The Third Circle

"The Third Circle" by Frank Norris is a collection of short stories by Frank Norris with an introduction by William Henry Irwin. The author depicts life in San Francisco, California prior to the 1906 earthquake, especially the "terrible conditions" in Chinatown in the sixteen recitals. Excerpt: "There are more things in San Francisco's Chinatown than are dreamed of in Heaven and earth. In reality, there are three parts of Chinatown—the part the guides show you, the part the guides don't show you, and the part that no one ever hears of. It is with the latter part that this story has to do. There are a good many stories that might be written about this third circle of Chinatown, but believe me, they never will be written—at any rate not until the "town" has been, as it were, drained off from the city, as one might drain a noisome swamp, and we shall be able to see the strange, dreadful life that wallows down there in the lowest ooze of the place—wallows and grovels there in the mud and in the dark."