Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-05-27
LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA.
Mr.. Editor:

Mr.. Editor:
I have been asked to write up
Chinatown, but right here let me say
this is the hardest task of all; while I
went through the Chinese markets,
stores, restaurants, theatres and joss
houses with a good guide, still L
learned very little of the "true in
war dness' of their institutions. The
JOSS houses are their places of wor-
ship. In these houses can be seen the
most hideous images arrayed in gor-
geous draperies. The paraphenaIia
of the altar is elaborate and very
expensive: there is no fixed time for
services, but the Worshiper comes
and goes at pleasure. Their theatres
must be seen to be appreciated; the
attr actions consist of a continuous
performance, which of course is not
much understood by the average Wis
itor; the orchestra consists of drums,
cymbals and squeaky horns seeming
ly out of tune, and pitched in minor
key like Ithe Tom Tom in the 5000
chez Dance"; you are soon glad to
escape to the street from an atmos-
phere filled with the fumes of tobacco
and opium smoke.
One good quality about ''the
heathen Chinee" is that he is very in
dustrious and minds his own business;
there are about 300 Chinese now in
the stateI of California. l asked an
fol ~ ToI
going to do with them and he said,
"Stop immigration and they will die
out in forty years.'' They are said to
be a short lived race. The church
missions went to the legislature last
fall with a petition to suppress their
gambling and prohibit the selling of
girls into slavery, and the legislature
passed a strict law, prohibiting their
holding and selling slave girls. They
have made.several raids on these dens
since this law was passed and have
already rescued about one hundred of
these girls, who will all be sent
back to China. Each of the girls ta-
ken away from the slave owner means
a loss of s., 600. : These slave owners
are trying to fight their cases in the
courts, but they have no chance of
winning, and if the state keeps up
these raids the slave dealers Will no
doubt find their business improbable.
Some of your Irish readers think I
have praised the Yankee enough and
wish me to say something now about
the Irishman. Well, will; like the
Irish; l think the Yankee the best
man on top of the earth and the
Irishman next best, and together
they make ga whole team" I do not
built four big railways across the
continent, if it had not been for the
Irishman with his "little shovel and
pick" Well, listen, and I will tell
you "a story of four little Irish boys
and how they grew. Several hundred
gray haired men who followed the
fitful beckonings of tickle fortune
over the gold and silver mining re-
gions of California for forty years or
more have clear memories of the
sudden rise of John w. Mackay, James
G. Fair, James @. Flood and William
s. O'Brien, and how these four men
leaped to the possessions of millions
in few short years; how from a bit
of SUM- baked, barren rock and earth
three miles long and with an average
width of one third of a mile, up on
the eastern side of Mt. Dawson in
Nevada, these four men took out over
three hundred millions of gold and
silver This is what was known as
the Comstock lode; series of lodges
of gold and silver sulphurets, the
richest the world has ever known.
The exact history of this achieve
ment is as fascinating as the tabled
wonders of Aladdin and his wonder
ful lamp. The full story of the Cali
fornia gold hunters can never be told;
the many privations and dangers
encountered by the hardy pioneers
were terrible. Many an emigrant
met cruel fate; sometimes dying
from thirst and starvation, but more
often by the hand of the bloodthirsty
Indian, who was ever on the alert to