William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 2

[260] regarded as the heart of this new Asiatic empire in America; for in Jackson Street, grouped around Lock Sin's balcony, lie the Chinese banks and stores, the Chinese stalls and markets, the Chinese theatres and gaming-hells; while off this thoroughfare, to the right and left, extend the blind alleys and nameless passages in which reside the Chinese rogues and thieves, with their unfailing complement of female slaves.

Here, bright with paper lanterns, glare the two great tea-houses, kept by Lock Sin and Hing Kee, in which you sip green tea and watch the dancing girls perform their rites. Here, rich in red and black flags, and musical with gongs and cymbals, stands Yu He Un Choy, the royal theatre, in which a grand historical play, a chronicle of the Ming Dynasty, has been going on for three weeks past, and is to run on briskly for about nine weeks yet to come. In front of us, hardly less rich in red and yellow paint, hardly less noisy with shawm and tom-tom, rises Sing Ping Yuen, the new theatre, in which lighter pieces are performed, not lasting more than thirty or forty nights. Hereabouts lie the tan cellars and thieves' gaming cribs, in which sallow