Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-04-22
miscellaneous Rading.
BET ON FIGHTING BEETLES.
A Chinatown Sport That Is Always
Fascinating.


How Gung at your Chinese laundry
may seem the meckeSt person in the
world. but on Sunday morning at about
o'clock he is a changed How Gung.
How Gung is dressed in his best and
he is smoking mis- 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 a little table.
Two inch beetles are fighting for
their individual lives in a porcelain
bowl placed in the centre of the table.
One of the beetles has 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 mis-
two bits of live stock to the frequen-
terS. One of them tries out the mandi-
bles of the favoritc. letting him pinch
his finger with them, To judge his prob
able fighting strength. The dialogue
is nigh pitched, nasal and noisy, and it
looks as though a fight were going to
start at any moment. But they're Only
making their bets as things are being
made ready for the big fight in the
porcelain bowl.
ha
into the bowl. Lights are brought cloEe
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 a preliminary laundering circle
around each other, clumsily clashinS
their mandibles.
Suddenly white dashes in at blue. The
Chinese stand like statues. White has
rushed at blue with wide open mandi-
bles. Blues mandibles are open too.
They interlock and soon are pulling
against each other. The six legs of
each contestant slip a little on the
smooth, white porcelain. 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 clamOr starts again. Side bets
are placed on all sorts of possibilities.
viii the fight last an hour. A bet is
posted and covered. Will white let go
within five minutes? There is another
bet
Suddenly the whole punched crowd
quivers with motion. Blue has sudden
ly broken away from white. and there
is a little chip off the inner edge Of his
mandible where whites mandible has
sawed it. Blue is active now. He isn't
clumsy any more. He backs up the
sloping side of the bowl, all his little
legs going like lightning.
Soon white has lost mis- strongest leg
on the left side, and blue has lost a
right foot The beetles grind their
mandibles and scrape and tinkle on the
porcelain arena. White tries to get at
an angle with blue to make up his loss.
The Chinese look on in tense excite
ment, commenting 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 a perfect vacuum if need be.
and the loss of air doesn't appear tn
hurt him. He rushes at blue. fire IN 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 tens"
attitude and his eyes-not in his face,
which is immobile. The hour drags to
an end white and blue battling. Sud
denly 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 opponent
all this time and mas damaged blue.
They fall down to the centre of the
bowl again and again. At last blue
gets a perfect grip on whites throat.
Snip. snip, snip. go his mandiblcs at the
thorax of white, and whites head is
half separated from his body.
A wave of Cantonese SurgeS up. Ev-
erybody talks at once and bets are paid
up.-New York Sun.