SOCIETY. 387 



China, and nearly all of them are members of five great com- 

 panies, called the Yung-Wo, the Sze-yap, the Sam-yap, the 

 Yan-wo, and Ning-yeung companies. These companies have 

 each a large building in San Francisco, where they lodge and 

 feed all the members of their company when they arrive from 

 China, or when they come on a visit from the interior. The 

 companies are benevolent associations, and take care of their 

 indigent and sick. There are no Chinese beggars in the 

 streets, and no Chinese patients in the public hospitals. The 

 common laborers are brought to the state under contract to 

 work for several years at a low rate of wages (from four to 

 eight dollars) per month ; and they usually keep these con- 

 tracts faithfully. The employers in these cases are either the 

 companies or associations of Chinese capitalists. The China- 

 men generally are very industrious ; indeed they are the most 

 industrious class of our popuLation, and also the most humble, 

 quiet, and peaceful. The merchants are considered to be very 

 faithful to their promises, and in San Francisco they can get 

 credit among their acquaintances quite as readily as other men 

 in similar branches of business. In the mines, the Chinamen 

 work in the poorest class of diggings. They own no ditches, 

 large flumes, hydraulic claims, or tunnel claims. The white 

 miners have a violent antipathy to them, will not permit them 

 to work in many districts, and will often drive them from their 

 best claims in the districts where they are permitted to work. 

 Sometimes the celestials venture to dam a stream, but not often. 

 They use the rocker more than any other class of miners. 



In San Francisco, the merchants are usually in partner- 

 ships, with not less than three nor more than ten partners ; all 

 of whom live in the store, and deal chiefly in Chinese silks, 

 teas, rice, and dried fish. The two latter articles form a large 

 portion of the food of the Chinamen in the state. They have 

 not learned to use bread instead of rice. Those who can af- 

 ford it, eat pork, chickens, and ducks. Beef, and most of our 

 garden vegetables, do not find much favor with them, even 

 among the wealthiest. The washermen are usually in compa- 



