This is the reply I have received in half a dozen instances where I made inquiry of men who employed from twenty-five to two hundred Chinese.  Any one can see that, with such an organization of labor, many things can be easily done which under our different and looser system a man would not rashly undertake.  So far as I have been able to learn, such a thing as a gang of Chinese leaving a piece of work they had engaged to do, unless they were cheated or ill-treated, is unknown.  Then they don’t drink whisky.  With all this, any one can see that they need not work cheaply.  To a man who wants to get a piece of work done their systematic ways are worth a good deal of money.  In point of fact, they are quick enough to demand higher wages.

[Illustration:  A SAW-MILL PORT ON PUGET SOUND.]

Of the population of Califoraia when the census of 1870 was taken, 49,310 were Chinese, 54,421 were Irish, 29,701 were Germans, and 339,199 were born in the United States.  In an official return from the California State prison, the number of convicts in 1871, the last year reported, is given at 880; of whom 477 were native born, 118 were Chinese, 86 were Irish, 29 were German.  This gives, of convicts, one in every 635 of the whole population of the State; one in 711 of the native born; one in 417 of the Chinese; one in 632 of the Irish born; and one in 1024 of the Germans.  That is to say, of the different nationalities the Germans contribute the fewest convicts, the native born next, the Irish next, and the Chinese the greatest number proportionately.

But pray bear in mind the important fact that the Chinese here are almost entirely grown men; they have no families here, and but a small number of women, almost all of whom are, moreover, prostitutes.

If, then, you would compare these figures rightly you would have to leave out of the count the women and children of all the other nationalities; it would, perhaps, then appear that the Chinese furnish a much smaller proportion of criminals than the above figures show; and this in spite of the well-known fact that Dame Justice commonly turns a very cold shoulder toward a Chinaman.  I wonder that the comparison shows so favorably for them.

It is said that they send money out of the country.  I wonder who sends the most, the Chinaman or the white foreigner?  If one could get at the sums remitted to England, Ireland, and Germany, and those sent to China, I don’t know which would be the greater.

But a Chinese, to whom I mentioned this charge, made me an excellent answer.  He said:  “Suppose you work for me; suppose I pay you; what business I what you do with money?  If you work good for me, that all I care.  No business my what you do your pay.”  Surely he was right; the Chinaman may send some part of his wages out of the country, though not much, for he must eat, must be clothed and lodged, must pay railroad and stage fares, must smoke opium, and usually gamble a little.