The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1873-02-20
THE CHARACTER AND HAB-
ITS OF THE CHINESE IN
AMERICA.

UNI in his character and habits. We
must be pardoned for giving details
of these, mingled promiscuously ,rath-
er after the museum style. His New
Year comes in February. For the
Chinaman Of limited means, it lasts a
week; for the wealthy it may endure
three. His consumption of fire-crack-
ers during that period is immense.
He burns strings yard in length,
suspended from poles over his balco-
MES. The uproar and suffering con-
sequent on this festivity in the Chi
nese quarter at San Francisco is ire
mendous. The city authoritie limit
this Celestial pandemonium to one
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 often afix-
ed contrivances for producing hollow,
mournful, buzzing sounds, mystifying
whole neighborhoods. His game Of
shuttle-cock is to keep a cork, one end
being stuck with feathers, flying in
the air as long as possible, the impell-
ing member being the foot, the play
ers standing in a circle, and number
ing from four to twenty. Some show
great dexterity in kicking with the
heal. His vocal music to our ears
seems q monotonous caterwaul His
violin has but one string; his execu-
tion is merely modified species of
saw-fling.
He loves to gamble, especially in
lotteries. He is a diligent student Of
his own comfort. Travelling on foot
during hot day, he protects himself
with an umbrella and refreshes him
self with a fan. In place of prosaic
signs on his store-fronts, he often in
scribes quotations from his favorite
authors.
He is lover Of flowers. His bal
comics and window-sills are often
thickly packed with shrubs and creep
ers in pots. He is not a 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 the drama. A
singleplay sometimes requires months
for representation, being like a serial
story, Continued" night after night
He never dances. There is no melo-
dy in the Monaghan foot. Dancing
be regards as a species Of Caucasian
insanity.
To make an oath binding, he must
swear by the head of a cock, cut off
before him in open court. Chinese
testimony is not admissible in Ameri-
can courts. It is legal California
axiom that Chinaman cannot speak
the truth. But cases have occurred
wherein, he being an eyewitness, the
desire to hear what he might tell as
to what he had seen, has proved
stronger than the prejudice against
him; and the more effectually to
cinch the chances Of his telling the
truth, the above, his national form of
oath has been resorted to. He has
among us some secret government Of
his own. Before his secret tribunals
more than one Monaghan has been
hurried in star-chamber fashion, and
never seen afterward. The nature of
the offences thus visited by secret
and bloody punishment is scarcely
known to Americans. He has two
chief deities-a god and a devil.
Most of his prayers are offered to his
deviL-His god, he says being good
and well-disposed, it is not necessary
to propitiate him. But his devil is
ugly, and must be won over by offer
ing and petition. Once year, when
ever collected in any number, he
builds fimsy sort of temple, deco
rates it with ornaments of tinsel, lays
piles Of fruit, meats and sugared del
1cacies on an altar, keeps up night
and day a steady crash Of gongs, and
instals therein some great uncouth
wooden idols. When this period of
worship is over the '.josh-house'' dis
appears, and the idols are unceremo-
niously slowed away among other
useless lumber.
He shaves with an instrument re-
sembGng a butchers cleayer in mini
allure. Nature generally denies him
beard, so he shaves what sailor
would term the fore and after part OF
his head. He reaps his hirsute crop
dry, using no lather. His cue is
pieced out by silken braid, SO inter
woven as gradually to taper into a
slim tassel, something like Missouri
mule-driYer's "black snaken whip.