Volume 033-1 - January 1979 (6 pages)

4. But a Chinese servant in that household will never blab.” This was considered a splendid recommendation as, perhaps, indeed, it should be. There was, however, a less attractive side to the Chinese as a servant. According to the Transcript, if a Celestial became angry with his employer he would resort to “extreme methods of revenge”’. One such servant, a young man named Ah Ton, was said to have upset his lady employer because he spat on the iron he used to press with and also because he dampened the clothing he was pressing by filling his mouth with water and squirting it over the clothes. When she remonstrated with him, he paid no attention. When she became even more severe in her demands, he turned on her and told her if she didn’t stop, he would cut her head off witha hatchet. The woman called the police and Ah Tom was sentenced to 25 daysin jail for the threat. Ah Tom could not understand his punishment. “I didn’t touch her,”’ he said. “If I cut off her head, then 25 days fair punishment.” Life in Nevada County did not focus around the Chinese. There were many aspects of life in Nevada City and in Grass Valley that neither touched or were touched by the Chinese settlements. But in the year 1879 more attention was paid to the foreigners and more decisions of political consequence and national significance made concerning the Chinese than in any previous period. This was a year in which California was to elect a new governor. One of the candidates was a man named Glenn. His opponents attacked him on the basis of only one “indiscretion”. He employed Chinese laborers. He was referred to as Ah Glenn, head of Six Companies. One of the most distorted versions of what might happen to California were Glenn to come into office read: “If you want California to become a Chinese Empire, if you want your boys to become candidates for the penitentiary, if you want your daughters in houses of prostitution. vote for Ah Glenn’’. There were other tirades of similar elegance, all built around the Chinese and the undesirability of their being permitted to remain in this country, to hold jobs, to vote, to obtain citizenship. They were constantly having the ground cut out from under them, frequently with such leveling blows that one wondered why they wanted to remain here or to leave their own country to come here. The party that expressed its hatred of the Chinese in the most vitriolic terms was the Workingmen’s Party, under the leadership of a particularly acid tongued man named Denis Kearney. It was Kearney who had issued this manifesto: ‘‘We have made no secret of our intentions. We make none. Before you and before the world we declare that the Chinaman must leave our shores. We declare that white men and women, and boys and girls, cannot live as the people of the great republic should and compete with the single Chinese coolie in the labor market. We declare that we cannot Interior of the Chinese Temple in Grass Valley. A popular sport of the eighteen seventies. hope to drive the Chinaman away by working cheaper than he does. None butan enemy would expectit of us; none but an idiot could hope for success; none but a degraded coward and slave would make the effort. To an American, death is preferable to life on a par with the Chinaman.” This type of inflammatory oratory made more enemies than friends for Kearney and his party, but it also aroused passions of dangerous magnitude and depth. With this type of venom pumped into them, there were persons capable of burning, threshing, stoning, even murder, believing such atrocities, if inflicted upon the Chinese, would be overlooked by authorities who, themselves, were urging cruel injustice against the unwanted aliens. The year 1879 was one in which California was to vote upon a new constitution. Nearly every section of the proposed constitution dealt in some fashion with what was to be done with the Chinese: Rights that should be denied them; controls that should be exercised on their arrival; restrictions that should attach to their employment. These were restrictions that California would pronounce upon the Orientals, but it was believed they might be implemented nationally if enough pressure were brought to bear. That the House had passed the immigration bill, limiting to 15 the number of Chinese who could take passage on a single boat for America, seemed indication that further and stronger measures would be taken to discourage the Chinese from settling here. The Senate was under strong pressure by its California members to pass the Immigration Bill. A.A.

4. But a Chinese servant in that household will never blab.” This was considered a splendid recommendation as, perhaps, indeed, it should be. There was, however, a less attractive side to the Chinese as a servant. According to the Transcript, if a Celestial became angry with his employer he would resort to “extreme methods of revenge”’. One such servant, a young man named Ah Ton, was said to have upset his lady employer because he spat on the iron he used to press with and also because he dampened the clothing he was pressing by filling his mouth with water and squirting it over the clothes. When she remonstrated with him, he paid no attention. When she became even more severe in her demands, he turned on her and told her if she didn’t stop, he would cut her head off witha hatchet. The woman called the police and Ah Tom was sentenced to 25 daysin jail for the threat. Ah Tom could not understand his punishment. “I didn’t touch her,”’ he said. “If I cut off her head, then 25 days fair punishment.” Life in Nevada County did not focus around the Chinese. There were many aspects of life in Nevada City and in Grass Valley that neither touched or were touched by the Chinese settlements. But in the year 1879 more attention was paid to the foreigners and more decisions of political consequence and national significance made concerning the Chinese than in any previous period. This was a year in which California was to elect a new governor. One of the candidates was a man named Glenn. His opponents attacked him on the basis of only one “indiscretion”. He employed Chinese laborers. He was referred to as Ah Glenn, head of Six Companies. One of the most distorted versions of what might happen to California were Glenn to come into office read: “If you want California to become a Chinese Empire, if you want your boys to become candidates for the penitentiary, if you want your daughters in houses of prostitution.. vote for Ah Glenn’’. There were other tirades of similar elegance, all built around the Chinese and the undesirability of their being permitted to remain in this country, to hold jobs, to vote, to obtain citizenship. They were constantly having the ground cut out from under them, frequently with such leveling blows that one wondered why they wanted to remain here or to leave their own country to come here.

The party that expressed its hatred of the Chinese in the most vitriolic terms was the Workingmen’s Party, under the leadership of a particularly acid tongued man named Denis Kearney. It was Kearney who had issued this manifesto: ‘‘We have made no secret of our intentions. We make none. Before you and before the world we declare that the Chinaman must leave our shores. We declare that white men and women, and boys and girls, cannot live as the people of the great republic should and compete with the single Chinese coolie in the labor market. We declare that we cannot Interior of the Chinese Temple in Grass Valley. A popular sport of the eighteen seventies. hope to drive the Chinaman away by working cheaper than he does. None butan enemy would expectit of us; none but an idiot could hope for success; none but a degraded coward and slave would make the effort. To an American, death is preferable to life on a par with the Chinaman.” This type of inflammatory oratory made more enemies than friends for Kearney and his party, but it also aroused passions of dangerous magnitude and depth. With this type of venom pumped into them, there were persons capable of burning, threshing, stoning, even murder, believing such atrocities, if inflicted upon the Chinese, would be overlooked by authorities who, themselves, were urging cruel injustice against the unwanted aliens. The year 1879 was one in which California was to vote upon a new constitution. Nearly every section of the proposed constitution dealt in some fashion with what was to be done with the Chinese: Rights that should be denied them; controls that should be exercised on their arrival; restrictions that should attach to their employment. These were restrictions that California would pronounce upon the Orientals, but it was believed they might be implemented nationally if enough pressure were brought to bear. That the House had passed the immigration bill, limiting to 15 the number of Chinese who could take passage on a single boat for America, seemed indication that further and stronger measures would be taken to discourage the Chinese from settling here. The Senate was under strong pressure by its California members to pass the Immigration Bill. A.A.