leave the place lest we might meet with violence.
We did so, but the uproar among the Chinese did not subside for some
time. We pitied the poor sentinel who had allowed us to slip in, for
we knew that he would be severely punished after our departure. The
Chinese are noted for their gambling propensities, and there are
many gambling houses in Chinatown. This vice is one of their great
pastimes, and whenever they are not engaged in business they devote
themselves either to gambling, the amusements of the theatre, the
pleasures of the restaurant, or the seductive charms of the opium
pipe.

Later in my saunterings I went into a kind of restaurant, where I saw
a number of Chinese men and boys playing cards and dominoes and dice.
They went on with the games as if they were oblivious to us. I noticed
there were Chinese coins of small value on the tables, and some of the
players were apparently winning while others were losing. The latter,
however, gave no indication that they were in the least degree
disappointed. Of course, as a rule they play after their own fashion,
having their own games and methods. Minister Wu, of Washington, when
asked recently if he liked our American games, replied that he did
not understand any of them. No doubt this is true of the majority of
Chinamen in the United States. In thinking of the Chinese and gambling
one always recalls Bret Harte's "Plain Language From Truthful James of
Table Mountain," popularly known as "The Heathen Chinee," one of the
best humorous poems in the English language. You can fairly see the
merry eyes of the author of the "Argonauts of '49" dancing with
pleasure as he describes the game of cards between "Truthful James,"
"Bill Nye" and "Ah Sin."

"Which we had a small game,
And Ah Sin took a hand;
It was euchre: the same
He did not understand;
But he smiled as he sat by the table
With a smile that was childlike and bland.

"Yet the cards they were stacked
In a way that I grieve,
And my feelings were shocked
At the state of Nye's sleeve,
Which was stuffed full of aces and bowers,
And the same with intent to deceive.

"But the hands that were played
By that heathen Chinee,
And the points that he made.
Were quite frightful to see--
Till at last he put down the right bower,
Which the same Nye had dealt unto me.

"Then I looked up at Nye,
And he gazed upon me:
And he rose with a sigh,
And said, 'Can th