we last visited this thriving metropolis,
during which brief period whole streets of substantial houses have been
erected in what was formerly a suburb of the town, and many noble
architectural structures have been reared upon the long avenues
previously established. In population forty thousand inhabitants have in
that space of time been added to its aggregate numbers, while it is
to-day growing in wealth, numbers, and political importance faster than
ever before. What a panorama of living interest was afforded by its
streets, alleys, and broad boulevards! How impressive to watch its
cosmopolitan life, to note the exaggerated love of pleasure exhibited on
all hands, the devotion of each active member of the community to
money-making, the artificial manners and customs so widely prevailing,
the iniquitous pursuits of the desperate and dangerous classes, and the
ripe aptitude of their too willing victims! It is the solitary looker-on
who sees more than the actors in the great drama of every-day life. It
is "the hearing ear and the seeing eye" that enrich the memory and ripen
the judgment. Is it not curious to observe how the lines of barbarism
and civilization intersect along these teeming avenues?

Of our own country we do not propose to treat at length in these pages;
but probably not many of our readers have visited the hidden corners of
Chinatown in the metropolis of California,--a section of the city
contiguous to its very centre, and yet at total variance with its every
aspect. It required but a slight stretch of the imagination after
passing its borders to believe oneself in Canton, Pekin, or Hong-Kong,
except that the thoroughfares in the Asiatic capitals are mere alleys in
width, shut in overhead and darkened by mats, while here we have broad
streets after the American and European fashion, open to the sky. They
are, however, lined with Chinese shops decked in all their national
peculiarities exhibiting the most grotesque signs, while the windows are
crowded with outlandish trash, and the whole is surrounded by an
Oriental atmosphere. This section is entirely peopled by the Mongolians,
and by such poor, fallen, abandoned men and women of other nationalities
as seek among these surroundings to hide themselves from the shame and
penalty of their crimes. There are but few native Chinese women here,
and those that are seen have been smuggled in, it being the rule that
none of them shall be landed in this country.