Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 30, Number 4557, 30 October 1865 — ACROSS THE CONTINENT. [ARTICLE]

ACROSS THE CONTINENT.

Tbf Chinese tn California and OJher Pacific Slates.

I Correspondence of the Springfield Republican.] San Francisco, August 18th.— 1 have been; waiting, before writing of the^Chinese in these j Pacific States, till my experience of them had , culminated in the long promised grand dinner 1 with their leaders and aristocrats. Tnis came 1 last night, and while I am full of the subject— ( shark's lius and bird nest soup digest slowly — | let me write of this unique and important ele j ment in the population and civilization of this region. There are no fewer than sixty to eighty tl.ou-iuid Chinamen here. They are scattered; all over the States and Territories of the coast, j and number from one-eighth to one-sixth of the ! entire population. We began to see them at j Austin, in Nevada, und have found them every- j where since, in country and city, in the woods, ; among the mines, North in the British domin- j ions, on the coast, in the mountains — everywhere that work is to be done and money | gained by patient, plodding industry. They have been coming over from home since 18."> l', when was the largest emigration (20,001 I hundred thousand id all have come, but 80,000 I have gone back. None come really to Btaj : they do not identity themselves with the country ; but to get work, to make money, and go back. They ' never, or very rarely, bring their wives. The Chinese women here are prostitutes, imported as such by those who make a a business of satisfying the lust of men. Nor ! are their customers altogether Chinese ; base white men patronize their wares as well. Some of these women arc taken as f secondary" wives by the Chinese residents, and a sort of I family life established ; but as a general rule there are no families among them, and few children. The occupations of these people are various. | There is hardly anything that they cannot turn ; their hands to — the work of women as well as men. They do the washing as well as the ironing foi tue "whole population, and sprinkle the clothes as they iron them by squirting water over them in 'a fine spray from their mouths. Everywhere, in village and town, you see rude signs informing yon that See Hop or Ah Thing or Sam Sing, or Wee Lung or Cum Sing wash and iron. How Tie 1- a doctor, and Hop Chang and Chi Lung keep stores. They arc good house servant-:, cooks, table waiters and nurses r, on the whole, than the Irish girls, and ip— sls to $20 a month and board. One : of their usefulness as cooks is their genius for imitation; show them once how to do B thing and their education is perfected— no repetition of the lesson is needed. But they seem to be more in use as house servants in ttie I country than the city; they do not share the passion of the Irish girls for herding together, ' and seem to be content to be alone in a house, in a neighborhood or to»vn. Many are vegetable gardeners, too. In this even climate and with this productive soil, their pains-hiking culture, much hoeing and constant watering, makes little ground very fruitful, and they gather io three, four and five crops a year. Their garden patches, in the neighborhood of cities and villages, are always distinguishable from t!-e rougher and more careless cultured grounds of their Saxon rivals. [The Pacific Kailroad is being built bj Chinese labor; several thousand Chinamen arc now rapidly grading the track through the rocks and sands of the Sierra Nevadaa — without them, indeed, this great work would have to wait for years, or move on with slow, hesitating steps. They can, by their steady industry, do nearly :>s much in a day, even in this rough labor, as the average of white men, and they cost only about half as much, say |80 a month against BM>. Besides, white labor is not to be had in the quantities nceesBary for such a great job as this. Good form hands are the Chinese, also ; and in the simpler and routine mechanic arts they have proven adepts— there is hardly any branch of labor in which, under proper tuition, they do not or cannot succeed most admirably. The great success of the woolen manufacture here is due to the admirable adaptation and comparative cheapness of Chinese labor for the details. They are quick to learn, quiet, cleanly and faithful, and have no "off days," no sprees to get over. As factory operatives they receive $20 and $25 a month, and board themselves, though quarters are provided for them on the mill grounds. Fish, vegetables, rice and pork are the main food, which is prepared and eaten with .such economy that they live for about onethird what Yankee laborers can. Thousands of Chinese are gleaners in the ! gold fields. They follow in crowds after the white miners, working and washing over their deserted or neglected sands, and thriving on results that their predecessors would despise. A Chinese cold washer is content wiih one dollar to two dollars a day ; while the white man starves or move-; on disgusted with twice that. A very considerable portion of the present, gold production of California must now be tli ! work of Chinese pains-taking and moderate ambition. The traveler meets these Chinese miners everywhere 0:1 his road through the State; at work j in the deserted ditches, or moving from one to another, on foot with their packs, or often in the I stage, sharing the .