The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-01-31
HEark Twain.
HEark Twain.
lie WRITES ABOUT CHINAMEN AND
DESPERADOES.


lie WRITES ABOUT CuINAMEN AND
DEsPERADOEs.
From the Buffalo Express.
One of CALIFORNIA; curiosities the people
In the States will some day become familiar
with through the Pacific railroad. mean
the Cinnamon. California contains 10000
of them, and every ship brings more.
There is a Chinese quarter in every city
and village in California and Nevada, for
Boards Of Aldermen will not allow them to
live all around town, just wherever they
choose to locate. This is not hardship
for they prefer to herd together.
PEcULIARlTIEs AND sUPERsTITloNs.
They are o people who fondly stick tc
their ancient customs. They dress in the
QUAINT costumes their ancestors wore five
hundred years ago. They build temples,
caudy- with gliding and hideous with star
ing idols, and there they worship aftor the
fashion of their fathers. A strict record is
kept by their chiefs Of the name and resi-
dence of every Chiuaman, and when he
dies his body is sent back to China for bu-
rial, for they can never get to their Heaven
unless they start from China. And besides,
Cinnamon worship their ancestors, and
they all want their share of worship after
thew are done with this world. Even when
the Chinese Government sells ship load of
degraded and criminal coolies to Cuban
or Sandwich Island planter, it is strictly
stipulated that the body of every one of
them must be sent back to China after
death.
The Cinnamon being smart, shrewd peo-
pie, take to some few Of our commercial
customs and virtues, but somehow We can't
make great Roadway in the matter of civil
izing them. We can teach them to gamble
little, but somehow We can't make them
get drunk. 1t is discouraging, because you
can't regenerate O being that won't get
drunk.
The Chinaman is the most frugal, indus
matter how slender are the wages you pay
him he will manage to lay up money. And
Cinnamon are the most gifted gardeners il
the world. Give one of them sand-bank
that would not support lizard, and he will
make it yield generous crops OF vegetables
The Chinaman wastes nothing. Everything
has value in his eyes: lie gathers up al
the castawGy rags and bones and bits Of
glass, and makes marketable articles OF
them And he picks up oil the old fruit
cans you throw away and melts them up to
get the tin and solder. When white man
discards gold placer Us no longer worth
anything, the patient Chinaman, always
satisfied with small profits, and never in a
hurry to get rich, takes possession and works
it contentedly for years.
The Chinaman makes good cook, q good
washerwoman, good chambermaid, a good
gardener, good bankers clerk, good
miner, good railroad laborer, o good any
thing you choose to put him at for these
people are oil educated; they are all good
accountants they are very quiet and peace
able they never disturb themselves about
politics they ere so tractable, quick, smart,
and naturally handy and ingenious, that
you can teach them anything; they have
no jealousies; they never lose q moment,
never, require watching to keep them at
work they are gifted with world of pa
thence, endurance, and contentment. They
are the best laboring class America has ever
seen, and they do not care cent who is
Presideut. They are miserably abused
BY tho laws Of California, but thas sort
Q: thing VIII cease some day. Il rsS
found Just about impossible 70 build the
California end Of the Poetic Railroad
Wltn #htte men at % per DAY, anu
take care Of all the broils and fights and
strikes but they put on Cinnamon ct 81 q
day and !" find " themselves, and they built
it without fights or strikes or anything, and
saved THE bulk of their wages, too. You
will have these long-tail toilers among YOU
in "the States" some day, but you will
find them right easy to get along with--and
you viii like them, too, because they will
stand heap of abuse. You viii find them