davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The San Francisco call., 1908-12-06
THE TR-AINER- AND LEADER OF TIE.
ULNG-GONC C1RInS

Garner that a singing slave has the
great advantage. No banquet OF any
pretension is suceess without them,
and no event is too trivial for a ban
squet loving Chinaman not to honor It
with feast. When he is married he
gives a feast. without the bride. Even
before that there is the betrothal. On
the birth of a son he dimes his friends
and on the moon day of the same. when
the little one is month old, another
banquet. Before an important man
leaves for China he is fed; likewise on
his return. To do the thing in style
requires not less than three, six If pos
sfble. Of the singing slaves. They sing
they play, they light and hold the
pipes, and after the banquet is finished
they join in the games. For few
hours of such work they get from So to
80 each This money Is theirs. Their
owners have nothing to do with 1t. A
pretty, popular slave can sing herself
free long before her beauty fades and
she is old. Little Golden Fragrance ex-
poets to do it in three years. But.
judging from the expression in the
eyes of the qUeueless young man with
the hawless diamonds. 1 think Kan
Heun will be free long before that.
Moreover, am quite convinced she
thinks so. too.
However popular she may be, and
sometimes they are quite social dicta-
tors. these Sing Song girls. still never
for moment can they forget that after
all they are slaves. A singing slave
must go and come and sing when she
is told by the master who owns her.
soul and body, until she lays down be-
fore him her price in hard cash. When
she forgets she pays for it. always.
About three weeks ago a little singing
slave came trotting down Ross alley
alone. 1t was only just dusk and she
was dressed in plain black. Suddenly
some man rushed out from a dark door,
way and poured bucket of red paint
bright red carriage paint. over her and
fled. Screaming, she ran through the
alley. calling for the only white man
she knew, the watchman who takes her
when she goes to sing. AS she turned
the corner she ran straight into him
and collapsed in heap at his feet He
picked her up and carried her home.
while men stood by and laughed to see
him take so much trouble for a wotnan.
He worked for hours. many hours. with
hot water and cocoanut oil. He says
it was worth every cent of the $3.50 he
got Ten days ago, her spirit being
still unbroken. the thing happened
again. only this time it was varnish.
The watchman did not say how much
The San Francisco call., 1908-12-06

he got ror rne second shampoo; but he
did say that varnish is much harder to
get off than paint.
Sometimes the penalty is more. very
much more than a bucket of red paint.
once Bo Yuk forgot Her story is re-
membered yet.
She was very beautiful and the
sweetest singer of all the sing song
girls. A powerful tong was giving a
banquet Six singing slaves were there.
blazing with jewels. glorious in their
brilliant silks. But not one could sing
as sweetly, nor could any compare in
looks with Locust Blossom. So one OF
the richest men at the banquet sent
word 10 her TO come and sing. And
Locust Blossom sent back word that
she was tired and would not come 1t
was II o'clock At ! another summons
came. This time the messenger was
sent to the owner of Locust Blossom.
demanding her immediate presence. He
too hesitated for a moment, for LO-
Gust Blossom was very, very pretty and
she did not want to go. But when the
messenger whispered the name Of the
tong the girls owner became servile in
his efforts to comply. He ordered Lo-
Gust Blossom to get ready instantly,
and she had to obey. putting on her
best coat and trousers of faint mauve
silk, all her pearl and diamond rings.
her heavy bracelets, and her gold hair
ornaments studded with amethyst and
topaz A white watchman was called
to escort her. for no singing slave in
full regalia ever ventures into the
streets of Chinatown at night without
white protector. He took her to the
door of the banquet hall in Dupont
street and Locust Blossom went up
alone. At the top of the stairs the
man who had sent for her had stationed
a friend" to wait. AS she passed him
the friend" reached out and stabbed
her four times quickly. She fell Just
as she was. in her mauve silk holiday
dress and all her glittering Jewels 1t
was true that she was very beautiful
and much sought. but after all she was
only a woman, sing song girl at that,
and she had dared to refuse TO come at
the first call.
Poor little yellow birds. They may
hutter their wings and strut about IN
their tiny cages. They may sing with
the heartbroken lover:
she flies from me; she fouts ma
I remain beside the lotus pond.
1 sing my song OF love and grief"
But when they are ordered they must
sing. When they are called they must
go.
The San Francisco call., 1908-12-06
lhe Pretty and Accomplished Chinese Girls
Whose Performances Make Social func-
tons in the Oriental Quarter Brilliant
Success"

