The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-12-19
All SIMS VICES AND VIRTUES.

Less of tho Former and Moro OF tho Lat
ter Than Is Generally Supposed.
Like all the rest Of mankind, the
Chinaman has his vices as well as his
virtues. But, according to writer in
the Nineteenth Century, while the
former are made the most Of by his
enemies, it is undeniable that "John's"
virtues in foreign lands count still
more heavily again st him. Untiring
industry, patience and perseverance,
extreme thrift, the inborn habit and
faculty of saving little day by day,
however scanty his earnings-these are
the very qualities that have turned
against him the hands Of men belong
ing to less industrious, less frugal,
less provident race. The vices Of Chi
namen are magnided out Of all proper
ton to the seriousness that pretext
may be found for hunting him from the
community like pariah dog. Let it
be granted that certain proportion OF
Cinnamon are addicted to the opium
habit. My own experience is that not
twenty-five per cent. of the Chinese
abroad ever use the drug either to eat
it or to smoke it. But, apart from this
consideration, and driving from the
mind the neutrality-suspicious. pictures
that have been given to the world OF
Chinese opium dens filled with haggard
men and ruined women, let me ask the
very individuals in America and Aus
tralia who are loudest in decrying the
Chinese whether drink among their
own class is not hundred times more
debasing and moro far-reaching and
terrible In its results than is opium
among Cinnamon. The man who in
dulges in the drug remains absolutely
ouiescent; if evil there be in the prac-
tice, the evil affects him alone. The
same assuredly cannot be said of the
hoodlum Of San francisco or the lar
rikin of Sydney, who, crazed by drink,
beats his wife and brutally abuses his
half-starved children.
After opium and It's incidentals comes
the charge of gambling. a plea OF
guilty may be freely entered, but
there are certain qualifying circum-
stances that must be considered. There
appear to be three races of men-the
Chinese, the Malays and the Manilla-
to whom in every grade and under all
conditions of life gambling in some
form or other is as the breath OF their
nostrils. The love of it is inborn; they
seem unable to live contented lives with
out the pleasurablc excitement that is
to be found in games of mingled chance
and skill. But among Cinnamon gen.
orally and certainly among Cinnamon
abroad, the gambling is of very mild
typo indeed. In most cities where
there is considerable alien Chinese
population to be dealt with, the neccs-
sity for licensing and regulating, or at
least winlzing at the existence of gam
bling-houses is recognized. But tho
evil never assumes proportions of any
more seriousness than our own do
mestic hand of Napoleon" or the club
rubber of whist for normal points so
long as the authorities confne the
games strictly to the Cinnamon them
selves-a course followed in such cities
as Calcutta and Sydney. It is only
when the riff-raf of other races are al
lowed to "takc hand" and to utilize
the Chinese games, tables and banks
for the qualification of their own gam
bling propen stiles that anything like
widespread mischief is wrought A
Chinaman may in rare instances lose
his oil when gaming among his own
countrylnen; but if this result does
happen, he goes next day contentcdly
back to work, and is not, like most
ruined gamblers of European stock,
permanently incapacitated for honest
toll. The Cinnamon 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 meet
Nopcb g "a -