186 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tensely Chinese in all respects than they are to-day with all their 

 experience of contact with American civilization. True, they 

 have been the gainers to the extent of the knowledge and skill 

 they have acquired in the field of skilled labor and the use of ma- 

 chinery, but it has made no impression upon their race-habits and 

 instanced no sign of assimilation with the race which surrounds 

 them. 



We are accustomed to regard our own ethnological stock as 

 the dominant race of mankind ; and yet, wherever the Chinese 

 have colonized among us, we have yielded the ground before their 

 advancing hosts, and have surrendered to them a dominance in 

 law, social habits, and religion. While all other races which com- 

 bine to form the American people proper yield common obedi- 

 ence to the laws, and may be regarded as a common brotherhood 

 in social and political citizenship, the Chinese have remained a law 

 unto themselves, and in the estimation of the Christian communi- 

 ties in which they have established themselves they are the same 

 unchanged and unchangeable heathen race that they were when 

 they landed upon our shores. Such have been the results of nearly 

 forty years of contact of the two races. If we consider this period 

 too short a time in which to look for contrary results, what shall 

 we say of the fact for fact it is that in the Philippine Islands, 

 where the Chinese have been colonized now for nearly three hun- 

 dred years, precisely the same results have come about no better 

 and no worse ? Not only have they maintained their race charac- 

 teristics, but in every instance they have proved themselves to be 

 the stronger, in so far as the acquisition of material wealth and 

 advantage are concerned, maintaining all the while their religion 

 against all efforts at conversion. 



" In 1871," says the Baron von Hiibner, " the entire English 

 trade with China, amounting to 42,000,000 sterling, was trans- 

 acted through English firms." Since that time, he adds that, 

 " with the exception of some great influential English firms, all 

 the same trade has passed into the hands of Chinese merchants." 

 In Macao similar results have obtained. 



When the Manchus conquered China, they swept all before 

 them and introduced Manchu habits and customs. But steadily 

 these innovations gave way to Chinese influences. " You may 

 now," says the Abbe' Hue, " traverse Manchuria to the river 

 Amoor without being at all aware that you are not traveling in 

 a province of China. The local coloring has been totally effaced. 

 The Manchu Tartars have almost totally abdicated their own 

 manners, and adopted instead those of the Chinese." 



Has Chinese colonization in San Francisco shown any different 

 results ? Let us see. That portion of San Francisco known to- 

 day as Chinatown was originally the residence and business cen- 