paper she found she had won two dol
lars and went off into one of her wind
bell laughs.
It amused her tremendously to think
there was any one who had never heard
a Chinese girl sing, and as soon as the
serious business of the lottery was fin
ished the tickets for the next days
drawing marked and given to the mes
senger, still chuckling softly she
fetched her KUN. But back at the
table, with it propped against its lac
quered case. she grew serious 1t seems
that there are so many beautiful songs
that it is very hard to choose. But at
who looks so proudly at her, Little
Golden Fragrance made her decision.
The two little paddles of bamboo flew
over the strings and the sweet, thin
notes Of the KUN tinkled out in the
accompaniment of the famous Sin Fa,
Song of the Lily. She played it through
once, then her face set. every trace Of
feeling vanished. with hardly a motion
of her Redeemed lips, in a voice so
high, so winning, so deadly level that
it might have been the wall of a saw
age funeral dirge, Kan Heun sang of
the planting and growing. the joys and
sorrows. Of the Easter lily.
The San Francisco call., 1908-12-06
SINGING SLAVES WAITING 10 pEPPOR.M AT a
BANQUET OF CHlNECE TZERc cHANTU %

ish little two by four red paper things
Who uses them 1 cannot imagine. Per-
haps in the dark ages one was printed.
And the habit of printing music books
has become petrified into a custom.
They will continue to be printed
whether any one wants them or not.
Never have 1 seen such intensity of
establishment on a Chinese face as on
that OF the man In the shop where 7
went to buy one. He handed 1t out,
about the size of two transfers, and
took my nickel as If he were extorting
money from child or an imbecile.
When I came to look into the book I
could quite understand why they
aren't more popular. This is the prin-
ciple. You wish to learn the KUN.
The names of the strings are printed
once in combination of twos. You
take the little paddles. pick out the
first combination and paddle, on and
on, over and over and over. There is
no variation. absolutely none. You
have the instrument. You have the
notes. You wish to learn. Then learn
l haven't the least doubt that every
thing possible to be learned in Chinese
music is condensed there between the
covers of my little red book.
Still the effort is worth 1t to a Sing
Song girl. 1t means she can make
more money, she can save II, she can
buy her freedom more quickly. Her
extra beauty and her conversational
abilities don't always insure her bet
ter chance of marrying than comes to
other slave girls. Every Chinese girl
has the possibility of legal marriage
open to her. All that is required is a
man willing to pay her cost to her
owner. When such one is found
the girls life as a slave is over She
takes her place as second or third
wife, sometimes even as first She
keeps her friends among the girls who
have not yet been as fortunate as she.
but henceforth she is respectable She
is married. She is family woman.
But then no man may ever come. So
every girl saves every cent she can
possibly get hold of toward her price
Sometimessit takes years, and she is an
old woman of 80 before ii is half coll
lected. But when she once does get it
together, according to the contract by
which she was bought her owner is
obliged to take the money. She Is
free. She may go right on living the
same life, even in the same house But
he can say no longer, 80 you must
do So you must not do" 1t is the
dream of every slave girl in China
town. 1t doesn't mean that she thinks
the life is wicked, or that by some
miracle she is consumed with a desire
to be a Christian, to go out into
strange family, whose language she
doesn't speak, and earn an honest liv-
ing" She never thinks of it. Immor-
ality doesn't enter into the question
with a slave girl at all. In nine cases
out of ten she comes from the boat
people, the sanpan men of China, the
poorest of the poor. For generations
they have sold superfiuous girls The
transaction has acquired the dignity
Af
to do with such a useless, nonpro-
ductive commodity as an extra girl?
Nothing.
1t is in the capacity of a money
The San Francisco call., 1908-12-06

