GOSSIP FROM CALIFORNIA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 127, 29 May 1879, Page 4

GOSSIP FROM CALIFORNIA.

The lady correspondent of the "N.Z. Hereld," wit*, under the assumed name of "Silver Pen," furnishes that journal with some very interesting contributions from San Frnnciseo, writre os follows, under date April 14 : — CHINESE QUARTERS AND LEPERS. Curiosity 13 one of the ingredients in our nature, without which many valuable appliances would never be heard of. Many slot tl in j? histories would n?ver Bee (he light of day io long primer, brevier, or bourgeois, and T. hiving my share of that curiosity, wl ijh is double distilled in wom»n'a n«t»r«, have lately been, taking a ramble Ibroueh the Chinese quarter called Chinatown, tod Been many strange sights which may appear improbable, but yet ire strictly true. Tbe Hgßihen Chinee lives for the most par! underground ; few would believe how they borrow libs rats under the streets, their habitations, reing pretty ranch lika a hsap o f pigeon houses piled ona 00 top of the other, on<] (hese subtarrnneen dwellings are throe Btofiea underground, with labyrinth passages that would prove as great a pazzle to a white man as Rossraond'a bower of histrionic faraa. The kitchens tre eirnply ho'es with a fire in one corner,' no chimney, no windows, no draiaage. Some filthy cooking utensils and logs li<j about, and the heathen cook fulfils his daily mission in aa disgusting a den aa ia possible to imagine! the etnoku issuing gracofully from the doorway, and that a small one. This is OBly one of many each, where thousand of Mongols feed daily {galleries run in all directions— narrow, exeted*n&ly>—from which open chambers all more or lass sickening with damp and filth. Some of tbese dens are sleepingrooms ; they hold exactly four bodise, stretched at full leugth on two narrow beds. The door t3 locked at bdd-time, and there is no ray of light or ventilation of any sort. Ho* they steep and live through it ia a riddle I don't pretend to read. Ia this rabbit burrow are the gambling dens, $0 well contrived that (hey escape even tbe vigilance of the police.. A« you pass along, under the care of a detective, doors close alter yott with a spring, and panels slide together, eo that nil clae is lest for & future time, end. the ingenuity 0/ "John '"■is such that he can ailer his Toeatfon.B from day to day. The Chinese are inveterate gamblers. Their games are "tin," or "fan-isai" which, translated, mean* the funds spread out. Dice and dominoes are also in favor with "John, 1 " bnt their chief delight is the lottery, which even white people participate In, the Chinese wash-houses being the agencies for the sale of tickete. "John** cheerfnlly appropriates any articles be can lay hold of in the houses where he ia employed, which he pawns for what he cau get, io order to carry on his pmblinp. But still dearer to the Coolie is the opium dream which he indulges in, ond which constitutes the chief pleasure of bis life. The ioterior of an opium-smoking den is peculiar, the si«e varying from 15 io 17 feet «quare; tbe ceiling is so low that a toll man can touch it with his hand, and the sides of (he room being famished with three tiers of bunke, shipboard fashion, made of- bard wood, each bunk holding two people, you may suppose yourself in the den, io which every bunk is filled, all preparing for, or having finished, their ecstatic dream. Those who have bad their dream Ha insensible, their faces livid with pallor, resembling a corpse. Their attitudes vary, some being almost groteiqae, as though death had stricken them at play. Those who are as y6t ia their dream express it by tbe vacant eye and listless apathy that seems to say the soul ia wandering from tia earthly tenement. Others are preparing for a meal of joy. The pipes are made of bamboo, having an earthen bowl at the end. of the pipe Btem. The opium is prepared in tbe form of black, tar-like paste, and pal into jars. The smoker dips a wire into the jar, and holds the portion abstracted in the flame of a lamp which barna continually; there it bubbles and becomes soft, in whioh state it is smeared upon the rim of the pipe-bowl, and the smoker inhales a few puff* of white-looking emoke. He then replenishes the bowl, as the pipe must bo renewed again and again, until their talk, like Tennyson's " lotai-eatsn," becomes feint. Their eyes wander deliriously as under a spell, their fingers relax their hold, their -head falls back on ibe pillow of wood, and tbey are at last in Elysium. Down in the opium deDS wbisb run under one street, you may see whita men oftentlme?, aad n is said that our women also pat themselves under the deadly spell, while in upper China town, that ia in. <be open streets, the flights fere as peculiar, though not so aiakemng^ as, 4°wa below, &ncl yet disgusting enough, The. man incongruoqa amngsra.e,uts of shops are there I e?er *aw, A butober'a store* densely packed with ail sorl oil meat, is next g cotia eliop, where" everything is beatjtfiob thc& A fish and vegetable stand cornea in or the other side to' vary the scenes a sickly odour pervading the whole. All kinds of dried meat, vegetables and fish may be hadjo/ the most nnexplainable nature, while the worst style of Mongols officiate as settlers,—dirty and revolting to behold, some of them covered with disease; here and there a leper, which is too terrible a eighf to look upon. Dr O'Donnel, one of the Kearney agitators, some time ago took one of these miserable ores*

tures round the city in an express wbjj»od, as a werning to •be community. Imogine a large brown pumpkin cut bo as to represent the face of a tnaD, imagine also several smaller pumpkins growing on the nose, chin, forehead, eare, and lips, of the same, and there you have the face of the unfortunate. The features are wriukled and distorted, the skin thiekened and shining, the pupil of the eye contracted, giving the organ a weir.*, cat-like expression. As the malady progresses—but I care not to destribe the later and more- revolting ejmploms, where the limbs chop off. Such is the disease prevalent among the " Heathen Chiueee," and they live in our midst ut a fearful fuzirj. This same Dr O'Donnel purposes going East with three or four of the lepers, to cry by so doing to awaken sympathy in tbe Ea3t, for at the present time the people over on Jhe oiher side of the Sierras think nothieg of the flood of heathen emigration whiob threatens to rain our western shotes. INSECURITY OF LIFE. There is considerable shooting going oa at the prtsant Unas. Mad^e Taylor ia a young woman whose social position is cot exactly defined. A few nights ago she was fouad pacing bgfore the Union Club Rooms, her eyei Hashing as brightly es the diamond pendants in her ears. Two policemen, fancying she had a homicidal look about her, politely demanded tbe motive of her measured promenade. She replied she was merdy there to shoot W. Dewing, a recreant lover of her own, whereupon the two limbs of the law politely escorted her to the city prison, where was found in the pock t of her black silk dress a aelf-cockiog pistol, and a large bottle of vitriol, the latter being intended to destroy the face and eyesight of the lady who had weaned Dewing's affactlons from her. The lady was examined, and held to bail in 3000 dollars, to- answer before tbe Grand Jury. She says, on rtfleotioo, the matter was a mere practical joke. A few days ago a man deliberately stepped up to a man on a waggon, and fired at him twice, fortunately misaiog him. Alice Harrison, a favorite actress here, in the aoabrette liae, is at present \n New York, Quite lately, aa she was entertaining Mr Washington Nathan in her rooms, a fi-rce-iooking female, who had rooms in the same hotel, entered her room, and pouring forth a flvod of invectives against Alice, whom ahe accused of purloining the affections of her Nathan, shot the latter in the neek, and fired at Alice, bat happily naisaed her. As Mies Harrison is one of our pet-actresses, the social world in this eity ia naturnlly indignant over the shooting. But, gocd gracious ! shooting is as common as » fire here, and we get so used to it that We think very little about it.