The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-10-23
Scenes in Chinatown, San Francisco,

CHINATOWN lies in the very heart Of
San Francisco, and in coming from the
most fashionable quarter to the business
portion you pass through it. They are
the same bustling, pig-tailed phantoms
in black cambria you see every dav in
Denver, only they seem to be in legion.
1t is singular fact, although what we
have here are really the scum of their
own country, in passing through the
town you hear no loud talk, no broilinc
harangues, no obscene invectives, like
one experiences in the haunts of the
lower strata of any other nationality.
Although s O'Clock in the evening.
manufacturers and traders had not
ceased their labors for the day. Through
the well lighted shop-windows you could
see the matchmaker, with his eye-glass
screwed into his almond-shaped orb.
busy at his trade. A hundred machines
were noisily pounding away on shoes.
Fifty tailors in room that was so low
you could not stand upright (having run
a floor through the center of the apart
ment to utilize room), are still plying
their needles. Standing at desk was
an amanuensis inditing letter, perhaps
a love epistle, to some tawny maiden
down below. How rapidly and grace
fully he formed the characters with a
pointed brush, making a stroke like the
scratch of cambric-needle or widening
to heavy shade, always writing from
right to left. The ''author" looked on
with rapt delight not unmingled with
deferential awe. M
Next door was barber-shop. TIA
craft with us have not arrived at the
same degree of perfection they have
with them. No Chinaman is too poor
to be barbered at least once fortnight.
The shops vary in size and price, ac-
cording to the aristocracy of their GUS
toners. Under the hands of this ton
serial artist was sitting man, his head
Topped on one side, his mouth wide
open, and eyes half shut, and about as
imbecile and repulsive an expression as
one would wish to contemplate.
Does q man, whether Caucasian or
Morgolian, betray the animal instincts
stronger when he is being barbered than
ordinarilyP Who has not marked the
striking resemblance of man in bar
ber's chair, his face lathered, his eyes
half closed, with a dreamy, sensuous
look of abandon, to pig rolled to his
nose in mud-hole, or the ecstatic bliss
of COW gravitating back and forth
against convenient stake, wrapped in
the luxury of q good scratch? The
former is as lost to the righteousness of
his appearance to the passer-by as is
either of the latter. From the array of
fnely-pointed instruments spread before
him you would think him dentist.
But, as for that matter, he cleans the
teeth, takes fine hook and digs out
their ears, nails, shaves their heads,
brushes and plaits the cue (not forget
ting to Irvine in rag at the end, to
give it tony lengthy, and last, but not
least, takes fine. wire and cotton, and
lifts the eye-hd and cleans the ball of the
eye. He is not paid by the job, but by
the hour, and when q Chinaman sets
out to be barbered he counts it among
the delights of his life, and means it to
last as long as he can afford. A week
at the theater, an opium smoke, and an
expensive shave are the luXuries for
which he tolls weeks.
Every little spare nook and Granny
along the street was occupied by fruit
and edible vendors. You could put the
average stock in trade in pint cup,
and yet the vendors had the most salts
fed mercantile air imaginable. They
were constantly employed making
choice morsels out of butternuts and
thin slices of cocoanut tied each side
Dried fruit, watermelon seeds, heaped
on tiny dishes, sticks of sugar-cane, and
candies filled with scented water and
musk were among the delicacies.
We often indulge in the .trite remark
ga penny saved,'S etc., but for the true
inwardness of concentrated economy
commend me to the Chinese. There is
no waste matter about hog in Chi
nese market, save the bristles and toe
nails, the brains, heart, liver, entrails
and kidneys forming Celestial dainties.
So with fish, every thing save the head
and scales being eaten.
We dropped into drug store, their
physicians being a combination of herb
and old school. No homeopathic doses
for them. They were weighing out a
fierce compound, consisting of roots and
minerals, the delicate little dose weigh
ing before STEPPING two pounds. 1t
would probably mako with the liquid
added a moderate sized tub full. There
is nothing in the calendar of filthy things
too nasty for the doctors to prescribe or
the patients too credulous to take, even
to the grated toe-nail of dead man.
And yet there is s'Chinese dealer :"
that counts numerous white patients
amOnO his patrons
We called at fashionable restaurant
Some wealthy tea merchants were to en-
terrain delegation of noted countrymen
that evening. The first floor was in
the throes of cuisine agony for so great
an occasion. Buns baked a light brown,
with guests insignia of rank burned on
the top; little pyramids of cherries,
plums and sliced oranges were erected
on sauce dishes, one dish forming a
course. Heaps of thin cakes and pickles
were on all sides. The refreshment
rooms were up stairs, the first room
being for commoners, the second for a
little higher grade, the third for aris-
tocracy. In the latter an open scroll
work of gilded iron ran up the sides and
across the top, from which hung silken
curtain dividing the apartment. The
smaller portion was for the musicians,
who discoursed a most hideous iargon