OCR Text |
Show CHINESE HIGHBINDERS, They Cause tbe San Franciscans Considerable Con-siderable Worry. JIITIIOIIS 01 III ITIIIX tSSASMNB iilml the Police or tlie (loldin (late Illy are lloiug to Suppress tho loi nict. The frequent murders committed by Chinese upon their fellow countrymen InSanl ranclscoare causing considerable agltitlon among Ilia people of the Pacific coist metropolis There li una phase of the war being wiged between the rivil highbinders societies in Chlmtown which threatens a dinger more far reaching and fir more serious In its effect on the city, the St Ho and the nillon than the death of half a dozen Chinese, more or less, or the stirring up of n local turbulence which the Hllce find it no easy task to control, savsthe ChronUtt The cv cnts of the last week must have emphislzcd In the minds of every newspaper news-paper rcider tlie fact tint any chance pedestrian through the Chinese quarter of San I ranclsco lias to run no small risk of his life. Prudent residents of the city keep amy from Chinatown unless un-less they have business there, but not a diy nor might goes by that one or more parties of strangers do not make the tour of the Mongol quarter for the sake of 'seeing the sights" Suppose, for tho sako of the argument, that some prominent stranger, thus sightseeing in Lliimtown, should fill n victim to the stray bullet of a murderous highbinder, what would bo tho result to thecit)? Surely nueirort would he mule to listen tho responsibility for such an occurrence onilic municipal authorities who per nutted a condition of affairs whero an accident like tint could occur. Suppose, agiln, that tlie stringer who might thus be shot was the accredited represent tlvs of a foreign government Who shall say what International complications complica-tions would follow? In direct evidence of the reasonableness reasonable-ness of this suggestion, It need only bo said that the very risk here suggested was run in Chlmtown list week. It so happened that ozino Harrow, I ho lira-zilati lira-zilati World si air commissioner, and hpeci.it envoy from llrard for the study of the Chinese question In this city, wit cscortctl to Chlmtown hy i police olhcer detailed by chief Cronley, and that the development of n serious pliaso of ihc hthblndcr u ir nudu It necessity lor the commissioner to abandon his trip II was iletectivu Glennon whu wis escorting Mr lluroso, nnd they hid penetrated Into the Chinese quant rs as far as lickson nnd Dupont streets when detective Cox signaled Glennon from a dark iloorwi) , nnd said ' ou had better tike ) our friend out of here, partner part-ner e nrc watching lorn highbinder duel that Is scheduled for hereabouts, nnd he might sec more of Chinatown ll an lie wants to ' The distinguished foreigner at once manifested his desire to get out of the rcicli of any such dm gcr, and the continuance of the official excursion was temporarily postponed as stated. . The Police sometimes receive Information Informa-tion of Projected highbinder conflicts, as In the case referred to but no one knows when two murderous highbinders may not begin firing upon each In broad diy light and in streets which are crowd cd with people It will be noticed that In the case of the murderer last arrested In connection with the present war the police Imo a lively hope of sccurhg corvictlon, since there were anumber of white witnesses to the shooting the very presence of these witnesses Is In further confirmitlon of the danger that threatens the pul lie safely. Two Chinese Chi-nese meet on thesllewilk One draws a revolver and fires at the other. In this case fivo bullets are I urled in tlie body of the highbinder who hid no pistol, but the records of the police nre full of Instances where a k.iril fuslllide has liken place In tlie streets, and not n few white people hive felt the force of the stray bullets thus scillcred abroad At least three police officers have been killed by highbinders during the list six vents I he death of OllWr Osgood and Officer Nicholson will bo re-callcd re-callcd in this connti t on and it will also be remembered lint Officer Gllien a brother of tlie piescnt sergemt of police of the same name, also met his deith at tho hands of a highbinder whom he sought to rescue from the pranks of n lot of Iks Iwo of these ofliccrs werctmiirdcreil, and the other, though perhaps not killed intentionally, was not the victim of n stray bullet exactly, but there hue been other dcittis nnd some nirrow escipcs in direct Illustration of the danger under special consideration About ten years n,o a merchant met his death by n sli ly title bill inay down on tlio rorntrof 1 ront nndjick-son nndjick-son Itwas proven I evondn doubt that the bullet ciuio fro n n highbinder rlllc fired up on tho liij.lar part of Washington Washing-ton street in Clunito vn A ino-e recent Instance was the killing of Kellchcr, Iwo yens ago, at tl corner of Dupont and Jackson streets. I y Chin ung, who after several trials, w now serving n life sentence In Sin ' ucntin It was claimed thatkcllth rs taking ofl wis nccidcntil, though it was contended In court that the highbinder was (.ullty of murderous intent Another danger which threatens the peace of the kmcril community must hive been lorclbly suggested by the foregoing ficts Only let one of a pirty of the tougher clement of whites come within thu range of a highbinder s bullet and the police woul I be of no avail In stemming the tide of revenge that would sweep through Chlmtown It is povsible tint the cooler counsel of the better class of people would prevail against n proposition of public vengeance In thu case of the death of a single citizen from such a cause, but n second fatality in quick succession would surely result in n riot Sil I ranclscint nrc n law-abiding law-abiding people, but their irlevmec ngauvstlthc Chinese Is ofso long standing nnd their aggravations havu been so minynnd so various, tint it would tiku only n few straws In the way of hle.li binder murders ct whites to break the back of publ c patience As regards the number of murders openly committed the present highbinder high-binder war beats tho record Three Chinese killed and another badly wounded within eight davs Is n little better, or worse, thin has previously been accomplished, but there have been mora bitter battles than any