The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1870-07-08
ORIENTALLsM In NEW ENGLAND.

North Adams Mass. June ~ correspondence of
the Boston Advertiser.
All My is short of statue, slight
" built, and his beardless face suggests
that he is yet but a boy; but we must not
udge his age by home standards. His eyes
seem half shut, so narrow are they, but
they are keen and quick. His skin is
dusky, his nose fiat, his teeth prominent.
Halt his head is shaved close; on the crown
is cooled the long braided cue of Jet black
hair, terminating in a tassel, which would
b~ehsnging about All My's heels were he in
full dress. His cue is shorter than those
of some Of his comrades, as he is young;
there are some In the party which just
touch the ground. It is the dearest pos
session of aChinaman, and the one mem
Der of the company who is old and bald,
wears a false one, pinned to his pate the
Lord knows how. All My has saved the
heads of some of his comrades since he got
IN from his long journey, and has had the
same service performed for himself as the
GROWING act of a thorough abluiion which
has left him clean as wax. His hands are
very small, and delicate and soft as a wo-
mans, owing, perhaps, in some measure
his wearing long sleeves and having a
national habit of clasping his hands to
lSNNlNA a. tAD ofCAldBpiuS OAN0y /" IL q
muff. He wears a blue nankeen blouse,
made in China, with much care of stitch
ing, fastened by frogs and small brass
buttons; loose trousers of the same stuff;
stockings like anybody else, and wonderful
ly easy little slipper-like shoes, the toes
pointing a little upward, the sole an inch
thick, Of white pressed WOOL
His head is anonymously covered
with a common soft hat, of
American manufacture, Mr.. SIMPSONS
agent finding himself obliged to provide
Tor all his charge in this respect before
quitting San Francisco. All Ny bears
himself rather shyly, but yet with q Ger
tain dignity, as we inspect him. He is
studying English with all his might, and
loses no opportunity TO gain a crumb of in
formation. "What you esll?" he says,
plucking at the couch by which he stands.
Bed, " We answer. 'Yes, l know, bed, "
lie replies, shaking his head. and pointing
still more vigorously. "but what you call p
MATTRESS, " we reply; and whoever meets
All My for the next hour will hear him
softly repeating, with much motion Of the
jaw and manifest difficulty of combining
the syllables, "MatZtress; mattress, "
until he knows it perfectly, andis ready to
absorb another atom of knowledge IN the
same slow way.
Pass we now into the next room, used
by the new colonists as sitting room and
dining room, furnished with benches and
tables, and lighted with gas-an unnces-
sary piece of libeTality on Mr.. SIMPSONS
part, as the labOrers contract and expect
to provide their own candles-but adding
much to the cheerfulness of the place.
Here again the place swarms with China
men. in a great variety Of interesting Oecu-
pations. But before we begin to examine
them in detail, Mr.. Sampson introduces
stMr. Sing, the Chinese foreman, who can
explain much that would otherwise be
mysterious.
All Sing is not an ordinary Chinaman. A
young man like most of his fellows, his
face shows a brighter intelligence, or per-
laps rather a wider culture, than any of
the rest. He has been eight years in this
country, serving the first five faithfully as
a house servant, cook and chambermaid,
and has made such progress in his stay as
to enable him to command the ''great
wages, " for M of his race, which I have
already mentioned. He is AmericaniZed in
many ways. He wears the garments of our
civilization throughout, remarkably natty
boot fitting his little foot; but he still cher
ishes the native fashions, and has brought
in his baggage for use on special occasions
Chinese shoes of gorgeous embroidery, and
a superb coat of sea otter skin lined with silk,
which paid a prodigious duty on entering
California. He speaks broken English
readily; but being a fast talker of swift
ideas it is impossible, for your correspond
ent at least, TO understand him when he
undertakes a long explanation, though his
short answers are plain enough. He reads
print pretty well, lodging the hard words
as a child would. He has taken an Eng
lish name for common use, being 'fChar-
lie" in everyday life, and 'tMr. Sing" only
on state occasions. More remarkable than
all, he has Joined the Methodist church,
and brings a letter of credit from his San
Francisco pastor to the clergyman in North
Adams in the approved way. 1 should not
hesitate to predict a full congregation next
Sunday, 10 hear the new members rela-
ton of experience. Still another of Char
lies requirements was brought out
by an incident of the journey hither. AT
Omaha the bitter hostility of emigrants
from the East towards emigrants from the
West began to make itself heard. A big.
somewhat tipsy Irishman, forced his way
into the car, breathing menaces of violence,
and drew his loaded revolver upon the fore
man, who strove to prevent him. Charlie,
with one motion, seized the fellows pistol
hand and held it harmlessly aloft, and At
the same instant drew his own revolver and
held it against his breast. 'You leave"
said All Sings gentle tones. stMe shoot
you. Me just as quick shoot you as not"
And SO he backed the astonished freshman
out of the car and down the steps, in a way
that showed he had learned something be-
sides religion in eight years spent in Cali
fornia and Nevada.
The young men who fill this room, rest
ing from their journey and waiting to be
set at work, are neither smokingnor drink
ing, talking obscenity nor quarrelling, as
some classes of immigrants l wot of would
be likely to be; nor are any of them abso-
lutely idle. Here one is reading with evi
dent ease and rapidity q Chinese book
which he has brought with him.
"lou people can all read, / observed
to All Sin g. t'We have some immigrants
come here who can't read"
1t is edifying to watch the Chinaman's
amazement.
''Noread English. you mean2"
'fSome who cannot read at all, in their
own language"
e'What for not learn, when children p
Lazy? Bad? Fool?
ut is difficult TO explain it to him."
"1n China every boy 60 to school," he
says. eff no want to 60, law make 90. Boy
not learn quick, teacher keep him in long
time after school. Boy behave bad, teach.
er make him stand long time hands in
desk, So" illustrating graphically. mo
boy in China not learn to read"
At the next table a Chinaman has got out
from his slender baggage a blank book, the
pages of thin, whitey-brown paper, all
numbered in Chinese characters, in which
he is beginning to keep a journal in up and
down lines. lust beyond a group sur
rounds n of the aged cooks, who, with a
little ledger, made and ruled in China, IS
charging to each mans account the shirts
and stockings Charlie has bought for
them in the village, and which they are
dividing in high glee. The writer has a
little tablet or palette with India ink, and
uses a fine camels hair brush in place of a
pen. So elaborate and intricate are the
characters, it seems a marvel he can fash
ion them SO nicely, and an impossibility
that any M cJuld learn to write rapidly
with such letters. Further on a group Of
learners are making a beginning in
by way of the primer, with a
of bright Berkshire lads glad enough
to act as ~pedagogues to such odd and apt
- Un.- H. - -