Evening star., 1922-07-12
CHINESE MOURNING
PEACEMAKER'SEND
New York Tong Men Sad at
Death of Dr.. Fong, Who
Ended Strife.
special Dispa tch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star
! NEW YORK, July 12.-The funeral
today of DR.. Fong Foo Leung put
Chinatown in mourning-the China
town that he transformed from a
f>piace Of sinister intrigue and murder
and battle between the warning tongs
into one of the safest and most tran
gull spots In all New York. DR.. Leung
is credited with principal responsible
ity for ending the wars between the
On Leong Tong, the Hip Sing Tong
| and the Four Brothers. Many China
| have been awarded a Nobel peace
prize.
Throngs Of summer tourists were
In Chinatown today. They went to
see the bloody angle Of Doyers street
Perhaps they were disappointed, be.
dangerous place and the scene of
more murders than any other district
OF equal area In the metropolis. fs
bloody no longer. 1t is nothing now
but an unsightly bend in crooked
little street Its thrills are of the
past.
Doyers Street battle-ground.
But the tourist. in the days of DR..
Leung's greatest activity, saw other
things. In the days when Mock Duck
owned the big fan tan and pi gov
joints and was 4 ruling power in
Chinatown. when Tom Lee walked
abroad and exercised his authority as
mayor" only when attended by
heavy armed escort of hatchet men.
when Chuck Connors was king of
the Lobby Cows and when the fumes
of burning opium filtered to the street
from the cellars and dismal subter-
ranean passages-in those days Doy-
ers street was no mans land. 1t was
| there that the hatchet men of the
Hip Sings met the killers of the On
Leongs and the Four Brothers. For a
Chinaman of any tong to be in Doy-
ers street meant shootings and stab
bings. followed by feasts Of rice cakes
and shark fms in the headquarters of
the victorious society
And at the bend In the street, at
| the point about halfway its length,
where, coming from Chatham Square,
1t curves sharply to the right and
heads toward Pell street-that was
;; the bloody angle" with its oppor-
! tunities for concealment and escape
and it's long history of friendly az
fairs" which the white devils, in their
Ignorance. called murder.
Greatest Change in 70 Years.
But at the old joss house even We;
ancient Cinnamon sit before fuming
| incense burners and invoke the be-
| nign attentions OF their ancestors and
the bounty Of the Seven Gods of Luck
No place in New York has changed
more in twenty years than Doyers
street. Only a few years ago its cob
ble-paved roadway echoed to the soft
passing OF sandal-shod feet some
times the crack of pistols and the
thud of falling bodies. Now they echo
to stout American shoes, and the dirty
stones that then were spotted with
rtddfsh stains now are cleaned twice
daily by prosaic white wings When
CHINATOWN was indeed Chinatown the
bloody angle was dark and sinister;
now 1T is brilliant with the light from
the Morning Star Mission. next door
to the old Arcade and the ancient
Chinese theater
1t was in the latter that the emf
nent actor. HON Ling. trod the boards
! in tragedies and comedies a thousand
years old. presented in the ancient
Chinese way. But now instead of
cultural Chinese there comes the
strains Of Nearer, My God. to Thee"
and similar mission hymns, because
the old theater now is a mission and
the faithful sit. on the same little
old red benches and stare at the same
paintings on the wall, with their gor-
gcous patches of color, which were
the most interesting of the sights in
the days now gone
There is little for the tourist to
see in Chinatown now. but much can
be felt of the romance and murder
that were its chief attraction a couple
CT decades ago.
tCopyright 1927