The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1869-06-11

C"iest'a's 10 The fasihe Coast-Iheir Value as
Workers and Railroad Builders--An Impor.
tant Element in our Population.
The Metropolitan Record thus speaks
of the Chinese laborers who are hocking
to this country in great numbers:
The Mongolians arc coming to stay
They are also coming TO work. For that
matter, indeed, we are told that between
forty and fifty thousand of them are al
ready hard at work on and along the line
of the great Pacific Railroad. The mi
ming districts of California swarm with
II EN-, and the universal testimony as re-
CARDS their industry, enterprise, and
peaccable dispositions, is altogether in
their favor.
We have spoken of the multiplication
Of the Chinese on the Pacific. From San
Diego to Sitka, and back to Montana, Ida
no, Nevada, Arizona, andthroughout all
that continuous stretch of country of
which San Francisco is the commercial
centre, VIC arc told, they are everywhere
to be found. Every town and hamlet has
its "China town." Thor industry is most
remarkable. Mining, clothes washing,
and kindred occupations were the first
branches of industry in which they en-
gagged; but Of late years there has been
great increase in the variety of their
employments. In the construction Of the
San Jose Railroad, in 1860, it was dis
covered that they were cheap and cffec-
tive road builders, the Mission and Pho
necr WoIlcn Mills found that they made
frst-class factory operatives, and now
they are rapidly obtaining employment
wherever patient manual labor, without
any great amount of brain work, is re-
quisite. Large numbers are engaged as
servants in families, hotels, &C., taking
the place of girls in chamber work and
cooking, in which they become very ex-
pert. A large proportion of the immi-
grafton consists Of boys from ten to six
teen years of age, who are Immediately
put out iosefvice in families, where they
soon pick up knowledge ofthe language
and of household duties.
In fact, the Chinese are rapidly mon-
opolizing employment in all the lightest
branches of industry usually allotted to
woman, such as running sewing machines
making paper bags and boxes, binding
shoes, labelling and packing medicines,
Sc. They are willing and anxious to
learn anything and everything that may
prove Of pocuniary value to them, and
in spite oc the difficulties which their to-
tai or partial ignorance of the Language
imposes, their patience and initiative fac
ultics enable them to learn to work with
surprising facility; and close observers of
: .;c; HABITS % net hesitate 70 saw that
there is not any manual trade in which
they could not become workers in rea-
sonable time.
These strangers arc said to become
Americanized-so to speak-very rapid
ly. They learn to buy and sell, to labor,
according to American modes, just as
they discard the umbrella-shaped hat,
wide drawers, and thick paper shoes, for
the felt hat, pantaloons and boots, but
they retain all their essential habits and
modes of thought just as they retain their
cues. The Chinaman running sewing
machine, driving sand-cart, or firing an
engine in California, is Just as essentially
a Chinaman as his brother who, on the
other side oftke Pacific, is working in
the same way, and with the same imple-
ments as his father worked a thousand
years. Much has been said of his i'm
morality, and especially ofhis proneness
to lie and cheat; but if he can beat the
Yankee Puritan in that line of business,
he must, indeed be bad fellow. Our
own impression is, that his infrmnties in
that respect have been exaggerated; but
even were it otherwise, VIC repeat, ho is
as deserving Of political rights, &C., &c.
The San Francisco Times speaking on
the subject, says:
1t is a significant fact that at the lay
ing of the last rail on the Pacific Railroad
John Chinaman occupied a prominent
position. He it was who commenced,
audit was he who finished the great work;
and but for his skill and industry the
Central Pacific Railroad might not now
have been carried eastward of the Sier-
ras. The experience of this undertaking
has proved that tho Chinaman is an ad-
mirablc railroad builder His labor is
cheap, his temper is good, his disposition
is dOcile, his industry is unhagging, his
strength and endurance arc wonderful,
and his mechanical skill is remarkable.
There arc. Cinnamon in the employ of the
Central Pacific Company who are more
clever in aligning roads than many white
men who have been educated to the bus
mess, and these Mongols will strike a
trucr line for longer distance with the
unassisted eye than most white men can
with the aid ofinstruments, A good deal
of nonsense has been talked about the
Chipamans want eff stamina and his infe-
riority to the white laborer in point of
strength and capacity forwork- The Cen
trail Railroad has pretty thoroughly set
tied that point; for numerous experiments
have been made during its construction,
with view to test the respective capa-
hiIities of the two races. On one occasion |