The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-18
TIE CHINAMAN WHO FORGOT
YET SAMUEL UNLOCK DIED A
CHRISTIAN IN THE END.
naptlzed in ChinR Forty Years Ago
Sapsed to Plagiarism in New York
Christian Faith Recalled ny the sight
Of a Priest rs lie Lay Dying N Bellevue.

IHu GIIlDIuGCN Ah Aho JSNNA nv
a priest. He was shrived by the priest,
he took the last sacrament, then he died.
He died, this Samuel Unlock, q Christian,
though his blood was Chinese.
few weeks ago word came to the Gouver-
neur Hospital that an old Chinese physician,
poor and far spent in consumption, lay
8 PeIl street. They sent the ambulance
to the house and took away the sick man
TO the hospital.
were supplied. A nurse was there to wait
on him. The luxury OF cleanliness n
sweetness was his to enjoy.
But Samuel Tinlock's case was hopeless:
che physicians soon cav that it was only a
question of days when death would come
TO take the last flicker Of life out Of the
wasted body. Gouveneur Hospital doesn't
like to have the mortality list creep up. and
II IL the custom to remove the hopelessly
sick to Bellevue. Bellevue can stand ha"-
ing deaths occasionally, because Bellevue's
reputation is not so much at stake as Gouve
neur's.
SO Samuel Unlock, the Chinaman, was
removed to Bellevue. One day, o after
he had been brought TO b house wherein
he was to die, the sick mans eye caught a
glimpse Of the black CARRIED priest moving
from bed to bed down the long rows and
bending over each sufferer to speak ome
thing into his ear. The priest was Father
McCaffrey, of the Carmelite Church OF
East Twenty eighth street nearFirsta avenue.
The Chinaman raised a skinny arm n
crooked a finger at the priest. Father
McCasfrey came over to his bedside. He
had to bend his head very low to catch
what the sick man was saying.
Il want to bless myself, Father said
Unlock. Il want you to hear me and see
n it is right. l used to know how to say
it mar years ago"
Then the Chinamsn's lips moved and
there came the whispered: In the name
Of the Father and OF the Son"-the skinny
finger strove to trace the sign Of the cross
across the ~coverlet Of the cot that hid the
sick mans chest, and the final words Of the
blessing trailed away into a murmur.
Father McCaffrey sat down on the side
OF the bed and talked low to the patient.
Only the sick mans eyes answered; they
shone with a responsive CLEAN when the
priest muttered the prayers for the grew
ously afflicted and the dying.
He could not talk, for to do that brought
the bloody spume to his lips. He could
only trace his skinny finger across the cover
let in the sign of the cross when the priest
had said the final word.
Several days passed and Father McCafrey
came once more TO the bedside OF Unlock.
Again the sick man made appeal with his
eyes and again his lips moved in whispered
response to the prayers.
The priest would nave asked the China
man where he. learnen the words Of the
blessing and how il was that he had become
a son Of the Church, but the yellow lips
Of the dying man could do no more thar
move noiselessly; the breath for speech
was not in him.
Another time the priest from the Car
melite Church came to the hospital, and
that morning they told him that TinL)ck
would probably die before night. The
priest hurried to the bedside Of the China
man and prepared to give him extreme
unotion.
That day Unlock made an extra effort.
He spoke to the priest, telling him in hating
sentences that he wished to be shrived,
praying that the sacrament be given him
90 that he would die then in peace.
Il was once of the Church many years
ago." whispered Unlock. 1T was in Can
ton-the good father of the Jesus Society,
he made me a Christian and my father.
But l forgot-but l forgot"
Unlock had not old it all; just for a
fitting momen had he raised the shadow
from the past, but the priest had seen
enough TO assure him that it was a BAD
tiled son OF the Church that lay dying there.
He heard the confession of the Chinaman.
a simple confession made by holdings OF
the head TO the questions put by the priest.
Then he broke the wafer and slipped n
silver of the consecrated bread between
the shrivelled lips.
For the last time Samuel Unlock trailed
his skinny finger across his breast In making
the sign of the cross and one final blessing
his lips framed. He died an hour after
the priest had left his bedside.
Tinlock's wife, Adele, a white woman,
who had been his true wife for many years,
had the body removed from the hospital.
A plain black casket was provided, and
the body was prepared for burial by n Of
the undertakers who do business on the
Bowerv.
How Samuel Unlock was buried or where
nobody asked. Whether his body lies in
consecrated ground, or whether there was
NNS InCdUUdJLOh VI ucdblCh " hOic ALhd
the scattering Of prayer papers to mark his
obsequies is not known. Father McCreary
does not know what became Of his body.
The priests Of st. Patrick's Church on
Mott street in the heart Of Chinatown never
even heard the name of Unlock. At the
house Of the lead man, 8 Pell street, It is
said that Mrs. Unlock has gone away some
w~here-nobody knows.
Tom woh, who is a clerk in a store on
Pell street across the street from where
Unlock lived, ventured an opinion on how
the lead man had been buried.
Il dom know sure" Tom Woh replied to
the questioning Of a reporter. He China
man, maybe SO he get China iunelel. All
Chinaman get China funelel. Maybe Tin
lock Chlistlian, he get ChlistIian ~funelel. I
don't know sure"
: All Chinatown seems to express the same
doubt a. Tom Woh and the characteristic
Chinese reticence prevails to obstruct the
way Of cny questioner that wants TO know
about Unlock. Yes, he was a physician,
China doctor kind.
Yes, he had lived in this country forty
three years and he had no queue. Maybe
10 he was a Christian. Maybe he heather.