The Chinese are hardly used here. In the first place,
they are taxed four dollars each per month for the naked
privilege of mining at all. Next, they are not allowed to
mine anywhere but in diggings which white men have worked out
and abandoned, or which no white man considers worth working.
Thirdly, if these rejected diggings happen, in Chinese hands,
to prove better than their reputation, and to begin yielding
liberally, a mob of white sovereigns soon drive the Chinese
out of them, neck and heels. "John" [Chinaman] does not seem
to be a very bad fellow, but he is treated worse than though
he were. He is not malignant nor sanguinary, and seldom harms
any but his own tribe. But he is thoroughly sensual, and
intent on the fullest gratification of his carnal appetites,
and on nothing else. He eats and drinks the best he can get,
and as much as he can hold; but he is never so devoid of
self-respect as to be seen drunk in a public place; even for
an opium debauch, he secludes himself where none but a
friendly eye can reach him. His "particular wanity" in the
eating line is rice, whereof he will have the best only, if
the best is to be had; he likes a fat chicken also, and will
pay his last dollar for one, rather than go without. Lacking
the dollar, it is charged that he will rob hen roosts; at all
events, hen roosts are sometimes robbed, and "John" has to
bear the blame. He is popularly held to spend nothing, but
carry all his gains out of the country and home to his native
land--a charge disproved by the fact that he is an inveterate
gambler, an opium smoker, a habitual rum drinker,and a
devotee of every sensual vice. But he is weak in body, and
not allowed to vote, so it is safe to trample on him; he does
not write English, and so cannot tell the story of his
wrongs; he has no family here (the few Chinese women brought
to this country being utterly shameless and abandoned), so
that he forms no domestic ties, and enjoys no social
standing. Even the wretched Indians of California repel with
scorn the suggestion that there is any kinship between their
race and the Chinese. "John" has traits which I can neither
praise nor justify; yet I suspect that, if other men's faults
were punished as severely as his, a good many Californians
would be less comfortable than they are.
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