Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-29

Es4eH naked Chinese coolies toiled under
Sass-szaS the blazing tropical sun, trotthg
about with great bales of hemp and
tobacco, and stupid, slow-moving buffaloes
tugged patiently at crealSing carts, heaped hign
with moist, unpleasant looking bags OF sugar;
Whitehead native clerks jostled the dlgnlneu
Chinese merchants in the streets, and the
tinkle and rattle Of silver dollars resouinedeu
ncessantly in the banks; while in the ofhces
the Americans and Englishmen, exiled to THIS
land Of heat and earthquakes, growled an9
perspired at their desks, in linen trousers ana
Japanese Grape shirts, making the lives OF
their punkah-cooes burdens to them; ana
irving to- keep their thoughts centred upon
price estimates and rates of exchange instead
Of wandering ten thousand miles away, among
the breezy hills and deep cool woods OF new
or Old England, as the case might be-.
Down by the river-wall the great hemp
press in Don Miguel Ortiz's warehouse was
going full blast. constant procession OF
cabling coolies passed back and forth, from
the river carrying bundles Of loose hemp,
which had Just arrived from the southern isl
ands in strange-lookng vessels, to be sorted,
weighed and pressed into compact bales, and
then "lightered" out to the great sailing ships
that lay in a stately line far out on the bay;
each of which. when full to the matches, would
bend on her white canvas and sail away down
the stormy China Sea, with the Northeast
Monsoon singing its wild, glorious song as 1t
swept her toward the Indian Ocean and the
Cape; some for New York or Boston, some
for London or Liverpool.
Inside the warehouse the steady tramp,
tramp, tramp of the convicts, who furnished
the motive power for the press, sounded over
head, to which they kept time by shrlll wins
Ting interrupted now and then by cackle
of laughter as the oyerseer's bamboo, cane
came down on the back of some Iaggard with
sounding thwack. Down on the floor brown
Filipinos sorted the loose hemp into different
heaps of current" or first-class, seconds,
and reds" each of which was then placed
upon the scales and added to or essened until
it was of the standard weight; then to be tum-
bled into a sort of box and stamped upon by
certain agile individuals appointed for the
purpose: this process forming them into rough
bales which were then showed under the big
press, from whence they emerged compact,
covered With mating, and bound with strong
bands, ready to be, marked and set aside for
shipment.
+ Close by the scales, where he could watch
the figures on the beam, stood tall young
American, Tom Wheeler by name who was
employed by the house that had bought this
particular lot of hemp; and whose duty it was
Just now to watch the weighing and see that
no bale left the scales short of the required
weight and also to keep an eye on the sort
ing, and take care that the grades were prop
Opposite to him stood two Cinnamon mer-
Chants of the lower class, from whom the
house had bought the hemp. They were also
watching the sorting and weighing, but with
interests diametrically opposed to Toms, for
they would be paid according to the number
Of bales which would turn out after all had
been pressed, and also according to the diff
ferent qualities, so it was to their advantage
to have the bales short in weight if possible,
and also to get as much inferior hemp into
the Current" or frst-class, as they could
They represented type of merchant which
fortunately is rare among the Chinese of Ma
nila, most of the "Chinos" being far-sighted
enough to realize the policy of building up
their business with the big American and
English houses on an honest basis, but there
are those of this class who depend upon max
ing sales here and there, by dishonest meth.
DDS or otherwise, as long as their reputation
holds good.