The Sale of Sooy Yet [pp. 414-416]

THE SALE OF SOOY YET
THE STORY OF A MODERN DELILAH
B~ MARGUERITE STABLER
HE See Yups were the strongest and also embroidered garments and
tong on the Coast, and Man Toy precious jewels, and that, of course, is as
was the strongest See Yup in the much as any woman ever wants.
tong; conseqnently the name of Man Toy Sooy Yet was to be sold in June. She
was a menace to all contrary-minded had been born and reared for that purpose,
Chinamen and not a few white devils. and all her training and education had
Many were the stories current among the tended to that end. She accepted the fact
"Cbinatown Squad" anent Man Toy's stolidly, and would have told you herself
far-reaching autocracy, and many of his that if you bought her now you might get
private undertakings were winked at in her for three hundred dollars, but if yoti
consequence thereof. waited until June you would have to pay
There were sundry dark passageways in three hundred and fifty.
Toy's neighborhood where coolies of rival Sooy was not beautiful. That was the
tongs had met with a mysterious end, but reason the price had to be put so low.
their taking-off was never left to Toy's Neither was she gentle and winsome as all
credit, for when interrogated by one of women should be. Her nose had not the
the "Squad," "Who is this man? When required flatness, her eyes had not the
did you last see him alive? How did he proper bias cut, her lips were not soft and
meet his death?" he would fix a meaning pudgy, and altogether she was not of the
look between the eyes of his interlocutor approved "guinea-pig" type. In fact, by
and say,-" I do not know; I can not the Chinese standard, she was very ugly
tell,"-whereupon the "Squad" promptly in feature~s and in disposition. But somereported to their chief. "We do not know; where in Sooy's dwarfed little nature
we can not tell." And when called before there lurked a latent trait that had come
the Police Court Man Toy would swear down, by some freak of destiny, throug[~
an oath-swear it on the holy head of a the female line of her house,-a natural
bantam cock, that he knew nothing about love for barter and trade,-and she knew
the dead man's end. So the mysteries a good bargain when she saw it. Conseremained mysteries, and Man Toy's sway quently the possibility that she might have
had been strengthened, and the rival to be knocked down at a sacrifice on that
tongsmen were always quiet in his vicinity. fateful day in June had begun to weigh
But now upon Toy's shoulders began to heavily on her mind. Perhaps the Amerifall the weight of years, and in his mind can girl's ambition to marry rich and the
began to gather dreams of a peaceful close desire of the Sooy class to bring a good
to his eventful life. His thoughts turned price have their origin in the same motive
longingly to a domestic hearthstone, and or sentiment.
he cast about him vaguely for a divinity Times had been getting harder right
to preside thereover. She must be good, along, and values were steadily falling in
she must be beautiful-oh! very, very everything, but Sooy kept her hopes up
beautiful!-with the tender dewy grace of by the reflection that June was only three
youth. Ah! and she must know how to months away. Inquiries had not at any
decoct savory dishes, too; for of what use time been very brisk, although she was
is any woman, beautiful or otherwise, if frequently displayed in her father's
she can not cook? And in return for restaurant. There had been a laundrythese two trifling requirements Toy could man, a cook, and an abalone-vender who
give her a position of supremacy over had come to negotiate with Chin Wo, the
every other Chinese woman on the Coast, restaurant-keeper; but to his great chagrin