The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1908-02-27
THE REAL CHINATOWN.
Faets About These Strange People
and Their Habits.

There are 1000 Chinese in and
about New York. OF these not more
than 5000 are nominally or actively
residents of the great city and less
than 1000 live in the triangle formed
| by Mott, Pell and Dovers streets, says
! ;ho New York Sun.
This handful of strangers, with
their queer customs, their strange
| psychology and their hating efforts
to adapt themselves to institutions
which are not of their making, have
managed in the past six months to in
volve nearby all the legal machinery
OF the city, including the district at
torney's Office, the police courts and
the detective organization at police
headquarters. in a little private quar-
rel of their own.
There Is probably not a single busi-
ness enterprise in Chinatown owned
by single man. Everything goes by
companies. Even the little sweetmeat
| merchant who sells nuts and ginger
stand at Pell and Doyers street will
talk to you of his "pahtnahs.'
Wee Kee & Co" Wong Sing G.
Co.,. may mean a company of 20 or
30 men, each with a little investment:
in the enterprise. The custom is so
common that the rich men of China
town, instead OF owning one or Two
establishments all for themselves, put
their eggs in many baskets.
Profits in these enterprises are
small. Chinatown as whole has
been losing in prosperity for several
years. The steam laundry is mainly
responsible.
The reaction against opium dens
has cut OFT another source of revenue,
and, finally, the coming OF the Park
hurst society and the resulting tong
wax mas hurt gambling lot.
Many Chinese vegetables do not
flourish in the cold climate OF New
YORK. SO these vegetables, from
sprOuted rice to yams, are raised near
New Orleans 10y Cnlnese syndlca,e
and from there shipped tresh every
day or SO to synu4cate oI dealers
Wnlcn suppnes the Restaurants and
stores.
Gambling is at once the delight and
the trouble maker Oh the CnInese
quarter Here and in emma it is tne
pesetting vice and the Iayorlte amuse-
ulenl.
LAccpt for that one weakness it
ma! De said that the Cinnamon are on
the whole more moral than the white
people who surround them. They do
not drink, and there are fewer opium
smokers among them than there
would be drunkards among an equal
number Of whites away from the re-
straints OF home.
Chinatown here is like a new COM
munity in the western mines. They
are away from their families, Their
women and their code of responsibility.
They work off their love OF excite
ment in gambling
AS matter OF fact, their gambling
is mainly for excitement. Half of
the games raided in the periodical po-
lice clean-upS are no more harmful
than a society game OF bridge or
quiet hand of poker at the club.
Fan-tan is the game for plungers.
This is the simplest device for losing
money ever invented by man.
The players on the lucky numper
get triple stakes minus a percentage
for the house. 1t is as simple as sin
ming.
Before Capt. Eggers' raid on Easter
Sunday night there were about IL fan.
tan games going. Some Of these he
caught, some of the "dens" he raidei
were only little private games Of pie
gov. There are fan-tan tables going,
although very guardedly
No white man is allowed in a Chi
lese game. Some of the degenerates
Luy lottery tickets, but this game has
never spread among the whites as it
has in the Pacific coast cities, where
the lotteries maintain agents in the
downtown business district
Gambling brought on the Hip Sing
On Leong highbinder war, which is
still going on and will go on, the Chi
nese say, until the Parkhurst society
ceases TO encourage the Hip Sing
Tong In brief. here is the status of
that mix-up:
The gambling house keepers need
protection against the police and
against Chinese toughs. 1t is their
custom everywhere to put this matter
into the hands of blackmailing COM
panies or tongs, which collect regu-
lar tribute, out of which they pay
themselves and bribe the police.
Against outside Chinese meddlers
they use, when necessary, the "A cal
iber American revolver, or the threat
thereof