The sun., 1908-02-02
10 Sal Gal TO YEAR 46O5
CHINATOWN STARTS FIFTEEN
DAYS OF NEW YEARS.

Incidentally Mr. FunE Y. MOy Appends to
History an Account OT How Heather
Gods Came to Nation That just Missed
BEING ChristIan-WIVes' Relations Score
According TO precedent hereabouts the
1900 Chinese gentlemen and the sixty
Chinese women who are the celestial popula-
ton Of New York had every right to march
around and around through Doyers, Pell
and Mott streets Friday night and yester-
day morning. blowing their lungs out
through tin horns, shooting OF blank cart
ridges or raising old Ned and smoking
cigarettes in Port Arthur. the Chinese
Delmonico's the Chatham Club and other
fashionable restaurants of Chinatown.
But Chinatown has certain prescribed
customs of its own, and for that reason
the year 1905 of the Chinese Empire came
in more quietly, as it did more slowly.
than it's running mate. 1908. II will take
40O5 longer to get settled than it did 1908
for Chinatown won't really get down TO
business again until February IS.
In the meantime the merchants laundry
men. actors and other Chinese will be call
ing on each other and exchanging little red
cards bearing their names with New Years
greetings OF sending them to each other
through the mails. The Chinese homes
will be keeping open house and the women
and children will be wearing their reddest
Sunday clothes.
Il will be the family men Of Chinatown
who will celebrate most violently. as nearly
all Of the IS 900 Cinnamon have one or more
friends who are blessed with wives and
families. and they will make it a point to
call for a sample Of the feast Of good things
that the women set out and a taste Of
rice wine. In China the feature Of the
season is the visit of the wife to her father
and mother for fifteen days. at the end Of
which time her husband or her husbands
mother calls for her and takes her back
home. There are no mothers-in-aw in
Chinatown. so the wife here can give all her
time to her husbands friends.
Persons who have observed the cele-
bration Of other New Years in Chinatown
said yesterday that the residents of the
district didn't seem to be making as much
Of il as usual. The stores are strung with
Chinese lanterns and the usually dark
streets are highly illuminated. but the man
from Pochuck wouldn't think anything
out OF the ordinary was going on II he
dropped in. The popping of midget fire.
crackers within the houses can be heard
on the streets, but It doesn't remind one Of
the Fourth Of July.
Venerable Tom Lee, the Mayor Of China
town, received all day Yesterday in Room
2S at IS Mott street More than a hundred
merchants Of the district took in their
cards and were rewarded with wines, i'm
ported fruits and nuts, and all the ciGars
and cigarettes they could stand. To-day
500 laundrymen will pay their respects to
Tom, and then the New Years celebration
really will be in full swing.
In the Morning Star Mission, on the third
floor of II Doyers street. a feast Of fruits
and nuts was spread yesterday for all
who wished to call. Fung Y Moy, the
superintendent. was there all the time
except when he was exchanging cards
with the converted men and women of the
district who couldn't leave their homes
Mr. Moy was telling his visitors how much
better Il was for them 70 be spending their
New Years vacations IN the mission than
in the joss house across the street. and in
story:
TT was only by the merest chance that
China didn't get the Christian religion in
stead OF the heathen gods. At the very
time that Christ was in Palestine the EN-
Deror Ching had a dream in which he was
told to send out a commission TO find a god
for China. Before that our forefathers had
been worshipping the God in the sky, the
same God the Christians have now. The
commission went out at the very time that
Christ was alive, and strangely enough, they
went to Palestine first. There they asked
the scribes and Pharisees IL there was a god
for the Chinese in Palestine. The soribes
and Pharisees said no. 80 the commission
went away.
The commission knew they would have
their heads cut on II they didn't take some
kind Of gods back 70 the Emperor but
Whsn they got 70 India they hadn't found