THE VINEYARD OF VICE

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1890, 27 October 1913, Page 7

THE VINEYARD OF VICE

A LOCAL' GARDEN. [Br Quiz.] No stars; no moon. Only black jit« sorutabl? pight, and screaming gale, and pitiless pelting rain, A. Sunday, night with tho city'stilled in Sabbath hush, and not a foot astir to ring from the slippery asphalt a rhythm for tho tempest's raging music. Goslit houses peered with yollow eyes into tho deathly, gloom, Tho Kelbunie hills trailed an ambor rosary; round their sides, and tho street lamps smudged the ebony night liko faded halos over phantom polos. Surely not even tho burning fever of pak-a-poo would drive men out on such a night! For men have homes, and homes have firesides. Haininpt Street would bo deserted on this ghastly night of a day which had broken in dolicato beauty and was dying in screeching agony. Yet might we find an oasis, a place wlwre life still stirred P

Haiising Street held neither soul nor' sound, and showed jio light nor life, Quietly wo walked down to tho gate of No. . —, then hurried along the creaking, rotting verandah, and entered. Haiuing '.Street a desert on this wild and wicked night? Tho room on the loft was full, and round tho, circular table sat a silciit band spending the Snbbat'h in ardent devoteduess to tlioir teligion, fervent in prayer ta gold, their God. The plnco was hot. Smoke hung liko a faint blue veil, and. into its tcx.turo ran ono single spot of yellow, the dull light- from the oil lamp on tho round table. Ohineso. babel mingled with the English tongue, and yellow faces with white. Youth sat side by, side with ago, and s'habbiness with dirt. The lust for gain gleamed in this eye, it shone from that, it was the light or every eyo. The silvered head, tho wan. worn face, tho hungry oyo lent a kind of sadness to a scene where tender sentiment was too oft. a strajiger. The presence of less sullied youth only increased tlio sliamo and tlio pity of it all. The very gold seemed cruel atid cold, but with greedy fingers they snatched at their pile or pushed it savagely, across tho table.

■Something to think of, .respectable .Wellington—your rosy youth sliedding its blushing petals m a garden, of shame 1

Not all! Opposite, across the passage, a. thread of light crept from under a.closed door. We entered, and there we found an aged and wrinkled Chinese making ready for the. Fan' Tatt school.

Ho smiled, and busily continued hie preparation.

"Show us how to' play Fan Tan?" "Fan Tan I This not Fan Tan, J don't'know how to play." ; Wo loft the place, and along the street a little wo waded down a narrow alloy', and by a side door stepped into a den oven more unwholesome than tho last. Over a little ta.blo bent a China* man, marking : pak-a-poo tickets. Ho had piles of tickets round Mm,, and as we' walked in he looked up from liis work and beamed at us over his glasses. * Ho was preparing for a hank which was soon to bo drawn. Leaning uiicunccrnedly against the wall near the door was a young Chinese, who had, clearly enough,- spent most- of kis year-a among tho "English. Bccauso of his knowledge, of English ways aiid English tails, this elegant daiidv wap important. Shortly after We went in lie w-eut out. When we trespassed in the next deu ho was there, and again he retired almost immediately after our advent. Ho was tho human telegraph, t >vh-o,trod the street with silent feistf,' -pietedliig us from house to house, warning eachtentaelo of tho octojms prying strangers were stealing .upon,its lair. Complete success lie' had awhile; then he was temporarily outmanoeuvred through our passing by several houses at which ho oxp&sted us to appear. In a little room of tho deepest squalor wo camo upon a company of Europeans and the two Chinese custodians or tho den. They had got warning, but too late to disappear. They had risen. from the fruit cases and candlo boxes which were tho chairs of the. house, 1 and -Were standing with drooped heads 1 and hidden faccs turned to tho walls. Labouring moil most of them, ill-clad 1 , 1 ill-clcaiisod. Wo left, and as wo moved along tho narrow street wo look-i . ed back ana saw by the aid of a lonely' light which had just broken upon tha' gloom shadowy forms which told that t-hoy too wore quitting, stealing out to vanish in the .cover of the night. tinder the hoarded 1 window of tha next-houso we listened, but _we heard! ( 110 sound. Wo listened to s-iloitoo. In-1 side. a score of white and follow faces bent over a rod lire. To other banu-box i dens we were admitted from tho street, J •. alter padlocks, chains, and bars ha.yi ■ (joeii! removed; and to some -chained! rooms,' sacred to what mystery wo know not, entry was denied us. \Vo rnadu no entry with the customary diffidciice. of a visitor, but rather mado all entries according to the otiqUetto of the Australian b'ushraugijjg days. Wo had outered the street half expecting to, find its precincts deserted. W-o left its, teeming with people whom our sub. , picious presence had hunted out —old!) inoj.l, young men, and boys, Inicidli.ng lii'j their draughty rags against tho fences for shelter from the merciless storm 1 • which hurled its maledictions upon all) who walked; abroad on such a, Sabbath. And as wo hurried out of tho street as tho other end wo came upon a dilapidated woman driving' homo a white man, whose locks of silver and looks or. care had contributed to thp sadness • of tho scene in tho first don whoso piti-, ful peaoe Wo disturbed, Fronv her lips j , foil scarlet words as upon his snowy, j Lead she heaped the bitterness of her. And who were the.so we had seeuP. J Were there among them the Fan. Tanj Kings and tho Princes of Pak-a-poo who make delightful fortunes vending tho. . physic for whito ( moil's fever? No. You may look in vain for the principal; s'ou will find only, tho agent. The principal is the bank,. luHaining Street tli'ero aro four banks,/ and as many as eight drawings per day, aro made. Men with several tickets hi each draw soon increase their lust for gold by decreasing their cash. A win, is a rarity. Loss is _ the nearest known approach to cortainty. In those days tlw loser is the European. Tho Oriental has become wisfr. In earlier times in Haining Street tho | pak-a-poo player and payer was tlift, yellow man. To-day tho white man.' bears his burden. Tho Chinaman has forsaken pak-a-poo for fan tan, Which, is fairer game. Tho man who sells tha pak-a-poo tickets is tho agent of tho bank. ' The tickets cost sixpence. fivo-< pence of which belongs to tho bank; the agent takes the other penny, -fo» which"he shoulders the privilege of occasional arrest and heavy fine. When tho agent is arrested tho hank deposits a largo sum to bail him out of prison, ; pending his trial. When the agent is fined heavily, the bank raises no hand to help him, and ho suffers default- of payment in the Terrace Gaol. ■ • But whoever the gardener, whoever tho gardener's workmen, tho vinoyard of rice is there, flourishing above the ruins of shattered men, and down its -primrose paths and, sinuous walks—youth.