AMONG LONDON'S ALIENS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XLIII, Issue 2287, 4 March 1912, Page 2

AMONG LONDON'S ALIENS.

j ! JOHN CHINAMAN IN THE MYSTERIOUS BAST. SOME NEW AND AMAZING REVELATIONS OF FOREIGN LONDON. Bj Mr. P. Doubleyon. Asia in London is 1 a land of dreams —a. strip of earth near the docks where one meets men of mystery with brown and copper-colour-ed skins and haunting eyes. It is a region of strange charms, amulets inshrining verses of the Koran, pigtails, bland faces, opium-smokers, blood-red turbans and countenances as fantastic as those one sees on the Oriental tea chests that are landed close by. The only English features of the district are its names —Limehouse end West India Dock Road—and the policemen. The rest is East, the wonderful East of hoary age and history. Lounging at the street corners are Lascars, their crimson head covering showing up gaudily against their dirk clothes. Strolling along is a party of Malays, their lips wet and reddened with the juice of the betel they are chewing. A few Arabs are here, handy-look-ing men, who contrast strangely with those sleepy-eyed Cingalese, who, in long, light overcoats are shivering although tVe day is warm and the sun’s rays' strong. CHO FUNG AT WORK. The causeway is like a street in Canton. It is a slice of real China. Over the shops are names like “Shing,” “Chang,” “Wong,” and “ Cho Fung.” Inside are mottoes pinned to the wall, which read “ Prosperity by Honesty,” and “ Righteous Prosperity.” John Chinaman deals in rare delicacies of the Orient, drugs, pills for counteracting the effects of overindulgence in opium, and oil made of beans for the sacred lamp which the Chinaman swears is an emblem of his life when taking an oath. If you make a purchase, and John happens to be a business-like man he enters it in his ledger. He makes just one character for the name of the purchaser, price, date, article and everything. It is not likely, however that he will trouble ; his thoughts turn more to gambling than to book-k/eeping, and down Limehouse way it is not uncommon for a Chinese dealer to gamble away his stock, furniture, and wardrobe in a single evening. Gambling is the Chinaman's pet vice ; the next is opium-smoking ; the next is whisky-drinking. INSIDE AN OPIUM DEN. A young Eastern acquaintance of mine conducted me to an opium den in order to prove that the lurid accounts of these places are untrue. The house we entered had shutters to the windows with three holes through which ! faint pinheads of light appeared, and an old man from Pekin opened the door and sllentlj invited us down the passage. The door leading to the “ den ” was hung with curtains of yellow, and a faint, seductive odour filled the room. In the dim light of a lamp that was hanging from the low ceiling I discerned here and there, the figures of men asleep. All was silent as the grave—just A strangely enticing perfume, an occasional movement of a sleeper and the Chinaman gliding snakewisc across the floor. The men lay on mattresses, and their heads fitted in sockets cut in wooden pillows. John flitted about like a shadow. Now he was leaning, with a hideous grin, over a smoker’s form. “ Gone," he muttered. “ Sleep !" The pipe fell from the smoler’s lips. Then the den-keeper covered the man over, face as well, with a sheet, and he lay there quiet, motionless, dreaming. 1 shuddered. I had caught a glimpse of bis glassy eye, his wide open mouth, and his deathly pallor. Then John prepared a pipe for me also. From a little cupboard he produced a lamp, a tin canister, and a pipe, consisting of a tiny bowl and a long stem. Having lit the lamp be placed the end of a piece of wire into the flame for a few moments. Then he dug the wire into the canister, which contained a preparation almost black and of the consistency of liquid glue. John turned the wire round and round, and when he withdrew it some of the stuff about the size of a bean adhered to the end. He held this in the lamp, and in a moment or two the opium, for such it was, began to burn with a faint blue flame. Ho jammed this into the howl of the metal pipe and promptly handed it to me. And I smoked. The first sensation was a choking one. Then I became a little dizzy, like a hoy over his first pipe. The Chinaman advised me not to puff hard, hut to let the opium burn and inhale the vapour that passed down the tube. I followed his instructions and strange things happened. The room took life and began to whirl. What would have occurred had I continued, I cannot say, hut 1 stopped, and although the Chinaman assured me that the wonderful dreamland to which the choking sensation led was worth the discomfort I quickly gave up the pipe, and my friend and I hade the keeper of the den good-night. THE DRINK-MADDENED ARAB. As we gained the open an Arab, who had driven himself temporarily mad with drink following an opium debauch, burst upon a party of Buddhist sailors with a knife. There was a struggle, and he was easily overpowered, but I shall never forget hearing the followers of Confucius wishing the drunkard the worst fate that they believe could befall him • that of becoming a Christian. As they hissed out the curse the sound of an English church bell rode to us gently on the night air, and two streets away a band of Salvationists were inviting foreigners to forsake heathenism.

Yes a curious contrast, out not more’ curious than the annual pilgrimage which the Chinese colony makes to the graves of their countrymen who have died in London. Tey set out for the burial ground in the East London cemetery laden with Pastern cakes, and whisky and liqueurs ; and dance and sing and make merry over the dead. A few yards a way, where a Londoner and a Christian is being buried, there are prayers and tears and agitated faces, taking a last look at the loved one’s coffin ; but here the whis ky flows—is sprinkled on the graves even—and the laughter goes as freely as at a wedding. Cockneys stand around in wideeyed wonder while the Chinese e recute weird movements, madden themselves with wbisliy and invoke the gods to spare the departed the most awful penalty which the spirit world can impose—that of transforming a male newcomer into a woman. The orgy lasts, as a rule, for an hour, and the men from far Cathay leave the graves liquor-soaked and littered with broken cakes and sweetmeats. WHEN LIMBHOUSB ENJOYS ITSELF. But the most gorgeous sight of all London’s Asia is that to be seen on the Eastern New Year's Eve—this year it took place recently. Limehouse becomes a land of carnival, with yellow streamers hanging across the roadway, and Chinese lanterns in hundreds, adding the real Oriental touch to the gay scene. The colony engages the largest room in the district, and spends days in making it look as un-English as possible. The walls are draped with yellow flags, on which is the flying dragon, dear to the hearts of the “ childlike and bland,” and when the hour for the feast arrived the scene reeks with strange perfumes. To the privileged visitor everything Is free ; to suggest payment is to invite expulsion, and to refuse the overpowering hospitality is the biggest insult to China that could he offered. Later on, when the shadows lengthen, and the fun grows furious, and the English factory girls present are beginning to tell themselves that the yellow men are not so black as they are painted, the colony crowds into the streets for the pyrotechnic display. Prom every window baskets of fireworks are slung across little pulleys, and at a signal given in the Chinese language lights are applied and there is a crackling pandemonium. The festivities are kept up during the greater part of the night. They cost a small fortune and provide one of the strangest sights in all London —hundreds of yellow, grinning faces darting in and out of the spurting lights, scores of Englishmen and Englishwomen looking on amazed at the foreigners’ riches in the meanest quarter of London. And the English faces say : ” How do they manage it ; how do they manage it ?” But the Chinese take no notice. How to become rich in London is the aliens' grand secret. And he knows Tjell how to tteep it !—‘‘Pearson’s Weekly.”