d the faith of the Christians. There is a Christian Chinese
evangelist working among our people in the West, Lum Foon, and I have
met the pastor of a Pacific coast church who told me that nearly a third
of his congregation were Chinamen, and he esteemed them highly. But the
most conclusive evidence that the Americans are succeeding in their
proselyting is that in one year a single denomination received as a
donation from Chinamen $6,000. The Americans have a saying, "Money
talks," which is much like one of our own.

On the other hand, a clergyman told me that it was discouraging work to
some, so few Chinamen were "converted" compared to the great mass of
them. The Chinese of California have sent $1,000 to Canton to build a
Christian church, and the Chinese members of the Presbyterian Church of
California sent $3,000 in one year for the same purpose. I am told that
the Chinese Methodists of one church in California give yearly from
$1,000 to $1,800 for the various purposes of the church. The Christians
have captured some brilliant men, such as Sia Sek Ong, who is a
Methodist; Chan Hon Fan, who ought to be in our army from what I hear;
Rev. Tong Keet Hing, the Baptist, a noted Biblical scholar; Rev. Wong,
of the Presbyterians; Rev. Ng Poon Chiv, famous as a Greek and Hebrew
reader; Gee Gam and Rev. Le Tong Hay, Methodists; and there are many
more, suggestive that our people are interested in Christianity,
against the _moral_ teachings of which no one could seriously object.

I dined some time ago with a merchants' club, and was much pleased at
the eulogy I heard on the Chinese. A merchant said, "My firm deals
largely with the Chinese and Japanese. When I make a trade with the
Japanese I tie them up with a written contract, but I have always found
that the word of a Chinese merchant was sufficient." This I found to be
the universal feeling, and yet Americans exclude us at the bidding of
"hoodlums," a term applied to the lowest class of young men on the
Pacific coast. In the East he is a "tough" or "rough" or "rowdy." "Tough
nut" and "hard nut" are also applied to such people, the Americans
having numbers of terms like these, which may be called "nicknames," or
false names. Thus a man who is noted for his dress is a "swell," a
"dude," or a "sport."

The United States Government does not allow the Chinese to vote, yet
tens of thousands of poor Americans, "white trash" in the South,
ignorant negroes, low Irish and Italians