Of
course
there
was
a
large
Chinese
population
in
Virginia—it
is
the
case
with
every
town
and
city
on
the
Pacific
coast.
They
are
a harmless
race
when
white
men
either
let
them
alone
or
treat
them
no
worse
than
dogs;
in
fact
they
are
almost
entirely harmless anyhow,
for
they
seldom
think
of
resenting
the
vilest
insults
or
the
cruelest
injuries.
They
are
quiet, peaceable, tractable,
free
from
drunkenness,
and
they
are
as
industrious
as
the
day
is
long. A disorderly Chinaman
is
rare,
and
a
lazy
one
does
not
exist.
So
long
as
a Chinaman has
strength
to
use
his
hands
he
needs
no
support
from
anybody;
white
men
often
complain
of
want
of
work,
but
a Chinaman
offers
no
such
complaint;
he
always
manages
to
find
something
to
do.
He
is
a
great
convenience
to
everybody—even
to
the
worst
class
of
white
men,
for
he
bears
the
most
of
their
sins, suffering
fines
for
their
petty
thefts,
imprisonment
for
their
robberies,
and
death
for
their
murders.
Any
white
man
can
swear
a Chinaman's
life
away
in
the
courts,
but
no
Chinaman
can
testify
against a
white
man.
Ours
is
the
"land
of
the
free"—nobody
denies
that—nobody
challenges
it. [Maybe
it
is
because
we
won't
let
other
people
testify.]
As
I write,
news
comes
that
in
broad
daylight
in
San Francisco,
some
boys
have
stoned
an
inoffensive Chinaman
to
death,
and
that
although a
large
crowd witnessed
the
shameful
deed,
no
one
interfered.
There
are
seventy
thousand
(and possibly
one
hundred
thousand) Chinamen
on
the
Pacific
coast.
There
were
about
a
thousand
in
Virginia.
They
were
penned
into
a "Chinese quarter"—a
thing
which
they
do
not
particularly
object
to,
as
they
are
fond
of
herding
together.
Their
buildings
were
of
wood; usually
only
one
story
high,
and
set
thickly
together
along
streets
scarcely
wide
enough
for
a
wagon
to
pass through.
Their
quarter
was
a
little
removed
from
the
rest
of
the
town.
The
chief
employment
of
Chinamen
in
towns
is
to
wash
clothing.
They
always
send
a bill,
like
this
below,
pinned
to
the
clothes.
It
is
mere
ceremony,
for
it
does
not
enlighten
the
customer
much.
Their
price
for
washing
was
$2.50
per
dozen—rather
cheaper
than
white
people
could
afford
to
wash
for
at
that
time. A
very
common
sign
on
the
Chinese
houses
was: "See Yup, Washer
and
Ironer"; "Hong Wo, Washer"; "Sam Sing &
Ah
Hop, Washing."
The
house
servants, cooks, etc.,
in
California
and
Nevada,
were
chiefly Chinamen.
There
were
few
white
servants
and
no
Chinawomen
so
employed. Chinamen
make
good
house
servants, being quick, obedient, patient,
quick
to
learn
and
tirelessly industrious.
They
do
not
need
to
be
taught
a
thing
twice,
as
a
general
thing.
They
are
imitative.
If
a Chinaman
were
to
see
his
master
break
up
a
centre
table,
in
a passion,
and
kindle
a
fire
with
it,
that
Chinaman
would
be
likely
to
resort
to
the
furniture
for
fuel forever afterward.
All
Chinamen
can
read,
write
and
cipher
with
easy
facility—pity
but
all
our
petted voters could.
In
California
they
rent
little
patches
of
ground
and
do
a
deal
of
gardening.
They
will
raise
surprising crops
of
vegetables
on
a sand pile.
They
waste
nothing.
What
is
rubbish
to
a Christian, a Chinaman
carefully
preserves
and
makes
useful
in
one
way
or
another.
He
gathers
up
all
the
old
oyster
and
sardine
cans
that
white
people
throw away,
and
procures
marketable
tin
and
solder
from
them
by
melting.
He
gathers
up
old
bones
and
turns
them
into
manure.
In
California
he
gets
a
living
out
of
old
mining
claims
that
white
men
have
abandoned
as
exhausted
and
worthless—and
then
the
officers
come
down
on
him
once
a
month
with
an
exorbitant
swindle
to
which
the
legislature has
given
the
broad,
general
name
of
"foreign" mining tax,
but
it
is
usually
inflicted
on
no
foreigners
but
Chinamen.
