The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 19, 1897, Page 17

There are at least six Chinese phy who deal almost exclusively with white patien cians in San Francisco , and whose those of an old gray rat, and he shows decision and strencth of t've sausace-meat chopper and cuts up a pungent smellinz ) incomes from this source are larze enough to satisfy any but the most ambitious and exacting of their queuneless professional brethren Hop Kee the Wise, who scrubs the corridors of my present abode, tells me this, and I believe him not at all. Neverthe- less I determine to see for myself if there be anything of truth in his statements, and to this end [ devote a long, hot day tc po about Chinatown in tearch of the Mongolian medicos who, atively speaking, hang out their shingles there. The entrance to the first office I visit does not look at ali inviting. Tt isa narrow door opening flatly off the street nto a tiny hallway, from which a flight of bare, walled-in stairs leads to a dimly lighted upper floor. I open the door a little way and glance timidly and appre- hensively upward. Tien I conclude that I need just alittie more out-of-door exercise before prying into the mysteries of the rezion above stairs and I walk slowly down to the plaza and back again. This time I pause before that unpleasing- looking little door just long enouzh to count six before I turn the knob and enter. As is usually the case, even in weightier matters, the reality is far less terrifying than the dread which is born of igno- rance. There is really nothing to fear at the head of the stairs, except it may be unpleasing odors, but the horror of these is all over Chinatown on a bot day, and the class of odor better here, indeed, than it is outside. At the right of the upper landing is a small room shrouded | is | against the walis as Itake the seat consigned my, from whom 1 that iime has left me on a high interesting information, me but departure and I take my conge as gracefully as possible under the circumstances. At the head of the stairs I glance back and observe that several additional wrink.es that crinkled face under the zaslight and that the parchment- like lips have parted sufficiently to show the few yellow teeth | bim comfiture, stoic as he apveared when I was in bis presence. But L affect not to notice this breach of courtesy, since it is character by at once and decidedly declining to treat me for any aflection or consideration whatever. “Him not like white peovle,” explains Chong. “Him like white women worst. re-enforced by a sharp “good-by” from the little brown mum- Him say you go.”’ As this statementis had hoped to glean some more or' less there seems to be nothing left for have made their appearance in He is actually lauguing at my dis- bark into smalii cubes. A third is shaving some carefully pared and edible-looking white roots into the thinnest of oval slices with a knife 2s big and awkward and murderous appearing as a butcher’s cleaver, while another is triturating some kina of a powderin a small brass mortar. All but the ovenly pro- fessed 1dlers are as busy as if they were preparing for Princa Riquet's wedding, but the pestie-wielder lays aside his work and advances to learn my wishes. Although each and’ every doctor whom I have consulted has declared solemnly that his remedies are culled from the vegetable kingdom alone, I bave well-founded suspicions to the contrary, which suspicions soon became certainty. 1 pre- sent onejof my prescriptions, and while the attendant is select- ing the different packages of herbs from which [ am to brew the tea which is to make me *all lite” (which I never intend to brew at all, by tue way). I improve time by asking questions. **Has he dried toads for sale?” *‘Certainly; the ‘horned toads’ I mean of course, since they are the ones used for med:cine,” he informs me in excellent English. And then with an eye to possible trade he brings me some fragmen:s of toad for inspection. Does he sell much? Yes, most every day some, and various kinds of dried bugs and ils, and there are worms looking like d vain poxes A tail rayed in head. me w S tremely cons bamboo screens and The yellow am tol I velly table 1s laden with and tattered with age—part of the medical library, I of the famous Li Po Tai—and hand at them comprehensive: “Him velly old; him velly good,’ sensible.” > method, to diagnose m my face through in semi-darkness, through which can be vaczuely seen a white nter and walls apparently composed of wooden 1a jars and covered tin chests re looms out of the shadow rustling robes of anu canisters. erect, dignified, ar- , & black skull cap covering the | si He is the doctor whom 1 have come to see and he receives | inborn Oriental | ue American “‘How do?” Iting-room, a cul de sac formed by an arrangement of courtesy and an acquired and ex- I foilow him into his containing only a table and two chair. manuscript books of various sizes, all the doctor waves his he says. *I study him And then he proceeds, by the ase.” h s grotesqus spectacle —who wouldn’t be under | be says at | rcumstances ?7—"but not much sick. You takee tea one | week and you be all lite.” | { and astonished bead, and he was forced to wear these unw three-legged stool in a corner. The presiding place has grown gerrulous with age