rationalities, but Persians appear to predominate and have the highest standing in the bazaars.

They sit in the usual Eastern fashion, cross-legged on their carpets, and are prepared to purchase to any amount, either from the government or from the speculators who, having bought lots at the auction sales, are fortunate enough to have pearls to dispose of.

Generally speaking these merchants are tolerably fair and honest in their dealings; but, like all Orientals, they must, over each deal, use up a lot of time (of which they have plenty), and talk (of which their stock is inexhaustible.) They must also smoke cigarettes innumerable, and drink two cups of coffee-the first to calm their nerves when you decline the initial offer which they make for your goods, and the second to stimulate their nervous system after they have been compelled by your obduracy to raise their offer to an amount that you feel you can accept.

In the year 1906 the British government gave up handling oysters as payment for the fishing privileges it granted, and entered into an agreement with the Ceylon Pearl Fisheries Company, leasing the fishing grounds to the company for a term of years at a rental of one hundred thousand dollars a year. Apart from this change of ownership the conditions as scribed are precisely the same. The greatest dangers which the diver has to meet are attacks by sharks, and many thrilling stories are told of hairbreath escapes from these dread monsters.

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Each man is, of course, armed after a fashion; some carry a kind of short spear, or javelin, made of ironwood; some a spear with steel head; but the majority carry a sharp, double-edged knife, or dagger, with a blade about twelve inches long, it being more easily wielded under water than a longer weapon.

The Cingalese natives, who live on the coast, are so thoroughly at home in the water that it is scarcely an ex

aggeration to say that they vie with the shark in its own element, and it is no unusual sight to see one of them, armed with his formidable knife, dive into the sea for the sole purpose of exhibiting his prowess and daring by attacking a shark; and I never heard of such a venture failing in its object.

But a pearl diver is at a decided disadvantage as compared with his brother who seeks encounters of this kind: he is hampered by the paraphernalia of his profession; the line by which he himself is secured, and the line attached to his stone and net, and as a consequence, many terrible tragedies take place over the oyster beds, and many marvelous escapes.

Upon one occasion a diver when at the bottom, saw a huge fish approaching him, and at once recognized it as a white shark, the most terrible and boldest of the whole dreaded species. He was armed with his knife, but as his breath was nearly exhausted, he dared not risk a battle if it could be avoided, so he dropped all his impedimenta, released his foot, and, being nude, sprang to the surface like a cork.

The shark dashed after him, but missed, and struck the boat with such terrific force that a plank in the side below water mark was smashed in like matchwood, the collision so astonishing the shark that it turned tail and made off, fortunately, for the boat sank in a moment, and the crew had to be rescued by other boats which luckily were close at hand.

In this instance not a life was lost, but in another case, when, by accident, a boat capsized, only eight of the crew of twenty-one were saved, the remainder being grabbed by the voracious brutes who are always in waiting for prey in those seas.

A few years ago, an intrepid diver named Wahmo (phonetic spelling), was assailed by two great sharks on his way down to the bottom, and succeeded in killing them both with his knife. He then actually continued his downward journey and calmly filled his net before returning to the sur

Pearl brokers in the bazaar prepared to buy pearls to any amount.

face. There is an instance of wonderful nerve. He was below nearly two minutes altogether.

A fortnight later this brave fellow fell a victim, being seized when close to his boat, and having both legs bitten off. His comrades tried to drag him on board, but in a moment the sea was alive with the monsters, attracted by the blood, fighting over the remains. In a few seconds no sign

was left of the victim.

However, so accustomed to these sickening sights are the men who risk their lives seeking extra adornments to add to the attractions of woman's beauty that ten minutes after the occurrence of some ghastly tragedy they are smoking their pipes and laughing again, as if they had not a care on earth. Oh, they're a merry crew, those pearl fishers.

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ALIFORNIA is just now the hotbed of a vigorous antismuggling crusade. Between Ensenada, Mexico and San Francisco an augmented immigration force is combating an enterprise at once insidious and menacing, an enterprise that flourishes chiefly because of the extravagant profits it offers; an enterprise that is making a market for Chinese coolies and slave girls in the United States.

One thousand Chinese of the lower class leave their native land for the United States via Mexico every every month. Some suffer from contagious disease. The majority is fit for laboring only. And the greater number gain entry by surreptitious means, despite the Chinese Exclusion Act.

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There is no reflection upon the States of the West and Southwest because this traffic flourishes. The condition is one that has arisen naturally. The smuggled Chinese are unacquainted with the situation in the United States. When they reach Mexico they are informed of it. Several groups of traffickers, their countrymen, have caused to be scattered in China glowing pictures of a country that demands Mongolian labor offers in return high wages, and a life of comparative luxury and ease. When the coolies reach Mexico they learn, for the first time that they are barred from entry here. They discover that in order to enter the United States certain legal formalities are required.. Once safely smuggled in and delivered into the custody of their Americanized countrymen, who buy them practically as slaves, the women for something

worse, the greatest difficulty is encountered by the immigration men to prove them subject to deportation.