She supposed there wasn't You
couldn't expect any accommodations IN
a little town like this. However, she
approached the ticket window and ad-
dressed herself to the agent
Was there a ladies' washroom in the
station? No? Well. it was just what
she supposed That was the way with
small place like this. What could
you expect? Still. she did think the
railroad might provide some place for
people to clean themselves up after
they had got them in such a fix as this
She was sure they got enough money
out of the folks that travelled on their
road to make some accommodations
for them She told the ticket agent
how it happened There her hands
were, all daubed up with cream Eve
felt sure it was face cream), and she
supposed she would have to wait till
she got home to wash them.
She said 1t was a shame to throw
baggage around like that. anyway.
even if a person didn't complain about
it. She did hope those boys would
learn something some time. before
they ruined everybodys things They'd
find that some folks wouldn't put up
with 1t as she did. She could stand e
she supposed. but it wasn't pleasant.
She thought herself that it was
shame. She would like TO wash her
hands. though. but what could you ex-
,pect in a place like this?
She turned up her skirt and wiped
her hands carefully on her petticoat
The waiting travellers seemed interest
ed and the station agent looked
pleased.
Presently the train came in. and the
woman with the red hair. the high
pitched voice, and the spilled cream
Eve were positive 1t was face creamy
took her seat in the car. She said she
thought it was shame to throw a per-
sons luggage around like that
The San Francisco call., 1908-12-06
By Maude Heath Blank

HE glad season of the year, when,
II we are good and stay quietly
] at home, we, IN the country, see
many a strange sight which at other
times are vouchsafed only to the dwell
ers IN great cities, has come and gone.
The summer is over. but the memory
OF the sights still remains.
Our town Is small-there are only
about l.5Oo OF US gil told-but we have
''villas" galore on the outskirts of our
village. In the winter months and dur
ing the early spring and late fall. we
speak casually. even carelessly. Of these
rural residences as the Smith place"
or "the Jones house." but in the fes-
tive summer time they blossom forth
as "Arbutus villa, the country residence
Of the Fitz-Jones family" or Cherry
bloom lodge. the summer home OF the
MontInorenci- Smiths" Our location,
therefore is highly favored by the
goes; and we enjoy an annual oppor-
tunirv 10 see at close range the aris-
tocracy Of our great state-the ultra
swelIs and the near swells OF the bay
cities. whom the mendacious society re-
porters tell US are beautiful and statu-
esQue, or petite and charming. but whom
- honest agriculturist sees are homely
ehd scrawny or ugly and dumpy.
But we do not lay their lack Of pull
chritude up against them. Very likely
they can't help it. and they are just
IS amusing anyway.
The San Francisco call., 1908-12-06

of lost love.
When Golden Fragrance or Precious
Jewel or Locust Blossom wishes to
learn new song she sends for a
teacher, a man always. No respectable
Chinese woman would dream of doing
anything as public as teach, even If
she knew how. In fact it is such a very
new thing for family women to be able
20 play, that today you can ask dozens
Of old men in Chinatown if their daugh-
ters play and they will look at you in
horror and say Chinese ladies do not
sing" The teacher comes and for so
much, generally about Sc or IS,
literally contracts to teach it to her.
Any such thing as getting general
Idea of the musical system and then
picking up songs by herself is un-
dreamed of. AS Precious Jewel says,
How do I know how that particular
song must be sung?" To vary 1t hair 8
breadth from the way 1t has been sung
since the beginning of things-if
things Chinese ever did begin-would
be far worse than not to know the song
at all. Every word every syllable is
cased in an armor of tradition. Not
only must the singing girl Danish
absolutely every atom of personal emo
tion from her voice and face. but she
much catch exactly the intonation with
which generations Of other girls have
sung it. To make the :east motion is
to destroy utterly the beauty of the
song. How" demanded Golden Fra
GRANGE, "can you enjoy the beauties of
the mind, when you make at the same
time motions with the body? oh, no;
your music, like the Japanese, is heavy,
it is coarse. But ours is so fine, so deli
cate, the small motion and it breaks .
No wonder she looked at me SORROW
fully when l suggested learning the
KUN. "It is very hard" she said po-
litely; much harder than American
music" Even the music teacher, with
the probable pleasure of overcharging
me, could not be quite so dishonest as
not to warn me: 1T is better you play
your own music. Chinese music too
hard" 1t would cost me s12 to learn
Sin Fa ana would take perhaps one
month. How would he guarantee that
at the end of that time it would sound
like the Sin Fa as sung by Golden Fra
GRANGE. He just looked sadly. until I
felt that the millions of dead music
masters of China were silently laugh
ing at me. 1t was quite useless to ex-
plain that / already had a faint idea
of music in general, or that / would get
book and study the Chinese variety
with special diligence. How" he oues-
toned patiently, would practicing any
thing else help you to sing Sing Fa?"
Not at ALL Music is not taught so In
China, Ergo--it is not possible-O. E. d.
You can no more get behind the custom
of learning song at time than you
could make an impression on the great
wall with a hatpin.
And yet there are music books, fool
The San Francisco call., 1908-12-06
THREE CLEVER MUGIclANU

