me to do. He could cook and wash,
and he could serve. He was a rare gardener and a patient day laborer.
He could learn a new trade quickly. In the city he became a useful
domestic servant at a time when there were very few women. In all his
tasks he was neat and had a genius for noiselessly minding his own
business.

As the number of miners increased, race prejudice asserted itself.
"California for Americans" came to be a slogan that reflected their
feelings against Mexicans, Spanish-Americans, and Chinese in the
mines. Race riots, often instigated by men who had themselves but
recently immigrated to America, were not infrequent. In these
disorders the Chinese were no match for the aggressors and in
consequence were forced out of many good mining claims.

The labor of the cheap and faithful Chinese appealed to the business
instincts of the railroad contractors who were constructing the
Pacific railways and they imported large numbers. In 1866 a line of
steamships was established to run regularly between Hong Kong and San
Francisco. In 1869 the first transcontinental railway was completed
and American laborers from the East began to flock to California,
where they immediately found themselves in competition with the
Mongolian standard of living. Race rivalry soon flared up and the
anti-Chinese sentiment increased as the railroads neared completion
and threw more and more of the oriental laborers into the general
labor market. Chinese were hustled out of towns. Here and there
violence was done. For example, in the Los Angeles riots of October
24, 1871, fifteen Chinamen were hanged and six were shot by the mob.

This prejudice, based primarily upon the Chinaman's willingness to
work long hours for little pay and to live in quarters and upon fare
which an Anglo-Saxon would find impossible, was greatly increased by
his strange garb, language, and customs. The Chinaman remained in
every essential a foreigner. In his various societies he maintained to
some degree the patriarchal government of his native village. He
shunned American courts, avoided the Christian religion, rarely
learned much of the English language, and displayed no desire to
become naturalized. Instead of sympathy in the country of his sojourn
he met discrimination, jealousy, and suspicion. For many years his
testimony was not permitted in the courts. His contact with only the
rough frontier life failed to reveal to him the gentle amenities of
the white ma