Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1922-04-25
CHINATOWN IS
CLOAKTNG MANY
WEIRD STORIES
Opium Dens Rdided Dis
close Sinister Con
ditiORS.

NEW YORK, april 25-Down where
Mott street loops Its soiled and squalid
length about that untidy backwater OF
tenaments and ramshackle Oriental shops,
which Is Chinatown, the crusaders oper-
ating under Dr. Carlton W. Simon Of the
New York police department and Chief
Oyler of the Federal anti-narcotic forces
are renewing the fight against dope.
For years before the death of Chuck
COnnors'. sol disant mayor of Chinatown,
that forbidding cluster Of buildings jam
med into the elbow OF Mott street was
regarded as dangerous no longer. Sight
seers have been going there for many
seasons, under the impression, skillfully
cultivated by the spell of the willy tourist
agent, that they were seeing the worst
there was to be seen in New York, where
they were merely trudging through the
litter and mud Of a very unkempt, but
otherwise undlstinguished slum.
But a change has come over Chinatown
since the war. Chinatown has become
again & center of the dope traffic and the
raiders are finding new dens where the
victims of the poppy are invited TO come
at their own risk-and WOO the dreams
which are their only relief from the in
describable pangs that assal the addict.
The tong wars have ceased; the Ratchet
man no longer waylays his victims in the
darkness OF the dark arcade which con-
meets Mott street with Pen; uniformed
policemen may browse on their post in
the small hours when the twilight of dawn
begins to reveal again the wretchedness
Of Chinatown, for there is no longer the
imminent likelihood OF shots. screams.
the soft patter of felt-s oIed slippers and
the settlement Of another sanguinary
debt Of honor between the members of
the Hip Sings, the -Four Brothers and the
On Leongs.
For years the shIlabers in charge of
the sightseeing parties have been spelling
the same old singing-this is the place
where Elsie Seigel, the missionary girl
was murdered this is where that famous
young actress who sacrificed her name
to save her millionaire husband from the
chair, once climbed in through a sky
light, spreading par in an opium den,
because the man at tire door had failed
TO recognize her entreaties for q few toys
Of dope.
But now the raiders are finding that
the dens Of Chinatown have become sin
Mister, dangerous verities of a new and
menacing dope situation.
Only recently one group Of raiders
under Chief Oyler. breaking into a tene-
ment apartment at dawn on a Sunday
morning were fred at in the dark hall
way as they thundered at the steel
and riveted door " "a sledge hammers
brought along for thu assault. Two men
standing by in the street before the house
to prevent fight over the roof by way
Of the fire escape were astounded to see
a woman. clad only in her undergarments,
come hurting through the air, trying
to break her fall by using a parasol as
a parachute. Half a dozen captives were
taken in raids OF three apartments that
morning and the strange thing about il
was that the woman was a Caucasian
OF apparent good breeding and the men
were not Chinese but Italians.
That the opium lure Is still strong for
many lower class Chinese. however. was
demonstrated when one raid upon a
Chinese sailors lodging house Noted
eleven prisoners, taken as they lay in
their filthy hunks with their lips closed
over the stems OF those stra al dream
pipes.
Then came the sensational raid on the
quarters of Chom Chu, In Pell street, an
other Sunday morning visitation in which
even the raiders were amazed TO discover
that Mrs. Chom Chu. otherwise known
as Babe" Butler, a beautiful young
white girl, graduate OF New York high
school, had with her ten other white girls
OF obviously good social breeding. Mrs.
Chu and her Chinese husband were held.
All the white girls produced Evidence
that they were legally married to Chin
csc and there was nothing the police
could do TO break up their association.
Mrs. Chu is well known to q circle Of
quite respectable New Workers, including
! many Of her old high school associates
land for purposes Of association with
them, because they can not be asked to
go to Chinatown. she maintains a lux
urious apartment uptown. At Babe
Chus apartment the police were almost
convinced that they had made a mis-
take until one Of them scuffed up a rug
and found beneath it a cache said to
contain $4,000 worth of drugs.