Heart Stroke Kills Ex-Opium Emperor Of All Chinatown
Michael Salter/Saulter. Known as 'Nigger Mike," Who Abdicated Throne in 1912, Dead After Vivid Career
New York's underworld of twenty years ago lost another picturesque survivor yesterday when death claimed Michael Salter, known in Pell and Mett streets in those days as "Nigger Mike" and the "Prince of Chinatown." "Nigger Mike," who had been in retirement at Brighton Beach for several years suffered a heart attack on Surf Avenue and died shortly after being taken to the Coney Island Hospital.
His famous opium den at 12 Pell Street held all the romance of fiction. One day he entertained the raiding police, to whom he always had been a thorn in the flesh, the next visiting nobility. Millionaires and curious women rubbed shoulders with pick pockets, second-story men and slant-eyed Chinese, who gave the place an atmosphere of Oriental glamor that sent a thrill down the spine of the uninitiated. This was in 1907, but he had been a power behind the throne for ten years before, and no matter how many times he was arrested - dozens of times on dozens of charges, some East Side politicians with whom he was hand-in glove sent him back to Chinatown, where he ruled the yellow man as well as the white. When he was arrested for voting too often he escaped Blackwell's Island only to serve a sentence of five days there for yelling "Scab!" at some street cleaners on December 1. 1911.
Late in 1911 Chinatown mourned him as dead when the police reported him killed in Long Island City, but "Nigger Mike" walked into the wake and helped drink the refreshments on hand to keep the mourners spirits up.
He was a short rather fat man, with big lips and a nose that hugged his face,
Time and again old comrades remembered today, his dives would be close, the police destroyed the furniture and boarded up the doors, but Mike always turned up in due season with a piano, some China girls and an atmosphere that always impressed the outside visitor.
Many recall the dark thick man standing behind a jutting cigar surveying the low ceilinged dive with its swirling cigarette smoke and incense, impressive Chinese waiters, curious sliding doors that popped open and shut, and the teakwood furniture inlaid with ivory.
Salter withdrew from his old haunts in 1912 and went to live at 3053 East Fourth Street, Brighton Beach. He lived quietly and not many of his neighbors could recognize in him the one time czar of Chinatown.
New York Tribune Dec 16, 1922
Michael Salter/Saulter. Known as 'Nigger Mike," Who Abdicated Throne in 1912, Dead After Vivid Career
New York's underworld of twenty years ago lost another picturesque survivor yesterday when death claimed Michael Salter, known in Pell and Mett streets in those days as "Nigger Mike" and the "Prince of Chinatown." "Nigger Mike," who had been in retirement at Brighton Beach for several years suffered a heart attack on Surf Avenue and died shortly after being taken to the Coney Island Hospital.
His famous opium den at 12 Pell Street held all the romance of fiction. One day he entertained the raiding police, to whom he always had been a thorn in the flesh, the next visiting nobility. Millionaires and curious women rubbed shoulders with pick pockets, second-story men and slant-eyed Chinese, who gave the place an atmosphere of Oriental glamor that sent a thrill down the spine of the uninitiated. This was in 1907, but he had been a power behind the throne for ten years before, and no matter how many times he was arrested - dozens of times on dozens of charges, some East Side politicians with whom he was hand-in glove sent him back to Chinatown, where he ruled the yellow man as well as the white. When he was arrested for voting too often he escaped Blackwell's Island only to serve a sentence of five days there for yelling "Scab!" at some street cleaners on December 1. 1911.
Late in 1911 Chinatown mourned him as dead when the police reported him killed in Long Island City, but "Nigger Mike" walked into the wake and helped drink the refreshments on hand to keep the mourners spirits up.
He was a short rather fat man, with big lips and a nose that hugged his face,
Time and again old comrades remembered today, his dives would be close, the police destroyed the furniture and boarded up the doors, but Mike always turned up in due season with a piano, some China girls and an atmosphere that always impressed the outside visitor.
Many recall the dark thick man standing behind a jutting cigar surveying the low ceilinged dive with its swirling cigarette smoke and incense, impressive Chinese waiters, curious sliding doors that popped open and shut, and the teakwood furniture inlaid with ivory.
Salter withdrew from his old haunts in 1912 and went to live at 3053 East Fourth Street, Brighton Beach. He lived quietly and not many of his neighbors could recognize in him the one time czar of Chinatown.
