Year: 1869

Probable Exodus of Cinnamon


TO the United States.


China is said to contain four hun


dred millions Of people, or about one


third the estimated population of the
globe. The exclusive policy that has


until recently kept foreigners out of


China has also kept this vast popula-


ton at home; but now the policy that


is admitting foreigners to all parts of


the empire is promising to send swarms


of Cinnamon abroad. Our eye recent
| " fell on these sentences, found on the


one hundred and ninety. fourth page


of Mr.. G. Dilke's "Greater Britain :"


"The Irish of Asia, the Chinese,


have commenced to flow over on to
the outer world. Who shall say


when the food will stop? Ireland,


with now Eve millions Of people, has
ia twenty years poured an equal num-


Der out into the world. What is to


prevent the next fifty years seeing an
emigration of a couple of hundreds of


millions from the rebelliOn-torn prov
linces' Of Cathay2 Three Cinnamon in
temperate climate will do as much
arm work as two Englishmen, and


will eat or cost less. 1t looks as


though the cheaper would 'starve out
the dearer race, as rabbits drive out
stronger but hungrier hares."


This, we must confess, is quite with
in the line of probabilities, if not of
eertainties. The Pail Nell Gazette,
in discussing ''NegrO Prospects in the
Americas" March 18th, thrust the
CoOlie into the negro problem-thus:


"The Pacific Railway, laid down at
the cost of such vast subsidies in mon
ey, may ultimately give a scarcely
more startling impulse to the South
than to the West. California and Or
egon owe their growth and prosperity
in no small degree to that immense
Chinese element which already is ex-
citing so much Jealousy among the ma
tive-bOrn settlers. Cinnamon and
MaIays run the negro hard in all the


points he is strongest in, and have ma
nv Of the qualities in which he is most
Iamentably deficient. Their constitu-
ton fits them for any amount of hard
labor in the sun, and it is their nature
to work so long as they are paid.
They are of the cheapest of races can
live and thrive on little, and lay by
fortunes where a white man would
find it hard to make the two ends
meet. They are submissive to fault
and although it may be the prospect
of returning with a competency to
Flowery Land or the Peninsula that
stimulates them to expatriatiOn and
toll, they are almost Indifferent to
country and distance if only they are
making money. Already their steady
influx is threatening to swamp the
American population in the Pacific
States, and it is probable we have only |
seen the beginning of an exodus of the 1
countless millions of China. The new
railway may be to them like the cable |
passing rats from ship to ship, where
they are on short commons, to the other |
that is better found. Only catch
few to begin with, transplant them at
your own cost, pay them tolerabIy, T
and offer facilities of passage to the
crowds that stay behind, and there is
no reason why your supply should not
be uuremitting and practically mex
haustible. Were the experiment to
succeed in the States, Brazil and the
Antilles would certainly follow the ex-
ample"


To these facts another must be ad-
ded: The Chinese Empire is over
peopled. The latest authority rates
the population of China proper at
three hundred 20 the square mile
Both England and Belgium have a
denser population but England and
Belgium have means of subsistence in
their vast manufactures and commerce
such as China can. not boast. The
Chinese long ago reduced the expense
of supporting human life to the mini
mum so that any measure Ofrelief
must be hailed just as fast as the old
Chinese exclusiveness wears away.
John is indeed strongly attached to
home. When he dies on a foreign
strand his brethren send his bones
home to the FlOwery Land for burial
"Hong Kong with dead Cinnamon"
is said to be a common answer from
outward-bounders to hail from the
guardship at Golden Gate. But a SEN
timent of passion like this will not
thwart the promptings of interest and
necessity.


What do our readers say to Chinese
gardeners and farm-hands-tO CHI
nese cobblers and tailors-to Chinese
railroad navvies and dshOpmen-to Chi
Bese housemaids and kitchen girls
all wearing pigtails-all chattpring
Language. AL worshiping idols
in iosh-hOuses? I? These things may
not be; but it is to US probable that
they will be seen in the Valley of the
Mississippi before the close of another
In view of this probable
ity we offer two remarks - !,


1. The realization of this prophecy
will, despite all sentiment, plunge US
into a conflict of races so vast as to ]
1uite dwarf the one that has so long
US. One the Pacific coast,
where the white man and the yellow
man have come in contact, they have
as completely as the white ,
man and the black man do on the At
Iantic coast. To change the form of
the American shows the
same disposition to oppose the China
man that he does to oppose the negro.
A San Francisco paper says:


"One man and a chinanlan have been
killed, and an old lady crippled for