44 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



cisco. Assault and murder would be the probable punishment 

 of such grievous offenses. Arson has been used often against 

 them and their employers. Factories, quartz mills, wheat 

 stacks, and dwellings, have been burned on many occasions ; 

 half a dozen white men have been assassinated, because they 

 hired Celestials. The owners of several factories have dis- 

 missed Chinese operatives in times of anti-Chinese excitement, 

 to save their property from the torch. 



Hundreds of farmers, miners, and manufacturers would like 

 to hire Celestials, but dare not offend the anti-Chinese ruffians. 

 The Chinese have been employed extensively on the railroads, 

 but would not have been if their work had been combustible, 

 or if the directors of the companies had lived near the line of 

 their roads in solitary houses, where assassination would prob- 

 ably have escaped detection. The opportunity for the crime, 

 but not the will, was lacking. Chinamen do not erect costly 

 houses in solitary places; nor in small towns ; but they have 

 purchased some good buildings in San Francisco, where they 

 are protected against fire by the abundance of people and by 

 the fears of the conflagrations t extending to the property of 

 white men. Even in the metropolis, with its crowded streets 

 and numerous policemen, the Celestial washmen usually have 

 their windows boarded up to keep out murderous cobble- 

 stones. While the great majority of the white people treat the 

 yellow men kindly, still there are enough ruffians to make 

 their condition unenviable. They live among us by sufferance, 

 and all want to leave so soon as they can save enough to enjoy 

 comfort elsewhere. 



It is said that the Chinamen should not be tolerated here 

 because they are an inferior caste, they do not learn our lan- 

 guage or customs, they send away the money of the country, 

 they make no improvements, they pay few taxes, and they 

 are immoral Pagans, and enslaved. The only slavery among 

 them in California, is an honest compliance with their contracts, 

 entered into freely. They pay their debts incurred for their 



