Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1906-05-11
DEAD SECRETS OF CHINATOWN
Underground Labyrinth of Vice and Crime
Revealed by Passing of Fire.

strOyed by fire, did the authorities
San Francisco realize what manner c
place as the much advertised China
town. the Mecca of all tourists in Cal
fornia, the spot in which twenty fiv
thousand Chinese lived like SO man
prairie dogs.
When the high winds which cam
after the fire blew the ashes away th
lyawning mouths of tunnels, which th
police had long suspected, were reveal
cd. Entrance to these passages was s.
carefully hidden that only the leader
of the Tongs, who used the damp dun
geons for places of meeting or to plo
| the death of d victim-the same room
often acting as the execu tion dungeon
once the marked man was taken below
the level of the street-knew.
SECRETS Barred.
One of San Francisco's alert detec
tives, said to be the best posted mar
on Chinatown, stood at the corner o.
Bartlett Alley and declared:
For years l have been trying to
reach the tunnels which l know tC
exist under this Chinese city. What
goes on down there one can only con
lecture, but it is a thousand times
worse than the sins and vices which
are practlced by these MongOlians in
the streets and gambling houses you
can see from this corner. Girls in th g
bloom of youth are smuggled over the
Canadian border, brought here in the
night and confined in dungeons. per-
haps never to look upon the light of
the sun again, although they may live
for years."
Very few white men have visited the
underground passages, certainly none
of San Francisc0's police force, for ey
cry man in the department was watch
ed when he entered Chinatown, and
the surveillance did not cease while be
there, Secretary Using, q
prominent member of the Chinese aris-
tocracy, stationed for political reasons
in the Chinese legation at the capital
of Peru, was a mem Der in high stand
ing in society of considerable pOliti
cal influence In China, with powerful
branch IN San Francisco. He took
two white men to the theatre in China
town and boastfully declared that the
real secret of Chinatown had never
Oeen revealed. He conducted the men
TO the rear Of the stage, slid a secret
loor back and motioned for the men to
follow him.
TRIP THROUGH TUNNEL.
For one hour, STOPPING until their
packs were strained, the men silently
followed guide to look upon COM
Dlete new Chinatown, the tunnel lead
ing past scores of doors to dungeons,
against the bars of which some unfor-
tunates pressed their faces. to jump
back from the flare of a flIckering min.
sr's light which Using carried.
Under this Chinese city were hun
1reds of women and children. Their
voices mingled in glad refrain or echoed
,he gloomy mumurs of some who were
suffering. Huddled in groups about a
,mall fire, made from balls OF coal dust
which Chinese prepare, were merchants
who had returned from their shops on
;he street level to these holes in the
wall to plot and invent. The odOr of
opium was nauseating. The revulsiOn
IF feeling was overpowering. When
,he street was reached, after climbing
/ fight OF stairs to the kitchen of a
hop suey ''joint, the breath of foul air
,ven in this hole, was refreshing.
Hundreds of men went to their
leaths each year in Chinatown with
3ut an inkling of the tragedies being
known to the police. 1t was easy to
Dury the dead under the tunnels,
one hundred feet deep, in Chinatown.
Members of tOngs marked for death
left friends behind, men who refused
to complain to the local authorities.
but who, instead. sought revenge them.
selves in the same fiendish manner
that death had been meted out to their
fellow members.
SLAVE TRADE.
For years battles waged. Scores
and scores were killed, even in the
streets, until the citizens of San Fran.
cisco threatened to organize a viligance
committee and wiped Chinatown from
the face of Frisco. This had Its effect
This war was carried below the streets
where dying men could scream in
agony and not be heard. The slave
traffic has enriched many Chinese
suave merchants who simples llvel
above the streets, but who retired t.
the subterranean passages and thei
slave marts to put upon the block th'
newest arrivals from the slave marke
in Canton.
Gambling has always existed here
The gamblers composed the bad ele
ment. They fought for one another
Igold, committed murder to Obtai
with which TO enter games of fanta
and other Chinese devices of chance
and slept away their daylight hours Il
a bunk somewhere down below th
street, stepped in the fumes of opium
a sordid mass of humanity until natur
awOke the brain of life.
There never will be such Chinatow
in San Francisco again. These peopl
will be sent to district far from tn
heart of the new city, where they wi
be under such close surveillance tha
lpractices of the past will be stoppe
when they begin. Provision will b
made to suppress the tongs for all time
if this can be accomplished.
| MANY LOST LIVES