that hive yet tiken place this time About ten years ago when two other tongswere at war with each other there were a nun berof pitched battles engaged ln on the streets in which n great mary Chinese took tpart on both sides, but it Is not known that anybody was killed There Is undoubtedly a small clement of comparatively Innocent denizens of Chinatown wlinareln feir of their own lives on account of highbinders, and the history of the societies warrants them In their fear. Tluce years and a half ago, In September, 18S9 Tung Wing, a Chinese girl, 19 years of age. wis killed on Dupont street because she filled to piy tribute to tho tongs. She w as going homo from a restaurant with 1 companion com-panion when an unknown highbinder cime out of ndoorwav, shot her twice and then made good his escape. It transpired that she had been persecuted by highbinder ngcnui to pay tribute, tint alio hid lacked up her refusil with a complaint to the police nnd had been killed In revenue for her obstlnicy. Iwo years later, In November, 1S91 the bod of a murdered Chinese w is found 111 n clothes basket in Dull Hun alley. There wis no evidence forthcoming tint he was a hlshbjnder, and It wis supposed tint he w is murdered simply beciuse he lnd become possessed of some dingerous Information On the very diy following this discovery nn other Chinese wns known to have been killed by the Sue) Sing Tories, one of the societies now nt war again, but the body did not fall Into tho hands of the police. At about the same time Ah 1 o). n Chinese miner at Auburn was killed by highbinders nnd Chief Crowley traced the authority for the crime to a Sin 1 ranclsco long I here was also 11 highbinder w ir In Los Angeles in 111, and severil murderers received life sen fences. In the same yeir John Gibbs, a white man, was butchered b) n Chinese hatchet mm In Cum Cook alley for no apparent reason The crimes herein before referred to arc by no means all that are attributable to tlie highbinders. A book ma) be written about their murderous operations oper-ations The police hiva from time to lime unearthed highbinder conspiracies when they least expected to do so On one occasion a Chinese nrrested for a trivial ollense was found clothed ln n coit of mail, and under this coat were found documents which, being triiis-litcd, triiis-litcd, afforded some my Important clews On nnother occasion a implclous looking Chinese wis arrested w Idle reading read-ing n highbinder bulletin board at a street corner, nnd on his person was found a copy of highbinder rules which proved to lie very useful to the authorities author-ities As a rule, however, lie clever hljlibinder carries nothing compromising compromis-ing on his person It U onlynoncei who nrc thus caught nipping. The different societies hive 1 regular system of spies They hive Innocent looking p'ekets stationed at given points to guard against surprise, and it Is this svstem which Ins put tho coolies on their guard agiinst the alley raids, as shown In Ihe accompanying Illustration It has frequently been remirkcd tint I the highbinders seem to prefer the pistol as n means of assassination Tl o explanation ex-planation of this Is that the highbinder It theatrical bc)oml anything. Ihc quiet cutting of n throat hi a dark cor ner hit no (.lory In it, but If he makes a great noise and Is seen by a big crowd assassinating nn enemy in the street ho Is it nndo highbinder. If he escapes he Is 1 hero. If he Is caught he is a martyr. And it liny be stated Just here that there hive been developed some really ludicrous Instincts of mirtyrdom In 11 jiuall way during the last few da) s tn Chinatown The police have been exercising the privilege of stopping nnd searching cverv Chinese they care to In terfcre with In this way dozens of Hie heathen have been searched, and It Is almost laughable to see the meekness w ill which liicy submit to the operitlon If nothing Le found on them the biggest policeman In the parly usually holds the iellow oir nt arm's length nnd bids him farewell with a terrible kick on the posterior, pos-terior, ns a warning against misdoing nnd as a reminder of the majesty of Hie law, but the coolie makes not a movement move-ment In retaliation, says not n word, and betrays no emotion of any sort whatever, what-ever, though he will probably be unable to sit down for hours. These vigorous measures hive been lesorted to on the part of the police as part of their policy of letting the Chin-cse Chin-cse know that there Is 10 be no trifling with them, and Chief Crow ley Is Inclined to bclicvo that Hits policy lias already hid some good effect lie also cuter-tains cuter-tains the hope that the present outbreak is now practically sut rested, notwith standing the fact that the llop Sing Pongs have killed one mora man thin thesucy Sings Tlie officers hive so lnrissed the highbinders by breaking up their quarters and arresting minyol tlie ' Intchet men ' that they are pretty w ell scattered and nre hv Ing singly or In pairs in ' family ' houses The ' chattels " who are the main support of the highbinders, high-binders, Invo also been driven from their brothels, and, tike the men, nre spread all over Chinatown in twos and threes Iho police officers are being constantly con-stantly blamed for not securing convictions con-victions It i not their f suit The) Iry hard enough, but the very pco le who who condemn them for neglect of duty ill not obtaining a conviction w III aciiuit Ihc mist villainous looking hlj,hblndi r, no matter vvh.it evidence the police may submit If the Chinese only manage to get In n little conflicting testimony, and tlicy cannlu i)t do tint 1 ven if one ho convicted ho can obtain n new trhl by some technicality of the hw This mikes Ihcm bold, and they don't fear the law. As one Chinese raid once: China hw number one, Lnglisli law number two, Mcllcan liw go to hellce." Tint was the strongest way In which he could exprest his contempt for our Instill In-still lions lint bight Inders are not only gamblers and hoodlums J tills four-fifths four-fifths of the cooks in private houses belong be-long to highbinder societies They Join lioth for protection and to be 'bid,' anil in many coses they mako themselves so well liked hy their employers that a strong pull I made to keep them from conviction when Ihe) arc caught in a crime |