ducts about half cooked in an American culinary point of
view, merely wilting them by an immersion in boiling water.

There are about fifteen English words to be learned by a Chinaman on
arriving in California, and no more. With these he expresses all his
wants, and with this limited stock you must learn to convey all that
is needful to him. The practice thus forced upon one in employing
a Chinese servant is useful in preventing a circumlocutory habit of
speech. Many of our letters the Mongolian mouth has no capacity for
sounding. _R_ he invariably sounds like _l_, so that the word "rice"
he pronounces "lice"--a bit of information which may prevent an
unpleasant apprehension when you come to employ a Chinese cook. He
rejects the English personal pronoun I, and uses the possessive "my"
in its place; thus, "My go home," in place of "I go home."

When he buries a countryman he throws from the hearse into the
air handfuls of brown tissue-paper slips, punctured with Chinese
characters. Sometimes, at his burial-processions, he gives a small
piece of money to every person met on the road. Over the grave he
beats gongs and sets off packs of fire-crackers. On it he leaves
cooked meats, drink, delicacies and lighted wax tapers. Eventually the
bones are disinterred and shipped to his native land. In the remotest
mining-districts of California are found Chinese graves thus opened
and emptied of their inmates. I have in one instance seen him, so
far as he was permitted, render some of these funeral honors to an
American. The deceased had gained this honor by treating the Chinese
as though they were partners in our common humanity. "Missa Tom," as
he was termed by them, they knew they could trust. He acquired among
them a reputation as the one righteous American in their California
Gomorrah. Chinamen would come to him from distant localities, that
he might overlook their bills of sale and other documents used in
business intercourse with the white man. Their need of such, an honest
adviser was great. The descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers often took
advantage of their ignorance of the English language, written or
spoken. "Missa Tom" suddenly died. I had occasion to visit his farm a
few days after his death, and on the first night of my stay there saw
the array of meats, fruit, wine and burning tapers on a table in front
of the house, which his Chinese friends told me was intended as an
offering to "Missa Tom's" spirit.

We will di