64 



Sierra Club Bulletin 



Next morning, we all filed in, with about fifty workmen, to the 

 breakfast table. "How much is the meal?" said Dr. Gilbert to 

 the same oily one in charge at the door. "A quarter, Doc !" 

 said the oily one. "Here it is," said the Doctor. "Oh! no, 

 Doc," said the proprietor ; "after the meal will do. I am at the 

 door, but I dashed well can't sit up all night at each window 

 and door of the shack looking for flitters !" Gilbert pressed 

 his point. The proprietor was obdurate. He took money after 

 the meal; not for anyone would he change the rule. Several 

 Chinamen waited upon us at table. We had plenty of food — 

 mush, milk, fish, meat, cheese, jam, puddings, sugar, tea, coffee 

 : — but only one plate, one knife, one fork, one spoon, and one 

 cup, of very great thickness, without a handle, for each man. 

 "They have these cups so thick and without handles," whis- 

 pered Gilbert, "so that they can be washed with a hose, or be 

 used as missiles in a fight across the table." 



Gilbert was hard of hearing on the starboard side, and the 

 oily one, standing at his port side, told us there was only "one 

 man, one plate," as that was the Chinese law at Shaver. Gilbert 

 did not hear this and helped himself plentifully to mush, sugar, 

 and milk, ate only a little, and then asked the silent Chinese boy 

 to bring a clean plate for meat. There was instantly a chatter- 

 ing among the Chinese. A man had dared to ask for another 

 plate ! The writer scented trouble. Gilbert, like Oliver Twist, 

 still asked for more. Not a man looked across the table at us. 

 The oily one came and whispered mysteriously in his port ear : 

 "Doc, this is as much as my job is worth. The Chinks won't 

 serve two plates. Don't ask for one. If you get it, all the boys 

 will want one, and then all the Chinks will go. Do you get 

 me?" "I don't know what you are saying," said Dr. Gilbert, 

 "but I want you to hurry up with a plate." There was great 

 consternation now, but I said: "He says there will be a clear 

 out if you persist in asking for more plates. The Chinese 

 don't stand for two plates." "Oh ! why does he not speak up ? 

 Pass the meat" — and into the thick mass of mush and milk he 

 emptied the fried meat and never mentioned the matter again. 

 He was very much upset, however, at being beaten twice by the 

 oily one and at being greeted familiarly as "Doc" into the bar- 

 gain. 



