The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-02-24

parts Of the city or tine nelBnboIlhS
towns lays aside his tubs, starch and
| irons and starts out for a holiday, he
usually goes to Chinatown to taste OF
| its manifold vices. Hitler also come the
| degraded Caucasian in the last stages OF
! abysmal descent. Every one smokes
opium or tobacco. Every one CANDLES on
| everything-the news of the day, the
| weather, cards, fantan and dice. "Rec-
| titled" spirits or wood alcohol Temps
them to debauehes which mean blind
ness and death.
| Chinatown has its political bosses just
| like the city of New York for graft Is
much the same everywhere and among
all peoples The proprietor of the China
| town den pays tribute to a more power
| full Chinaman who is usually the ruler
of a Tong or society The Tong leader
is supposed to have the backing of some
| Caucasian politician and is thus In a
| position to protect the dens
| In years gone by the rival Tongs OF
| Chinatown have had many murderous
1 clashes The pistol is their weapon. Mem
| bers of the warning factions meet. shut
| their eyes and holding their revolVers
/ under their long, loose shirts, open hre.
| Sometimes as many as three or four are
| killed The police make many arrests but
no one is ever convicted. dying China
man will not tell who shot him and when
brought into court all Cinnamon look
alike 10 the American. here 10 iVN~A
anyway Of Identifying the guilty and the
Judge usually dismisses the whole bunch
in disgust
A favorite scheme of Cinnamon is to
start fight in one street of Chinatown
and while the police are concentrating
their attention upon 1t to quietly prac-
tice In another street on the backs OF
their intended victims. firing at them
again and again from windows or dark
doorways. Cinnamon are VIGOROUSLY bad
shots. but their reVolYers are large ana
their plottings devious a31 persistent.
\ series of such incidents and the
dissensions between the Hip Sings and
the On Leong, the rival 'tongs, re-
suited in the police raids of eighteen
months ago. The leaders of the "tongs
We're forced to sign agreements speei-
flying that such conflicts must cease The
police surveillance continued. Chinatown
was no longer wide OPEN 1t was the
beginning of the end
Up to about year ago only three
policemen regularly patrolled Chinatown.
Now there are nearly twenty Their raids
on the gambling and opium resorts make
the trade Improbable. The proprietors
began to migrate to other parts of the
city Two years ago there were 1000
Cinnamon in the district. Now there are
only COCO, and they are leaving as fast
as they can. The opium dens and gam
DllllB houses THAT TtlildiH dlt SiiuSlN h'h
den away in attcs and cellars. To get
to them one has to go through a verit-
able labyrinth of passages and Railways.
Another force at work Is the influence
of the white women who have married
Cinnamon. The number of white women
in this city with Mongolan husbands is
estimated at 300 Only forty-fve still live
in Chinatown. The rest refused to stay
there. and their husbands meekly obeyed
their order to move.
Chinatown, the show place. is interest
ing. 1t was especially interesting last
week when the Chinese new year-the
beginning of 1865 Confucian reckoning
was being celebrated with a roar of eX-
ploding crackers. bombs and fireworks.
The temple gougs and drums kept up
am awful din There more lanterns and
red banners than usual on the house
fronts and along the queer little iron
balconies which always seem Just ready
to collapse. The showmen said that the
Cinnamon on the streets and in the shops
were paying social calls and would be
feasting for fortnight.
Visitors from the automobiles vera
buying Chinese souvenirs from the dis
plays i'm the shops along Mott street.
How could they know that many of the
notions and even the porcelain and
lockwood were manufactured by White
men i'm mills within a hundred miles of
Joss, at % Mott street, there was an
outlandish din of gong and drums, beat
en- with the knucl1les of the attendants.
Many prayer-slips huttered at the feet
of the idol. A cloud of sckening smoke,
rising from scores of glowing Goals, OBJ
, scured the shrine and the banners and
the mysterious symbols on the walls.
Fortunes were told, prayers were writ
ten, and the sightseers departed, cough
! Ing, but duly impressed. They did not
know that they had been initiated into
| the mysteries of Oriental religion at 50
| much head. Few remembered that this
! temple of the Great Joss. once owned by
| the Wright estate, was sold Just month
| ago to Albert Sokolski, and thence trans
| ferred to Delsco Alexander.
1t was the same at the Chinese the
| atre-a cavern of place with a low
/ platform at one end, where Cinnamon
! with stools and tables for stage fur
| niture whined and chanted to the accom-
| paniment of drums and shrill pipes. Ever
| this performance, consisting chiefly oil
! noise, is believed by some to be merely
a fake" gotten up for the benefit OF
| the visitors The tours of Americans
| usually end. after suggestion of tho
| mysteries ON the side streets. with visits
! TO two music halls. one at the corner OF
| the Bowery and Mott street, the Other
| lower down on the latter thoroughfare-
| resorts where Occidental tobacco smoke
| beer and dilapidated humanity mingle
| with Oriental pigtails, blouses, and the
| parchment-lke skins of the confirmed
| opium smokers. So much for Chinatown
| the show place.