The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1894-11-10
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THE CHINAMAN ABROAD.

most ny MS enemies. III Is undenlahle that
"John's" virtues in foreign lands count
still more heavily against him. Untiring
industry, patience and perseverance, ex-
treme thrift, the Unborn habit and faculty
of saving a little day by day, however
scanty his earnings-these are the Very
qualities that have turned against him the
hands of men belonging to a less indus
trious, less frugal and less providcnt race.
The vices of the Chinaman are magnitied
out of all proportion to their seriousness,
simply that a preteXt may be found for
hunting him from the community like
parish dog. Let it be granted that a Ger
tain proportion of Cinnamon are addicted
to the opium habit. My own experience is
that not . per cent of the Chinese abroad
ever use the drug either to eat it or to
smoke it. But, apart from this consdera-
ton, and driving from mind the absurdly
overdrawn pictures that have been given to
the world of Chinese opium-dcns filled with
haggard men and ruined women, let me
I
Australia who are loudest in dccrying the
/ Chinese, whether drink among their own
class is not hundredfold more debasing
and more far-reachng and terrible in its
results than is opium among Cinnamon.
/ The man who INDUCES in the drug remains
absolutely quiescent; if evil there be in the
practice, the evil effects himself alone. The
same assurcdly cannot he said of the
hoodlum of San Francisco or the lamikin of
sydney, who, intlamed by drink, beats his
wife and brutally abuses his half-starved
children.
After opium and its incidentals comes
the charge of gambling. 4 plea of guilty
may be freely entered, but there are Ger
tain qualifying circumstances that must be
considered. There appear to be three
races of mcn-thc Chinese, the Malays and
the natives of Manilla-to whom in every
grade and under all conditions of life gam
bling in some form or other is as the breath
of their nostrils. The love of it is Unborn:
they seem unable to live contentcd lives
without the pleasurabe excitement that is
to be found in games Of mingled chance
and skill, But among Cinnamon generally,
and certainly among Cinnamon abroad, the
gambling is of a very mild type indeed In
most cities where there is considerable
alien Chinese population to be dealt with
the necessity for licensing and rc"ulating
or at least winking at the existence Of
their gaming-houses is recognized. But
the evil never assumes proportions Of any
more seriousness than our domestic hand of
"Napoleon' or the club rubber or whist
for nominal points so long as the authorities
conine the games strictly to the Cinnamon
thcmselVcS-a course followed in such
cities as Calcutta and Sydney. II is only
when the rilf-raff of other races are allowed
to take hand and to utilize the Chinese
games. tables and banks for the gratiiica-
ton of their own gambling propcnsitics
that anything like widespread mischief is
wrought. \ Chinaman may in rare in
stances lose his all when gaming among
his own countrymen: but if this result does
happen he goes next day contentcdly back
to work, and is not. like most ruined gam
blers Of European stock, permanently
incapacitated for honest toll. The China
man abroad invariably provides for his own
poor, and his games are voluntarily and
cheerfully taxed for the purposes of charity.
Can his Caucasian dctractors in America
and Australia say the same thing of their
gambling saloons and race meetings?
But the real vices of the Chnaman
abroad-the vices that cause him to be
reviled by certain classes of the community
among whom he liyes-are, as have be-
fore said, precisely his virtues Because
he can live contentedly on humble fare,
and can save little money where white
man would starve, he becomes straightway
an object of eXecration among his white
industrial competitors. When "JOhno
cuts into such trades as mining, sheep
shearing, cabinet making, or washing and
ironing, the Australian or American work
ingmen and women hold him up As a
detestable being, to be spat upon and
despitefully used whenever opportunity
offers. As market gardener he may be
tolerated, the reason being that he can
grow succulent vegetables of all kinds
where no white man could make thistle
sprout, and under conditions requiring
patience aud perseverance such as very few
white men would be capable of exercising
But in every other line of industry where
he becomes a competitor with the self
named superior" races, he has-in the
Australian colonies and in the United
States at least-to pursue his calling amid
curses and invectives that would break the
heart of any other man. Now, while |
sympathize strongly under these circum-
stances with the down-trodden Chinaman,
| am not blinded to the fact that too many
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