"Chinook and Chinee: an Alaskan idyll"

[David D. Robertson]

By John S. Bugbee.  Appeared in the Alaska Searchlight, Juneau, AK,
Saturday, Sept. 21, 1895.

Please take it or leave it for the period-specific doggerel it is.  Of
interest to me is its inclusion of both Chinook Jargon and Chinese Pidgin
English, with the assumption that both would be fairly well understood by
readers.  Here's the text:

CHINOOK AND CHINEE
An Alaskan Idyll
Copyrighted

China Washerman Ling, when his day's work was done,
     Took a very big drink of the vilest Sam Shu;
And he said to himself, "My hab belly good fun
     If my takee a sail in Siwashee canoe,"
This "Sam Shu" is a liquor that Chinamen brew,
     And "Siwash" is Chinook for an Indian, too.

Ket-le-kat, a lone fisherman, sat on a rock
     Just beside his canoe drawn up high on the shore.
He'd unloaded his fish but had laid in a stock
     Of the worst Hoo-chi-noo that a still ever bore.
"Hoo-chi-noo" is Alaskan raw rum: and what's more
     It can knock out "Sam Shu" by a very long score.

Then Ling tied up his cue and he filled up his flask,
     And meandered the beach on the Indian side
When he saw Ket-le-kat and proceeded to ask,
     "For my tlee dolla hab, say how muchee can ride?"
That is: three silver dollars and four bits beside;
     Which would pay for a pretty long float on the tide.

"Nika hy-as sick tum-tum," Ket slowly replied.
     "Nika mamook row skookum for muck-a-muck chuck.
Spose you make nika potlatch kloon dolla beside."
     What he meant was: his heart with great sorrow was struck,
But he'd paddle the Chinaman round like a duck
     For a three-dollar gift and a drink for good luck.

"Ah! my sabe," said Ling, "it's all litee, my flend,
     But my likee to mixee li'l bit of your drink."
For he thought the two liquors would make a fine blend.
     "Nika cumtux," said Ket, without stopping to think,
Meaning he would agree, without paper or ink,
     And they shoved the canoe off as quick as a wink.

So they paddled and sailed till far out on the bay:
     Each one drank a big drink of his favorite "booze,"
And they touched their cups, too, in the civilized way
     With the compliments high-toned Americans use.
Such as: "Since you invite me I cannot refuse!
     "Here's the hair off your head!" and "Here's death to the blues!"

Then they blended Sam Shu and the Hoo-chi-noo, too:
     But, alas! in a second -- 'twas fearful to see --
Shot a huge sheet of flame from that fated canoe
     With a sudden, sharp sound -- and nowhere on the sea
Was a trace to be found of that terrible spree
     In the Siwash canoe of Chinook and Chinee.

JOHN S. BUGBEE

(Thanks to Gladi Kulp at the Alaska State Library, Juneau, for a photocopy
of this.)