The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-03-20
H0NOLULU'S HIGHWAYS AND BYNAYS
Among the Opium Dens of Chinatown Many
Whites Among the Smokers.-.The Kodak
Drives All to Cover.

! awaited the ones who persisted in tax
I ing this opium antidote The report.
/ which spread like wildfre among the
/ Chinese, was that news had been re-
ceived from China that those who had
/ attempted to cure themselves of opium
smoking in this way had all died sud
! denly within three months after be-
ginning the treatment. Throughout the
city the antidote was hurriedly spilled
into sinks or poured out into back yards
and many hundreds of extra punks
smoked in propitiation before grinning
josses. But hitting the pipe is decreas-
ing because the number of old China
men in Honolulu is decreasing. The
Hawaiian Chinese do not to any number
indulge in the vice
This is not because they do not have
plenty of opportunity to see plenty
of 1t. In the very thlckest of the hop
joint section, in the building shown in
the picture here given, a score Of
bright-eyed little chaps attend a private
school The contrast between the Joints
downstairs and the little hall of learn
ing upstairs is great On the one hand
CRIME, slothfulness and vice; on the
other tidiness. youth and industry. Be |
low, pigtails and talon-like finger nails |
above, closely cropped polls and chubby |
fists curved to top spinning and mar
bles. The boys attend this school after
the hours of the public schools. They
will all be voters here some day.
Down at Pearl City, just across the !,
track from the railroad station, there
/
and just through the open door are
an opium joint and an opium pipe re-
pairing shop. While at their noisy
classes these children can see the dope
sters at work
CHINESE ATHLETICS.
But all opium smokers are not Chi
nese; neither are all Chinese opium
even among the older ones.
Just as many of the young Chinese
engage in Occidental sports and train
their muscles for field and track con-
tests, so the older ones, some of them,
keep up their training along the meth
DDS brought with them from China.
These methods are heroic and start
ing and the results are amazing A
course of exercises that will cradle a
nan in the end to poke his forefinger
through a half inch board or crack
open a cocoanut with his fist amount
10 something, for their freakishness if
,or nothing else. There are some Chi
lamen who can do these things. Others
harden the muscles of the forearm by
vhacking them with sticks, giving
themselves welts from wrist to elbow
hat would black and blue the haole
athlete to a pulp.
To secure photographs of some of
.hese now old men in action is al
enough for the one who cares
% look them up, but their training
quarters and gymnasiums are tucked
away in cellars or darkened back
'ooms where snapshotting is impos- 1
'ible and they will not come out into {
he sunlight and face a camera. One {
vas found the other day who was i
ess modest. This is PAX Chew, who a
S well known to the police as a scrap &
oer, one whose strength and skill are c
to be at the disposal of the +
highest bidder and who figures geper- S
lily on one side or the other in most c
f the tong mixups in the quarter. I'm Il
ficially he dropped in the other day t
o see his acquaintances at the police / o
tation and posed proudly for his pic c
ure. q
His particular stunt is to invite any {
ne who wants to make a punching h
ag out of his stomach. BY constant
xercise of the abdominal muscles he a
as so strengthened these that the +.
ardest puncher cannot even make h
ent. Joe Leal, the assistant chief of a
electives, failed even - stagger him. T
'arney Joy once undertook to knock T.
ne wind out of the Chink and bruised
is knuckles and many of the strong
len and pugilists of the city have had
ke experience with The Man with
ne Rubber Stomach" as PAX Chew e,
elights in being called. t.
C0NGESTED CONDITIONS. o.
Throughout that section of the city fl
etween Nuuanu, and River, and King, a
M Beretania, each block is a perfect T
etwork of connecting buildings. Back tC
the centers of these blocks only p
loush ground is left unbuilt on t. al 81
w little alleways, over which, from pt