The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1909-06-25
MORBID CROWDS
co TO CHINATOWN
Streets Usually Quiet Now Resound
With Babble of Mixed Tongues
Since Murder of Elsie Sigel.

NEW YORK. June 25.-Because a
terribly misguided young girl was
murdered by her slant-eyed lover, the
morbid-minded are Growing To China
town these nights in unprecedented
numbers. You see them coming down
the Bowery hanging 10 the ride rails
OF the rubber neck wagons. They
come on street cars and on foot, men
and women. young girls and little
children, all dragging each other u
the narrow streets OF the oriental
quarter TO cape IN wide-eyed wonder
at the quaint balustrated buildings.
the dark and smelly tenements. Ii Is
sensation for them when sinking
Chinaman or bare-headed woman
crosses Mott-st.
Streets usually quiet now resound
for early evening until daylight with
the babble of mixed tongue from Har'
lem. from Jersey City, London, Paris,
Canton. Chicago and Kalamazoo.
Bland and Interesting.
Chinatown life is All unpleasant sub.
ject at the best, but the presence or
its people. some 1000 In number,
makes IL a factor To be dealt with. It's
population Is not as great as the
Chinese population of San Francisco,
but IL is the Chinese headquarters
OF the United States. II covers an
area OF eight square blocks In the
vorY-heart Of the city. five minutes
walk from the city hall. The laundry
men from Maine TO St Louis make
regular pilgrimages here. The ex-
terror OF the town is bland and inter
esting and somewhat fascinating to
the curious mind-like a Chinaman'S
face.
It's shabby brick walls conceal in
EQUITIES almost unbelievable. It's un-
foreground tunnels lead To scenes of
sodden depravity in black contrast to
the gayly lighted restaurants like the
Port Arthur, where Elsie Sigel met
the wolves that destroyed her.
Gambling and Smoking Dens.
AS the owl courts the gopher, SO
do the criminal and vicious seek out
the Chinaman. In rear tenements
Zone such house has no windowsl
there are club rooms, drinking
rooms fan tan gambling joints and
opium smoking joints where the
criminal and the Chinaman associate
on even terms. The depravity in these
places is unfit for the eyes OF decent
man or woman, and unfit to be de
scribed.
AS Chuck Connors says. 1T is an
easy drift from the white light dis
trict To Chinatown, for the woman
who doesn't care" Thus has China
town accumulated the dregs OF the
lowest social order The thieves and
scoundrels come as OF from instinct.
There is one notorious club or
drinking room which is entered from
Doyers-st. through long, dark, coy
cred alley The writer has seen as
high as so men. women and little
girls seated at the round tables in
this joint at midnight, drinking, sing
ing. carousing.
Josie" the girl for whom the police
have been searching since the Elsie
Sigel murder, believing that she could
throw light into the darker places
OF Chinatown. was a regular habltue
OF this Joint. She Is a slim, seduc-
tvie looking female, with shifty eyes
and thin, nervous lips, and her manner
is mysterious and haunting. II Is said
that this young woman. not more
than 90 years old. Is responsible for
the ruined lives of many young girls,
whom she has brought to Chinatown.
II Is said OF her that she makes 1t
her business TO get acquainted with
girls on the street and induce them
to visit Chinatown. their fate being
sealed in one OF the dens. Josie has
been In Chinatown three years She
came OF n respectable family OF Long
Island City.
Dream Their Unholy Dreams.
The police have never been able 10
stamp out opium smoking. There are
a number OF opium joints fully
equipped and where the smokers
dream their unholy dreams in hunks
set up in tiers.
A Chinese woman is rarely seen in
Chinatown II is said that there are
less than a dozen female orientals in
the quarters.
They are kept closely confined.
There are several Chinese missions
In the district, mainly populated by
whites. Occasionally a Chinaman
drifts In, but he is OF the Sunday
school type.
For several years there has been a
good deal OF criticism Of mission
workers for inviting Cinnamon TO
Sunday meetings at their homes. An
ugly scandal resulted from such a
voaattnu u, DrnolyIv,, MT lon. ooo