Mexico weekly ledger., 1876-10-19
But FOUR TRADES, VIZ.

vegetable gardeners ...... ................ 20
Fishermen............ CONGRATULATIONS. 200
Total. . %, $50
These figures dispose of the great
bulk of the Chinese workers in the city.
The classification of the remaining few
odd thousands is an easy matter-tO
group them requiring nothing more
difficult than al observant walk through
Chinatown. Although a thorough in
'vestigation of this quarter means being
brought into contact with much that is
Objectionable and more that is foul, /
have no delicacy in asking your COM
partnership, since it will not be that of
person. Besides, the trip to-day, though
scarcely as touristically superficial as
the usual visit of the Eastern arrival
who "does Chinatown" will rot ne
cessitate the description of such sights
as must furnish much of the subject
matter for my next letter.
CHINATOWN.
A line drawn east from Stockton
Street along Broadway to Kearny, south
along Kearny to California, west along
California to Stockton, and north along
Stockton to Broadway, would form an
Oblong of six blocks by two, with the
length living north and south, within
which all Chinatown may be said to
lie, like the very rotten kernel of a
clean shelled nut. The names of these
streets mean but little to the Tribune
readers, in all probability; but they
mean much to San FranciscanS, for
they are those of four of the principal
thoroughfares of the city, and the space
within them should be the fairest part
of this fair town. As yet the shell, at a
casual glance, seems sound and solid
enough; but look closely at it, and lit
tie black spots tell the story of impure
inwardnesS. Which means-tO quit
nutting-that all along these twelve
blocks the creeping, creeping, creeping
Chinaman has his cigar stands, and
wash-houscs, and little wood-yards es-
tablished-ugly fixtures, like the black
counters of an undertaker's shop. But
along Dupont Street, up Washington,
Jackson, and Pacific, and down Sacra-
mento and Commercials streetlet-
these are the shafts and drifts that strike
the copper-vein in all it's richness. To
pass from Kearny 10 Dupont on a quiet
summers evening, time $50, is the
quick transition from San Francisco to
hWdIl2 LlI1. LEU GlcI0 NC 81 lul1 l1OOu.
for the moonlight will soften the objec-
tionable in it's dark-gray shadows, and
yet leave every thing sufficiently dis,
tinct in the yellow open.
SUCH A QUICK BUsTLE
and rapid passage to and fro of these
thousands, who look as much alike as
one Sepoy regiment does another; such
-zA..A- --sxls. 49, -lo,. A.
restaurants, more brightly painted thar
the courtesan's cheeks, gay with Ian
terms of all hues and shapes, and crowd
ed with guests; the commoner board
ing-houses, under ground, swarming
with hungry workmen, whose chop
sticks move even faster than theil
tongues, and who loom dimly through
"a thick cloud of smoke and steam, ranl
as the stink-wort crowds of buyer!
around the fish, pork, and vegetable
stands, where the air is filled with the
order OF. pig,.scales,sand much cultural
haggling; every where the all-pervad
ing sense of hustle and work. Ths
streets are lined with stores and work
shops, on the ground, above, and under
Here, a. goldsmith fashioning rings fol-
fingers and ears, heavy in weight, ornate
and bizarre in carving, with his grea
spectacles clt pse down on the tiny anvil
and the strands sputtering in his lamp
dish; next dtsor, 81 chemists, with NOR,
"yarbs than ever DIR. Parr knew of
and ROOTS swinging from the rafters
of every uncomfortable shape and use
'lessness; two doors below, "a pork
butchers, with every body and ever,
thing around the premise
CORY and fat, for you
vChinaman never uses a saw or meat-ax
but slivere 90 a slice here and hacks OF