-eats and paying the price of their aristocratic Saxon rivals. Labor, cheap labor, being the one great pa!* j pable need of the Pacific Stales — far more, indeed, than capital, the want and necessity of their prosperity— we should say thai these Chinese would be welcomed on every 'hand, their emigration encouraged, and themselves protected by law. Instead of which, we see them the victims of all sorts of prejudice and injustice. Ever .since they began to come here, even now, it is a disputed question with the public whether they should not be forbidden our shores. They do not ask or wish fur citiEenship; they have no ambition to become voters; but they are even denied protection in persons and property by the law. Their testimony is inadmissible against the white man ; and," as minors, they are subject to a tax of four dollars a month, or nearly fifty dollars a rear each, for the benefit of the county and j State Treasuries, Thus ostracised and burdened by the State, they, of course, have been the victims ot much meanness and cruelty from individuals. To abuse and cheat a Chinaman : to rob him ; to kick and cuff him ; even to ki 1 him. have been things not only done ! with impunity by mean and wicked men, but j even with vain glory. Terrible are some of the cases of robbery and wanton maiming and murder reported from the mining districts. Had "John" — here and in China alike the English and Americans nickname every Chinaman "John' — a good claim, original or improved, he was ordered to "move on " — it belonged to somebody else. Had he hoarded a pile, he was ordered to disgorge ; and, if he resisted, he was j killed. Worse crimes, even, are known against j them ; they have been wantonly assaulted and : shot down or sUbbed by bad men, as sports- 1 men would surprise and shoot their gan.e in the woods. There was no risk in such barbarity ; if "John" survived to tell the tale, the law would not hear him or believe him. Nobody was so low, so miserable, that he did not despise the Chinaman and could not outrage him. Hoes Browne has an illustration of the status of poor " John " that is quite to the point. A vagabond Indian comes upon a solitary Chinaman, working over the sands of a deserted gulch for gold. " Dish is niv land,'' says he ; "yon pay me fifty ' dollar." The poor Celestial turns, deprecat \ ingly, saying : " Mclican man (American) been j d look all— no bit left." Indian, irate ! and fierce — " D— Melican man ; you pay me fifty dollar, or I killee you." Through a growing elevation of public opin- i ion and a reactionary experience that calls for j study of the future, the Californians arc begin- 1 ning to have a better appreciation of their Chinese emigrants. The demand for them is iuoreasing. The new State, to be built upon manufactures and agriculture, is seen to need ; tbjeir cheap and reliable labor ; and more pains will be taken to attract them to the country. But even now, a man who aspires to be a political j leader, till lately a possible United States Sena- ; tor, and the most widely circulated daily paper of this city, pronounce against the Chinese, and would drive them home. Their opposition is based upon the prejudices and jealousy of ignorant white laborers— the Irish particularly— who regard the Chinese as rivals in their field, ' and clothes itself in that cheap talk so common among the bogus Democracy of the East, about ' thi- being a "White man's country,'' and no, place for Africans or Asiatics. But our national democratic principle, of welcoming hither the people of every country and clime, aside, the . white man needs the Chinaman more than they him ; the pocket appeal will override the preju- \ dices of his soul — and we shall do a sort of rough justice to both classes, because it will • pay. The political questions involved in the negro's presence, and pressing so earnestly for solution, do not yet arise with regard to the Chinese— perhaps will never be presented. As j 1 have said, the Chinese are ambitious of no po- j litlcal rights, no citizenship — it is only as our ; merchants go to China that they come here. Their great care, indeed, is to be buried at home ; they stipulate with anxiety for that; and the "great bulk of all who die on these shores are carried back for final interment. There is no repdy assimilation of the Chinese with our habits an<t modes of thought and ac- , tion. fheir simple, narrow though not dull ( minds have run too long in the old grooves to be easily turned off. They look down even with ; contempt upon our newer and rougher civilization, regarding UB barbaric in fact, and calling 1 us in their 1 e'.rt>, if not in speech, as "foreign ■ devils." And our conduct towards them has •