and prosperity, and as it is noontime and there are no other patients in evidence he tells me tales of his life in China, his studies and, of course, his successes. Among other things he tells the story of Son Yung, the famous physician who, thousands of years ago—I think he said five—went about ascertaining by personal experiment the properties of all the various roots and berbs, and leaves, and blossoms, and barks, and gums to be found in the Celestial em- pire. “Son Yung, him all same Chlist to China doctors, and him know all things good for scomething,” says my entertainer, *‘for btood, for bone, for heart, for stomach—and so. And if not good for person him good for animal.” So it seems Son Yung, being animated by scientific and nius of this i professional enthusiasm, went about sampling everything he could get his hands on, with more or less pleasing resuits, all of which be noted down for the benefit of posterity. But one day he chanced upon an_insignificant little piant which, it ap- | pears, was specially designed for the.comfort, consolation and | recuperation of the species capricornus, and str | two hard<ome gea'’s horns budded and grew upon h htway | revered shed- | shriveled bits of vermicelli, and divers se- lections from the internal economy of beast and bird, which, waen rightly ap- plied, bave a beneficent influence on different ills of the human system. And dried snakes? Assuredly, dried suakes; for they are most efficacious. “For rheumatism?” I query, moved thereto by misty memories of snake-oil = > {4 9‘ % leéjr:osm“a AéE\E wisest to ignore what we cannot help always, and I really do not blame him, as it :sn’t often that a Chinese gets the better of ny of the poking, prving crowd of sightseers, who make life hinatown a burden to some of its residents. 1 have had enough of doctors. Now to a drugstore with my stories, and he replies: “No, for wind 1n the flesh; what youn call ‘bloat,” and other things. it and make tea and drink.” You soak Ang then, having secured his confidence by paying fora | prescription, I ask him about his practice, and find that in his | case at least, Hop Kee told the truth, for it 1s to white peovle | for adornments ntil his death. All of which seéms to prove, although the relator of the tale does not evidently | prescription, at least one of them. But how does one find a tend that | 4roorore in Chinatown? There are mo wide and shining almost entire up with wilder: seri which my own count sped in my hand. The doc [ { ears, for I have other plans. ’ The nex ician w is fat and sw table sut been convincing, L Again n the touch is heavier and sends a little st hints at liv r complicat with a course of four be can cure me, and I feel quite hopetul as 1 take my departure | $10 a week, to ‘‘think it over, Two minutes later [ am out in the street again with a pre- . written 1n even worse hieroglyphics than those by ous cures with an assurance and fe nigh make me believe in him also. Heclaimstodeal exclusively nces, and Lie narrates r of smashed bones and diseases that were incurable until they came under his magic spell in a way which ough fit wasn't. ¢ pulse undergoes an examination; but this time over that he ministers, and he shows me, being quite e times, testimonials as to his ability quite as be- ngly comprehensive in their scope as any put forward by our white patent-medicine proprieiors. the profession delight to harass and drive to desperation the inoffensive compounding clerk, r’s blank h'nis that he prefers to supply his reme- | dies from his own storshouse and laboratory have fallen on deaf I visitis of a different type. oiced, He | ¢ ho tells me of his marvel- | th in himself which well | nd poultices composed entirely of vege- ales of his prowess in the | 10 have the contact of the cold, fat fingers me, bot as the outside air is. He ns and skakes his head grave! For | weeks’ treatment, be thinks bearing with me another prescription to tide me over present emergencies. Not far distant is another physician’s office, dark, as they | SE ST E BB B EEB08 8 gm"synvm{mu [LEEREES DQ Six hundred milesdown the Yukon with | Goiden & corpse. : Not in these days of newlv discovered id, but thirty years agone or more, Jen Alaska was Russian America and that vast territory and the adjoining ‘ British possessions were wiidernesses. nicott of Cleveland, Ohio, and the then voung man in whose charce it was brought down the mighty Yukon was George R. Adams, now a resident of San Francisco and well known for his connec- tion with Alaskan exploration and com mercial ventures. It was a grewsome experience, and of the sort that tries men's nerves, but that was not all. Tragedy lurks behind—a tale of madness and of self-inflicted death, told for the first time to-day. In the summer of 1865 the Western Union Telegraph Company, acting in con- junction with the Russian thorities, sent out an expedition under the command of Colunel Charles S. Buck- ley of the United States army, for the purpose of exploring for a telegraph line w R cable sian America to connect by svstems of the United States and Siberia. The first Atlantic cable, which bad jost a proved a failure, and the jon people thought the time for establishing telegraphic had come 3 communication between Asia and Amer- ica by the shortest practicable route. 