The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1909-08-03


for the most part they evade the Amer
lean courts and settle their differences,
and especially the differences of their
organization, with the dagger and the
pistol, all of which most completely
skaters the Celestial reputation for
peace and docility and recalls Bret
Harte:
Which / rise to remark
And my language is plain
That for ways that are dark
And for tricks that are vain
The heather Chinee is peculiar,
Which the same / would rise to
explain.
The illustrious Chuck Connors bears
out this view. Chuck himself is
sort of mayor of New York's China
town, although a white man, or, rath-
er, Tom Lee is the real mayor and
| Chuck is mayor for purposes of melo-
drama He says:
Some people think Bret Hartes euchre
game poem. with All Sin as a leading
character. was imaginary. It's all right.
On the level know that we had such
case In Chinatown few years ago.
The boys got up a poker game. with
cop as one of the players. After they
had everything arranged they tried to
rope a Chinaman into the game. but he
was very slow and seemed to take no in
terest. The game stood about this way
when things opened up interesting One
man had three kings to q full house, the
second man a diamond flush, the third
man had four tens and the cop a straight.
After they got the Chink into the game
they f1imfammed him. and each man did
his little graft at dealing and along at
first gave the Chinaman pretty good
hands to coax him into the game to his
limit and then do him up.
The Chink never said a word, but kept
his little monkey eyes running around his
head like marbles in a bowl. The boys
thought he wasn't on to EN-. That was
Just his game, to appear ignorant. Every
time he lost he smiled foonshly, but that
was more of his own private fimfiam-
ming. Finally they got a big jackpot,
and 1t was the Chinaman's turn to deal
He had all of his little tricks In his NOM
key head ready for business
The pot was opened for dollar and
went to three. One of the boys raised it
q dollar, the Chinaman raised II two, and
so it went on till it came to a raise of
SO And then the boys began to get wet
In the face. They looked queerly at one
another and then about the. room and
then at the Chinaman, who looked at no.
body and never said word. Finally it
came to a showdown between the China
man, the cop and the pot. The policeman
had four tens. and then they called for
the Chinaman to put up the money He
said: Il don't want to play any more.
You get mad If I win But they forced
him to it. and he put up his money and
won $3.50 on four aces.
You never saw men so astonished. Say.
on the level, they searched him all over,
but couldn't find card anywhere about
his clothes. though they thought he had
packs of them. They never knew where
he got his four aces from. He had been
watching their tricks for couple of
hours, and they thought him green and
innocent. He had forgotten more tricks
than they ever knew. To oblige the boys
he showed some of his tricks for half an
hour, things they never dreamed of.
Mock Ducks Big Cleanup.
In this connection there is a story
now going the rounds of Chinatown
that Mock Duck has been away on
little trip through the west-Chicago.
Omaha and elsewhere and that be
cleaned up-oh. do not know how
many thousand dollars, but something
big-'in game he did not under
stand
II
bling proc1ivity of our Celestial friends
that causes the tong feuds. because
both want the graft all of which
bears out somebody's statement that
all forms of trouble have an economic
cause. Paul said 1t first. however.
when he announced that money is the
root of all evil. 1t certainly is the
root Of the tong wars.
View Of Tongs by an Authority.
Returning to Chuck Connors. who
ought to be an authority, he does not
support the popular view Of the tongs
In his opinion they are mild and be-
nevolent institutions. Hear him:
''You hear lot about the tongs
They amt nothing but clubs or socie-
ties of good fellowship. When Chink
gets into trouble his tong is expected
to stay with him to the limit.
"Highbinders are the tou rhs of every
bunch of Cinnamon, like our Cherry
hill bunch. the Jackson bunch and the
Monk Easton bunch The Lee bunch
has always worked with Tammany.
ahu lndt where lucy get their pun
and can run their blaekmail and gam
bling games to the limit so long as
they pay up and keep it quiet and
don't let their doings get to the public
enough to force the police to interfere
In business a Chinaman Is as square
as dollar. always dealing honestly
with his customers. But when it comes
to gambling and crooked deeds. hiding
crime and breaking the law nobody
can touch him."