Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1906-05-04
Secrets Of Chinatown Are
Revealed 81 Earthuaake

the rickety mouse ttnc eai inv 70
destroyed by fire, da the authori-
ties Of San Francis realize what
m inner Of place wa The much ad.
! vertised Chinatown the Mecca of
all tourists in California, the spot
in which $4,000 Chinese lived like
so many prairie dogs
When the hiGu winds which
came after the freblew the ashes
way the yawning mouths of tun-
nels, which the police had long
suspected, were revealed. En-
trance to these passages was SO
carefully hidden that ouly the
leaders Of the longs, who used the
damp dungeons for places of meet
ing or to plot the death Of victim
the same room often acting as
the execution dungeon, once the
marked man was taken below the
level Of the street--knew.
One of San Francisco's alert de-
dectives, said to be the best posted
man on Chinatown, stood at the
corner of Bartlett Alley and dcclar-
ed:
For years | have been try ing to
reach TIE tunnels which ! know to
exist under this Chinese city. What
goes on down there one can only
| conjecture, but ID a thousand times
worse than the ;ins and vices which
are praclised by those Mongollans
in The streets and gambling hous-
es you see from this corner. Girls
| in the bloom Of youth are SNUG.
gled over the Canadian border,
brought here IN the night and con-
fined in dungeons, perhaps never to
look upon the light of the sun
again, although they may live fcr
years.
Very few men have ever visited
the underground passages, certain.
Is none of San Francisco's police
force, for every man in the depart
ment was watched when he enter
ed Chinatown, and the Surveillance
did not cease while he remained
there. Secretary Tsing,a promi.
nent member Of the Chinese arts.
tocracy, stationed for political reas-
ons in The Chinese legation at the
capitol of Peru, was member IN
high standing in society OF con-
siderable political influence in Chi
na, with powerful branch in San
Franaisco. He took two white
men to the thcater in Chinatown
and Loastfully declared that the
real secret Of Chinatown had never
been revealed. He conducted thu
men to the rear OF the stage, slid
secret door back and motioned fol
the men to follow him.
| For one hour, STOPPING unit
their backs were strained, the mer
silently followed guide, to lool
upon complete new Chinatown
the tunnel Leading past scores o.
doors to dungeons, against the bars
of which some unfortunates press
ed their faces, to jump back from
the flare Of Pickering miners
lamp VIII ich Using carried.
Under this Chinese city were
hundreds Of womsn and children
Their voices mingled in glad re-
frain or echoed the gloomy muir
muir of some who were suffering
Huddled in groups about a small
| fire, made from balls Of coal dus
which Chinese prepare, were mef
! chants 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
nauseating. The revus.on Of feel
ing was oyerpowering. When the
street was reached, after climb ina
fight of stairs to the kitchen of
a chop suey Joint" the treaih o
foul air even in this hole was re-
freshing.
Hundreds Of men went to thei
deaths each year in Chin atowl
without an inkliug of the tragedie
being known to the police. It wa
easy to bury the dead under tn
tunnels one hundred feet deep il
Chinatown. Member of tong
marked for death left friends De
hind. men who refused to complain
to the local authorities, but who
instead, sought revenge themselve
in The same fendisl matter tina