1 parties of explorers were, there- fore, nt out from San Francisco various points in British Columbia, Rus- sian America and Siberia, il under the general direction of Colonel Buckley, who had been chief of the signal service f the | Union army during the War of the Rebel- lion, which bad just drawn to a close, and the several vessels compnsing the fleet vhich carried tnese parties were piaced all are, ana of such limited proportions that my elbows hit | bowed spectacles, are as bright and crafty and suspicious as | | room as I pass out. inference (o be drawn, that the modern method of trying ex- | periments on one’s patients instead of one’s self is far safer | for the doctor than the plan pursued by the zealous but inju- | dicious dean of the profession. Then he tells me of himself, his father, his grandfather and his grandfather's father, ‘"maybe more,” all doctors, and how they study, and walk the hospitals, and graduate in China, and he shows me various documents, which he assures me conclusively prove his assertions. I believe him, of course, | as in duty bound, and I believe him when he tells me of his | practice among the white people, for both a man and a woman of my own color are waiting in the tiny box of a reception- Hop Kee the Wi<e was balf right at ali events, for I have seen three “‘white folks’ doctors” in Chinatown, and I am quite willing to take the rest for granted. Now, what I want to see is a physician who deals with the Chinese alone and has their contilence, a3 those who practice much among the whiles rarely do. It takes a Chinese guide and interpreter to unearth and | converse with this kind, ana I keep very close to Chong and clasp my police whistle in my jacket pocket very tightly as he leads me through devious ways and up a winding flight of stairs into a dingy litgle windowless box of a room lighted by a turned-down =as jet. This doctor, popular as he is among his people, and learneda and successful as he is reputed to be, re- minds me unpleasantly of old Gagool of “King Solomou’s Mines” fame. His face is like a baked apple left in tue oven so long that it has collapsed into a bunch of wrinkles, and his skinny bands, with their long nails, look like the claws of some | uncanny bird. His eyes, however, behind their tortoise- | | LI R R R R L L L L L L R R L L L R R R R R L L L R L L R T T L L L LR AL Q DOWN THE YUKON WITH A CORPSE | ting, windows, with tall glass-covered jars fuil of bright-colored liquids and lavish displays of toilet articles, patent medicines and attractive signs. Nowhere is the contrast between Occi- dentand Orient more sharply defined than in this especial branch of trade. The Occidental drugstore is a thing of beauty with its invitingly oven doors, spacious interior, marble coun- ters,veivet seats, artistic decorations, glittering glass, rich gild- ing, soda - water fountain and well - dressed and obsequious cierks. The Oriental store of this kind is, ordinarily, a hole in the wall, with one dingy window, in which are a few smail jars which may contain anything from jam to jalap, and always an inhospitably closed door between the interior and the public. 1 select one that has on exhibition a gold fish globe full of feet of fowls, pickled or in aicohol, and some dried mol- lusks unobtrusive ly resting in a dusty saucer. Tie opening of the door hushes an animated conversation between five Cninese sitting against the wall on the hard box stools generously provided for visitors. Evidently the drug- store takes the place of the country grocery with the Chinese. There is no glitter nor glow nor color anywhere; only a | wall of wooden drawers, or a few shelves covered with small china jars and pots, and rows of covered tin cans. One of the attaches of the place is grinding, or rather cut- | mustard seed to powder by means of a sharp-edged | whe«l running in a groove in a large boat-shaped metallic | bowl. The operatol sitting on a stool with his bare feet | placed one at each side of the cutter on the projecting axle, and he runs that wheel up and down the slot provided for it ‘ with a rapidity which would put to shame a scorching bicy- | clist. Another sits at a rude machine which looks like a primi- [ Melican doctors.” enough The “bossee man” comes in from a back room and silence falis on the talkative clerk. One thing saddens me. tioners, bristling with documents proving their standing ana se- curein the approval and protection of their Consul, I hear dark rumors of one who is, my informant says, *‘quack, allee same some While looking up genuine practi- I am told that he was a member of the brush brigade at one of our leading hotels until a yearor so ago, and that now he calls himseif a ‘‘physician and surgeon’’ and bas a lucrative practice, principally among the whites. The thought 1s enough to make one shudder. to employ a Chinese physician, even though he be deeply learned in his own peculiar school, but what must it be to give oneself into the hands of a Chinese who is “‘quack— allee same some Melican doctor” ? It seems bad % FLORENCE MATHESON. there, stretched out on his back, with his eyes staring at the fleckless sky, was the body of Kennicoit, his life extinect, slain by the Arctic wilderness. The body was carried inte the fort, where preparations were begun at