The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-01-12
CHINAMEN'S REVENGE
BY l. II. KENNEDY.

BY l. T. KENNEDY.
 Nv Chinese friead in the basement is heset by two fears-that he may fall into he hands of the police or be swindled by an American. In his continual guard .gains, these twin evils of civilization, Cheng has constant recourse 10 his nelehbor who won his confidence on the
 ecend day of his habitaton in the city by not cheating him out Of twenty cents xhen it was clearly in his power to have done so. In payment of this unexpected and un-Amerlcan act, Chons has given his confidence permanently, and exhibits i: in the relation of many things touching his experience that he does not reveal to anyone else in the range of hls present acouaintance. In recording fact of his adventures, shall take the liberty of discarding the Chong Lee dialect in favor of language which has more even ap- pearance in print: and by that method can avoid the long-drawn diversions of observations and commep, in which my heathen friend indulges when on a Sun day afternoon after his work IS out of the way, he comes upstairs for talk.
 When Chong landed at San Francisco his ambition did not soar to the level of a launery, bu. was confined to the spade mat was put into his hands by railroad boss, to whose employers one of the great Chinese companies had contracted him He was prosAie heathen a, all times. and when we'll up in the mountains bridging ravines and cutting into She sides of great hills he cared less for the beauty of the wilderness or the sombre poetry of the pines than he did for his occasional rests, his meals. and an ac- qulrement of the American game of poker Nor did he then, can readily imagine, hold the truth in greater sever enee than he does at present when up to his shoulders. metaphorically speaking. in the civilization of the east, and to his elbows, practically speaking, in his wash tubs.
 He tells me wonderful things of those days in the mountains, and if they are TO, true he IS alone responsible to the loss for which he expresses such pro- found reverence There WAS white overseer, or foreman, named Jackson. aga.nst whom a gang of three hundred Chinese laborers held d bitter and ven- omous hatred under guise of extreme quietness and implicit obedience. lack son made boas, of his cruel,ies, and worked on the assumption tha, the greater his severity the quicker the response and the larger the amour, oi work accomplished. He thought no,h- ing of knocking a Chinaman down with a spade, or of picking him up and throw ing him into twenty feet of water. There vas not man in the gang who could no, show some scar or bruise from his hand. his boot, or a weapon in his hands :; and Chong himself displays deep seam across his right shoulder which he says was received from the brutal boss in the second week of his railroad experience.
 The contract under which the three hundred were a, work ran for only three months, and covered the completion of a short bat difficult gap between lines eas, and west. already graded and ironed During the last week Jackson worked his men night and day, as a heavy penalty attached 10 delay, while premium of some hundreds of dollars would tall into his own hands if he got out on time. One can i'm ,gine that the poor devils had hard time of it, the more especially as they were kept on scant rations, Jackson desiring that everything should be cleaned up and no oveTsupply be oa hand when his camp broke He used the 6ss and the club unsparingly, and threatened with the revolver without stint or favor, and was feared the more with every day of hardship and cruelty that passed by.
 Like all human brutes he had a weak side- His wife had died the winter be- fore down by the seaside, and he had brought his only child. a blue-eyed son with curly hair, up among the hills, partly from the lack of other home. but more because he wished to have him near. No matter how ugly or severe or drunk lack son may have been, no one ever heard him use a harsh word toward the little one, or saw him so bad that the child could not lead him with a word.
 On the Sinai Saturday. when shs las. hll-in was completed. twenty-eigh; hours before the time named in the contract, Jackson had taken aboard an unusual load of whisky, and instead oi showing some human feeling toward the poor feIlows who had toiled ss long and amid such hardships, he grew all the more harsh and abusive, and between the hours of one and three had almost broken the shull Of one man with a club and struck four others The final shovelful of earth was thrown in at five, and at ten the men were to break camp, and under charge of Chinese agent were to take up their line of march, in order to reach the nearest railroad station by daylight of the following morning.
 It vas natural that the men, nov free from Jackson's rule, and many of them, Ike Chong Lee, out of their time and ready to set up in business for themselves. shoad make little holiday and give themselves a farewell feast. not ban qaet by any means. but wIth some special Chinese cookery that had no: been en-