CHINAMAN VERSUS IRISHMAN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 40, 1 October 1892, Page 980

CHINAMAN VERSUS IRISHMAN.

As a rule a Chinaman will run rather than fight any day. But there are exceptions to this rule. One of theseexceptions happened to be walking up Wakefield street, Auckland, last Sunday. He wasn’t carrying a chip on his shoulders ; he wasn’t seeking a quarrel with anybody ; he was simply minding his own business in his own inoffensive, heathen way. A man of-war’s man from the Ringarooma (an Irish one), in that condition which sailors describe as ‘ three sheets in the wind and the fourth Happing,’ approached from an opposite direction. It is a fact which I have often observed, though I have never been able to account for it, that nothing so much excites the ire of an intoxicated man as the spectacle of a Chinaman pursuing the even tenor of his way. This particular inebriate’s temper was at once stimulated into activity. Lunging heavily against the Chinaman, he exclaimed hotly : ‘ What d’ye mane by runnin' into me, yer yaller-faced, slab sided, rice-eatin' haythen?' The Chinaman made no response, but endeavoured to pass around on the other side. This only made the jovial tar madder than ever. • Wot,' he yelled, • yez won’t giv’ a gentleman a civil answer to a perlite question, thin by the powers I’ll tache yer a lesson that 11 make yer more respictful next toime.’ He proceeded to put his thieat in force by knocking the Chinaman’s hat off, and grabbing him by the queue. Instead of taking to his heels, as I expected to see him do, the Chinaman spun around like a top, and • hauling off’ in most approved pugilistic style, struck his tormentor a mighty blow square between the eyes that stretched him full length on the pavement. * Heap drunk Dishman heap dam fool,’ he remarked by way of explanation to the bystanders as he walked off. When the sailor got up he didn’t say anything, but he looked as though he was doing a powerful eight ot thinking.