Post of Ballston Spa, N.Y.—­Post McKittrick.  General Shafter was as modest on the day when I met him by the cannon as he was brave at Santiago.  While the Republic has such worthy sons she has nothing to fear.  Her mission is one of peace to her own people in all the States and Territories of the Union, and in all our Colonial possessions; and the motto of every citizen should be Non sibi sed Patriae.  For every churchman it ought to be Non sibi sed Ecclesiae.

CHAPTER VII

CHINAMEN OF SAN FRANCISCO—­THEIR CALLINGS AND CHARACTERISTICS

A Visit to Chinatown—­Its Boundaries—­A Terra Incognita—­Fond of
Mongrels—­My Licensed Guide—­The Study of the Signs—­Men of All
Callings—­Picture of the Chinaman—­Devoid of Humour—­Confucius—­Great
Men from Good Mothers—­Confucius to Women—­Mormonism and
Mohammedanism—­How to Regenerate China—­Slaves of the Lamp—­Chinamen
Impassive—­Aroused to Wrath—­How They Dress—­The Queue—­“Pidgin”
English—­Payment of Debts—­Bankrupt Law—­Suicide.

When in the City of the Golden Gate you will not fail to visit the Chinese Quarter, or “Chinatown,” as it is popularly called.  Just as in an Oriental city like Jerusalem or Constantinople you find different nationalities or races living apart from each other, so here in San Francisco you have “Little China” in the heart of Anglo-Saxon civilisation.  It is as if you had unfolded to your wondering eyes in a dream some town from the banks of the Pearl River, the Yangtse-Kiang, or the Hwangho or.  Yellow River; and it seems strange indeed that, without the trouble or expense and danger of crossing the waters of the Pacific, you can by a short walk from the midst of the teeming life of an American City, be ushered into streets that are foreign in appearance and where scenes that are unfamiliar to the eye attract your attention on every hand.  With the exception of the houses, which, as a rule, take on a European or an American style of architecture, you might imagine that you were in Canton or some other Chinese city.  The life is truly Asiatic and Mongolian in its character and in its display as well as in its customs.  The home of the sons of the Flowery Kingdom in San Francisco is in the north-eastern section of the city, and may be said to be in one of the best portions of the metropolis of the West, sheltered as it is from the winds of the Pacific by the hills which are back of it, and with a commanding view of the Bay and its islands and the magnificent landscapes to the east, valleys and hills running up to the heights of the Sierras.  The locality is bounded by Jackson, Pacific, Dupont, Commercial, and Sacramento streets, and embraces some eight squares; and within this space, crowded together, are the twenty-five or thirty thousand Chinese who form a part of the population of the city.  There are Chinamen here and there in other parts of San Francisco, but nearly all live here in this quarter