New York Tribune Dec 16, 1922
Heart Stroke Kills Ex-Opium Emperor Of All Chinatown
Michael Salter/Saulter. Known as 'Nigger Mike," Who Abdicated Throne in 1912, Dead After Vivid Career
New York's underworld of twenty years ago lost another picturesque survivor yesterday when death claimed Michael Salter, known in Pell and Mett streets in those days as "Nigger Mike" and the "Prince of Chinatown." "Nigger Mike," who had been in retirement at Brighton Beach for several years suffered a heart attack on Surf Avenue and died shortly after being taken to the Coney Island Hospital.
His famous opium den at 12 Pell Street held all the romance of fiction. One day he entertained the raiding police, to whom he always had been a thorn in the flesh, the next visiting nobility. Millionaires and curious women rubbed shoulders with pick pockets, second-story men and slant-eyed Chinese, who gave the place an atmosphere of Oriental glamor that sent a thrill down the spine of the uninitiated. This was in 1907, but he had been a power behind the throne for ten years before, and no matter how many times he was arrested - dozens of times on dozens of charges, some East Side politicians with whom he was hand-in glove sent him back to Chinatown, where he ruled the yellow man as well as the white. When he was arrested for voting too often he escaped Blackwell's Island only to serve a sentence of five days there for yelling "Scab!" at some street cleaners on December 1. 1911.
Late in 1911 Chinatown mourned him as dead when the police reported him killed in Long Island City, but "Nigger Mike" walked into the wake and helped drink the refreshments on hand to keep the mourners spirits up.
He was a short rather fat man, with big lips and a nose that hugged his face,
Time and again old comrades remembered today, his dives would be close, the police destroyed the furniture and boarded up the doors, but Mike always turned up in due season with a piano, some China girls and an atmosphere that always impressed the outside visitor.
Many recall the dark thick man standing behind a jutting cigar surveying the low ceilinged dive with its swirling cigarette smoke and incense, impressive Chinese waiters, curious sliding doors that popped open and shut, and the teakwood furniture inlaid with ivory.
Salter withdrew from his old haunts in 1912 and went to live at 3053 East Fourth Street, Brighton Beach. He lived quietly and not many of his neighbors could recognize in him the one time czar of Chinatown.
New York Tribune Dec 16, 1922
Michael Salter/Saulter. Known as 'Nigger Mike," Who Abdicated Throne in 1912, Dead After Vivid Career
New York's underworld of twenty years ago lost another picturesque survivor yesterday when death claimed Michael Salter, known in Pell and Mett streets in those days as "Nigger Mike" and the "Prince of Chinatown." "Nigger Mike," who had been in retirement at Brighton Beach for several years suffered a heart attack on Surf Avenue and died shortly after being taken to the Coney Island Hospital.
His famous opium den at 12 Pell Street held all the romance of fiction. One day he entertained the raiding police, to whom he always had been a thorn in the flesh, the next visiting nobility. Millionaires and curious women rubbed shoulders with pick pockets, second-story men and slant-eyed Chinese, who gave the place an atmosphere of Oriental glamor that sent a thrill down the spine of the uninitiated. This was in 1907, but he had been a power behind the throne for ten years before, and no matter how many times he was arrested - dozens of times on dozens of charges, some East Side politicians with whom he was hand-in glove sent him back to Chinatown, where he ruled the yellow man as well as the white. When he was arrested for voting too often he escaped Blackwell's Island only to serve a sentence of five days there for yelling "Scab!" at some street cleaners on December 1. 1911.
Late in 1911 Chinatown mourned him as dead when the police reported him killed in Long Island City, but "Nigger Mike" walked into the wake and helped drink the refreshments on hand to keep the mourners spirits up.
He was a short rather fat man, with big lips and a nose that hugged his face,
Time and again old comrades remembered today, his dives would be close, the police destroyed the furniture and boarded up the doors, but Mike always turned up in due season with a piano, some China girls and an atmosphere that always impressed the outside visitor.
Many recall the dark thick man standing behind a jutting cigar surveying the low ceilinged dive with its swirling cigarette smoke and incense, impressive Chinese waiters, curious sliding doors that popped open and shut, and the teakwood furniture inlaid with ivory.
Salter withdrew from his old haunts in 1912 and went to live at 3053 East Fourth Street, Brighton Beach. He lived quietly and not many of his neighbors could recognize in him the one time czar of Chinatown.
New York Tribune Dec 16, 1922
