The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1909-07-17
CHAPTER I.
A MARKED MAN.


eastward. enters by way of Worth
street and the Five Points" Of Un-
savory memory.
A moment before one has been un-
y noticed in the hurrying, J5stling throngs
of the lower East SIde-the Bowery Is
Just around the corner-City Hall Park
scarcely a stones throw away-but q
step across the line into this odd little
foreign pocket of the metropolis. ana
instantly one feels the surveillance
resting upon him hke~a weight.
a thousand eyes ere watching and
studying every movement of tie
stranger from the outer world, and this
is the same wherhar It Is tie urst or
the one-thousandth time t.Iat he has
come to Chinatown.
He sees perhaps only the slant, fur
tive gIances of the blue-froCked groups
about the fronts Cf tie JOSS house or
thester, or the seemingly careless in
spection of the occasional passecSy, bat
he knows instinctively that from tic
houses and shops On either side Of tie
narrow, crooked streets, from behind
those closed shutters of the uppc"
stories. aye, up from the very sratinss
underneath his feer, wrinKled, elbow
faces are 0eering at MIN, suspicious
minds specula dng on his probable mis-
sion.
Mystery is the atmosphere here. ASK
the most harmless question, and your
only answer is a bland, vacuous smile
and shake OF the head. or. at the
most, a brief Me no understand.
They understand all right, these Sc
cretive. expressionless Orientals; 1t IS
the white man who does not understand
them.
Within that contracted right angle
formed by the junction Of Mott and
PeU streets with the short curve OF
Doyers bisecting it. is hidden away a
life utterly alien and unintelligible TO
our western comprehension.
The sightseers who come in on the
s'rubberneck" coaches TO eat at The
gaudy restaurants, or venture timOrous-
II in the wake of a guide into those
counterfeit opium dens" arranged es-
peciaUy for their survey, do not even
scratch the surface of il. The, forty
policemen who guard the district day
and night are scarcely less ignorant.
Forty Observation-Disclosures and plain
csothes men-assigned to a territory
which. if stretched out into a straight
line. would not equal the length of the
ordinary city block between Fifth and
Sixth avenues. An average Of one Of
ficer to every fifteen feet of the dis
lance. one would think that the deni-
zens of the quarter could hardly draw
long breath without their knowing il.
Yet the cop" who has been there
longest viii tell YOU frankly that he
does not understand the Chinaman and
never expects to.
Even the degraded creatures who herd
with the ~Chinks," paudering TO the
worst of their vices. may be seen at
nightfaII sinking shifty-eyed out of the
dark courts and deep, underground pas
ssEes. where more crimes are commit
ted than Mulberry street cares 10 guess
at-even these have no more than pene-
trated the outer shell of their impas-
sive, queued associates. The deep subtle
reserves OF the NIOngOl mind are still
beyond their ken,
Chinatown is unknown and unknOw-
able. Overhead is the roar and rush of
the elevated. Just outside is the swirl
and jostle Of New York-clanging troll
ley cars. moving picture shows, chatter
ing dealers. pawn shops, pushcart men,
crowded sidewalks. But here. as in the
center Of a typhoOn. broods a dangerous.
mysterious quiet
The slippered feet along the pavement
make no sound. The sing-song voices
are seldom raised above d normal and
modulated pitch. No one speaks to or
addresses the stranger; he is scarcely
even looked al. yet he is conscious all
the same that he is being watched
From the time that he enters the
district until he leaves il, whether it
be by night or day, whether, as al
ready said, it be his first or his one
thousandth visit he is the target for a
myriad peering eyes. For what purpose
or reason no one knows Instinctively
one draws freer breath as he crosses
the line back into civilization" and
feels that the uncanny espionage has
been lifted.
Nevertheless there are compensat7ns
10 repay one FOR al occasional excur-
sion 10 Chinatown. II one TeIishcs the
Chinese cooking a square meal may he
obtained at the restaurants Tor 70 cents.
and the service IS urompt clean and ef-
ficient
Then, too. one can pick mp at tie
shops for q few pennies lIttio cu~ios OF
china or porcelain and dainty boxes Of
"1ichees" and preserved ginger or cum
Quats. whereby 1T small expense one il
able TO inEratiate himself with his lcm-
inine friends
These are considerations not - be
disregarded when one is d student at
Colum bia on some what meager re-
sources And hence It was that Tom
Moore IN his first year at the School Of
Mines had gotten into the aabit Of
dropping down -w5 or l'r-e times a
week 20 regale himself with q feast OF
chop sucy and nuuubereG CUPS ~ TEA
Some of his classmates, VINO knew
their New York bclter than this young
fellow. only a few months i'm iowa from
MS native Georgia. used to oypostulatc
with him over nis acoulia~ prediction
"Its an right thsy would say, to
go down there i7 rhe daylight. 81 YOU
feel like it, COP ev-u al sialt .y.th a
party. but 40 browse arouad as vau do.
ali alone. al Hny old TIM thar suits
YOU, and sticking .Jr curious nose INTO
out-of-the-way holes and c0ucrs. H.
sure 10 get YOU into trouble"
Moore, however, would merely laugh
At their warnings and he squared back
his big shoulders and gave au iudtTer-
eut toss 20 his curly. blonde head
ct reckon I can take care of nv