I inevitably intensified these feelings —it has ! driven them back upon their naturally felf-con-i rained natures and habits. So they oring here and retain all their home ways of living and i dressing, their old associations and religion. I Their streets and quarters in town and city are ■ China reproduced, uualleviated. Christian mis- ; sionaries make small inroads among them. ' There is an intelligent and faithful one here j (Rev. ilr. Loomis), who has an attractive chapel 1 and school, but his followers are few, and not ■ rapidly increasing. But he and his predeces--1 sors and assistants have been and are doing a good w<jrk in teaching the two diverse races to I better understand each other, and in showing I them how they can be of value to one another. They have been the constant and urgent advocates of the personal rights of the Chinese. ; The religion ot the latter is a cheap, showy idol- ! atiy, with apparently nothing like fanaticism ' in it, and not a very deep hold in itself on i their natures. "Josh" is their God or idol, and j the "Josh" -houses are small affairs, fitted up with images and altars a good deal after the i style of cheap Catholic churches in Europe. Their whole civilization impresses me as a low, disciplined, perfected, sensuous sensualism. Everything in their life and their habits seems cut and dried like their tood. There Is no sign i of that abandonment to an emotion, to a passion, j good or bad, that marks the Western tribes. ' Their great vice is gambling; that is going on constantly in their houses und shops; and commercial women and barbaric music minister to its indulgence. Cheap lotteries are a common form of this passion. Opium-smoking ranks next ; and this is believed to be indulged in more extensively among them here than at home, since there is less restraint from relatives and authorities, and the means of procuring the i article are greater. The wildly brilliant eye, j the thin haggard lace, and the broken, nervous system betray the victim to opiuni-sniokins ; and all tense, all excited, staring in the eye and expression, he v, as almost a frightful object, as I we peered in through the smoke of his halfj lighted little room, and saw him lying on his j mat in the midst of his fatal enjoyment. But as laborers iv our manufactories and as servants in our houses, beside their constant contact with our life and industry otherwise, these emigrants from the Bast cannot fail to get enlargement of ideas, freedom and novelty of action, and familiarity with and then preference for our higher civilization. Slowly and hardly but still surely this work must go on; and their constant going backaud forth between here and China most also transplant new elements of thought and action into the home circles. Thus it is thai we may hope and expect to reach this I great people with the influences of <xir better and higher life. It is thorough modification and revolution in materialities, in manner of living, in manner of doing, that we shall pave the way I for our thought and our religion. Our missionI aries to the Five Points have learned to attack first with soap and water and clean clothes. The Chinese that come here arc uncon- fiou-iv besieged at first with better food and more of it I than they have at home. The bath house and I the restaurant are the uvant couriers of the Christian civilization. The Chinese that come to these States are amongst the best of the peasantry from the country about Canton and Hongkong. IS'one of them arc the miserable coolies that have been imported : by the English to their Indian colonies as farm I laborers. They associate themselves here into i companies, ba*sed upon the village or neighborj hood from which they came at homo. These companies have headquarters in San Franfisco ; ' their Presidents arc men of high intelligence and character ; and their office is to afford a temporary refuge for all who belong to their bodies, to assist them to work, to protect them against wrong, and to send the dead back to their kindred at home. Besides these organizations there are guides or trade associations I among the Chinese engaged in different occupations. Thus the laundryinen and cigannakers have organizations, with heavy fees from the members, power over the common interests oi the business, and an occasional festivity. The impressions these people make upon the American miDd, after close observation of their habits, are very mixed and contradictory. They unite to many of the attainments and knowlj edge of the highest civilization, in some of which tbeywe models for ourselves, many of the incidents and mo*t of the ignorance of a simple barbarism. It may yet prove that we have as much to learn from them as they from us. Certainly here in this great Geld, this Western half of our continental nation, their diversified labor is a blessing and a necessity It is all, perhaps more oven, than the Irish and the Africans have been and are to our East< m ' wealth and progress. At the first, at least, they have greater adaptability and perfection than either of. these classes of laborers to whom we are so intimately und Sometimes painfully accustomed. There are quite a