Show JAKE MILES VISIT HE IS introduced TO CALIFOR NIAS CELESTIAL ABODE and recounts liis experience with the heathen chinee correspondence of the yon can procure scarcely a california guide but that you will find in it the following 0 o ones education is complete unless he has visited chinatown the sentence has a telling effect upon young aspirants to finish th air educations as some construe it that way and see chinatown they must after returning from an inspection of the chinese quarters of they will invariably tell of having seen things they never before dreamed of the depths of degradation and vice which some people might visit the place a hundred times and not have the luck to see are truly appalling although should we compare the chinese with a good many thousand caucasians in frisco I 1 am afraid the latter would stand a poor show when we take into consideration the different positions on the scale of civilization that these two races occupy chinatown proper covers about five solid blocks running east and west and four from north to south the buildings generally are over two stories high and are leased by chinese merchants and then re rented to the poorer classes san Francis cos population is of whom are chinese the latter mostly huddled up together within twenty square blocks The chinese merchants or more properly speaking the celestial slaveholding slave holding moguls pay all expenses for having their fellow countrymen transported to the united states ut when the poor fellows arrive here they are compelled to work like brutes in order to cover expenses incurred etc when they are set frea the merchant having made a big profit from the kind act of importing his brother chinaman to tho balmy shores of free america some of those merchants have become immensely wealthy by this means and now live like princes my initiatory visit to these parts was between the hours of nine and eleven one daar dark foggy an overcoat was a necessity and when stepping from the foul aired and shockingly poor ventilated dens into the cool damp air seemed like going from a furnace into an icehouse three friend and myself picked our way crowded thor market street north the outskirts of the yellow mans haunts where for a boig price we were at once spotted as from the country which means you must pay double prices the city over we secured the services of a good guide J say because he wasa powerful fellow who could stand off a score should they see rifa to make an onslaught upon us and began our round through the Alongo iian dives our guide told some of the fi shiest fish lies concerning these places that I 1 ever heard some of the mildest of which I 1 will hereafter mention here he re where are you taking us demanded one of the boys stopping abort as the guide stepped from the lighted street stroet into a long dark narrow passage which chilled one tc look at yes I 1 chimed in 1 I feel a little ticklish myself about going into that dungeon dun geoa say partner pass that and let us have a peep at the next palace rhems my standing pegs too said our funny man as he whipped out a murderous looking dagger and cutting the air over our heads not in sight of our guide he danced an indian gig continuing well lot em live in there till another time we wont slay them fellers tonight to night though fd like to wipe out all the vis tails in the country oh come on said the but as if he were used to such objections he lighted a canalo and moved ahead in a manner that meant follow me or lose both me and your money catching up and huddling as closely as possible under the protection of his gianfr arms we reluctantly luct antly followed at the same time wishing in our hearts that he was possessed of enough hands that he might lend each of us one and carry the candle besides we passed down this narrow entrance for some distance thenus a short flight of rickety stairs along a disgustingly unclean alloy then turned to the right and made several more turns through filth and inky darkness which the faint glimmer of the candle penetrated but a few feet the guide telling us some frightful stories all the time when the candle bearer all but froze the blood in our veins by stopping suddenly and deliberately blowing out the light iu our very faces A shudder caused by extreme fright passed over us we were about to draw our heavy shooters borrowed for the occasion with which each was armed and point them up to where we thought afe could see nothing but a darkness you could blice up with a knife tho noso each arm was partly paralyzed by the lowcau he dropped his voice simultaneously with the extinguishing of the candle look he commanded cautiously pointing to a wall of blackness which ho afterwards said was an e ait bothe fourteen men to death this wa an old theatre but after this sickening affair caused by a rival faction giving alarm of fire the chinese theatre goers shunned tho place and it was abandoned for that purpose ss 0 why the light was extinguished we did not learn but it was relight re light ed and we proceeded along a slimy passage where the air was hilled with a stifling odor which caused genuine nausea on each side of this long hall which opened out into a court where their cooking etc is performed and only a few feet apart there was door after door with a small air hole bored in the top we were in a chinese tenement house which contained over 1100 people and these doors were the entrances into their sleeping apartments the guide noiselessly nois lessly opened one of doors and shoved us in when he followed closing the door ugh let me out cried one of the boys bolting for the door its dreadful out there in the hall but I 1 cant stand this that door be opened BO often said the guide stopping him they wont have fresh air soon get used to it do you mean to call that fresh air out there contemptuously inquired the baffled youth where do they get any kind of air from the guide pointed to a hole not two inches fa quare in the top of the door what twenty men all smoking opium in a room 10 by 10 and do pendent on such a thing which is a disgrace to the word ventilation by the holy smokes im glad I 1 happen to be born a chinaman no wonder so yellow the air was thick with the emoke which was curling up from the pipes of the who were lying about on their rudely constructed bunks some were totally unconscious the glassy stare and sluggish movements of others spoke plainly that they were on the verge of a lethargic state while others still were stretched at full length lighting and puffing away at their long pipes apparently parent ly happy there lay one old celestial with decayed teeth sunken eyes hard yellow deathlike death like features who had been a willing victim to the 1 opium habit for over 65 years he had lost the use of Us hands thereby and his cousin a young fellow who lay near by smoking his own pipe had to light the elders pipe and hold it to his mouth while the smoke was being feebly inhaled the opium pipe is made of bamboo the stem being an inch and a half thick and about two feet in length the ends aro generally ornamented with rings of bone or pearl A foot and a half from the end of the stem from which the smoke is drawn a small piece of wood is attached similar to the bowl of an ordinary pipe only the opening which conveys tha smoke to the stem is so small that the ame opium can be burned on top of this without falling in and clogging up the passage it would be a clumsy looking affair if it were nol 00 rat batly ly mado they cost from twenty five to i fifty dollars many other places of more interest than this to the visitor were visited that night but space cries you crowd me you crowd me JAKE MILES nov sept |