Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1865-12-01
THE CHINESE IA THE PAcIFIc sTATfs.

ScaGLer6Q ali over the CGaBeS ana I6rflGO-
ries of the coast, and number from one
eighth to one-sixth of the population
We began to see them at Austin, In Ne
vada, and we have found them everywhere
since, in country and in city, in the woods,
among the mines, north in the British
dominions, on the coast, in the noun
Itains-everywhere that work is to be
done, and money gained by patient, plod-
ding industry They have been coming
over from home since 1852, then was the
largest emigration, numbering 10000. A
| hundred thousand in all have come, but
! 10000 to 10000 have gone back. None
come really to stay they do not identify
themselves with this country but to get
work, make money, and go back. They
never or very rarely, bring their wives.
The occupation of these people are
various. There is hardly anything that
they cannot turn their hands to-the
work of women as we'll as men. They do
the washing and ironing for the entire
population. They sprinkle the clothes
while ironing by squirting water over
them in fine spray from their mouths
| Everywhere in village and In town, you
see rude signs informingyou that See Hop,
or All Thing, or Sam Thing, or Wee
Lung, or Cum Sing, wash and iron. How
! Tie is a doctor, and Hop Chang and Chi
Lung keep stores. They are good house
servants, cooks, table, walters and nurses
better On the whole than the Irish girls,
and as cheap, $15 to $25 a month and
board One element of their usefulness
as cooks is their genius for imitation
Show them once how to do a thing, and
they need no further instruction. But
| they seem to be more in use as house
servants in the country than the city; they
do not share the passion of the Irish girls
| for herding together, and seem to be con-
tent to be alone in house, in a neighbor
| hood or a town.
Many are vegetable gardeners, too. In
this even climate and with this produc-
| tive soil, their taking culture, much
| hoeing and constant watering, make little
ground very fruitful, and they gather IN
three. four and five crops year. Their
garden patches in the neighborhood of
cities and villages are always distinguisha-
| BILE from the rough and more carelessly
cultured grounds of their Saxon rivals.
| The Pacific railroad is being built by
Chinese labor; several thousand China
men are now grading the track through
the rocks and sands of the Sierre NeYadas
without them, indeed, this great work
would have to wait for years, or move on
with slow, hesitating steps. They can by
their steady industry do nearly as much
in a day, even of this rough labor, as the
average of white men, and they cost only
about half as much, say $50 a month
against 500 Besides, white labor is not
/ to be had in the quantities necessary for
such great job as this. The Chinese
are also good farm hands, and in the
simpler and routine mechanic arts they
have proved adepts-there is hardly any
branch of labor in which, under proper
! tuition, they do not or cannot succeed
most admirably. The great success of the
wooden manufacture here is due to the
adoption and comparative cheapness of
Chinese labor for the details. They are
quick to learn, quiet, cleanly, and faithful,
and have no ''off days, no sprees to get
over As factory operators they receive
$40 and $25 a month, and board them
selves, though quarters are provided for
them on the mill grounds Fish, vegeta-
bles. rice. and pork are their main food,
which is prepared and eaten with such
economy that they live for about one
third what Yankee laborers do.
Thousands of the Chinese are cleaners
in the gold fields. They follow in crowds
after the white miners, working and wash
ing over their deserted or neglected sands,
and thriving on results that their prede-
cessors would despise. A Chinese gold
washer is content with 81 to 81 a day,
while the white man starves or moves on
disguised with twice that. A very. con-
siderable portion of the present gold pro
ductions of California must now be the
work of Chinese pains-taking and mod
crate ambition. The traveller meets these
Chinese miners everywhere on his road
through the State, at work in the deserted
bitches, or moving from one to another,
on foot with their packs, or often in the
stage, sharing the seats and paying the
price of the more aristocratie Saxon.
The Chinese that come to these States
are among the best of the peasantry from
the country about Canton and Hong Hong.
None of them are the miserable coolies
that have been imported by the English
to their Indian colonies as farm laborers
They associate themselves here into
companies, based upon the village or
! neighborhood from which they come
These companies have headquarters in
San francisco their presidents are meI
of high intelligence and character anC
their object is to afford temporary refuge
to all who belong to their bodies, to assis
them in obtaining work, to protect then
: against wrong, and to send the dead bacE
to their kindred at home.
Besides these organizations, there are
guilds or trade associations among the
chinese engaged in different occupations
Thus the laundrymen and the cigar max
ers have organizations, with heavy fee
from the members, power over the com
Y mon interests OF Gne business, ana au OC
e casional festivity The impressions thes,
t people make upon the American mind
4 after close observation of their habits
: are very mixed and contradictory. The.
: unite to many of the attainments ant
f knowledge of the highest civilization, IL
0 some of which they are models for our
y selves, many of the incidents and most 0
= the ignorance of a simple barbarism.
:, may yet prove that we have as much t.
S learn from them as they from US. Ger
: tainly here in this great field, this western
J, half of our continental nation, their di
e versiied labor is blessing and necessi
: ty. 1t is all, perhaps more, even, thai
8 the Irish and Africans have been and ar
d to our eastern wealth and progress. A
the first at least, they have greater adapta
bility and perfection than either of thes
classes of laborers to whom we are so in
timately and sometimes painfully accus
Il toned
i There are quite number of large mer
! camille houses here in the hands of Chi
= nese. The managers are intelligent, su
= perior men, Their business is in supple
i for their countrymen, and in teas, silks
= and curiosities for the Americans. The
= import by the hundreds of thousands
> even millions, yearly /; and their reputa
: ton for fair and honest dealing is abov
that of the generality of the America
v merchants.
3 3 An interesting trial took place in Ra
i VIENNA, Ohio, recently, under the Obi