Our study of Chinatown and the civilisation of the country of the Yellow Dragon, as seen in the City of the Golden Gate, has thus far brought us in contact with the social and business life of the Chinese and their amusements; but we are now to visit one of their temples of worship, the Joss-House.  And here the real man will be revealed; for it is in religious services and ceremonies and beliefs that we get a true knowledge of a race or a nation.  The conception of God which you have is the key to your character.  If your views of Deity are low and ignoble you will not achieve any greatness in the world; but if on the other hand you invest the Being Whom you worship with noble attributes and look upon Him as just and holy, a God of mercy and judgment, your breast will be animated with grand thoughts and lofty ideals will impel you to the performance of heroic deeds.  The word Joss, which we use for a Chinese idol or god, seems to be derived from the Portugese, Dios, or rather it is the Pidgin English of Dios.  A Joss-House then is a Chinese idol or god-house.  We are now standing before such a place of worship.  This is on the corner of Kearney and Pine Streets, and is built of brick, and as we look up we see that it is three stories high.  There is a marble slab over the entrance with an inscription which tells us that this building is the Sze-Yap Asylum.  Let us enter.  The lower story, we find, is given up to business of one kind or another connected with the Sze-Yap Immigration Society.  This, we note, is richly adorned with valuable tapestries and silken hangings, and the rich colours attract the eye at once.  If you wish to sit down you can, and enjoy the novelty of the scene.  For here are easy chairs which invite you to rest.  In your inspection of the place you venture to peer into the room back of this, and you perceive at once that there is the lounging place of the establishment.  You see men on couches perfectly at ease and undisturbed by your presence, smoking cigarettes or opium, the Chinaman’s delight.  If you desire to penetrate further into the building you will come to the kitchen where the dainty dishes of the Chinese are cooked; but you retreat and ascend a staircase in the southeast corner of the first room, and soon you are in the Joss-House proper.  This second story is devoted exclusively to religious purposes.  The room to which you are now introduced is about thirty feet square, and as you look around you perceive the hangings on the walls and the rich decorations of the ceiling.  Here are placards on the walls, which, your guide will tell you, if you are not conversant with the Chinese tongue, bear on them sentences from the writings of Confucius, Mencius, and others, with exhortations to do nothing against integrity or virtue, to venerate ancestors and to be careful not to injure one’s reputation in the eyes of Americans;—­all of which is most excellent advice, and worthy of the attention of men everywhere.  You then cast your