JOHN CHINAMAN ‘DONE.'

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XX, 15 May 1897, Page 617

JOHN CHINAMAN ‘DONE.'

A Chinaman conceived a plan not peculiarly Chinese, of riding on the railway without a ticket. With this object in view he crawled into an empty box beside a pile of luggage. Be had previously labelled the box and placed in it a good supply of boiled rice, also be had bored a number of holes as a means of ventilation. He journeyed thus for many hundreds of miles, without molestation, and was congratulating himself upon his success when he was discovered. A lynx eyed porter spied him and pounced upon him without ceremony. * Stump np, or out you come !' he shouted, emphasizing the demand by punching Lon Wah in the stomach with a stick poked through the airholes of the box. Lon Wah explored the recesses under bis enveloping shirt, and produced a small coin, a very small coin. But the porter was inexorable, and after another punch or two Lon Wah fished up another coin. A third of larger denomination satisfied the porter as far as his personal wants were concerned, but he passed the word along so thoroughly that by the time John Chinaman reached his destination he hadn’t as much as would pay a car fare. Lon Wah is now a sadder and a wiser man.