number of heavy mercantile 1 houses in the hands of the Chinese. The raanagers are intelligent, superior men. Their business i- in supplies for ihdr countrymen and in I teas and silks and curiosities for the Americans. They import by the hundreds of thousands, even millions, yearly; and their reputation for fair and honest dealing is above thnt of the American merchants generally. These are the I men, with the Presidents of the six companies, into which the whole Chinese population is organized, as I have described, with whom Colfax and his friends dined last night. There were : formalities and negotiations enough in the pre- | liminary arrangements of the entertainment to have sufficed for a pacification of Kentucky politics, or the making of a new map of Europe ; but when these were finally adjusted, questions of precedence among the Chinese settled, and a proper choice made among the many Americans who were eager to be bidden to the feast, all went as smooth as a town school examination that the teacher has been drilling lor a month previous. The party numbered from fifty io sixty, half Chinese, half white folks. The dinner was given in the second story of a Chinese restaurant, in a leading street of the city. Our hosts were fine looking men, with impressive manners. While their race generally seems not more than two-thirds the size of our American men, these were nearly if not quite a.s tali and stout as their guests. Their eyes and their faces beamed wiih intelligence, and they were ! quick to perceive everything, and alert and au Jait in p.ll courtesies and politeness. An interpreter was present for the heavy talking; but I most of our Chinese entertainers spoke a little ! English, and we got on well enough so far as (hut was concerned; though baud-shaking and bowing and scraping and a general flexibiiit y of countenance, bodies and limbs had a very large share of the conversation to perform. Neither here nor in China is it common for the English and Americans to learn the Chinese language. The Chinese can and do more readily aUqmre ours, sufficiently at least for all business interj course. Their broken or "pigeon" English, las it is called, is often very grotesque, and al- ' ways very simple. We were seated for the dinner around little round tables, six to nine at the table, and hosts j and guests evenly mixed. There was a puofu- ] ; sion of elegant China dishes on each table ; each guest had two or three plates and saucers, all delicate and small. Choice sauces, pickles, sweetmeats and nuts were plentifully scattered about. Each guest had a saucer of flowers, a China spoon or bowl with a handle, and t» pair of chop sticks, little round and smooth ivory sticks about six inches long. Chi Siug-Tong, I President of the San Vup Company, presided at Colfax's table. Now the meal began. It 1 consisted of three different courses, or dinners I I rather, between which was a recess of half an hour, when we retired to an ante-room, smoked and talked, and listened to the simple, rough, j barbaric music from coarse guitar, viol drum I and violin, and meanwhile the tables were reset : and new food provided. Each course of dinner comprised a dozen to : twenty different dishes, served generally one at a time, though sometimes two were brought on ■at once. There were no joints, nothing to be ! carved. Every article of food was bro'-u'ht on in quart bowls in a sort of hash form. We ; dove into it with our chop-sticks which, well handled, took up about a mouthful, and trans- ; ferring this to our plates worked the chop-sticks again "to get it or parts of it to our mouths. No. I one seemed to take more thau a single taste or 1 mouthful of each dish ; so that, even if one ' relished the food, it would need something like a hundred different dishes to satisfy an ordinary appetite. Some of us too'c very readily to thecbop-sticks; others did not— perhaps were : <?lad they could not ; and for these a Yankee Fork was provided, and their Chinese neighbors at the table were also prompted to offer their own chop-stick 3to place a bit of each dish upon i their plates. But as there same chop-sticks i were also used to convey food iuto the mouths of the Chinese, the service did not always add to the relish of the food. These were the principal dishes served for the ' first course, and in the order named : Fried shark's fins and crated bam, stewed pigeon with i bamboo soup, fish sinews with ham, stewed I chicken with water cress, seaweed, stewed ducks and bamboo soup, sponge cake, omelet i cake, flower cake and banana fritters, bird-nest soup, tea. The meats seemed all alike ; they . had been dried or preserved iu»some way ; were cut up into mouthfuls, and depended for all ' savoriness upon their accompaniments. The seaweed, shaik's fins and the like had a glutinous sort of taste ; not repulsive, nor very se- ! ductive. The sweets were very delicate, but like everything else had a very artificial flavor ; every article, indeed, seemed to have had its original and real taste and strength dried or cooked out of it, and a common Chinese flavor '■ put into it. The bird-nest soup looked and , tasted somewhat as a very delicate rennicelli

