The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1924-10-16
"A D AY s
WALK
With i'm RING

Chinatown was very quiet in
deed. Wrinkled yellow faces
showed In windows and doorways.
Infrequentiy figure would fear
fully emerge and shuttle from
shop to shop, But mostly the
Chinese stood safely inside their
shops and watched as curfOusly,
while we talked to q policeman.
The officer talked Of diplomatic
immunity, alley fights: raids and
gunfire. He said little Of the
Chinese.
'.But have you ever seem a
tong war start?" he asked. 1t
ends as quick as it, starts Some.
thing happens behind the scenes
YOU don't know anything about
that. The streets just ias quiet
as it is now" =
We looked around nervonsly.
You see two Chinese come nut
on opposite sides of the street.
Before you know 1t, one has pal
led a gun and is blazing aW9y at
!, the other. They both skip behind
}treea More tong boys rush out
! and shoot. Then they all run
back to their houses"
a yellow man tapped the Of
ficer on the shoulder, and smiling
" whispered to him.
Their Best Fighter.
'.All right. Charlie" said the
cop. ''I'n watch out for you"
The Chinaman waved I and
started across the street. Al
though his hair was grizzled. he
walked erect with pugilist's
bearing and a stride that was
certainly not anything like the
mincing shuttle of his brothers.
''He's the strongest man in
Chinatown" the officer explained
runs a laundry, but he probably
could make more in the ring, il
he wasn't getting old. I saw him
beat up three men once-big fell
lows. too. They jumped him for
some reason don't know. He
shook them off like SO many
fleas, and then knocked them out,
one at a time"
whats he asking protection
for?'' - 81
All 3 Mystery.
''You never can tell. Sometimes
they ask because they mean it,
and sometimes they ask, because
they just want to talk to you. In
times like this, you can't tell
whether they mean it or are only
bluffing."
"Do they do much gambling
around here?"
yeah, but it's hard to catch
them. They usually have their
look-outs so well posted that the
games over and everything
cleared off by the time the cops
get there. 1 raided one game
once. One guy tried to stop me.
He put his hands on my shoulder
and yelled, NO go, no co. I said
to him, Get out Of my way or
I'll knock you cuckoo No go,
no CO. he said, pushing me back,
and just cracked him alongside
the face and went on in. We
got about six Of EN-"
Amy drug smuggling?"
Eyes, but the same rule applies
there. You never can catch them
with the stuff. The other mans
always got 1t. I've been watching
a mani think he's a drug run
ner-for more than a month, and
I don't want him te. know I'm
watching him. So fars I've been
afraid TO try to arrest him be-
cause didn't want to spoil the
case"
Puzzled BY Meddling.
We have never felt, as some
folks have, that the Chinese are
an evil race. We believe they
would rather sell li-chee nuts or
Chinese cigars than prowl around
after foreign devils and stick
knives in their backs.
:, The policeman told the same
story. They are good people, and,
as a rule, they are examples of
strict honesty in business. But
they like to be a law unto them
selves, and there's where they
buck up against the meddling legal
mind OF the Occident.
IL they want to have a little
tong, war, surely they don't in
tend to hurt any one who
shouldn't be harmed. If they
crave q session at. fan tan, it's
nobody's business but their own.
And II some like the golden
drowsiness OF the poppy, why
shouldn't they hit the pipe?
The Chinese, perhaps, do not
understand that in this country
the authorities wouldn't be happy
If they didn't NEEDLE and poke
into the lives and customs Of
n l.