te man can't tell one Chinese from another,
and there are always a dozen of 'em ready to swear that the man you've
got isn't the one." I was startled to reflect that I, too, could not
have conscientiously sworn to either jailor or the tortured prisoner--or
perhaps even to my cheerful companion. The police, on some pretext, made
a raid upon the premises a day or two afterwards, but without result.
I wondered if they had caught sight of the high-class, first-chop
individual, with the helplessly outstretched fingers, as that story I
had kept to myself.

But these barbaric vestiges in John Chinaman's habits did not affect his
relations with the San Franciscans. He was singularly peaceful, docile,
and harmless as a servant, and, with rare exceptions, honest and
temperate. If he sometimes matched cunning with cunning, it was the
flattery of imitation. He did most of the menial work of San Francisco,
and did it cleanly. Except that he exhaled a peculiar druglike odor, he
was not personally offensive in domestic contact, and by virtue of being
the recognized laundryman of the whole community his own blouses were
always freshly washed and ironed. His conversational reserve arose, not
from his having to deal with an unfamiliar language,--for he had picked
up a picturesque and varied vocabulary with ease,--but from his natural
temperament. He was devoid of curiosity, and utterly unimpressed by
anything but the purely business concerns of those he served. Domestic
secrets were safe with him; his indifference to your thoughts, actions,
and feelings had all the contempt which his three thousand years of
history and his innate belief in your inferiority seemed to justify. He
was blind and deaf in your household because you didn't interest him
in the least. It was said that a gentleman, who wished to test his
impassiveness, arranged with his wife to come home one day and, in the
hearing of his Chinese waiter who was more than usually intelligent--to
disclose with well-simulated emotion the details of a murder he had just
committed. He did so. The Chinaman heard it without a sign of horror
or attention even to the lifting of an eyelid, but continued his duties
unconcerned. Unfortunately, the gentleman, in order to increase the
horror of the situation, added that now there was nothing left for him
but to cut his throat. At this John quietly left the room. The gentleman
was delighted at the success of his ruse until the door reopened and