soup does. The tea was delicious — it was served without milk or sugar, did not need any such amelioration, and was very refreshing, j Evidently it was made from the most delicate leaves or flowers of the tea pituit, and had escaped all vulgar steeping or boiling. During the first recess the Presidents of the Companies— the chief entertainers— took their leave, and the merchants assumed the post of leading hosts, such being the fashion of the people. The second dinner opened with co d i tea and a white rose-scented liqueur, very , strong, and served in tiny cups, and went on with lichens and a fungus-like moss, more j shark's fins, stewed chestnuts and chickens, Chinese oysters, yellow, and resurrected from , the dry stage, more fungus stewed, a stew of BOOT und white nuts, stewed mutton, roast ducks, rice soup, rice and duck's eegs and pick- j led cucumbers, "ham and chicken Jsoup. Between the second and third parts there was an exchange of complimentary speeches by the j head Chinaman and Colfax, at which the interpreter had to officiate. The third and last ■ course consisted of a great variety of fresh • fruits, and the unique entertainment ended j about eleven o'clock, after a sitting of full five hours. The American resident guests furnished cha pagne and claret, and our Chinese j hosts invariably at the entrance and departure j of each dish, invited us, with a gracious bow, to a sip thereof, in the which they all faithfully joined themselves.

The dinner was unquestionably a most magnificent one after the Chinese standard : the dishes were, many of them, rare and expen- j sivc, and everything was served in elegance and taste. It was a curious and interesting experi- j ence, and one of the rarest of the many court?- • sies extended to Colfax on this coast. But as to j any real gastronomic satisfaction to be derived from it, 1 certainly "did not see it." Goveroor Bross' fidelity to the great principle of "when you are among the Romans to do as the Romans do," led him to take the meal seriatim, and cat of everything : but my own personal experience j is perhaps the best commentary to be made upon the meal, as a meul. I went to the table weak and hungry, but I found the one universal odor and flavor soon destroyed all appetite, and I fell back resignedly OB a constitutional incapacity to use the chop-sticks, and was sitting with a grim politeness through dinner No. 2, when there came an angel iv disguise to my relief. The urbane Chief ot Police of the city appeared and touched my shoulder : " There is a gentleman at the door who wishes to see you, and would | have you bring your hat and coat." There were visions of violated city ordinances and I " assisting" at the Police Court next morning. ] thought, ton, what a polite way this man Luis of arresting v stranger to the city. Bat, bowing my excuses to niv pig-tail neighbor, I went joyfully to the unknown tribunal. A friend, a leading banker, who had sat opposite to me during the evening, and had been called out a I few momeuts before, welcomed me at the street door with, " B , I knew you wore sufieriuir, I and were hungry — lot us go and get something to eat — a good square meal!" 80 we crossed to an American restaurant, the lost appetite came back ; and mutton-chops, squabs, tried potatoes and a bottle of champagne soon restored me. My friend insisted that the second course of the Chinese dinner was only the iirst warmed over, and that that was the object of the recess. However that might be — this is how I went to the crand Chinese dinner, and went out when it was two-thirds over and "got something to eat." S. B.

Catholicity in New Jersey.— A New Jersey correspondent of the New York Tablet writes as follows :

