Year: 1869

/ sire to vote, and for the present it IS


doubtless better that they should not.


They only ask through their leading men
for a standing in the courts as witnesses,
and equal protection from the law. This
they have right to claim, and will ere
long secure.


They are Idolators. This is the most


difficult point in the whole problem. Still,


those who suppose that American civiliza-
ton cannot stand against few thousand


or even few million Chinese, are borrow


ing much needless trouble.


! Contrary to the opinions of some, the Chi


naman erects no idol as God. He would


no sooner do this than the Christian. His


faith is this: God is good and kind, and so


mereiful that He will under no circum-


stances do US anything but good. But the


Evil One hates US, and is ever watching


an opportunity to injure and destroy US;
we must cOnciliate him. And so Joss or


Devil houses are erected, and incense is
burned constantly, and offerings made to
cOnciliate the Devil.


They believe in the sweet influences of
departed spirits, that the dead are con-
stantly around them to watch and guard
and help. They make offerings of food at
their graves, not as is said with the idea of
feeding the dead, but to show them that
they are remembered. Their name for
God and for the influence which those de-


parted eXert,is the same as that which eX-


presses the soft warmth and effect of a


Southern sun falling upon a slope which


looks toward the South.


They send their dead home to bury


them in the family line, so that the chain
OF ancestry may be complete, and the
sweet influences from the spirit world
flow through the line uninterruptedly. Ift
the line is broken by an absent dead one, !
the influences are less regular, and the
wandering spirit is not at rest, and instead |
Of watching to do good, desires to injure |
and make trouble in retnrn for the neglect /
Of his body. Three times year offerings |
are made to departed spirits, and a late |
Emperor has decreed that the Government /
make offerings also three times a year to /
spirits at large, that is to the spirits of .
such as have died in battle, or have been /
lost at sea and left unburied, or not re-
turned to the graves where the family line
is laid. This Emperor had lost some of /
his family at sea- and after much mourn
ing over his broken line of buried ancestors
ne hit upon the remedy thus described.


There is much that is beautiful and pO-
etical in what they term their religion,
and much that shows a mind susceptible /
to religious truth. The missionary field is /
being brought to our very doors in Cali
fOrnia. The Christian society of the country
cannot move too promptly in efforts to
educate and christianize these pagans,
skilled in all labor and accomplished in /
thousand ways, and whose coming will I
bless the country in many important re-
spects. The wave is setting in upon our
shores strongly, and Christian missionary
effort should be Immediately put forth to
reclaim and mould this new element in
wealth and advancement.


It is charged that those who come hoard
all their gold, and take it home, thus
keeping much coin out of circulation
This has been true. The reason is Obvi-
Gus. The courts extend no protection:
their testimony was worthless; they could 4
not enforce contracts; sharpers were con-
tinually preying upon them, and so they
were driven to trade with their own peo-
pie, and hoard their gold.


But under the encouragement which the
better classes are giving them, all this is
changing. Their merchants are erecting
stores, and investing in real estate. The
labOrers purchasing homes, and sending
for their families. More and more of
those who go home are returning, and {
most of them with friends coming to stay.


The attention of the Chinese capitalists
Of the Empire is being turned to our
coast, and the hope among many of our
best business men in San Francisco is,
that they will shortly be induced to take !
hold of great enterprises. The coin of /
the world has been pouring into China for s
In Canton and Hong Kong
there are many native depOsitOrs of five
and six millions, and many Chinese com
panies which could furnish fifty or sixty {
millions to such an enterprise as the Pa
3ifc Railroad, or to steamship lines, if I
hey could once be interested in the mat I
Ter. Chinese merchants say that these men
win invest the moment they can have full
protection for their persons and property.


Such are the outlines of the Chinese
which before the nation has be- ,
come fully aware that Chinese immigra-
.iOn has begun in earnest, is thrust upon
it in all its great proportions.


Thinking men will turn their attention !
to it at once, as one of the most important
questions of the day. H. V. B.