Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-02
Loans to HOusekeepers.
CAPITAL LOAN CO.,
6O2 r st. NV.
BET ON FIGHTING BEETLES.
A Chinatown Sport That Is Always
Fascinating.

FROM the New York Sun.
How Gung at your Chinese laundry may
seem the meekest person In the world,
but on Sunday morning at about o'clock
he is changed How Gung.
How Gung is dressed in his best and
he is smoking his fortieth cigarette in a
low, dirty room blue with the smoke of
many hundred other cigarettes that have
been smoked. All How Gung's fellows are
there with him. and they're all gathered
around little table.
Two two-inch beetles are fighting for
their individual lives in a porcelain bowl
placed in the center of the table. One of
the beetles has a white dot on his wing
case. The other has spot of blue. The
Chinese have wagered their money. on
white or on blue. as fancy or appearance
Of the contestant may have decided.
The proprietor previous to the COM
mencement of the fight exhibits his two
of them tries out the mandibles of the
favorite, letting him pinch his finger with
them, to judge his probable fighting
strength. The dialogue is high pitched,
nasal and noisy. and 1t looks as though a
fight were going to start at any moment.
But they are only making their bets as
things are being made ready for the big
fight In the porcelain bowl
The proprietor drops the two beetles
into the bowl Lights are brought close
around on the table and the gang crowd
and jostle each other to get good view
of what is going on. The two beetles make
preliminary laundering circle around
each other, clumsily clashing their
mandibles.
Suddenly white dashes in at blue The
Chinese stand like statues. White has
rushed at blue with wide-open mandibles.
Blues mandibles are open, too. They in
AL.
other. The six legs of each contestant
slip little on the smooth. white porce-
lain. The effort is to turn an opponent
over on his back, for he would then be
helpless. and the contestants are striving
In sort of wrestling match.
The camor starts again. Side bets are
placed on all sorts of possibilities. Will
the fight last an hour? A bet is posted
and covered. Will white let go within
Ave minutes? There is another bet
Suddenly the whole punched crowd
quivers with motion. Blue has suddenly
broken away from white, and there is a
little chip off the inner edge Of his man.
dible where whites mandible has sawed
any more. He backs UP the sloping side
of the bowl. all his little legs going like
lightning.
Soon white has lost his strongest leg
on the left side. and blue has lost a
right foot The beetles grind their man.
dibles and scrape and tinkle on the porce-
lain arena. White tries to get an angle
with blue to make up his loss. The Chi
nese look on in tense excitement, COM
menting loudly from moment to moment
and posting up all kinds of side bets. for
there is an interchange of money going
on now.
White isn't downed by any means. even
If he is wounded. He can live for days in
perfect vacuum. if need be. and the
loss of air doesn't appear to hurt him. He
rushes at blue, fresh and clipper, for all
that can be seen. The fight is on once
more.
We're not really interested in the fight
so much as we are interested in How
Gung. How Gung is living his life now
You can see it in his tense attitude and
his eyes-not in his face, which is i'm
mobile. The hour drags to an end, white
and blue battling. Suddenly there is a
change. Poor white is exhausted He
strives to climb the bowl with his three
legs. for he has lost two on one side by
now, and one on the other. He slips and
slides on the smooth chinaware Blue
chambers painfully after him, still full of
fight, for white has been no mean op-
ponent all this time and has damaged
blue. They fall down to the center Of the
bowl again and again. At last blue gets
a perfect grip on whites throat Snip
snip. snip. 60 his mandibles at the thorax
of white. and whites head is half sepa-
rated from his body.
A wave of Cantonese surges I'D. Every
body talks at once and bets are paid up