The Saint Paul globe., 1904-06-26

| ~
then shouted to one another in that
wild gibberish peculiar TO, Cantonese
i, coolies, but when we addressed them
in English none answered.
The village was bare three hun
dred yards inland Just outside the
first group of houses driftwood fire
was going, over which hung two big
caldrons. AS we came up two coolies
unslung one Of the pots and dumped
its contents on a huge screen. We
should have recognized boiled
shrimps by the smell if not by sight.
The pot was quickly rehlled with wa
ter, then a basketful of live, kicking
shrimps were dumped in and the pot
rehung from the long gas pipe over
the fire All about stood baskets of
live shrimps and crabs, big as human
heads, and Holsters such as are never
seen in the Eastern States. There
seemed to be tons and tons of these
crustacea in willow baskets, in vats,
in barrels, and a few hundred square
yards of screens were devoted to dry
ing shrimps. The dried shrimps were
to supply Chinatown over in the city,
the rest was for the white population.
We had struck the source of San
Francisco's shrimp supply.
Up in the streets of the village we
met children and women. Some small
boys were playing and skylarking as
were all at work. Each house had a
small porch and the walls were liber-
ally pasted over with red papers, i'll
scribed with Chinese characters. From
inside came the smell of incense
sticks, or punks, as San Franciscans
call them. From one house came the
sound of music and song-the high.
falsetto piping which Chinese call
singing. Everything was characters
tically Chinese, even to the soy jugs
and the blue rice bowls on shelves
outside the doors.
The Village Joss House.
In the middle of the village was
more ambitious edihce, two stories
high, whence came the music From
the upper windows were suspended
huge lanterns of oiled paper and
plants in baskets This was the joss
house. A gorgeously silk clad China
man came out as we approached, a
very prince of mandarin in appear
ance.
Gentlemen" said he in English
quite faultless, save for a smoothing
over of the RS, "are you here to see
me on business, or are you merely
here as sightseers? In either case |
am entity at yo' disposal.
There was something seductive in
4 fol ~ Ao Il
man, or mayor, of the colony, also
sales agent The community was run
entirely on Socialistic principles.
every man, from the Mayor himself,
down to the youngest coolie, had
shares in the business. Each junk
made daily trip to the city with a
load of shrimps, crabs and Holsters,
and returned with such things as the
colonists needed to make their lives
comfortable from a Chinese point Of
view; rice, roast pig, incense sticks
and the Chinese newspaper published
in the city
The striking thing about all these
| foreign colonies in California is that
the inhabitants follow the same pur-
suits that the villagers in their own
native lands principally follow. 1t is
quite natural that Swiss colony UP
in Sonoma county should be in the
dairy business
Those who have read Stevenson's
"Silverado Squatters' will know the
country north of the railway terminus
up in the wild foothills about Mt St.
Helena. 1t is rough, mountainous.
just. the country in which a Swiss
would feel at home l visited this set
Element quite as accidentally as | dis
covered the Chinese town.
| left Calistoga, the last outpost of
civilization, as it were, early one
morning, and travelled to the foot OF
the mountain by the stage road Here
L turned UP winding trail, called a
toll road. 1t was past noon when,
from precipice, across the face OF
which rar the road, saw a cluster OF
red roofs in a valley far below. II
was small, fiat, grassy plateau, over
which were scattered several hundred
heads of cattle. A year before there
had been nothing there, so curiosity
took me down.