AS the music penetrated beyond the
curtains of the room, other girls came
in to listen. They sat perfectly silent,
their bare feet curled under them, on
the bamboo couch. An old man with
a long gray queue and a young man
in American clothes lifted the curtain
and sat down quietly just inside the
door. The old man took the water
pipe from the shelf and began to smoke
No one spoke. There was only the
click Of jade bracelets as the girls
lit their cigarettes, and the breathing
of the water pipe. From the song of
the Easter lily golden fragrance passed
on to the prayer of the dying girl
who begs her lover to forget his fam
lily honor and look upon her before the
marriage day. The young man in the
American clothes listened, his face
buried in his hands. When the song
reaches the point where the lover, un-
able to resist longer, goes to her. and
she begs him never to forget her. but
on the ninth day of every month to
burn three sticks of punk upon her
grave. even although he may be mar
ried to another, the young man in the
American clothes got UP silently and
went out Then the old man asked
for song, and forgot to draw on the
bubbling water pipe as Golden Frag-
rance sang:
Ten years OF absence; then we meet
again.
Meet but to part. Tho we promise soon
to meet again.
The San Francisco call., 1908-12-06

food for mirth and meditation. The
otner afternoon in the local station, a
woman with red hair, a high pitched
voice and grievance enlivened to a
delightful degree the usual tiresome
wait for the train.
We gathered from her lamentations,
which were loud and long, that a small
handbag. which she wanted to carry
herself, had been ruthlessly torn from
her grasp and flung recklessly into the
baggage wagon with disastrous results.
bottle of cream-whether of the cow
or face variety we did not know-was
broken to smithereens and the con-
tents had percolated all through the
lingerie in her bag. AS a result, every
thing was ruined. Nothing short of
soap and water would ever make them
fit to be seen again
1t seems that she had been stopping
for the summer at one of the nearby
resorts, and was on her way home when
this tragic calamity befell her. She
thought 1t was a shame. Not only did
she think so, but she most emphatically
said so. and she didn't care a picayune
who heard her say so. either. She told
the woman sitting next to her that she
thought 1t was a shame and explained
exactly how it happened. She called
the stage driver in and told him about
it, audibly and circumstantially She
had been perfectly willing to carry the
bag herself-in fact, she had always
carried 1t herself and preferred to-but
no. the boy took it away from her and
threw it-literally threw it-into the
wagon, and every bit OF the cream had
spilled all over her things.
She repeated these remonstrances
many times while she was investigat-
ing the interior of the satchel. Her
hands were covered with the cream,
which was greasy 1--WE concluded 1t
must be face creamy. and she wondered
The San Francisco call., 1908-12-06

So in the summer time. the erstwhile
quiet streets of our town are con-
gested by the traps and tallyhos, the
tandems and dog carts and bubble
wagons of the elite, whose antics dis
turb the even tenor OF our good Dob
bins mind. and whose coachmen and
footmen are marvels of black or white
immobility.
Many city people away from their ac-
customed habitat for the summer af-
ford field for psychical research and
study OF human nature, invaluable and
inexpensive for the country student, as
a postgraduate course in the school
of practical and applied agriculture
and mercantile mathematics.
From the time that the first city bird
appears to make life pleasant for the
country worm, until the last one has
returned to the sophisticated existence
of the metropolis. free street entertain-
ments are furnished US, lavish in num-
Der and fascinating in quality. Be-
tween the swagger visitors who come
in state. accompanied by all the trap
pings OF wealth, to take a house for
the season or to occupy their own sum-
mer home to the six dollar -a-week-
by-the-season" class who rejoice the
heart and fill the purse of the summer
boarding house keeper. there are sub
divisions of the species to suit all
tastes.
Some of them are the real thing in
the society columns and have all the
repose Of the We're de Veres, added to
The San Francisco call., 1908-12-06

