The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1873-02-25
HABITS OF THE CHINESE IN AMERICA.

TOHN CHINAMAN is sort of mus
- cum in his character and habits. His
New Year comes in February. For the
Chinaman of limited means it lasts week;
for the wealthy it may endure three. His
consum ption of fire-crackers during that
period is immense. He burns strings a
yard in length suspended from poles over his
balconies. The uproar and sputtering con-
sequent on this festivity in the Chinese
quarter at San Francisco is tremendous.
The city authorities limit this Celestial
Pandemonium to week.
He does not forsake the amusement of
kite-hying even when arrived at maturity.
His artistic limitations of birds and dragons
float over our housetops. To these are of
ten affixed contrivances for producing hol-
low, mournful, buzzing sounds, mystifying
whole neighborhoods. His game of shut
tlecock is to keep cork, one end being
stuck with feathers, flying in the air as
long as possible, the impelling member
being the foot, the players standing in a
circle numbering from four to twenty.
Some show great dexterity in kickingwith
seems a monotonous caterwaul. His vi
olin has but one string his execution is
merely a modified specie of saw-filing.
He loves to gamble, espec tally in lotter-
les. He is diligent student of his own
comfort. Travelling on foot during hot
day, he protects himself with an umbrella
and refreshes himself with fan. In place
of prosaic signs on his store fronts, he often
inscribes quotations from his favorite au-
thors.
He is lover of flowers. His balconies
and window sills are often thickly packed
with shrubs and creepers in pots. He is
not speedy and taciturn eater. His tea
table talks are full of noisy jollity, and are
often prolonged far into the night.
He is lover of drama. A single play
often requires months in representation,
being like serial story, continued"
night after night. He never dances. There
is no melody in the Mongoliah foot. Dane
ing he regards as a species of Caucasian
insanity.
To make an oath binding he must swear
by the head of cock cut off before him In
open court. Chinese testimony is not adj
missible in American courts. 1t is a legal
California axiom that Chinman cannot
speak the truth. But cases have occurred,
wherein he, being an eye witness, the de-
sire to hear what he might tell as to what
he had seen has proved stronger against
him; and the more effectually to clinch
the chances Of his telling the truth, the
above, his national form of oath, has beer
resorted to.
He has among us some secret govern
ment of his own. Before his secret tribu,
mails more than one Mongolian has beer
hurried in Star Chamber fashion, and never
seen afterwards. The nature of the often
ces thus visited by secret and bloody pun
ishment is scarcely known to Americans
He has two chief deities-a god and devil
His god, he says, being good and well-dis
posed, il is not necessary to propitiate him
But his devil is ugly, and must be wor
over by offering and petition. Once year
whenever collected in any number, h'
builds a sfiimsy sort of temple, decorates i
with ornaments Of tinsel lays piles of fruit
meats, and sugared delicacies on an altar
keeps up night and day a steady crash o
gongs, and installs therein some great, un
couth wooden idols. When this period o
worship is over the "Josh-house" disap
pears, and the idols are unceremoniousl,