Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1869-01-16
WHOLE NUMBER 9O4.

! neS' w Bl's ub III Ino information
in their power concerning themselves,
their habits, and their customs.
Around the room were q series of
beds arranged similar to the bsrtbs of
a ship-one above the other. On MANY
OF these men were lazily reclining, smok
ing opium. The opium pipe is a some
what novel thing TO tho American eve.
IL has large wooden bowl, pierced
WIN very fine hole down the center
which Is attached to very thick stem
aDout l8 inches long, the bowl being
placed about four inches from the bot
tom OF tho stem. There each man lies
with little lamp and small tin pot Of
OF opium (which bas all the appearance
Of very thick dark molasses of the CON
sistency Of putty by his side. With a
! piece of steel, something like bodkin.
the smoker takes up a small quantity of
opium, aud burning it few seconds in
the lamp, stuhs it in the pipe, aud rufs
away with an air Of the most consun-
mate enjoyment. Others were sitting
NJ a table IN the centre of the room.
using the point of the forefnger as thoy
read from the bottom to the tor of tho
! page. Some Of them have had little
books OF dialogues, with the chinese on
one page and English on the other.
They told us they experience the great
est difficulty in learning to read English.
rs their own language has no alphabet'
judging from the books they showed
US, three or four hierogIyphics, with
couple Of lines drawn through them. con-
stitute word, or in some instances 4
sentence. Several of them were study
ing together, aud their efforts to pro
nounce common English words were
very amusing.
Others were Playing at cards Their
cards are very quaint. They are about
i've inches long aud an inch wide. and
arc painted with Chinese gentlemen and
ladies', and III the most gortesque cos
tunes and attitudes OF the first century.
Each card has certain value attached
to it. They begin the game by dividing
the cards into six little packs, tho two
| players choosing a pack alternately.
The first player places card on the
table, his opponent places one immedi-
ateI y across it, the others are placed at
all the points on the compass, in the
form of star, the players scoring their
respective vauo OF their cards as they
play them.
They are also very fond of the game
of dominoes, though the system on
which they play their game is very diff
terent to ours. They divide the domi-
noes equally between them, with the
faces turned down on the table. Each
| player draws one of his dominoes. and
the one who has the highest number of
| pips, scores to himself the difference be-
tween his dominoe and his opponents.
Most OF them were drinking tea in small
cups, without milk or sugar, we saw ne
slgns OF spirits or liquor in any shape.
Nearly all the inmates of this boarding
house could speak English, and talked
with considerable intelligence. They
were exceedingly pleased at the idea of
our visiting them, offered US their opium
pipes, which We declined, and their tea
which we accepted; talked Chinese for
our amusement (by no means an un-mu-
sical language) and the proprietor of
the house, who appears to conduct his
business in very qniot orderly way,
begged US to come in and see him again.
His charges for boarding, which includes
4 bed, breakfast, and good meat sup
per is So per week and his boarders
seem very well contented with the ao-
commodation he gives them.
We paid visit to one or two other
boarding-hOuses, but they were all sim
liar in character-all equally orderly and
respectable as the one W ehave described
Our guide now took us into the houses
where the resident Chinese live. AS tar
as we could gather, there are not more
than 60 or 20 Cinnamon living in New
York. They have apparently only one
occupation-that of cigar-makmg. They
do not make cigars for the trade; but
each man makes a stock of cigars at
night, which he sells on stand on the
at the corners Of the streets on the fol-
lowing day.
They buy cheap remnants of tobacco
out of which they will make from $50
to $50 cigars every night. They retail
these at three cents apiece, and earn,
many OF them, $40 to $35 a week, as he
sits rolling his cigars, he smokes one,
and between his puff, chants a sort
of low, rolling dirge, in rather harsh
strains.
Industrious and persevering as ara
Chinese cigar makers, they do not save
much money, for they are guilty OF ono
great piece of sxtravaGance. They ara
great bigamists. They all have two and
many of them three wives, but strange
to say in all the numerous houses which
We visited, we only found one man that
was married to a Chinese woman, and
that was Mr.. Chang T.ing Chow, the gen
tleman who keeps the boarding house we
have alluded to- These Cinnamon have
peculiar fancy for wives of Celtic ORR
gin; We do not rccoliect seeing one wo-
man among these many families that be-
longed to any other nationality. The
great marvel is that these little domestic
arrangements seldom give rise to distur-
banceF. Occasionly they have it well
out together in pure Celtic fsshion, but
their Chinese husband remorselessly turns
them all into the back yard, and sternly
refuses TO rsGdmit them till they all have
become properly disfgured. Your China
man is no milksop; he rules his own
roost, and keeps tho most impartial or
| dar IN Il II ia varV nuFioua - hear the