258 COFFEE 



between friends on ship and friends on shore. Moving rapidly 

 down the beautiful bay of San Francisco and out througli the 

 Golden Gate, the shores of America rapidly receded and were 

 soon an indistinct line in the distance. One of the first things 

 that strike a passenger on the ships of the Pacific Mail Steam- 

 ship Company is the omnipresent Chinaman — Chinese waiters, 

 Chinese cooks, Chinese firemen, Chinese sailors, and Chinese 

 steerage passengers are everywhere to be seen. Indeed, the only 

 white men on board the ship are the officers and cabin pas- 

 sengers. I asked our captain if there were no white sailors on 

 board, and was surprised to receive the answer, "jSTo, nothing 

 below a boatswain, and one of those is a Chinaman." We have 

 only about twenty-five cabin passengers, among whom are three 

 missionaries, three young Japanese returning home after finish- 

 ing their education in the United States, tvro officers of Ameri- 

 can men-of-war going out to join their ships, and the balance 

 is made up of tourists and commercial men bound for different 

 parts of the world. In the steerage are one hundred and sixty 

 Chinese, mostly men, but also including a few women and 

 children, returning to their homes in China. Some of these 

 speak English quite well. Said one of them to me, in answer to 

 an inquiry as to why he was going back to China : " Go China to 

 gettee wifee, then go back Calif ornee." I asked him if he had 

 one picked out, and he said, " ]!^o, I buy one." I asked him how 

 much she would cost, and "he said : " l^inety dollar buy nice one 

 with small footee." I asked him why he preferred those with 

 small feet, and he answered : " Chinawoman big footee may be 

 run around after other Chinaman, but Chinawoman small footee 

 you leave her home, you find her there when you come back." 

 By subsequent inquiry I found that the money paid to the bride's 

 parents is considered a sort of dowry, but there is so little senti- 

 ment indulged in, and the bride has so little to say about her likes 

 and dislikes, that it is very natural to esteem it a sort of a bargain 

 and sale. Indeed in Japan, China, India, and all Eastern coun- 

 tries, the females have little scope for the exercise of their pref- 

 erences as to whom they will marry. 



For several days we have been making an average of two hun- 

 dred miles per day, which is not very fast, but we are heavily la- 