This
swindle has
in
some
cases
been repeated
once
or
twice
on
the
same
victim
in
the
course
of
the
same
month—but
the
public
treasury
was
no
additionally
enriched
by
it, probably. Chinamen
hold
their
dead
in
great
reverence—they worship
their
departed
ancestors,
in
fact. Hence,
in
China, a man's front yard,
back
yard,
or
any
other
part
of
his
premises,
is
made
his
family
burying
ground,
in
order
that
he
may
visit
the
graves
at
any
and
all
times.
Therefore
that
huge
empire
is
one
mighty
cemetery;
it
is
ridged
and
wringled
from
its
centre
to
its
circumference
with
graves—and inasmuch
as
every
foot
of
ground
must
be
made
to
do
its
utmost,
in
China,
lest
the
swarming
population
suffer
for
food,
the
very
graves
are
cultivated
and
yield
a harvest, custom holding
this
to
be
no
dishonor
to
the
dead.
Since
the
departed
are
held
in
such
worshipful reverence, a Chinaman cannot
bear
that
any
indignity
be
offered
the
places
where
they
sleep. Mr. Burlingame said
that
herein
lay
China's bitter
opposition
to
railroads; a
road
could
not
be
built anywhere
in
the
empire
without
disturbing
the
graves
of
their
ancestors
or
friends. A Chinaman
hardly
believes
he
could
enjoy
the
hereafter
except
his
body
lay
in
his
beloved China; also,
he
desires
to
receive, himself,
after
death,
that
worship
with
which
he
has
honored
his
dead
that
preceded
him. Therefore,
if
he
visits
a
foreign
country,
he
makes
arrangements
to
have
his
bones
returned
to
China
in
case
he
dies;
if
he
hires
to
go
to
a
foreign
country
on
a
labor
contract,
there
is
always
a
stipulation
that
his
body
shall
be
taken
back
to
China
if
he
dies;
if
the
government
sells
a gang
of
Coolies
to
a
foreigner
for
the
usual
five-year term,
it
is
specified
in
the
contract
that
their
bodies
shall
be
restored
to
China
in
case
of
death.
On
the
Pacific
coast
the
Chinamen
all
belong
to
one
or
another
of
several
great
companies
or
organizations,
and
these
companies
keep
track
of
their
members, register
their
names,
and
ship
their
bodies
home
when
they
die.
The
See
Yup
Company
is
held
to
be
the
largest
of
these.
The
Ning Yeong
Company
is
next,
and
numbers
eighteen
thousand
members
on
the
coast.
Its
headquarters
are
at
San Francisco,
where
it
has a costly temple,
several
great
officers
(one
of
whom
keeps
regal
state
in
seclusion
and
cannot
be
approached
by
common
humanity),
and
a
numerous
priesthood.
In
it
I
was
shown a register
of
its
members,
with
the
dead
and
the
date
of
their
shipment
to
China duly marked.
Every
ship
that
sails
from
San Francisco carries
away
a heavy
freight
of
Chinese corpses—or did,
at
least,
until
the
legislature,
with
an
ingenious
refinement
of
Christian
cruelty, forbade
the
shipments,
as
a
neat
underhanded
way
of
deterring
Chinese immigration.
The
bill
was
offered,
whether
it
passed
or
not.
It
is
my
impression
that
it
passed.
There
was
another
bill—it became a law—compelling
every
incoming Chinaman
to
be
vaccinated
on
the
wharf
and
pay
a duly appointed quack (no
decent
doctor
would
defile
himself
with
such
legalized robbery)
ten
dollars
for
it.
As
few
importers
of
Chinese
would
want
to
go
to
an
expense
like
that,
the
law-makers
thought
this
would
be
another
heavy blow
to
Chinese immigration.
What
the
Chinese
quarter
of
Virginia
was
like—or, indeed,
what
the
Chinese
quarter
of
any
Pacific
coast
town
was
and
is
like—may
be
gathered
from
this
item
which
I
printed
in
the
Enterprise
while
reporting
for
that
paper:
They
are
a
kindly
disposed, well-meaning race,
and
are
respected
and
well
treated
by
the
upper
classes,
all
over
the
Pacific
coast.
No
Californian gentleman
or
lady
ever
abuses
or
oppresses
a Chinaman,
under
any
circumstances,
an
explanation
that
seems
to
be
much
needed
in
the
East.
Only
the
scum
of
the
population
do
it—they
and
their
children; they, and, naturally
and
consistently,
the
policemen
and
politicians, likewise,
for
these
are
the
dust-licking pimps
and
slaves
of
the
scum,
there
as
well
as
elsewhere
in
America.