The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1900-01-30
Is the Much Abused Burden
bearer for White Men.
ARE no RICH PICKINGS IN LUZ0N
People Who Go There Expecting 10 Reap
Rich Harvest VIII Be Disappointed
Without John Chinaman Life Would BE
Almost Uncomfortable far Amerieans-The
Filipino Cannot Compare with John for
Genuine. Usefulness-Thrifty, bur Liars.

Manila, y. l., Dec l3--BecauSe ne Al
very much here to-day, John Chinaman
must be considered in the to-come OF
Luzon. Some civilians and many soldiers
say powerfully bad things about John.
They do not always take pains 10 say
such things out of his hearing, either. Bu'
John, being a Chinaman, is. Of course, car
loused on that part OF his anatomy upon
which curses strike.
l came over on the same boat with
man who saw fortunes here. He didn't
say that you could pick them up on the
Luneta, or anything like that but an
Americana real Yankee American-ac-
cording to this man, could, by kinda
keepin' his eyes oper," waddle IN about
noon each day with his pockets uncom-
fortably erammed with the coin or the
new colony. 1t wasn't any more than nat
ural, he said. There was nothing OUT
lot OF dam Cinnamon" over here, he SAID.
Always fine pickings In new country
and an American didn't have to have eyes
in the back of his head, either. he said.
We fellow-passengers used to sit on the
deck of the liner ard listen, but 1t USED
to make US mad to think We hadn't come
before. 1t was aggravating to think tnat
We might have got our hands in at lug
ging in pickings six months before.
Three days out of Hongkong, We crawled
into Manila Bay. It was night, and OF
course We had to content ourselves with
looking at the lights of the town until
morning. Our friend said that he just
itched to turn himself loose on those pick
ings of the new country. He could hardly
wait till morning, he said. In the morning
we very naturally drifted apart.
Had Changed His Mind.
I saw this man yesterday for the first
time in sixsweeks. 1t was almost lunch
time. but he didn't seem very much
weighted down except with an idea. Ideas
were peculiar 10 this man. He was going
Outgoing to keep right on until he got to
Paris. There would be all kinds OF
chances in Paris during the coming sum-
mer, he said. There would be money in
pie. money in peanuts-could get the ex-
elusive rights to sell peanuts on the expo
sition grounds for a song, he said He
would leave next week. How could a
man. an American, make any money, he
said, where there was nothing but lot
of dam Chinamen' with equal rights.
Who wanted to live with lot of - -
Cinnamon. anyway? he said.
of the ways Americans over here look
at it.
Big figures are hard to remember, and
1 cannot tell just how many Cinnamon are
in Manila, but I do know that about a
week after a bubonic quarantine was lift
ed in Amor, a Chinese port between
Shanghai and Hongkong, about 5000
Cinnamon were brought into Manila Ear-
Dor in a week Most of them had been
here before, or they would have been sent
back The week that war was declared
one boat pulled out for Hongkong with
1900 Orientals returning TO the yellow en-
pire. And even then nobody missed John
Chinaman from the streets of Manila.
There are plenty Of them here, and though
they are not increasing alarmingly on &C
count of the American laws. the pig-tail
will not be a novelty in the Philippines for
couple of generations to come at least.
So We may as well look cheerful about
ii, and make use Of John, even though
we do not call him brother. He is not
loveable man. You can't get chummy
with him. But on that part Of the face
OF the earth where there is a dollar to
be made, you will find him You will not
find him doing as the Romans do, either.
He has his ways-the ways of his father
and they answer for him in Alaska,
the Isthmus of Panama, or the Other
Shore. He is in every corner of the earth
where the law allows him. and in several
corners the law does not, but he is the
citizen of but one land-his own, the land
of his fathers. the celestials. the land of
the Great Outer Wall, outside of which
there is no Paradise and all things are
vile. white men especially.
John Is in Manila.
Consequently John is in Manila, and II
numbers counted, the white man would
not be the lord and master Of Luzon.
John is merely serving out his hell-portion
here-and saving money. He lives on
rice and rain water 10 do this, but he
will die in the only proper place for a
iChinaman to die-and spend money
which he sees now only when his dream
pipe is warm.
home. When he is here or anywhere
else, he is after '.pickings." He has ad-
vantages over the Americans in fulfilling
his wants. In the first place he does
not want so much; and secondly, he pos
sesses the aforementioned qualification
of being able 10 live on rice and rain
| water An American can not do this. An
American wants pie, and il worries him
when he can't get II. Life without II
| is what soldering would be without a
pay day. The American postpones indefi-
nitely, when possible, his hell-portion.
John wants your money when he is In
your land. And a wonderful thing about
| this, in Manila at least, is that he will
work for il when there Is no other way
| to get it-wherein Is the towering virtue
| Of a Chinaman.
| His ways are not your ways. You are
| sickened by the halo Of stale opium stencil
which hangs about his shack. AS the
man who leaves for Paris next week said.
| he will make money where you can not.
| Just ar present he has equal rights with
! YOU when is not a rosy thought for a
white mans contemplation. He is not a
good thing 70 look az. Like the monkey,
| his little eccentrieities are not altogether
pleasing. He hates you with hate sal
/ lent, subtle and suggestive, and by his
manner you have to imagine 1t, which is
uncanny. He is an idolater. an adventur.
/ er, miser. and dope-fiend. but he will
work for money.
/ Tbs Filipino does not always DO this
When the latter is hungry he will come
/ TO you for work. For a week you will
! become a cont0rtionist, through patting
/ your own back in the exultation Of having
/ obtained a jewel among servants. Then
/ the Fiiipinos wife viii die. He must 60
I 20 the funeral. II lasts a week and he
viii return looking well. Soon after. he
T will approach you with a pale, wan smile
and the information that:
"Mea madre-muche infrmo." which
+ means that his mother is al deaths door
I He must go and watch continually by her
I cot-side for three days and nights You
I pity him for the epidemic which has be.
f set his house; and he returns strangely
/ devoid Of the WORKOUT look OF a death.
/ bed watcher. He works on. growing hour.
" more feeble until pay day. then
/ poof! There Is stir a master and man
/ but you are the man.
Plans fe Return 10 China.
/ But the Cninaman will work for money
/ His family is back in the paradise across
the C.sina Sea And he understands the
theory Of hemp better than Luzon ma
F tive. Moreover. he understands the mys-
ferry ~ a ricg-uadfiV hefrSr than any man