The Coeur D'alene Press

THE NEW CHINATOWN

The new Chinatown of San Francisco will be as much of a show as the old one as well as a cleaner, more picturesque and interesting one. Anyone who takes a stroll through that portion of the city is quite evident to the observer. A correspondent of the city writes to the Chicago Inter Ocean. On all sides there is the greatest activity in building. The structures that are being erected are almost without exception of a permanent character, superior in every respect to those they replace.

From California to Broadway is for the most part the length of Dupont street, which is now being built up, and the buildings, most of which are rapidly nearing completion, are to be tenanted by Chinese business firms that formerly did business in the quarter. The leading venders of curios and wares were so much in demand that the eastern tourists are locating in new and enlarged premises along that street. The much prized oriental bric-a-brac, much of it manufactured to catch the eye of the eastern buyer, it will be on sale again as it was in old days.

One of the characteristic features of Chinatown architecture - the green lanterns so strung along the first and second floors of the buildings - is to be in evidence. All the restaurants and Joss houses will have elaborate displays of this kind. A new Chinese theater is to be constructed at the end of Fish alley, and the wall where the Celestial orchestra will greet the wayfarer in this neighborhood once more.

Already the woman with the powder face and the henna painted lips has returned from Oakland and taken up abode behind the green iron lattice in Bartlett alley. Here and there the gaudy signs of gambling are open, although the population of the quarter has not yet arrived. It is evident that the word has been given by the authorities that gambling be permitted to run wide open in new Chinatown, for the elaborate construction that is being undertaken by property owners in that quarter is a view of accommodating the proprietors of gambling joints would not begun unless it was assured that places would be permitted to without police interference.

The small merchant is to establish himself again in the old locations. Fish alley is to be revived in all its odoriferous glory. Several brick structures have been erected at the south end of the alley and are under construction on both sides of the thoroughfare extending to Jackson street.

The dives along the street leading to Chinese quarter from Kearney have been rebuilt on a greater and more elaborate scale than before. They are all in operation, running without any interference from the police. These dens of vice promise to be more numerous in this section of the city than they ever were before.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars are invested in buildings that are busily being constructed for immoral purposes, and the new tenderloin promises to be double the size of the one.

Waverly place, Ross alley and Baker are all being reconstructed with imposing brick buildings. Many of the structures have steel frames and pressed brick fronts, but arrangements being made for Chinese tenants, most of the buildings will have picturesque green porticos.

Chinese cigar factories have already located in various places in the quarter, and the industry of manufacturing cheap smokes is flourishing again.

The old Chinatown guide who used to be so much in evidence around the hotel lobbies is busy exploring the new quarter and has located several dens where the poppy juice is cooked and smoked. The prospects are that the Chinatown guide will find that his occupation is an unprofitable one in the new Chinatown, for the old ramshackle buildings through which he used to lead the way have all gone and will never be reconstructed.

Already the new Chinese tenants are moving in, and as soon as the streets become possible again the life of the quarter will begin. Signs have been posted in most of the offices of the Chinese merchants in Oakland that they are preparing to move back to Chinatown as soon as possible. With the merchants will come the gambling house keepers, the restaurant proprietors, the chop suey venders and all the picturesque disreputables that go to make up an oriental quarter.