consists, for the most part, of a lot
of decayed rookeries which would put our own Five Points to the blush. The
Chinese live here very much as the Five Points' population lives in New
York. And here, as there, respectable people--or people at any rate who
would think themselves insulted if you called their respectability in
question--own these filthy and decayed tenements; live in comfort on the
rent paid them by the Chinese; perhaps go to church on Sunday, and, no
doubt, thank God that they are not as other people. It is very good
to fine a poor devil of a Chinaman because he lives in an overcrowded
tenement; but what a stir there would be if some enterprising San
Francisco journal should give a description of these holes, and the
different uses they are put to, and add the names and residences of the
owners.

California has, according to Cronise--a good authority--40,000,000 acres
of arable land. It has, according to the last census, 560,247 people, of
whom 149,473 live in San Francisco, and yet nowhere in the United States
have I heard so much complaint of "nothing to do" as in San Francisco.
One of the leading cries of the demagogues here is that the Chinese are
crowding white men out of employment. But one of the complaints most
frequently heard from men who need to get work done is that they can
get nobody to do it. A hundred times and more, in my travels through the
State, I have found Chinese serving not only as laborers, but holding
positions where great skill and faithfulness were required; and almost
every time the employer has said to me, "I would rather, of course, employ
a white man, but I can not get one whom I can trust, and who will stick
to his work." In some cases this was not said, but the employer spoke
straight out that he had tried white men, and preferred the Chinese as
more faithful and painstaking, more accurate, and less eye-servants.

A gentleman told me that he had once advertised in the San Francisco
papers for one hundred laborers; his office was besieged for three days.
Three hundred and fifty offered themselves, all presumably ruined by
Chinese cheap labor; but all but a dozen refused to accept work when they
heard that they were required to go "out of the city."

The charge that the Chinese underbid the whites in the labor market is
bosh. When they first come over, and are ignorant of our language, habits,
customs, and manner of work, they no doubt work cheaply; but they know
very a