once for the proper inter- ment of the dead commander. By the side of the major’s body, when it | United States. Sailboat. Gate, Captain Scannon com- | mander, which left this rort July 10, 1865, ) for the norib, with the Russian and Bru- | i<h American members of the expedition | aboard. Colonel Buckley accompanied | the Golden tate on board the steamer | |.George S. Wright, a harbor tug which bad | The body was that of Major Robert Ken- | { ber 27, 1865, when he and ten of his people, | | telegraph au- | ch it was proposed to build through | across the Bering Straits the telegraph | been converted into a sea-going vessel for | the oceasion. | Major Kennicott and his party remained ] at St. Michsel, making preparations for the work in hand and enjoying the hospi- talities of tie trading post, until Septem- | including Lieutenants Adams and Smith, | who also had been made an officer of the | expedition, embarked in a Russian “‘bar- cos,” an open sailing craft, propelled also in part by oars, for Unalaklik, a small Indian viliage near the mouth of a river of the same name, some gixty-five miles up the coast. On Ociober 2 Lieutenant Adams was sent by Major Kennicott, with a halif- breed Russian and an Esquimau guide, up the Unalaklik River, in a three-pole bidarka,” or fishing-boat, to ascertain tlie feasibility of making a portage to the Yukon, or the Kivthpak, as it was then known on the coast, and to sound the | natives on the question of obtaining rein- to | deer moeat, fish and other provisions. Adams went up the river some fifty miles and discovered that the portage cou!d be made, and having obtained the other necessary information returned tocamp. The Unalaklik having meanwhile frozen over, Major Kennicott and Adams, on October 21, went up the river with dogs, sleds and attendants and wade the port- age to the Yukon. Kaltag was a one-house village at the time Major Kennicottand bis com panions visited it, but that bouse centained twenty natives. They shared their quarters with the strangers, however, for the night. Oa November 9 the explolers arrived at under the command of officers of the rev- | Nulato, a Russian trading post 550 miles enue service of the United States. The General Government in fact stood behind up the river. tensely cold,and all hands were badly frost- the venture, to the extent that it gave its | bitten. Moreover, they were nearly starved, countenarnce to the undertaking, with the | baving run out of provisions the day expectation that it would redound to the | previous pubiic good, if successfully carried out. The flagship of the fleet was the bark | turned to Unalaklik leaving Lieutenant; ° A few days later Major Kennicott re- Adams as the representative of the expe- dition at Nulato. Several trips were made by Mr. Adams down the Yukon during the winter and there was a sufficiency of adventure of | every sort. In the spring the young ex- plorer was joined by his chief at Nulato. On the very day the ice commenced its movement down the river Adamsand a small party which hs bad led on a brief exploring trip were neariy lost, almost in sight of the fort at Nulato, on their re- turn journey. That was May 10, 1866. Three days later Major Kennicott, the chief of the expedition, lay dead on the beach in front Bearing the Body of a Suicide Six Hundred Miles in an Open | | the information that tbhe major was lying : : 3 2909999929000209009902000299220202292000080000000020202909992999929299999200000200000 MWWWJ «f the trading post at Nulato, on the| Yukon. The days were long now. On May 12 Adams records that the sun rose before 3 | o’clock and did not set until atter 9 o’clock | in the evening. “We go to bed now,’”’ he | says, “‘belore dark and do not get up till ‘ long after sunrise. Now it is just 11 p. a. | and light as day.” On the morning of May 13, Major Ken- nicott did not appear as breakfast. Some alarm was feit and it was proposed that search should be made. Atthat moment, an Indian woman ran into the post, with on the beach by the rivers Mr. Adams, | accompanyingdevelopments, There were | was found, was a square, marked off with intersecting lines, denoting the points of the compass and which had been traced | by a finger In the yielding sand. In the center of the square was placed a small field compass, which was open. The in- tention of it all was obvious, in view of evidences of strychnine poisoning and, as Major Kennicott was known to have had a quantity of that.drug in his possession, the act ot self-destruction wad easy of per- formance. The compass‘in the sand would leave it to be inferred that the man had been tracing the bearings of the spot when he had been suddenly overtaken by death, which might then be attributed to any one of several natural causes. ‘Thus was performed the trigedy of the Arctic. Thus died the first American to yield up his life in frozen Alaska. A gloom was cast over the surviving members of the expedition, which it took mary days to remove. Meanwhile the The weather had been in- | accompanied by the other members of the | preparations for the disposition of the company, went at once to the spot, and | body of Major Kennicott proceeded apace. 