tly more dangerous.

The idea now seems to be, to drive them away by discriminating against
them in State and city regulations; as, for instance, by enforcing the
"pure-air ordinance," by which every Chinaman who sleeps where there is
less than five hundred cubic feet of air for each person, pays a fine of
ten dollars, but white people sleep as they choose. Then, as they value
their cues above all things, and are greatly disgraced if they lose
them,--having even been known to commit suicide when deprived of
them,--an old ordinance is restored, by which every one who is put in
jail must have his hair cropped close. They are often arrested on false
charges. Then a special tax is levied on their wash-houses, and a new
regulation made, by which no one can carry baskets on poles across the
sidewalks; that being the way they carry about vegetables to sell. All
these little teasing things, and a great many other annoyances which
have not any pretence of legality, they bear with patience, and seem in
all ways to show more forbearance even, and give, if possible, less
ground for complaint, than before.

The poll-tax, which is levied on all males over twenty-one years of age,
is rigorously collected from the Chinamen, while no special effort is
made to collect it from the whites. In crossing the ferry to Oakland,
they are often pounced upon by the collector,--in many instances when
they are under age; and, unless they can show a tax receipt, their
travelling bags or bundles are taken from them, and retained until the
requirements of the collector are satisfied. Their wit and shrewdness
avail them, however, to avoid this trouble; and a Chinaman who has
occasion to cross the ferry can usually borrow the tax receipt of some
one who has already paid. This serves as a passport, as it is not easy
for a white man to distinguish them as individuals, on account of their
similarity in dress, manners, and general appearance.

The police, being extremely vigilant in respect to all violations of law
by the Chinese, have sought out their gambling-dens with great
diligence, and made many arrests. The Chinese, not to be
baffled,--besides resorting to labyrinthine passages, underground
apartments, barricades of various kinds, and other modes of secluding
themselves, to indulge in their games undisturbed,--have adopted one
medium after another in place of cards, substituting something that
could be quickly concealed in case the police should sur