The San Francisco call., 1908-07-26
PUTS CRlMP IN
SHRIMP SUPPLY
on FOOk On Lung
Throws Chinatown Into
Jabbering Spasm
Parent Company of HOngkong
Claims Local Branch Is :
Knocking Down"

Chinatown was thrown into Jabber-
ing spasm yesterday when an attach
ment was issued against the property
of the Fook On Lung company, the
largest shrimp dealers on the coast
cutting off in single stroke more
than half of the local shrimp supply.
Unless the squabbling factions can ar
rive at an agreement today shrimps
will be almost as valuable as Goldfield
Consolidated and La Boheme will have
to content itself with the uneSthetic
potato salad.
On the face of it the trouble is a sim
pie one, but Chinatown refused to take
the proposition at its face value. 1t
looked beyond the legal proceedings,
deep into the very heart of things, and
indulged freely in personalities and
pleasantries of a Chinese nature. All
of which augured well for the vender
of wildcats meat and those who sell
prayer paper at the josshouse doors
prior to tong war.
PARENT COMPANY ATTACHES
The attachment was issued, nomi-
nally, at the request of the Lew Kan
Chang company of Hon gkong, which is
a parent concern of the Fook On Lung
company of San Francisco. According
to the legal proceedings in the white
mans court the local branch concern
was knocking down" spare change to
an alarming degree and wrongfully
Withholding profits. Therefore 1t asked
for an attachment against its property,
pending an accounting.
Chinatown, basking in the sun and
smell of shrimps, was first apprised of
the affair by the appearance of the
deputy sheriffs who levied attachments
| in heartless and wholesale manner
The attachments included everything,
even unto the boats and fishing tackle
at Hunters point, the total value of the
goods amounting to S21,669.65, the
largest attachment made by Sheriff
| Dolans office.
| Then broke forth the storm. China
| town aWoke with a gurgle and flung
| hilarious remarks to itself. This, said
| the interested parties, was not the
work of righteous merchant, but of
an unmentionable son of shameless
parents, who, in the course of time,
would of very surety be jammed into
a basket with the unprayed for bones
| of his forgotten ancestors and cast into
| a well. Their other remarks were also
interesting, but unfit for publication.
CHU CHU CHUN BLAMED
Above the uproar arose the name of
one Chu Chu Chun of Oakland, who,
! they declared, was responsible for the
episode The man who sounded like
an automobile, they said, with more or
! less heat, was a shon dong-one who
had cut off his queue and wore Ameri-
| can clothes. Chu Chu, it seemed, was
once a stockholder in the concern and
| manager of an Oakland branch. Him
| they fired out, paying him $500 for his
| share. The attachment, they claimed,
| was nothing but general cuSsedness on
his part, undertaken for no other pur-
pose than to put a crimp in the profit
of the shrimp. Chu Chu, they said, had
worked the deal by claiming TO possess
! a fictitious power Of attorney from the
firm at Hongkong.
The entire affair is peculiar The
! usual custom among the Chinese is to
/ fight shy of the American law courts,
their little knowledge of such institu-
tions as the appellate court and legal
! technicalities making them wary of the
white mans law. Where business dis
! agreements arise the common plan is to
| have the case decided by the Chinese
| consul general and the six companies.
! If 1t can be arranged a bond will be
given to have the attachment released.