Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-14
CHINATOWN HARBORS
PLACE OF PESTTLENCE
AND ABODE OF DEATH
LAzAR HOUSE REEKING WITH FILTH
Celestial~ Send Doomed Men Down to Die in
Lethal Chamber Where Nameess Horrors
Await Victims of Poppy Flowers Until
Mercitully Claimed by Grim Reaper

~ OWN in the very heart Of The
wholesale district, bordered by
the homes of the Chinese on the
north and west and south, and by the
shimmering sands of the river bed on
the east. lies the Los Angeles city Of
the dead a tiny acre of ground, where
seven dying wretches, bowed beneath
the curse of the white Lady of the
Poppy" await in misery the hour
when the great Confucius shall call
them to the everlasting rest.
In Chinatown that plot is known as
the living hell, and no man goes near
1t. No man speaks of it. Go down in
the closely settled district, where the
Celestial pats his slippered heels
against the greasy walls and smokes
the pipe of his forefathers, and ask
where the Chinese death house is, and
you will receive gaze o blank amaze
ment in return. Ask what you will OF
them, and the people from the sunny
Orient will give civil answer, but don't
speak of the death house, for they fear
| it and will not talk of 1t.
The death house has existed for
years, unnoticed by health authorities
or by physicians, while the souls Of the
| doomed slipped forth from the tor
| tured todiea and stole softly away to
the realms of rest.
All Shun Lazar House
The place is difficult to find, for it is
troubled with devils and death is mas
| ter there. The grinning demons. which
to the min1 of the superstitious Celes-
tial ever hover near the dying, await
| ing the chance to snatch his soul ana
carry il to inferno, abound there, and
| the black almond eyes of the Chinese
turn graz with horror as they speak of
what may be seen In the neighborhood
after dark for few of the bolder of
| their number have been there and have
returned with pigtails stiff with fear
and eyes bulging from their heads at
the weird sounds coming from the old
| brick walls.
1t is but a five minutes ride from the
| very heart of the city, and yet so OBJ
scure that no white man has ever
/ known of its exact location, and nc
Chinese has ever willingly told of 1t
Alight from a Grand avenue car at the
plaza and plunge into the jntficacies
of the chinatown district and a five
death house. Down through the mar
row Ferguson alley, to Alameda, where
| the shrill blast of the train whistles
sends the fat little yellow babies hid
ing behind their mothers "silken
pantaloons," on through the narrow
streets to Apablasa, where old Charlie
| Jue tells your fortune for 10 cents, and
| then straight ahead through the gamb-
ling district, and you are at the gate
way of the stricken city.
! You have seen sights that may be
offensive, and the odor of burning
grease and spattering duck giblets may
have caused a feeling of distrust to
j rresfn l.aaH In ic A1N1f IN
preparation for what the eyes of the
white man have rarely seen.
Sights of Horror Begin
| For the sand and alkali of the lower
Apabasa CLEAN and simmer in the
midday sun as brightly as though the
fairest scene of creation smiled upon
them, and the modern walls of the
Bow Wong Wei building look down
upon the meaner dwellings as though
all were well.
That is just the beginning of the dis
| trict A turn to avoid the peddlers
wagons. on past the corral where the
future soldiers and liberators of China
nightly drill under American officers.
and then turn to a forsaken lane to
the north of the street, and the death
village is reached.
| tumble-down brick vault with
| quaint old Spanish spires stands SEN
| tinel like at the corner as though the
| spirits of the long since dead held car
nival there and warned the curious
| away
AS the visitors entered that little
lane yesterday and walked along i'm
| the shade of a tumble-down fence and
scraggly hedge of trees, an old man
came from the gate of the building to
the east of the road and staggered
out in the sunlight He was an old
| oil 10 fn
His clothing was tattered and filthy;
one frayed suspender held up ragged
| pair of overalls and a rough cotton
shirt scarcely covered the lean brown
breast
His feet We're covered with sandals
and his limbs. horribly twisted with
the grip of the grim paralysis, seemed
bound in directions other than those
sought by their owner One cramped
hand clutched at handful of the
filthy "yen She" the ashes of the
opium, to be bought for a pittance or
stolen on convenience and he mouthed
and gummed at the black stuff and
clacked his broken lips in frightful
smirks.
Foul Vultures Stands Guard
Without ever glancing to right or
left he staggered to a stone by the
roadside and with many groans
perched himself upon 1t, looking for
all the world like some fowl bird of
i'll omen awaiting its victim. And then
for the first time he turned, one skin
ny claw with long and discolored fin
ger nails reached up and pushed hack
the tattered hat and the celestial
| looked at the visitors and grinned,
toothlessly, and cackled. His hair.
black and greasy, hung in snakelike
ringlets about the weasoned face. His
cheek bones protruded as though try
ing to burst from the thin, sallow skin,
and the eyes, deep set and black, rolled
as though all the world was disgust
ing to their vision and only the dreams
of the white Lady would satisfy
their craving Such was the outer
guard OF that frightful place and a
long brown claw stretched forth and
begged an aims. then ciutched IN vici-
GUS hurry at the piece of silver tossed
him. More grinning, which died off
into a mumbling like cry and the vis-
itors had hurried past the gateway.