or to market; if the latter is the case, it is
usually filled with several casks of garbage,
&c., which the industrious proprietor has
bought or begged from the hotel keepers for
feeding his pigs with.

Shopkeeping John is of a rather more
aristocratic type. He still wears his country's dress,
but it is of a fine material, and his shoes are of
the best description, with the thickest of felt
soles. He is also more particular about his
person, and shaves his head with greater
regularity than any of the labouring classes, much
to the advantage of his personal appearance;
for, however smart a Chinaman may look with
his sprucely shaven head and neat pigtail, he
looks a most atrocious scoundrel when the hair
is beginning to grow down on his forehead.
These little shops are chiefly patronised by their
own nation, or by the pedlars who at all seasons
—but more especially in the winter, when the
outlying settlers find it inconvenient to come
into the town for trifling purchases—perambulate
the country with two huge hampers swung,
as usual, on either end of a bamboo pole over
the dealer's shoulder. Most obliging are these
Chinese pedlars, and they always make a point,
every Christmas, of making some little present
to their chief customers and to the children.
Most of the large storekeepers and wholesale
dealers are men of education and refinement,
standing well with the commercial community,
but, except on rare occasions, never mingling
in any society but that of their own people.
A few of them keep cheap eating-houses or
restaurants, frequented by sailors and others
who have no objection to a dinner composed of
very dubious materials, so long as its cost does
not exceed a shilling or eighteenpence. Many of
them are general servants, and in almost every
house in North- West America the cook is a
Chinaman. Female servants are rare, expensive,
and most independent; so that our Asiatic
friends have almost a monopoly of the kitchen.
They get for such services from fifteen to
twenty dollars per week, with board and lodging;
while the young ladies who condescend to
do " house helping" will demand from thirty to
forty dollars, coupled with the bargain that they
are not to brush boots, and are to have two
nights a week, and the whole of Sunday, to
themselves! They are not strong enough for labourers,
but what they lack in muscle, they make up
in industry. Accordingly, working for moderate
wages, a large number of them are employed
on public works, like the Pacific Railroad.
Indeed it is principally owing to the assistance
rendered by them that the rapid formation of
the portion of the line already completed on
the west side of the Rocky Mountains is due.
They were also employed in considerable
numbers on the Panama Railroad, but had to be
discontinued, as they had a disagreeable habit,
when the day was very warm, of fastening
themselves by their pigtails to the " dumpcart,"
used to empty the earth into the Chagres
river. They also employ themselves to some
extent in catching and drying fish for the Chinese
market. Every year they preserve several
tons of the albicore, or ear-shell, for exportation
to Canton, where it is used in a variety of
manufactures. Even their signboards are
painted by themselves, as it is dangerous to
employ a jocular American, especially when
under the influence of Mongehala whisky.
Near San Francisco is a Chinese washing-house,
surmounted by a signboard informing the pass-ers-by
that "ALL'S WELL—WE MAY BE HAPPY
YET! You BET!" which no doubt the innocent
proprietor supposes to be an eloquent announcement
anent " washing and ironing." Most of
their large firms' designations do not express
the names of the owner or owners, but are
symbolic. For instance, they mean "The wide-
spreading firm," "The firm of the Flowery
Land," and so on. All of their food, clothing,
&c., with the exception of pork, boots, or
mining tools, are imported from China. Some
years ago they were detected carrying on a
most lucrative business in importing a liquid
called Chinese wine, which was discovered to be
a very strong brandy, and, accordingly,
notwithstanding its name, exciseable in the
highest duties. If a Chinese dies in a foreign country,
Mongol theologians seem to be agreed, that it
will go hard with him in the after world unless
his bones repose in the Flowery Land.
Accordingly, the companies which bring the Chinese
emigrants over to California are under contract
to take them back again after a certain period,
dead or alive. A Chinese funeral is a curious
scene in San Francisco. A special burying-
ground, called the Yerba Buena Cemetery, is
set apart for Celestial repose. When carrying
the body to the grave, a solemn individual
scatters little slips of paper, with wise aphorisms
from Confucius written on them, on either side;
and on the lintels of their doorways are strips of
red paper, on which are inscribed similar wise
saws. On the grave is placed a roast fowl, some
rice, and a bottle of " Chinese wine;" after
which the mourners depart, never looking
behind them. There is, however, another class
of gentlemen who assist at the departed
funeral, who are not so backward. A number
of the rowdies of San Francisco, who are
concealed near at hand, no sooner see the last of
the mourners than they make a rush for the
edibles and drinkables left for the benefit of Joss,
and very soon make short work of them—Joss,
no doubt, getting the credit. After lying some
months in the grave, the bones are dug up, and
carefully cleaned and polished with brushes, tied
up, and put into little bundles, which are nicely
labelled and stowed away, in a small tin coffin,
in the particular hong or commercial house,
which is responsible for them.* When a sufficient
number of these interesting mementos have
accumulated, a ship is chartered, and the coffins
despatched with their contents back to Shanghae,

* I notice an advertisement in a California paper about
a new earthenware coffin, combining the advantages of
durability, cleanliness, and cheapness; which latter
virtue will no doubt commend it to the Chinese
undertakers. The editor, in a paragraphic puff, remarks
"that any one having once used this coffin, would use
no other!"