Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-07

home of dramatic art as the Chinese
! see 1t.
Thousands of night-singing birds.
hanging In gilded cages along the
shrill music to the chattering OF the
multitude which crowds the streets
and oYerhows the balconies. Broad
| flights OF stairs lead up to the tea
houses. Here one finds a huge room
| filled with tables and chairs. Men lean
on the tables and sip, sip, sip the.scald-
ing tea, varying the excitement once
| in a while by nibbllng at a melon
seed. 1t is about o'clock in the even
ing. and there is an air of expectancy
in the place.
Then comes the pitiful procession of
painted playthings who help to make
the fun. This little girl, she is as like
all the others as is one pea to all those
In peck measure, is not more than
10 years old. She is dressed in a pur-
pie coat of heavy satin and trousers of
light blue silk Her tiny, deformed
Feet are thrust into thimble-like shoes
| covered with Jewels. Her long, black
halr, heavy with oil, is carefully coiled
on the back of her head and fastened
| with a pin of silver and jade. Her
neck and arms are weighted down with
Jewels. Her feet are so small that she
can scarce walk without assistance
and she is helped up the stairs by an
old woman. the "amah." in dull-col-
ored clothes, who is always her COM
panion. No girl is ever seen without
her "amah," or maid.
Her face is painted thickly-eyebrows
plastered with black, forehead white
as death, cheeks pink as peach blooms,
lips scarlet as geraniums She looks
as II she had never smiled, never
thought, never lived. She seats her
self at table and, in a moment, is
joined by a silk-clad young Chinese.
she knows her duty and instantly she
begins to talk and laugh and be anus
Ing. There is tea to be drunk and per-
maps chow" to be eaten. Maybe the
sllk-clad man loafs to another table
and another painted plaything. There
are 10000 such as she within a stones
throw of Foo-Chow road Splendid
with its lights, joyful with it's myriads
OF birds, Jubilant in its pleasure and
fun-the two rows of magnificent
buildings of Foo Chow road but screen
from tho eye of the passerby the mis-
cradle Warrens where these painted
playthings live out their days ia
squalor, suffering and sin.
In many of these tea houses there is
another great room. In it one finds
scores OF hangs, that article of furni-
ture which Is combination of couch
chair, bed and table, and which in the
northern part of China also does duty
as stove. On these men are living
in all stages of such intoxication as is
produced by smoking opium. Only a.
few Of the tea houses have the opium
smoking departments now, and by the
first Of next November all will he
closed. The prohibition was effected
by law which reduced the number of
opium smoking resorts each three
months until final prohibition is
reached. The women may not enter
these rooms, and it must be said to
the credit of the Chinese that there
are hundred tea drinkers outside to
one devotee Of the poppy inside.
Across the street one looks in at a
theater, where a company of outcast
actors in .grotesque costumes wearily
go through the parts of a historical
play which may have begun last week.
and which probably will not be finished
for fortnight. Next door is q "slng-
song house, where the men sit about
to drink tea and pretend, at least, to
listen to the dismal walls which a half
dozen "sing-song" girls sitting on a
stage seem to think is music. The
girls themselves, however, do not ap-
pear to take their singing seriously, as
they comb their hair and do fancy
work as they sing.
Downstairs, on the street floor, the
crowd surges from spot to spot at the
behest of barkers who have imported
enlightened America. Here are scores
of moving picture shows-the contribu-
tion of the twentieth century and the
most popular form of amusement, after
tea drinking. in China. All difference
between the east and the west is blot
ted out in the magic cinematograph.
OF such things the Chinese have taken
literally from their western brothers.
The Chinese population of European
Shanghai is proof that even the un-
changing sometimes change.
Shopkeepers, compradores, bankers,
servants, riclksha pullers, coolies-every
grade and class of Chinese in Shanghai
have taken something of good and
something of bad from the white men
who built the city they live in. They
have all made money out of the white
man, too, and they do not wish him
to go away. The Shanghai native
thinks too much of gain ever to in
dulge in q movement to oust the for
eign devils" The white men have
come here, they have built this city.
and, in a way, they rule over It, But
the Chinese know that in everything
but politics they are the real rulers.
Shanghai, for all its foreign airs, Is
Chinese. OF course there is Bubbling
Well road-but that is another story.
Tomorrow-In Modern China: xIx-on
Bubbling Well Road.