Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1891-11-06
GREAT TRAVELLERS.
The Chinese in America Continu-
ally on the Go.
They Aro al Much at Home In Third
Glass Car "a " LoIling mt Ease
Cnaer the wsshheuse
Table.

proficient have the celestials become in
the use of our language and the knowl-
edge of our ways that the Southern Pa
cific railroad has found it no longer nee
essary TO maintain its old Chinese
agency at Sacramento, and it has Just
been abolished. The Chinese are al
ways on the go. So it seems, at least,
to writer in the San Francisco Chron-
icle. What the emigant trains would
do, he writes, for full complement of
passengers unless they had carload or
so of Mongolians it would be difficult
to say. When one goes about on the
rail and sees the steady tides of outgo-
ing and incoming pagans he wonders
how they manage to earn money enough
to pay so much railroad fare. No one
for a moment viii question the truth of
the assertion that in proportion to their
percentage of the population they are
much greater travellers than the white
people of this country, leaving aside all
consideration of their big journeys
across the Pacific.
When the San Francisco Chinatown
resident gets money enough together to
take trip to Los Angeles, Omaha, Chi
cago or New York no generally begins
to think of travelling. 1t matters not
what he may be doing here; if he thinks
Kansas City needs new washhouse he
buys ticket for that town and away
he goes. In the matter of ticket par
chasing he has great advantage oyer
white persons. If he is at all shr yd,
and he generally is, he can buy an IL
grant ticket at n cut rate of from i've
to fifteen dollars cheaper than any
white man can buy it. This fact curl
ously enough. is wholly due TO the white
mans utter lack of confidence in him as
an oath-observer.
I'VE can sell Chinaman ticket
cheaper than anybody else says Cal
iforDia ticket agent the other day, ''for
the reason that there is no danger of
anybody in the railroad pool
catching us cutting rates. All tes-
timony as to rate-cutting before
the pool commissioner must be
by affidavit, and as Chinamen's affida-
Wits are not admissible as evidence, OF
course we can always steer clear of
fna when we cut rate for them"
When John travels he invariably car.
ries a stuffy-loolSing carpet sack in his
hand and lot of nondescript bundles
over his shoulder, generally tied to-
gether with a heavy cord or piece OF
hayrope. Where they get all the car
pet sacks is mystery. They are Ger.
tainly not an Asiatic article of luggage,
but they cannot be dissociated from the
idea of Mongolian travel in this country.
Approaching the Oakland ferry, after
buying his ticket uptown, John casts
wary eye about him for the poll-tax
gatherer, who haunts the landing and
keeps close watch over all the newcon-
ers as well as outgoers. He is very
lucky John if he can manage to run the
gantlet of those keen optics. AS soon
as the attack begins the Mongolian
clutches with mighty grasp the handle
of his carpet sack, for he knows that
this is the first point of advantage which
the seeker for his two dollars viii try
to gain
The poll tex man knows the trick of
loosening the heathens hold. Having
secured the carpet sack he will not let
il 60 until the tax has been paid. No
Chinaman was ever known to pay his
poll-tax cheerfully, and this John is no
exception. He shakes his head, jabbers
and raves and tries to convince the tax
man that he has not the slightest notion
in the world of what he is after. That
dodge will not work, however, for it is
an old one and the tax gatherer, sitting
serenely on the stuffy carpet sack, wins
the day, unless John values his two
dollars more than he does his cheap
luggage and fees for the boat; in which
event the tax man wins two-bit
Jumper" a pair of wornout overalls,
some Notwithstanding provender and
a pair of cork-sole d shoes with turned
up toes.
Once aboard his train John sits be-
side countryman of his, who is sure
to turn out either cousin or O cousin
of friend of his They make few
remarks about the weather, the state
Of the labor market and the chances of
getting rich in few weeks at She
places whittier they are bound. None
of these remarks are of a lively nature.
In fact, John on the rail is the same
stolid, lethargic John that he is any
where else. He folds his loosely-draped
arms and takes little heed of anything,
doing away the long hours on the
train as contentedly as If he was lofling
at ease under the washhouse table. In
fact, a carload of Chinese is as much
like carload of mummies as it is like
anything.
The nomadic instinct Is so deeply
rooted in the Mongolian that he feels al
most as much at home while scurrying
around the country as he does under
his own roof tree. The intense desire
to travel is without any doubt a Tartar
heritage, most of the forces of working
Chinese who have come to this country
being gathered from the great plains OF
the eastern part of the empire, where
the rowing instinct is strong and where
many tribes are almost constantly on
the 60 Western China is more a coun-
try of homes, and it has sent us the
quiet merchant, the cigarmaker and
the steady-going sewing machine oper-
ator. Even these, however, are Teat
patrons of the railroad. They have
''cousins" living at Yreka, Yuba or
Yuma that must be visited now and
again, and this keeps them on the move
for days at time.
Charity OF Ex-Emprcss Eugenie.
When ex-Empress Eugenie was In
Paris a few weeks ago she gave