Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-04-20
The Chinese in San Francisco.

San Francisco has to offer among its other
advantages that Of saving trip around the
world that is to say, whoever has seen Eu-
rope and shirks further wanderings, may de-
rive from the compact Chinese city of 3d.
600 souls, which makes part of this, such
an idea of the life and aspect of things in
the Celestial Empire as will act as a consid-
cradle alleviltion of curiosity. The Chinese
immigrants, it is true, have rarely erected
buildings of their own. They have fitted
themselves into what they found. But they
have fitted themselves in with all their pc
culiar industries, their smells of tobacco and
cooking oil, their red and yellow signs their
opium pipes, high-soled slipper shoes, sticks
of India ink, silver pens and packets of face
powder in the windows, their fruits and fish,
their curious groceries and more curious
butchers meat; they have fitted all this into
the Yankee buildings and taken such abso-
Lutte possession OF them that it is no longer
| America, but Shanghai or Hong Kong. The
restaurants make the nearest approach to
having national facade, but this s brought
about by adding highly decorated balconies,
with lanterns and inscriptions, instead Of
building anew.
had the curiosity to try the food at the
best of these restaurants-quite a palatial
I
was both neatly served and paatable. There
was a certain monotony in the bill of fare, it
| is true, which thought might be ascribed to
desire to give US dishes as near to the Amer
| i an style AS possible. We had a soup of
chicken with a flour paste resembling maca-
| ron a very tender chicken, sliced through
bones and all, served in bowl another
| bowl of duck; then, in a pewter chahng
dish, quail with spinach All the food is set
-, III halv, hst,ara
! from the common store with pair of ebony
chopsticks to such morsels as he may desire.
| The chopsticks held in the fingers of the
| right hand somewhat after the manner of
| castanets, seem about as convenient to the
beginner as a pair of lead pencils might be
for the same purpose. We drank saki or
rice brandy in infnitesimal cups during the
dinner, and at dessert very fine tea.
The upper story in these places is reserved
for the more prosperous class of guests.
| Those of slenderer purses are accommodated
in a department below. To these latter is
| given the second drawing of the tea, still
strong; after it has been sold above at twen-
| ty-fve cents a cup, and such meats as remain
in tolerable state of preservation. The
| upper story is decorated as q rule with carved
work, colored scarlet and heavily gilded, and
with screens, lanterns, aud teak wood tables
and stools.
Dropping in one evening for tea at the
place above mentioned, 1 had the good for
tune to witness supper party which made a
most novel genre picture glowing with color
There were probably a dozen men, dignihed
looking persons in handsome clothing of
black, blue aud purple silks. With them
were as many wOmen-young, slender Gnd
| pretty in their way-though the women seen
walking about the streets are very coarse and
clumsy in type. These had carefully smooth
| ed black hair looped and sustained with sill
Yer pins, and their compilations were daintily
made up with pink aud white aud vermilon.
i They realized precisely the heads we see
painted on their silk fans. The most inter
estng one had decided Fellah or Hebrew
aspect, and WAS probably not without an ad-
mixture of other blood in her veins. The
men occupied the carved teak-wood stools
about large table, which was spread with a
white cloth, and covered with oharmingly
painted china. Tho women stood by and
served them. Now and then one rested mo.
mentarily on q corner of q stool, in a laugh
ing way, and took a morsel too. The whole
was bit of bright Chinoiserie worth in it.
self long journey to witness. The guests
were merry. Among other amusements they
played game something like the Italian mo
Ta. One held up his fingers in rapid success
sion, and the others counted the number a.
the tops of their voices. What with this
their laughter, drumming on the table, anc
other hubbub of their gayety-besides an or
chestra of their peculiar music, which added
its din from behind screen-the party wa
not SO very unlike an assembly of Partisan
caROtiers and grisettes supping at Rougival.
The temple and theatre of She Chinese EN-
igrant are always the same. / found here th'
same scenes had already witnessed at Ha
vana at the beginning of a long journey
The temple, economically set up in some rea
upper room, abounds in gaudy dangling
signs, and is little frequented The theatre
is vastly more popular. The dresses use'
are rich and of much interest. The per
formers are continually marching, fighting
spinning about pretending to be dead, am
jumping up again, or sing in high cracke'
voice, like the whine of q bagpipe A war
rior of six feet high, though he may be Gen
/ gis Khan, and bear himself with the "haught
stride and withering pride" of Major-Gen
oral John in the "Bab Ballads, will sing Il
, the same voice. and no other. The slight
ness of the means by which illusion is al
) tempted is one of the standing features OF IN
, terest in the Chinese drama. As one OF th
naive rustics in the midsummer Night
Dream" held up his arm to represent wal
across which Pyramus and Thisbe nigh
/ talk, SO here, if il be designed to represer
/ the march of an enemy through the woods,
! small screen is put up at one side of th
! stage, bearing an inscription which no dout