1t was decided unanimously to take it to St. Michael, there to pe shipped to the A coftin was prepared by taking four hewn planks an inch anda half thick from one of the partitions of the Governor’s house at the Yort. Three of these were nailed together, with end pieces of planking, fitted so as to maka a box, and the body, which had previously been dressed in the most presentable clothes to be found in the major’s kit, was then placed within formed. Funeral services, following the ritual of the Greek church, which were read by a Russian half-breed attache of the post, were then celebrated. They were at- tenced by a motley throng, embracing not only the members of the exploring party, but every man, woman and child from within a radius of many miles—R ussians, half-breeds, Indians and Bsquimaux. At their cenclusion the lid was nailed on the box, which was never afterwar | to be opened, and the coffin was then borne to a grave which had peen excavated in the yard of the fort, where it was temporarily interred. The grave was nextto that of the former Governor of the post, who had | entertained Major Kennicott and Mr. Adams so hospitably when they first visited the fort. The earth was frozen many feet deep. On May 25 the body was disinterred and the coffin prepared for the long voyage down the Yukon. The seams were calked with moss from fir trees and lamp-wick- ing, and the box was then besmeared with pitch, after which 1ubber blankets were drawn tightly around it. The fastenings of these were also pitched until perfectly air and waler tight, and the work was done. It bad been determined that Lieutenant Adams, assisted by Fred M. Smith and Charles P:ase, a life-long friend of Major Kennicott, should take the body of their dead chief toSt. Michael. A “baidarrar,” a- the craft is known in Russian, had been procured for the journey. 1t is an open skin boat, made by fittinz a sea lion skin covering over a wooden frame when wet and which is then allowed to shrink tgit in place. That used by Adams and his compenions was about 25 feet long, flat bottomed, pointed at the bow and slightly rounded at the stern. In the center was 6 feet wide across the bottom and 8 feet from gunwale. Its sides, 214 feet high, flared from bottom to top like a partly opened fan. A mast, fitted with a small square sail, was stepped well for- ward when the wind was favorable for sailing. It was, then, in this baidarrar that Adams and his comrades set forth. The coffin, in its rubber covering, was placed on the center thwarts. When the baidar- rar was shoved irom the bank all the population of the post and the remaining the she!l thus | { western bank the country was of a hilly — members of the expedition stood by with uncovered heads, and the voyage was be- gun. The Yukon was now free of ice and already there were signs of the approach of the brief Arctic summer. The river below Nulato is easily navigable to ves- sels of light draught and is free from rap- ids and dangerous shoals. The banks are alternately precipitous and low, and are, in parts, well wooded with pine, spruce, firs and birch. Now and then glimpses of meadow-like land may be obtained. Far off to the eastward lav a chain of white- capped mountain summits, while on the character. The vovage ordinarily wouid be enjoyable in the proper season, but it is doubtful if Adams and his party had much of an eye for the picturesque scenery about them. There was always that grewsome thing on the th warts. It was hot, too. The sun was beginning to make itself felt, and the sair fairly teemed with ravenous mosquitoes, gnats and black flies. Every night there was the necessity for encamping and facing the bloodthirsty insects, and every other nignt that of unloading the “baidarrar’” and drying and oiling it from end to end, to prevent the fresh water of the river from rotting its skin covering. The coffin on such occasions would. be pried on the river bank on oars and driftwood, and there remain till morning. Occasional rain would diversify the proceedings. Lieutenant Adams and his companions were glad as the second week drew to a close and they approached the end of their voyage. They lived by procuring game and fish of the Indians and by wild fowl that they shot themselves. Indian run- ners and fishermen went ahead of the party, from village to village, announcing its coming, and everywhere the entire vopulation turned out to greet the voyag- ers with their dismal burden. Word of the death of the major had fong before been sent to St. Michzel by Indian mese sengers. Finally the mouth of the Yukon was reached, and from there it was but a day’s wravel or s to St. Michael. On the morn- ing of June 9, 1866, just fifteen days after leaving Nulato, the weary little compuany arrived at the trading posi, their duty well performed. The body of Kennicott remained at St. Michae! uncil September 26, 1866, when it was shipped aboard the ctipper ship Nightingale, which had come north with supplies for the telegraph expedition, and by the Nightingale it was brought to San Francisco. Here it was reshipped by way of the isthmus to -New York, and thence 1t was taken to the major’s former home in Ohio, where it was laid finally at rest. During all these journeyings of thousands of miles it remained in the rude plank coffin made out of a partition in the old irading post at Nulato. The box was never opened, and its covering of rubber blanket never removed.