Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-10-10
a Camp of Chinese LabOrers.

Camping and travelling in the fores
was a delightful experience, spite o.
rain and fatigue; but no one of oul
party was sorry one morning to be me
on the rivers bank by an engineer
who brought d package of letters anC
the information that the camps OF the
Chinese graders on the railroad werC
Just across the river; that there was
wagon road to the end of the track
and that he had a skif and two roweri
TO set US across the turbulent current
We had traversed the whole distance
cOG miles, between the ends Of the
railroads, which nare advancing q
meet next year off the summit of the
Rocky Mountains. The news that we
should see a locomotive that very day
was received with enthusiasm 1t
meant beds, baths, clean clothes, news
papers, kilograms, napkins, silver
forks, and a hundred other things
never noticed or appreciated until out
of reach. Werearranged our luggage,
bestowed our bedding upon the hall
breed Indian, the Kentucky negro
and the white lad, who jointly man
aged the pack train, got over the river,
and we're soon driving through the
camps of 5000 Chinese laborers. Ii was
Sunday, and fke work on the grade
was suspended. The canvas town
swarmed with men. Some were hay
ing their heads shaved, others were
combirg aud winding their pig tails;
others, stripped TO their waists, were
enjoying a bath. One man was on his
knees going through some religious
ceremony over a chicken before dis
secting it for the pot. There were
Chinese stores, Chinese restaurants
and Chinese gaming tents. For if
teen miles the woods we're literally full
Of Mongolians, Not feature of their
Asiatic life do they abandon, save
that, lron the necessity Of
working in mud and dust,
they wesr American boots. Their
basket hats, blue blouses and loose
trousers are supplied by Chinese mer.
chants, and a large portion Of their
tOod-their rice and dried fish, and
all their sweetmeats aud dainties-
comes across the Pacific. The road
was lined with Cinnamon driving fat
hogs to the camps to be slaughtered
for the Sunday dinner, or carrying
bundles and boxes, aud boards for
tent flooring, suspended to bamboo
poles balanced on the shoulders in the
exact style Of the pictures on the tea
chest.
The Chinese laborers on the rail
road earn one dollar and sixteen cents
a day, and are hired by gangs OF forty
from tie agents of the Six Companies
in San Francisco The usual estimate
OF the effectiveness Of their labor is
that three Cinnamon are-oqual to two
white men; but the superintendent Of
construction on the railroad asserts
that he prefers the Chinese, man for
man, to such white lanor as can be had
on the Pacific coast
The railroad operations have caused
TO grow up at Cabinet Landing. a
grotesque and hideous town OF tents
and shaBties ~clinging to the hillside;
among the pines "a town subsisting
on the wants and weakness of the
workingmen, and Haunting in iheil
faces facilities tor all the cOarser form.
OF vice Across the river from this
pandemonium of frontier dirt, drunk.
euness and debiuchery, is another
transient railroad town. where the
engineers and overseers live, with their
wives and children. in clean tents.
prettily uncovered with evergreens.