Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 110, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1916 — Minneapolis Chinaman Makes Midnight Music [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Minneapolis Chinaman Makes Midnight Music

MINNEAPOLIS. —Charley Wing is a Chinese who loves music. He loves it so much he stays up nights to play his two-string fiddle. He also owns a laundry. Like a thrifty Chinese, he does not allow his music to interfere with

his business, but the neighborhood knows. And every frequenter of Franklin avenue and Fifteenth street at midnight and the wee hours of the morning also knows. When the wash is on the line Charley plays. To save light he usually sits in front of the laundry’s big plate-glass window, which faces the strong arc light on the Bloomington transfer point. So the late travelers also know. From midnight to 2 a. m. are fils

favorite practicing hours. Ordinarily it is the violin, but on special occasions Charley has a weird oriental makeshift made of bamboo and bits of snakeskin, and called in Chinese parlance the “geeyzin,” which he plays. Charley’s music is of the low, haunting kind and little disturbs the night, but close neighbors who enjoy the full force of the serenade have come to recognize the shrieking sounds wherein the Chinese finds his music, and are said to have remonstrated loudly at the new school of music.