Mexico Missouri message., 1913-02-20

Yes" / told her, 1T came in my
mornings mail. Murphy is still at
Cos Cob. He didn't leave his bunga-
low all day yesterday. and he had
no callers"
I'm crazy to know what you learn
tonight from Yup Sing" she went on.
eagerly. "Oh, how / do hope It will
give us some hintl II seems terrible
to think OF Uncle Robert in the hands
OF those uncomfortable Cinnamon.
And, Philip. don't you think you had
better take some one with you? /
suppose Mr.. Yup Is to be trusted, but
at the same time, you must remember
you are going into the enemy's camp,
and you should be careful"
But laughed at the notion OF TAX
ing body-guard.
I'm TO meet him at nine o'clock" /
told her, in a public restaurant. Be
sides, therell be a crowd Of those
Seeing New York people down there
about that time, and Chinatown will
be on It's best behavior. SO never fear,
little girl. Do you want me to tele-
phone you when | get uptown? You
know I'm going to stop tonight at my
rooms in the Loyalton."
"Of course want you 10 telephone
me-" she returned, emphatically. ut
shouldn't take you very long to hear
what Mr. Yup has to tell, should It?
l shall be expecting you to call me up
between ten and half-psst, or by elev-
en- at the latest; so don't dare to go
for supper first"
AS IL could think OF supper" I
said, looking at her in way | had,
when I might be hearing your
voicel"
Could | have foreseen what the
night was to bring forth I certainly
should have discouraged her waiting
for my message. But the power Of pre-
vision is given to few OF us. and OF
those few l am not one.
Assuredly | had no misgivings as,
after dining at the University club
that evening, / stepped into an cleo
trio hanson and gave the driver the
address of the Doyers street restau-
rant. Whatever 1t may have been in
the past, | believed the Chinatown OF
the present to be. outwardly at least, n
reasonably law-abiding section OF the
borough OF Manhattan. And was not
that night the guest OF one Of Its
most honored citizens? What, there
fore, had to fear?
On the contrary, as We turned from
the Bowery into that little semicircu-
lar thoroughfare which Is perhaps the
most characteristic OF Chinatown's
three principal streets. was pleas
antly interested. This was quite a
different place from that which had
visited the afternoon before. Then. a
sort Of brooding quiet reigned over
what was so ordinary as to be scarce
ly distinctive; for that part of Mott
street on which the Yup Sing estab-
lishment is located, have since learn
ed, Is merely one of the gates of the
real Chinatown, Of which Doyers
street is the heart and center-and
which awakens only after nightfall.
Now the place was alive and alight.
Narrow roadway and still narrower
sidewalks were thronged with a COM
bination OF denizens and sightseers.
Shop fronts and upper windows glow
ed with varying degrees OF brightness.
From the Chinese theater on the left
came a bedlam of inharmonious
sounds: the brazen crash OF cymbals,
the squeaking Of raucous stringed in
gtruments, the resounding clangor Of a
gong. Voices high-pitched and voices
cultural, mingled with hoarse and
strtdent laughter. echoed from wall to
wall OF the streets encroaching
squalid buildings.
Before the least unpretentious Of all
these structures, my hanson stopped,
and as l stepped 10 the curb | got a
glimpse Of its banner and lantern
strung balcony, giving 20 the street
a touch OF color that helped to lift II
into an atmosphere which, II not
Oriental, was at least wildly un-Amer-
lean.
Finding now that I had anticipated
my appointment by something like ten
minutes | chose to watch further the
Kaleidoscope scene without, rather
than pass the time waiting at a table
within; and to this end took UP a posi-
ton Of vantage CD the restaurants
low step.
Whether ! am more or less keenly
obseryant than the average man / do
not know. Probably any one as fas-
cinated by the general scene as was /,
would have noted as closely it's indl.
vidual elements. I am not sure But
the truth is that in a very few mo-
mentB ] had acquired a mental photo
graph Of the opposite side IF the
street, in so far as 1t came within my
direct vision. In other words every
detail Of the background Of the NOV
ing picture before me was indellbly
printed upon my minds retina. There
was the playhouse, with it's plain, rec.
tangular Doorway unadorned, save by
quartette Of rude signs two above,
slanting outward, and one on either
side, all announcing Chinese Thea