in case anyone except me was wondering. In my eternal quest for knowledge relating to 19th century performers I came across the phrase "a Sam Yeen performer". No explanation. No clues. After a year of wandering through old newspapers I came upon a 19th century review in a newspaper from New Zealand. The reporter used the line "... A Sam Yeen or Chinese Guitar." The rest is easy. There's a lot of information about them including many names -- except "Sam Yeen".
So there you go in the interest of spreading forgotten information.
Cheers, Joy