The system of allowing every parish to build ils own church is working admirably. In the episcopal city itself the indefatigable Father ueryaise is now completing a superb edifice which promises to rival the grand old Cathedrals of Europe, it not in dimensions, at least in architectural beauty. At Camden, Father Burns has nearly completed a very substantial church. In Paterson, besides die new church lately- finished for the German congregation, tiiO corner-stone of another church, capable of accommodating the Catholics of the whole city, was laid on Sunday, September 10th, by the Right Rev. Bishop Bailey. A ceremony of the same nature took place in Jersey Citj on Sunday, September 17th, at the new church of St. Peter. In the same city a magnificent brown stone front building, known as the Catholic Institute, has been erected in the rear of St. Mary's church by the Key. Dr. Brann, assisted by Key. Father Senez. Institutions of this kind seem to be peculiar to Jersey. At Orange a new church is in contemplation, which will soon be commenced under the supervision of Key. Father Ilickey, and will amply supply the necessities of the fervent Catholics of the town. Even the Orangemen in Jersey are Catholics. Besides the above, there are several other churches about to be eiveted in different parts of the diocese. Through a munificent bequest of the late Nicholas Moore a new hospital for the aged ::nd infirm will soon be opened in the city ot Newark. Several religious orders have been lately established in the diocese. Our educational interests were never in a more flourishing condition. In fact, everything bids fair to render Jersey the most thoroughly Catholic State in the Union.

General SIoCI m at Home. — General Slocum made his first speech of the canvass at Shakspeare Hall, in Syracuse. After paying a tribute to Generals Sherman and Sheridan, he proceeded to an extended discussion of political topics. He devoutl] thanked God that "that great question which for many years has divided our people, influenced our legislation, given rise to sectional parties and culminated in civil war, had been finally and forever put at rest." Four millions of men and women heretofore held in bondage, he continued, have been suddenly emancipated; of them, at least one and a halt' millions are paupers — children without parents to provide tor them, or decrepit old persons without children to take care of them. Of the residue not one in a thousand can ready and not one possesses capital or lauds ou which to commence life. He believed the plan of colo nization to be unwise and impracticable. They need the aid of the white race. The two races are destined to remain associated. He did not believe that a system of gross cruelty would be generally pursued in any part of the country. Self-interest will prompt the passage of laws to promote the true interests of the negro. Laws must be passed for the support of tfie indigent, for the education of the young, and for compelling such to labor as are able and unwilling. What little experience he had in the matter taught him that the least injury would-be done by leaving the question where the President proposed — to the States themselves. General Slocum denied the allegation that his acceptance of the nomination had been occasioned by the President's revocation of his order in regard to the militia of Mississippi. The let ter of acceptance was written previously. He had obeyed the instructions of the War Department ; but. substantially his views coincided with those taken by the President.

Decisions lnder the Homestead Law. — The Commissioner of the General Land Office announces the following decisions :

First — Can a pre-emptor file his declaratory statements upon a tract of land previously entered under the Homestead Law? Answer— He can, if his declaratory statements are accoaipanied by his affidavit that, he had actually made his settlement prior to the homestead claimant. Second- Can two or more parties enter the same tract under the Homestead Law f Answer They cannot. The tract should be awarded to one applicant, if two or more apply for the tract at the same time it should be awarded to the party making the highest bid for the pririlese of making the entry, and the sum thus bid should be credited to the United States in the returns as an excess, with a memorandum of the facts.

Third-Can a party enter under the Homestead Law a tract upon which a pie-emptor has filwl his declaratory statement 'i Answer — lie can if he files his affidavit that I there is no pre-emption settlement upon the same, and makes his entry subject to the preJ emptor's claim, in case snch claim should be established alter notice to and hearing of the parties concerned.

James Watt's Workshop.— An Edinburgh gentleman attending the British Association at Birmingham thus describes a visit to the house of the famous discoverer of the steam engine:

A friend of Mr. 'ives in James Watt's house. We were admitted into his workroom — j a carrot at the top of the house. It appears he I had a scolding wife, who didn't like the messes \ and the noises he made, so he was sent to the I attic. The room is exactly as Watt left it. The vtrv asiiL-^ are still in the grate ; his little lathe j has a bit of unfinished work in it ; tools lie I about ; books and drawings are stowed away in old drawers and strewed here and there. It is a miserable- little place. Only four of us could get in at one time. In fact, the daughter of the > house, who went with us, had to tuck herself up in all manner of shapes to preveut her crinoline sweeping all the letters into the corners. ] The house is a very goad one, and Watt was , rich v'm'd ho died taere ; but it is clear his wife | kept in and his little workroom in the back- I ground. The room has only been recently ' opened. By the will of Watt's son it was ordered to be left forever as the old nian left it when he last went out at its door. *f was not ' looke.l into for more than thirty years.