CHINATOWN FROM WITHIN

Evening Star, Issue 18785, 8 November 1924, Page 13

CHINATOWN FROM WITHIN

PAK-A-POO AT UMEKOUBE. [By Hector Barlow in the ‘ Sunday Chronicle.’] In London, that great sea, whose ebb and flow At once is deaf, and loud, and on the shore Vomits its wrecks and still howls on for more. The wrecks thus referred to by the poet Shelley may be found all over London. But it is to Limehouse, in particular, that the flotsam and jetsam of'the seven seas drift at last. From the Asiatic’s home to Limehouse Causeway and Pcnnyfields beat those weary drifters until, in London’s Chinatown, they find a temporary rest-ing-place. Those who only know Chinatown from the descriptions they have read in modem fiction may ho forgiven if they do not recognise it when they are transported thither. There is none of the Oriental colorfulness that they have been led to expect. There is not the glimmer of a Chinese lantern. Air balloons could never float upon the sooty vapor breathed by those who live Limehouse Causeway. The uninspiring odor of poverty is the only incense that pervades the district.

The renowned Causeway is nothing but a narrow lane lined by crazy, tumble-down dwellings. In such windows as aro not closely one may glimpse a pile of glowing Oriental china—strangely-shaped dishes and tables mingled with fly-blown boxes of Western sweets and faded packets of cheap cigarettes. The strains of Oriental music aro rarely _ heard in Chinatown. But there is a wailing of babies—little Anglo-Chinese babies—always to _be heard. Dancing there may be behind the shuttered windows, but the only dancing in Limehouse Causeway is the Macabre gesticulation of an Anglo-Chinese idiot child. Weariness, deadness of soul would seem to be the chief characteristic of the inhabitants. The Chinese men, husbands and fathers, if thcy_ are seen at all, congregate in dispirited little groups at the street corners. The women, hair in curl papers, tawdry finery all awry, peep furtively from behind curtained windows. PAK-A-POO.

Sometimes one of these women will hail a, neighbor. Sometimes she calls a warning to her children. The stranger who has strayed into their strange little world will notice then how rare it is that the cockney accent is heard. These white wives of Chinamen nearly all hail from the provinces. The cockney twang is only hoard on the lips of women who are in the quarter on business. One may well ask what can Jig the business which brings the wives of dockers from Stepney, Mile End, and Bow, the children of tradesmen from Plaistow, Shadwoll, and Barking, into such a spot. The answer is—the glamor of “ pak-a-poo,” the great Chinese gambling game. This game is played by means of tickets issued by the organisers. These tickets bear upon them Chinese characters representing _ numerals. If you choose- five winning numbers yon get your stake back. If yon aro clever enough to choose six you get your stake plus’half as much again. If you are still more lucky in your choice of numbers yon may win' £2O or £3O ot more for the expenditure of a shilling or two. The wives and children of the workers of the East End cannot r L sist this hire, and it is their gambling fever which keeps the Chinese quarter flourishing, despite its apparent Stealthily they creep up, ostensibly to have a_ chat with the white wives of the Chinese. Furtiveß tickets arc passed to thorn, and after dark the gamblers creep back to learn their luck, “ Pak-a-poo ” is played on' a larger scale behind the shuttered windows. But it is very difficult for anyone not well known to the promoters to gain an entry. LIKE A RABBIT "WARREN. Those who are- privileged to see the inside of a dwelling in London’s Chinatown—and they are very lew—are amazed to find behind the- front ot a terrace of apparently detached houses a kind of rabbit warren. _ Doors have ffi'on made in all communicating walls. The collars aro full of retreats and secret hiding-places. This is so that the different “tong’’ may move about 1 reply. 'I lie “ tong j are somewhat similar to Masonic lodges. All Chinamen belonging to thc%amc “tong” are hound to help each oilier. The members of one “tong” will not live in the next house to those of another. Sometimes, but rarely in London, the different “ tong ” ’indulge in fends, and bloodshed 1s the result. But the London Chinese is, as a rulc,_ a law-abiding citizen, as far as physical violence is concerned. The truth is that the Chinaman is not naturally a had man. The troubles the London police have with London’s Chinatown are mainly duo to the fact that the Chinese residents tliere are not representative of China. They arc mostly the ofi-sconr-ings of the somi-Ei gli-h cities of Coma —iiorgkong and Shanghai. Most ol them aro seamen, or firemen, or conks, or stewards, who have deserted then ships.