Many of the Chinese, who take the first step towards the United States by entering a West Mexican port, walk across the border at unguarded spots in Arizona, Texas, and occasionally in California. The majority patronize the boatmen smugglers of the Pacific at the risk of being marooned on the Coronado Islands, swept from the decks of the little power launches used to transport them, or at the risk of being subjected to extreme privations. The promised wage of a dollar or a dollar and one-half a day is the will'o-the-wisp that lures them. Each Chinese so smuggled consents to work out his transportation charges through a course of veritable peonage.

The number of Chinese landing at West Mexican ports monthly will be found in the records of the Immigration Bureau at Washington- and in the United States Consular reports. The fact that the greater number of these aliens ultimately establish residence here will be found in detail in the reports sent to the United States Commissioner-General of Immigration at Washington by Captain Frank A. Ainsworth, of the Immigration Service. Ainsworth was selected by the government to direct the war on the smugglers of the Pacific, and he has studied the conditions of the traffic with the thoroughness characteristic of Federal officials.

In 1910, Inspector Stewart, of the Service, made a study of the smuggling of Chinese into California, and recommended the establishment of a

patrol for the purpose of obtaining more information. The power boat Orient was chartered, and Ainsworth was told to use it. Although not speedy, the Orient was expected to answer the purpose. The day that Ainsworth stepped on board the Orient and made his first secret cruise for the purpose of spying upon the traffickers in Chinese, the government instituted its war on the smugglers. In less than two years, Ainsworth and his associates have seized eight vessels operated by smugglers, arrested twenty leaders of various rings, and apprehended innumerable Chinese brought here surreptitiously. Romance, pathos, tragedy and humor are closely interwoven in the activities of the smugglers. The result of the crusade has been manifested by a steadily diminishing number of incoming aliens. An illustration of the effectiveness of these efforts is found in the increase in fee for smuggling a single Chinese from Ensenada to California. Two years ago the fee was $250; today it is $650.

These figures suggest the enormous profit, ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 for a single trip in a launch from Ensenada to any point adjacent to San Francisco.

Take the trip of the launch, Earl K., for instance. It was owned by Captains Adolph Adolphsen and and Billy Sundgren, well known figures on the California water front, now serving prison terms. The Earl K, cost them $1,100. Fitted out for the voyage from Ensenada to the shores of HalfMoon Bay, it represented a total valuation of $1,300. It brought to HalfMoon Bay thirty-eight yellow aliens, who paid $450 each, or collectively $17,100, to be landed here. The owners abandoned the vessel when it was beached. Their loss was $1,300; their profit $16,900 for work which sumed less than a fortnight's time.

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This traffic in Chinese is carried on by numerous little cliques of two and three men each. In moments of necessity, the members combine for the purpose of facilitating the landing of

an unusually large contraband cargo. Usually one member of the band is a launch owner, the second an engineer, the third a collector, white men as a rule, and all are men of the sea, but not infrequently a fourth or fifth member is a Chinese agent, who aids in obtaining the assignment and contract, and aids also in arranging a reasonably safe retreat for the smuggled Chinese when the latter are put ashore at some bleak spot on the coast.

There is pathos-even tragedy—in the handling of these weak, ignorant and emaciated aliens. Twenty, thirty or forty are crowded together in vessels ordinarily adequate only for a party of four or five. Their journey is beset with peril. The launch travels the open sea on a steamer course. Frequently the journey north is made only when the weather is rough, the traffickers believing there is less danger of apprehension at such times. In the event of a gale, or exceptionally heavy sea, the coolies who cannot be crammed below deck are lashed to the deck to prevent them from being washed overboard. Occasionally one or two disappear in a tearing gale, but seldom is there an effort made at rescue. Scores have been marooned and left to die on rarely visited islands. Others, in times of pursuit, have been cast adrift in small boats. Sometimes these boats, bottom up, are washed ashore. Those, however, who succeed in remaining aboard the launches are scantily fed, brutally treated, and get little or no fresh air, being kept below to avoid being sighted by passing steamers. The trip is made under the foulest conditions. Even their landing is fraught with peril. Hungry, cold, unable to cold, unable to make their wants known, they undergo the extremest privations before they are finally delivered to their yellow brethren, who have negotiated for their purchase.

When the power boat Orient had been under government charter for the second week, Ainsworth discovered a clue to one band of smugglers. Through those mysterious underground channels through which so many of