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Show ;.!.u-i s tii.it 1 i-vr 1,: .u'.l. s:.i2A- of t!,r lniMr.-t of i J.ii-li J ill h,-R-:iL'ur mention. '"IIm-iv; whi-rc :irr ymi taking U- ?" .l.-uiaiuli'd ono uf I hi' huys, -;T!ni!; li.-rt. a- tin- yiiili' .-le-pped from tin.- limited street into a Idi'i;, ihiric, narrow passage which chilli.'. 1 one to even look at. "Yi-s," I eliimeil in, "I feel ;i little lit-tle tickli.-h invselfnliout uinf into ihat iluncoii. Say. partner, pass that and let its have a peep at the next palace." ''Tlii-in's my standing pit;s, l'," raid uiir funny man, as he whipped whip-ped out a murderous looking dayer and, cutting the air over our j iieails, (not in sight of our guide) I'm t-'ad I d'.d .'l l...Vl.r-A I e - U'l-n a till ; ; (;.::. i : : no v..;i!, r . ti il.cv Y y. ! I' w a:- - '.: : ; Yv v. !" g " 6 The air was l!i:rk w'ih ihe I ' si nok e v. li a h w.is eu rlin up i'lvm 1 " : liie ip..- of t!;e tn- 'iity C ' J i i i . ;v 1 1 . k :i , wiio were Ivin-j ahont on their ' I - " ! ! rudely eoiir-t rueted hu n ks. Sonic ! ; u ere n it a I! v uncoM.-rion ; the ;;!a:y j stare and s!ugi;ih inoveiiii-nts of j otluTs spoke plainly that they ' were on the verge of a Irthargie ; J stale; while others i-i.ill were stretched al full Imglh. lighting and pulling away at their long pipes, apparently inlinih'ly happy. There lay one old (.Vlc-iia! with decayed tei'l h, sunken i yes, and hard, yellow, death-like Matures, DOWN IN CHINATOWN.! FOlfTYTIIOUSANJ) ri(VTAILS HUDDLED TOG-ETHER. he daneed an Jndian jig, continuing: continu-ing: '"we'll let 'em live in there till a not hi v time; we won't slay them fellers tonight, though I'd like to wipe out all the pig-tails in the country." 'Oh. come on." said our guide impaliently, hut. as if he were used to such ohjeetions. lie lighted a candle and moved ahead in a manner that meant, "follow me or lose both mc and jour money." Catching up and huddling as who had Ik en a billing victim to ' the opium habit for over Co years. -lie had lost the use of his hands thereby, and his cousin, a young j fellow who lay near by smoking!; his own pipe, had to light the elder's pipe and hold it In his mouth while the smoke was being feebly inbaled. j The opium pipe is made n! bamboo, the stem being an inch and a half thirl; and about two feet in lengiii. The ends are ornamented with rings of hone or Down in Their Filthy Opium Dens Ticklish Sights and Scenes. pearl. A loot and a hall I mm the end of tiie 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 the smoke to the stem is so small ihat the fine opium can be burned on lop of this without falling in and clogging clog-ging up the passage. The pipe would be a clumsy looking affair if it were not so neatly made. The best ones cost from twenty-live to fifty dollars a piece. Many other places of more interest than this to (he visitor 1 were visited that night, but space cries: "You crowd me. you crowd me." I Leaves from .1. M's Jourmil. You can procure scarcely a California guide but wdiat you will find in it the following: "No one's education is complete unless he has visited Chinatown." This sentence has a tolling ell'eet upon young aspirants to finish their educations, as some construe it that way. and see Chinatown they must. After returning from an inspection inspec-tion of the Chinese quarters of San Francisco, they will invariably invaria-bly 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 nd not have the luck to see, are truly ap- . palling, although should you compare com-pare the Chinese with a good many thousand Caucasians in Frisco,--!, yfr;iid the latter would stand a nor show, when dulerent positions on the scale of civilization that these two races occupy. - Chinatown proper, in the henrt of San Francisco, covers about live closely as possible under the protection pro-tection of his giant arms, we reluctantly re-luctantly followed, at the same time wishing in our hearts that he was possessed of encugh hands that he might lend each of us one and carry the candle besides. We passed down this narrow en- trancc for some distance, then up a short flight of rickety stairs; along a disgustingly unclean alley; then turned to the right and made several more turns through filth and inky darkness which the faint glimmer of the candle penetrated pene-trated but a