The San Francisco call., 1908-12-06
By Adriana Spadonl

10y AOfldnd OpdOOnl
Remember. Lord Chang. tho you love
her so.
She was a singing girl not long ago.
Take care. my lord, keep watch
ful eye.
Or some dark night your bird will fly
. tChinese ballad sung by a singing girl)
G TITLE yellow canaries singing
their way TO freedom. that is just
what they are. these Il or Is sing
ing slaves OF Chinatown. An af-
ternoon among them in an after
noon in another world: a world of
;. standards upside down; of unexpected
beauty; OF delicate charm: a revelation
of modesty. in some respects so subtle
that the western mind can not grasp
the point at all; and on the other hand
% a morality-wen. perhaps it is better
20 leave the other hand out altogether.
Personally I do not expect to live more
than three score years and ten. and no
AL wise providence ever expected me
to unravel the tangles in the Chinese
mind in that short space Of time, much
less to grapple with the institution of
singing slaves. a thing so old, so very
old, that 10 say "as old as the hills"
is to call it a recent fad.
Little Kan Heun, Miss Golden Frag-
. rance, IS a singing slave. She lives in
q little cage Of room on the top floor
of q tenement. Outside the front door.
under the iron wicket. behind which a
fat old woman blinks like lazy watch
dog. a red sign reads: This is a
brothel." A black and crimson prayer
-begs the favor Of the earth god-the
sod who lives under the house, and
has nothing TO do through all time but
70 protect it. Beneath. in a box OF
sand, sweet punks smoIder to his honor
to the honor Of brothel god. The
house is far back from the street. In
the rear halls lamps Of cocoanut oil
burn all day. There is never tread
heavier than the shuttle Of felt slippers
But the room OF Golden Fragrance is
covered with blue linoleum. Above
the bamboo couch, with its wooden pill
lows. its glass Of cigarettes and its
opium outfit, a single electric bulb
Elows like red eye. A purple Yosem-
ite glares at a poem embroidered on
pale green silk A brown joss squats
on the shelf beside the water pipe, and
a telephone tinkles in the hall
Into this tumble Of east and west pat
tered KAN Heun, Miss Golden Frag-
rance. I had been told that the Sing
Song girls are the brightest and pref
test OF all the slaves; that IN one way
they are the social leaders OF China
hundreds Of dollars for their services
alone at its big dinners; that no ban
Quet is complete without them; that
they are the wits as well as the mu-
eicians. With all this I was not pre-
pared for Golden Fragrance. Not a day
over 1e. she is as modest and dainty
and sweet as one Of the doves embroid-
cred on her holiday coat She has the
smoothest white skin, the softest voice,
and the merIiest brown eyes. With her
slim hands she makes the most charm
ing little gestures that cause all her
gold bracelets to click gently. At her
own ridiculous attempts at English she
goes OF into spasms Of tiny chuckles
like the tinklings Of a glass windben
When she is really dressed up her hat
and trousers are OF faintest pink en-
broidered with seed pearls, and her
gold head dress is heavy with uncut
stones. On ordinary days she trots
about over the linoIeum in gray cot
ten trousers and bare feet.
In she came. her hands filled with
small squares Of white paper. Most
gracefully she begged to be excused
while she looked them over. 1t was
the daily lottery drawing and she just
could not do a thing until she knew
whether she had won. The interpreter,
q eueueless young man with perfect
English accent and nawless diamonds,
watched her smiling. On the very last