IN THE HOUSE OF AH BING.

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 21, 24 November 1900, Page 18

IN THE HOUSE OF AH BING.

'■ By arrangement between the police and counsel for the twenty-nine Chinese arrested for playing ' fan-tan ' in the house of Ah Bing, it was arranged that each should plead guilty and be adjudged to pay a fine of 10s, without costs." — Neiv Zealand Times. O, you heathen Chinee, to reform you we try, By means sympathetic, with purposes high, But your last escapade's a discouraging thing; You've been playing fan-tan in the house of Ah Bing 1 We stiffen the poll-tax, and yet you arrive; Go elsewhere for cabbage, yon still seem to thrive ; To shunt you or mend you we've tried everything ; Yet you play at fan-tan in the house of Ah Bing. If gamble you must, you should copy our way— Or ways (we have several) — and no one can say That gambling with us is a criminal thing, Like playing fan-tan in the house of Ah Bing. At home, or at Club, we can frequently win, At euchre or crib, quite a handful of tin — A totally, utterly different thing From playing fan tan in the house of Ah Bing. There's the "tote," from which Government gets every year Several thousands of pounds, and it's perfectly clear 'Tis a moral, respectable, national thing, Not like playing fan-tan in the house of Ah Bing. Look at Tattersall's sweeps, whence a man t'other day Drew a round fifteen hundred, and all of us say That we wish 'twas our luck. 'Tis a recognised thing ; Not like playing fan-tan in the house of Ah Bing. So the matter stands thus : If you weren't who you are, But were we, there were then in strict justice no bar To your gambling at will ; 'twere a virtuous thing To play till all's blue in the house of Ah Bing. — S.V.B.