played in the windows. The clothing stores
handled Chinese goods exclusively and in the shoe stores beautifully
embroidered sandals with felt soles an inch thick were sold for a
dollar a pair. Occasionally in one of the jewelry stores a workman
welded a solid gold bracelet to the arm of a Chinaman, who, afraid of
being robbed of his gold, had it made into a bracelet and welded to
his wrist. In the markets you found an endless display of fish,
poultry and vegetables. The chickens were sold alive. The dried fish
came from China. All the vegetables sold in Chinatown were raised in
gardens on the outskirts of the city from seed sent over from China
and some of the specimens were odd looking enough. The Chinese
vegetables thrive better in the soil of California than in China and
Chinese vegetables raised in the San Francisco district were sent to
all the mining camps in the Rockies and as far away as Denver. Some of
the Chinese squashes are four feet long. Everything that can be
imported from China at a profit was shipped over and the rule among
the Chinese was to trade as little as possible with foreigners.

The Chinaman is thrifty and if it were not for gambling and one or two
other vices they would all be rich, for they are industrious.

The Chinaman does not go much on strong drink and in many ways is a
good citizen, but he does love to smoke opium and to gamble. It was
easy to gain access to an opium den if you had a guide with you. The
guides, many of whom are Chinese, speak English, and the English
guides speak Chinese. The guides got a dollar apiece from the party of
visitors they piloted about and a percentage from all moneys spent by
the party in the stores, saloons, restaurants, theaters and the dives.
In return they paid for the opium that was smoked in the dens for the
edification of the visitors and dropped a tip here and there as they
went from place to place. Most of the opium dens were underground.

The majority of the people of Chinatown lived in what were little
better than rat holes, dark, poorly ventilated little cells on the
side of narrow passages in basements. The rich merchants and importers
lived well, but the middle and poorer classes lived in the basements
where rent was cheap. Of the 24,000 Chinese population only about 900
were women so Chinatown was a bachelor's town by a large majority,
though some of the residents had wives in China to whom they expected
to return some day. The rule in the