Wednesday, Mar. 03, 2010

Twist in Time: Shorty gets shortchanged

The Valley's Chinatowns were nearly always a beehive of activity, and most folks seemed a bit puzzled by the "goings on" across the tracks. What they did not entirely understand, they did not entirely trust, and one episode near the turn of the century in Madera did nothing to bridge that cultural gap.

Shorty Gets Shortchanged

Lum Hing, better known as Shorty, was a prosperous resident of Madera's Chinatown. He earned his daily bread by raising hogs. Also living in Madera's Chinatown was Leong Ah Bow, the widow of one Yee Chung.

Now Mrs. Chung had a beautiful daughter by the name of Ah Moy who attracted everyone's attention, including Shorty's. When the hog man announced to the mother that he was taken with her attractive daughter, the two made a deal. Shorty would supply the family with food for a certain length of time, after which Ah Moy would become his wife.

For four years, Shorty kept his part of the bargain, and then he began to hear disquieting news. Rumors came to him that Ah Moy was about to be sold to a rich merchant in Coulterville for $800 dollars.

When he confronted the widow Chung, her response was to grab a poker and begin to tattoo a dragon on Shorty's scalp. The suspicious suitor then fled for his life, right into the arms of a newspaper reporter who turned his plight into front-page news.

Mrs. Chung was mortified, so much so that she was seen leaving Madera on the afternoon train bound for Fresno with a copy of the offending newspaper in her hand.

Meanwhile Shorty engaged the services of an attorney, George Goucher. He meant to at least get his money back, but he had reckoned without the cohesiveness of his own community.

Just before his court date, the Madera Mercury reported that "one or two natives of the flowery kingdom" who were paid to settle differences among Chinese out of court visited Shorty. These members of the Fresno Tong convinced Shorty that it was the better part of valor to back off, which he did.

No one knows how it all ended, for you see, after that visit by the Tong, nothing else was publicly said on the matter. In a prudent twist in time, Shorty dropped his suit and turned his attention to his hogs. He had earned a valuable lesson. Some things just weren't meant for public consumption.