Alas. our youth we can not renew.
The clouds and shadows vanish. The
leaf falls to the earth.
Like the wild bird 1 fly to the south
seeking thee
In what far blue mountain shall 1 see
thy face again?
Then he. too, went out 1t mattered
not at all that the floor was covered
with linoleum, that the purple Yosemite
glowed on the wall, that telephone
tinkled in the hall outside, the spirit
of the east. of all things old and un-
changeable came creeping down, wrap
ping us about in a mist as silent, as
palpable as a fog from the sea.
New songs appear from time to time.
At least the girls say so, but no one
who plays every night for tourists,
horrible manglings of Marching Thro'
Georgia and Hot Time" and who has
taught for years in Chinatown, has
never been called upon for anything
more recent than the ballads that have
been handed down among the singing
slaves of China for hundreds of years
Many OF these ballads. like the ia
vorite Sin Fa. are fragile, delicate
dreams, the fragrance of the flowers
themselves caught in words. Many
thrill with love and passion, so intense.
SO vivid that only an oriental mind
could have found the images to clothe
it. Very many of them are sad Left to
themselves almost invariably the girls
choose those of death, of separation.
The San Francisco call., 1908-12-06

resemble-so the uncultured rustics
say-a bottle of mustard upset in a
pan of bluing water and overlaid with
dab OF tomato soup. They attend
entertainments in the local opera house,
where they explain to each other and
casual listeners how different it seems
to the concerts and recitals they are
accustomed to patronize.
And there are the stenographers and
shop girls up for week, who take
moonlight walks with the country
swains, with whom they exchange the
stories of their lives and lay in a stock
of "he says" and II says to last
through the winter for the regalement
of their friends. They buy many copies
of the local paper that faithfully
ure to send to their acqaaintances, thus
aiding worthy charity, as represented
by the needy editor.
The ordinary summer visitor in our
town displays lack of self-conscious-
ness that is remarkable, and argues
much study of Miss Fairfacts' advice
to young men and maidens. To them
the town seems to appear In the guise
of an uninhabited island, hitherto un-
discovered bourne, of which they take
cheerful possession and strive to make
tiC bSSt VI ouiihS tuCii oUJOuIH. lHey
have a good time. we believe. and when
they go home they become again as
sensible and well behaved as people of
their class average. Some philosopher
once said that an awful warning was of
as much benefit to the world as a good
example, and, viewed from that stand
point. summer visitors may be a bene-
fit to the communities they infest. They
may save others from danger at the
fool killers hands, and it is certainty
that they help to raise the mortgage
from the boarding house rooftree.
Even In their going they furnish
The San Francisco call., 1908-12-06

rented a cottage for the season, and
who take their matutinal constitutional
down the principal thoroughfares
every morning-their fiorid faces
shaded by gorgeous sunshades and
their voices raised to- pitch audible
around the block as they discourse of
their several ailments.
There are the girls from boardin z
school. who congregate In the post
Office while each mail is being distrtb-
uted, from which strategical point they
pursue the shy country youth. They re-
late their love affairs, past and pros-
pective, their experience in school and
their home relations in tones conyen-
iently raised for the pleasure and
profit OF the resident audience. and
they read their letters aloud with a
childish confidence and abandon bean
tiful to behold. They characterize most
people they meet and things they see
as simply grand" or ''awfully rot
ten," and the ugliest ones affect a
simple and abbreviated dress that
accentuates their peculiar style and
insures attention.
There arc the two elderly spinsters
who paint in water color and talk Of
values, tone. atmosphere and per-
spective." to the amazement of the
widow who rents them a furnished
room at reduced rates and the use of
the cook stove where they prepare
their frugal meals. They belong to the
school, and their pictures