St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-02-21
ssThe Heather Chinee."


have few opportunities of forming an
opinion from their own observations,
and tending to create feeling of hos
tility toward the Chinaman, that one
who would deal fairly, and attempt to
correct the thousand and one utterly
false, and as many more highly colored
statements on the subject, is puzzled to
find a place to begin. / am glad to see
that the Transcript manifests the true
spirit of liberty for all mankind, and
believes that even the poor Chnaman
in his heather blindness has rights
which the white man, looking down
from the lofty heights of his superfne
become fashionable in this State to
speak of the Chinaman as little better
than brute creature, and a very low
brute at that. All things that are fl
thy, all things that characterize the low
est and most british portions of the
human race are charged against him.
If some of the statements made at the
"Sand Lots" and published in the San
Francisco papers are true, the "China
quarter" in that city is much like few
acres of hog-pens, the human swine of
which are filthy beyond the power of
language to describe, and which con-
stitute a fearful hotbed of all manner of
crimes and diseases. Now, l would like
to say to the liberty and justice-loving
people of old New England, that they
will do well to take the ''heft' of all
damaging stories about the Chinaman
with many grains of allowance. There
are 'deadfalls, r"whsky mills" ''gamb-
ling dens," underground horrors" and
| e IL .af, rIo
plenty .outside of the China quarter in
that famous city of the Golden Gate,
and these places are fully equal in the
way of degradation and crime to any
thing that can he found in Chinatown,
us the police records will show.
After having had, during twenty-five
years, IA good share of dealings with the
Chinaman, working him on roads and
in mines, having had a good deal ot
business with him in the way of trade
and many opportunities of witnessing
f his manner of life, generally, | am pre-
pared to say that as Il clean man he will
f be found to be fully up to the average
white man, and furthermore, as quiet
well behaved, d-his-own- business
man, the Chinaman is far in advance Ol
the average white man.
If the Chinamau is such IA terrible
fellow as he is often represented, one
would suppose he would be found IL
our jails in great numbers, and that he
would figure daily. up into the hun
dreds, in our police courts, in the list OF
'.drunks and disorderlies :" but he don't
ill our .jails, don't get drunk, aud don't
riot worth IA cent compared with the
, achievements of his civilized white
brother in such lines.
think that people generally, who
have employed the Chinaman as com
mon laborer, cook, hotel waiter, Ol
| private servant, will acknowledge that
he gives satisfaction as to cleaG4ineSs
sobrlety, and general usefulness, and
! that he is, in many respects, to be pre-
ferred to the white man as genera
t worker. He goes on no "sprees," is at
: tentive to business, Is always 'OI
I hand,n and looks after the interests Ol
p his employers us faithfully, and with as
much care, as could be expected fIOn
the white man.
! In this country Il great many white
, laborers, probably ii large majority o.
the white labOrers, are men of rowing
ispositions-they are always going
= somewhere, are never satisfied with do,
= ing well. and are too often addicted tC
= drinking and gaming-men who repre-
sent largely the restless, adventurous
elements of other states and foreign
f countries, while the Chinaman is the
a reverse of all this. He sticks to gOoC
D place as long as he can, and is more tC
p be depended upon than the uneasy
I white man.
y 1t is not true that zone white mar
will do as much work as two China
D men," though one may hear it so statet
u almost any day. 1t it were true there
: would lie very little to induce the
II whites to employ China labor beside,
# the fact that the Chinaman is more t.
= be depended upon than almost any 9th
Ell class OF laborers. 1t is because he il
Il patient, steady worker, and works fo
small pay, that the Chinamau is in de
mand as Il laborer. II is because he i
an excellent cook and laundryman thai
It he so readily finds employment in TIN
public houses.
" 1t is not true that the Chinaman is
II slave in any sense confOrmable to on
Is ideas of slavery, though | believe tina
Il in this state nearly all Cinnamon Ow
l. service, OF Il portion of their earnings
Is to societies or companies to which the
e are attached in some way, and whic
y return the service in the way of protec
IL ton and pecuniary aid in case of sick
is ness or want.
n 1t is true that we have China thieves
Of drunkards, Opium-eaters, general good
+. for-nothings, gamblers, and even muI
d delers; but China criminals are II
2 worse than other criminals, and ther
are no more of them according to th
:" number of China inhabitants than ther
l. are of other people, We don't hear {
the Chinaman as a stage rObber or trai
r. wrecker. He don't do very much i
" 'high crimes" and in view of all tn
startling disclosures of fraud and COZ
E. ruption that are constantly coming OF
upon the political and financial board
e. the numberlesS swindles in Il
t. branches of business-the freeze OF
games of our great mining, water, raj
D. road and stock specializing cOmpanie
as the adulteration of food, the villainOu
I'd mixtures of liquid fire and death, an
.d all manner of wickedness in places
il high and low, this holding up of tn
or comparatively speaking, petty sins
e, the Chinaman to the world as the su
in of all wickedness, is too much like
Ir. great, self-righteous satan rebuking 81
at The simple truth is, the average Chin;
be man, as an industrious, hard-workin
j." saving, peacelOving man, has fe
a equals and no superiors in this countr
vo The consequence is, that, as a rule he
m. in thrifty condition. He works Fl
b. halfprice" but takes care of his none
OF lives well, enjoys his feasts and hoI
hnt iS