The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-15 00:00:00

"JQIIN CHINAMAN."

Mr. Albert Richardson, of the New Fork Daily Tribune
whose assassination has created so much excitement in
New York, is the author of an article on " John China•
man," which appears in the December number of, the
Atlantic Monthly. Mr. Richardson gives an entertaining
account of John's rise and progress in the States, crediting
him with most varied ablilities. He began, ho says
as a house servant, and still finds most of his employ
ment in that capacity. As a natural cook lie has
no equal, except in the Frenchman. Ho is ready
to sweep, to make beds, and to walk of errands
—for John is deliberate, and seldom runs. Intrust
children to his care, and lie will dandle them in his arms,
or trundle them in their carriages, or amuse them with
playthings, with the same calmness, sobriety, andratience
which he would bring to the building of the Great
Wall. Labour is so abundant in his native country that
he has been taught to do everything with the nicest
carefulness, with the most absolute thoroughness.
He is mighty in the laurulry. He does up shirts like
an artist, and never forgets to sew on the buttons.
A Chinese laundry near the writer's hotel in Sacramento
was never closed by night or day, or on Sunday. As a
miner the Chinaman is remarkable for his perseverance.
In vain did the State impose an extra and unjust tax upon
him; he paid it—when lie was obliged to—and continued
to work like a beaver. In vain did white men drive him
out when he found a rich load. He only fell back to delve
away in some abandoned placer; and if he earned $1 a
day he would save more money in the course of a year
than the American who took out $5 from richer diggings.
But he could not be exclusively house-servant, washer-
man, and miner. Gradually he took up other pursuits.
He proved extremely useful as a farm hand ; and he
has pressed more and more into that employment.
Democratic politicians in California who used to cry
" nigger " are now crying " Chinaman " instead, but they
nevertheless, are very ready to employ John in vineyard,
household, store, and factory. The Pacific Railway has
been one of John's most remarkable achievements. When
the work was first undertaken, white labour was not
merely costly, it was unattainable, and Chinamen
were accordingly brought in. At first the hostility
to them was so strong that it was necessary
to give them military protection until their numbers
enabled them to defend themselves. At last 12,000 were
working upon the road. But for them, the locomotive
world would not have rolled across the continent for two
years yet. The company, after four years of trial, reported
that they had proved nearly as efficient as Irish labourers
for the hardest kind of work, and far more tractable and
trustworthy. Strikes, drunken brawls, bloody riots, were
all unknown among them. They did, without question,
murmur, or delay, whatever they were told to do.
But railways are not the only thing in which
John has distinguished himself in these parts.
John makes boots and shoes, and clothing, and all
the cigars that are manufactured in California. He ped-
dles fish, fruit, and vegetables. He finds abundant
employment in the great vineyards and orchards. Give
him a cluster of grapes or a pear for a sample, and he will
pluck from trees or vines all fruit at the same stage of
ripeness, with the greatest precision. The low rate of
wages for which a Chinaman works renders him a formi-
dable rival to the American workmen, who are conse-
quently bitterly hostile to him, and have hitherto opposed
his advance in the highly-skilled industries for
which his patience and skill in handicraft especially
fit him What manner of man is he? Very
black of hair, very low of stature, and not a thing of
beauty. In laughter he shows his gums horribly. But ho
is seldom The Man Who Laughs, except among his own
mates. With Americans, when he is not addressed, he is
immovably serene, silent, and serious. He is a born
gambler. Whatever his age or condition, games of
chance—with ludicrously trifling stakes—possess a
wild fascination for him. Every California town
has its Chinese quarter ; every Chinese quarter abounds
in gambling-houses. On the subject of opium, too, the
variance between his theory and his practice reveals the
human nature strong within him. Opium-smoking, ho
invariably avers, is bad, very bad; and yet, six out of
every seven idlers whom one meets on an evening walk
through the Chinese quarter bear indelible evidence of
the habit written on their jaded, ghastly faces. John
is gregarious, and loves to dwell in towns but always
refuses if he can to sleep in his employer's house, so that
he may spend the evenings with his friends in the Chinese
quarter. He prizes the pennies, and an offer of half a
dollar more per month may take him away from a house-
hold to which he seemed warmly attached. In general
morality, quietness, and tractableness, he ranks
higher than servants of any other nationality.
Naturally, many of the immigrants to America
belong to the most ignorant and poorest class,
yet the percentage of Chinamen convicted of crime
in California and Nevada is much smaller than that of
foreigners in general; little larger than that of the native-
born population. Furthermore, the Six Companies, to
some one of which John always belongs, exercise such
paternal care, that no:Chineso beggar is ever seen in the
streets of San Francisco, and no Chinese patient in the
public hospitals. And the first Chinaman unable to read
his own language has yet to make his appearance in Cali-
fornia.

Mr. Poulett Somerset, M.P. for Monmouthshire,
is said to be very unwell.

The Record declares that other bishops besides Dr.
Wordsworth of Lincoln are contemplating a protest against
the consecration of Dr. Temple.

Mr. Labouchere, Sir Francis Lycett, and Sir Sidney
Waterlow have agreed to abide the result of a ballot to
decide which of the three has the greatest amount of sup-
port in Southwark, the other two then retiring at once from
the field.

A. well-informed London correspondent of a con-
temporary says that "among the Ministerial measures of
the session, it is correctly reported there will be one regard-
ing tho future holding of elections, in which provision will
be made for the abolition of the hustings and all the expense
of oral nominations, and for giving each constituency the
power of Laving itsvotes taken by way of ballot." Comments
upon this statement, says the Birmivkant Gazette, a
Conservative piper, points out that the Conservatives, as a
p;:rty, have given way in their opposition to the ballot.
TIIE MURDER AT WALLINGEOP.D.—The nephew
of the man diehard Green, who was murdered near Wal-
lingford, was lit.el.ated from prison on Monday, but his
son is still retained in custody. At an inquest held on
Monday evening evidence was given to prove the following
facts :--Deceased arrived at the Old bell Inn at Shilling-
ford about half-past seven on Saturday evening, and was
then perfectly sober. He was found by a man named
Bettcridge on Sunday near his own field. The house in
which deceased resided had been broken into several
times, and about two years and a half ago a man was
sent to prison for robbing him. There were seven
wounds on the body when it was found, and two of his
angers had been broken, probably in his effort to defend
himself. Tho jury found a verdict of wilful murder against
tome Hereon or porsons unknown.