recorded in the books, noted down by the
newspaper reporters, and forgotten by everybody but me--all in the
little space of two minutes!

"Ah Song Hi, Chinaman. Officers O'Flannigan and O'Flaherty, witnesses.
Come forward, Officer O'Flannigan."

OFFICER--"He was making a disturbance in Kearny street."

JUDGE--"Any witnesses on the other side?" No response. The white friend
raised his eyes encountered Officer O'Flaherty's--blushed a little--got
up and left the courtroom, avoiding all glances and not taking his own
from the floor.

JUDGE--"Give him five dollars or ten days."

In my desolation there was a glad surprise in the words; but it passed
away when I found that he only meant that I was to be fined five dollars
or imprisoned ten days longer in default of it.

There were twelve or fifteen Chinamen in our crowd of prisoners, charged
with all manner of little thefts and misdemeanors, and their cases were
quickly disposed of, as a general thing. When the charge came from a
policeman or other white man, he made his statement and that was the
end of it, unless the Chinaman's lawyer could find some white person to
testify in his client's behalf, for, neither the accused Chinaman nor
his countrymen being allowed to say anything, the statement of the
officers or other white person was amply sufficient to convict. So, as
I said, the Chinamen's cases were quickly disposed of, and fines and
imprisonment promptly distributed among them. In one or two of the cases
the charges against Chinamen were brought by Chinamen themselves, and
in those cases Chinamen testified against Chinamen, through
the interpreter; but the fixed rule of the court being that the
preponderance of testimony in such cases should determine the prisoner's
guilt or innocence, and there being nothing very binding about an oath
administered to the lower orders of our people without the ancient
solemnity of cutting off a chicken's head and burning some yellow paper
at the same time, the interested parties naturally drum up a cloud
of witnesses who are cheerfully willing to give evidence without ever
knowing anything about the matter in hand. The judge has a custom of
rattling through with as much of this testimony as his patience will
stand, and then shutting off the rest and striking an average.

By noon all the business of the court was finished, and then several of
us who had not fared well were remanded to prison; the judge went home;
the lawyers, an