Evening star., 1924-10-13
NEW YORK WAR WIDENs.
Chinese Move About With Death
Possible Any Moment.
BY ROBERT r, SMALL.

NEW YORK, October 13-Furtive
| eyed Chinese. arms folded in their
! wide flowing sleeves, slip from place
to place in the shadows of old
Chinatown, fearful that at any turn
of the winding, crooked streets an
assassin's bullet will lay them low.
The tocsns of the Tong war" have
been sounded and another of those
mysterious feuds which sweep Chi
nese settlements the country over
Is on.
Just how the wars begin none but
the orientals ever know. The hea-
then Chine is peculiar" He has his
own axes to grind. But thus far the
war is being fought at what might
be called long range. 1t Is with pis-
tolls. Later. if it follows the usual
cycles, it will come TO closer quarters
with hatchets. The police dread the
hatchet stgae. Always the murderer
! leaves his hatchet in the crushed
skull of his victim. The war then
becomes silent and death rides on
swift wings. During the gun-shoot
ing period it is easier to control. The
danger then is usually to the by
ISLANDERS.
Gunmen WaEinE Fight
1t is evident just now that this
trict, holding New York, Brooklyn and
Newark, " j., in its grip, is being
fought out by the professional gun
men of the two famous tongS, the Hip
Sings and the On Leongs. These
professionals shoot straight. When
the war spreads to the amateur gun
men, then there is danger indeed. for
the amateur Chinese pistol fighter
usually closes his eyes before he pulls
III;
then. Today Chinatown, with its tor
tuous Mott and Pell and Doyers
streets, is no-mans land. 1t is
patrolIed by the police singly and in
pairs. Plain clothesmen lurk around
each corner. 1t seems there is
bluecoat about every 25 feet. The
district is blockaded.
The gay sightseeing cars of the
metropolis, with their vari-colored
lights and Japanese lanterns, are de-
serted at the street corners. No one
wants to go to Chinatown these won
drous moonlit nights. The trick Joss
House and the fake opium dens."
maintained for the benefit of the
wide-eyed country folk from the
great American hinterland, are cry
ing in vain for customers The Chi
nese merchants. who reap harvest
of greenbackS from the sightseers,
are in an agony of despair that their
unworthy countrymen should start
war just at this season, when the
tourist trade was at its height.
Wider Fight Threatened.
The warning members of the tongs
have threatened to take the fight
beyond the borders of Chinatown.
Already one Chinaman has been found
dead away over in the Jersey mead
ows. This threat to take the war
uptown" has thrown the oriental
restaurant keepers into frenzy of
fear.
The Chinese restaurant has become
a widespread institution in New York.
Some of the establishments represent
investments of tens of thousands of
dollars. The latest of the super
restaurants has just been opened in
the building which was once the far
famed Palais Royal, where Paul
Whiteman made his first great hit in
New York. The Chinese proprietors
call the place the Palace of Gold
Already the police have been called
upon to guard some Of the restau-
rants. The proprietors in Brooklyn
seem to be especially fearful. Frantic
efforts are being made by the Chinese
merchants and the various "benevo-
lent" associations to bring about a
truce in the fighting, but it is ad-
mitted that peace is not in sight.
Police Specially Trained.
Now York maintains especially
trained, police for the Chinese dis
tricts:S To the unframed eye all
Cinnamon look more or less alike But
to the bluecoats and the plain
clothes men who live among the
Orientals there is a vast difference.
The police seldom try to figure out
the causes of the Chinese wars. They
say the preseU outbreak may have
something to do with the revolution
in China, but it is more likely a
quarrel arising out of the Illicit traf-
fic in opium.
On one or two Of the victims, thus
far, powdered opium has been found.
The regular Chinatown police have
been augmented by members of the
bomb squad, the narcotic division,
the special service prohibition squad.
the radical squad and other picked
men of the force. Their efforts at
the moment is to keep the war from
spreading. Many Cinnamon living
uptown and conducting restaurants
there have been caught in the China
town blockade and are afraid to
leave.
Copyright. 1924