in groups about a small fire, made
from balls of coal dust which
Chinese prepare, were Merchants
who had returned from their shops
on the street level to these holes
in the wall to plot and invent.
The odor of opium was nausestine.
T'he revulsion of feeling was over
towering, When the street was
reached. after climbing flight of
stairs to the kitchen of achop suey
"ioint," the breath of foul afr
even in this hole, was refreshing
by comparison.
Hundreds of men went to their
deaths each year in Chinatown
without an ink ling of the tragedies
being known to the pole. 1t was
easy to bury the dead under the
tunnels, one hundred feet deep, in
Chinatown. Members of longs
marked for death left friends be-
hind, men who refused to complain
to the local authorities, but who,
instead, sought revenge themselves
in the same fiendish manner that
death had been meted out 10 tnelr
fellow memb ers.
For years battles waged. Scores
end scores were killed, until the
citizens threatened to organize
a vigilance committee and wipe
Chinatown from the face Of Frisco.
This had it's effect. The war was
CO rried below the streets, where
dying men could scream In agony
and not be heard. The slave traffic
has enriched mary Chinese, RuAVe
merchants who led simple lives
above the street, but who retired
to the subterranean passages and
their slave marts to put upon the
block the newest from the slave
market in Canton.
Gambling has always existed
here. The gamblers composed the
bad element. They fought for one
another's gold, committed murder