BOWERY LIFE
By Chuck Connors
Mayor Of Chinatown
Illustrated
Richard K. Fox Publishing Company Franklin Square, New York City
1904
Original
Original
Original
CONTENTS
THE DOINGS OF DUGAN AND CLANCY
INTRODUCTION
Chuck Connors, popularly known as the Mayor of Chinatown, is without doubt, one of the best known of the many New York celebrities.
He was the original “Chimmie Fadden,” a character in a series of stories and plays which have proved a gold mine for one enterprising writer on a New York daily. He is picturesque, and if there was such a thing as an American Coster Chuck would be the true type.
He is a philosopher as well as a story teller. He has been a prize fighter, and his appearances on the stage have been successful ones. When he fought, he fought well, as he does everything, and in the days when he was in his prime, and everything went, he put away many a man who was a great deal bigger than he was.
He has learned to read and write during the past few years, and has added those accomplishments to his many others.
“It was a pipe,” he says, “to get next to doin' de act wid a pen an' ink, an' as fur de readin' gag, oh, good night. I wuz Johnny on de spot wid dat. But wot got me goin' was telling de time. On de level, it took me t'ree months before I got next. Wot twisted me up wuz the little hand always sneakin' by de big hand. Say, it was like a race between a thoroughbred an' a piker. But I'm on now, all right.”
No tough boy in Gotham can equal his mannerisms and talk. His is the original tough dialect untouched by education.