lew feet (the g,iide telling us some frightful stories I all the while) when the candle bearer all but froze the blood in our veins by stopping suddenly and deliberately blowing out the light in our faces. A shudder, caused by extreme fright, passed over us. We wen; about to draw our heavy shooters witli which ,caelj yug armed, borrowed forthr occasion, and point them up 'Co where we thought (we "could see nothing but dark ness you could slice up with a' knife) the nose of the guide was when each arm was partly paralyzed by the low. si uia ninciiM, ru lining ca.st tiini west, ami ion i l'mm north to sotil.Ii. ine iuiklingf, giin orally, arc ovor two stories hili and nro lonscd liy ChinosjO mcrcliants and t J i cn rr.-t'otiti'd rr.-t'otiti'd tn 11 m jiooror cln.si s. Han Fi'.mcistro's iopulat ion is ; :i(K),000, 40,000 uf l)oin. iiie' Chinese, the hitter must ly, huddled hud-dled n j ) tooe t ! i e r within tin sr twenty .square hloeks. Fnrnierly, l ho Chinese mer-chants, mer-chants, or more pruiif-rl y sponkinu;, the Celestial sin vo- holdi nu; niutils, 1 paid all expenses fur having their fellow counlrynicn'trans torted to the- United States, hut when the poor fellows arrived here they won: compelled to work like hniles in order to cover expenses incurred; in-curred; etc., when thry were set free, tlio merchants Im.vi ng 'made a big profit from the "kind acl," of i in porting his brother Chi nam u n lo the balmy shores of free America. Some of these merchants li;tve become immensely wenl t hy by this means. ;md now liv like irincos. My initiatory visit to these parts was between the hours of nine ;ind eleven o'clock one damp, dark. l'nggy "ight, when an overcoat was a necessity, and when stepping from the hut, foul-aired and shockingly pom ventilated dens, into Ihc cool, damp air, seemed like, going from a furnace into an icehouse. Three friends and myself picked our way through the crowded Mmr-oughfares Mmr-oughfares from M;irk i sliv. f j northward to the outskirts of tie-: ! yellow man's haunts, n here, fur n ' big price, (we wen.- at mice j ''spotted" as being from theeountry, ! which menus you must p:ty double j prices, the city over.) we secured j j the set-vices of a g.-od (?) guid. j j I say "go-nl" heenuse he was a ;' ! powerful fellow who could s!.;ind : '..Ifa score of Celestial, sle-uM 'lie;.- ! see fit to make :ni (tii-lailght upon j us and hern mir rounds thi'oU'h the Moiiguliaii di v'c . Our guide Md some- of the ' tishiei:t ti jIi lies concerning thesx cautious tone to which he dropped his voice, si mul hi neons with the extinguishing of the candle. "Look!" Iu1 commanded cautiously, cautious-ly, pointing to a wail of blackness, black-ness, which he afterwards said was :iu oit to the street, "fourteen "four-teen men wore crushed to denth (here. This was once a 1 heal re, hut after this sickening jili'air, caused by a rival faction giving a false ahirni of lire, (he Chinese theatre-goers shunned the phi.ee, :ind it was abandoned for that rcfison." Why tlit; light was extinguished we did not learn, hut it was presently pres-ently re-lighted and wc proceeded along a slimy passngc when1 the air was filled with a stilling odor which caused genuine nausea. On each side- of this long hall (which opened out into a court where Iheir cooking, etc., is performed,) nod only a. few feet apart, there w:is dooj' a fter door with a smii.ll air hole bored in 'the top. We were in a Chinese tenement house, which contained over 1 00 people. These doors were the entrances i nfo their sleep ng ;i pari menls. The guide nuhlessly opened one of these doors and slmvi .1 us in, w hen he folloived. quickly closing the door. "Ugh, hi me mil," cried one of ihe boys boiling I'm- lite door, "it's dreadful out (here in the hall, bul this 1 cau'l stiud." I '-That, door niusln't 1 pcii'-d i so often,"' said Ihe guide, slopping biio, "(hey won't have fresh aiv ! hi re; oh. you'll soon get used toit." j '!- you mean lo eall that fresh ! air i nit there?" con tempt 1 1' m sly inquired the hallled youth. 'Where, do they gel any kind of air fr.. 111?" The guide pointed to a h"le ii' .! over (wo inches square, ill f he top of (he d....r. "What! Iweufy men all smoking opium in a s i---.--'-i room in by 10 and depend. ml on such a Miing, which is a disgrace to the word venlihiLion? Ly the holy smokes, |
