of affairs brought about the issue of instructions which tied the hands of both settlers and troops, and were the principal cause for the prolongation of the war and the many attendant misfortunes. CHAPTER XX. SOME CHINESE EPISODES. Bom.-So have I heard on Afric's burning shore The grievous roar echoed along the shore. And the first lion thought the last a bore. -Bombastes Furioso. IN the annals of our coast there is no fouler blot than the outrages perpetrated at various times and places upon Indians, Mexicans, and Chinese. Viewed from any standpoint the aspect is revolting. As a free and forward nation we fling over the walls of a close despotism sentiments which would have disgraced feudalism. As a progressive people we reveal a race prejudice intolerable to civilization; as Christians we are made to blush beside the heathen Asiatic; as just and humane men we slaughter the innocent and vie with red-handed savages in deeds of atrocity. Let the diabolism rest where it belongs, with unprincipled demagogues and our imported rulers from the lower social strata of Europe; such is surely not the sentiment of true, high-minded American citizens. It is infamy enough for our people to bear, that such things are permitted in our midst. Since our first occupation of these shores the better class of citizens from the eastern United States have discountenanced impositions upon foreigners. The foreigners themselves, and chief among them the low Irish, are the ones who must bear the blame. To question a right guaranteed by constitution and treaty, to punish the innocent, to prosecute the unoffending, cruelly to en CAL. INT. Poc. 36 (561) tertain the weak, and despitefully to treat the poor is no part of Anglo-American character. I have yet to find the first instance where atrocities upon the Chinese were not condemned by the community, by ninetenths of them, and by those who opposed by every fair and humane means the presence of Asiatics in our midst. Accursed be the day that made from the distempered slums of European cess-pools the first American citizen, and gave him power so to influence for evil our politics! Prominent among the outrages in California upon the Chinese are those at Los Angeles in 1871, and in Chico in 1877. There are thousands of minor impositions, from the stoning of a pig-tail by school boys, to the massacre of a Chinese mining-camp by badblooded diggers, many of which I have given elsewhere, but most of which were unrecorded, save by the avenging angel. Yet these two instances illustrate the extreme to which this spoliation has been carried in California. Negro Alley was the Barbary Coast or Chinatown of Los Angeles. The alley itself was a small street connecting this hotbed of human depravity with the business portion of the city. The two quarters, so near and yet so socially distant, were in marked contrast, as marked as the Five Points and Broadway, or as St Giles and Piccadilly; old-fashioned, low, one-storied, whitewashed, tiled, windowless adobe buildings standing amidst filthy and unkept surroundings characterizing the one, and brick warehouses, banks, and gay shops the other. The denizens of Negro Alley comprised the dregs of the nations. Asiatic, African, and European, Latin and Indian there lived in unholy association, and for vocation followed thieving and murder. This was the nest, the city quarters of that large fraternity of crime that fed on southern California, Arizona, and northern MexiIt was the rendezvous of bandit, burglar, petty thief, and gentlemanly highway man, of men of all co. AFFAIR IN LOS ANGELES. 563 sorts, to be bought with money, and some for a very small amount. In this the lowest of terrestrials made their abode, adding their full quota to the general fund of filth and demoralization. One of their institutions alone, the brothel system, occupied about two-thirds of a block. As elsewhere among the Chinese in California there were two rival companies whose antagonisms often broke out in battles of greater or less degree, from fisticuff to firearms. A case arose concerning a woman which excited unusual animosity between them. As a rule the Chinese were able to manage their own trials and punishments, and administer justice among themselves after their own fashion, even to the execution of offenders capitally, and to keep their proceedings covered from the eyes of the law. But their women, almost all of whom were held as chattels and for vile purposes, were sometimes too much for them. By throwing off the yoke for the purpose of marrying or other object, and appealing to the law they were of course protected from their owners, though their lives were endangered thereby. On Monday the 23rd of October, 1871, the prologue of the present tragedy was recited. The Ah Choy company accused the Yo Hing company of abducting one of their women, and marrying her Melican fashion to one of their own men, in order to deprive the Ah Choy company of their claim to her. Women were worth then about $400 each, and the outrage was not to be submitted to. Loud caterwauling ensued; then knives were drawn and pistols fired. No damage was done before the contending parties were arrested though a Yo Hing jacket was pierced by two bullets. Next day a preliminary examination was had before a justice of the peace, and bail fixed for appearance in court the following day, in one case $500, and in another case $1,000. The manager of the Ah Choy came forward and proffered security, when, the question arising as to his ability to pay, an officer was sent to examine his effects. The exhibit of $3,000 in gold and a large package of greenbacks was reported as the result, and the bond accepted. This display of wealth may have had its influence in feeding the fires of violence which followed. Free again, the Chinamen returned at once to their fight. Their hatred for each other was now thoroughly aroused; fighting men had been brought from a distance, and to death or any other consequence they had become ravingly indifferent. Renewal of the contest having been anticipated, scarcely were their shots again heard when mounted officers were on the spot attempting new arrests. But the Chinese, infuriated by the interference of law, as well as by their own quarrel, pointed their weapons at the approaching officers, and firing fled to their dens. Spectators coming to the rescue, the officers again advanced, and were again fired upon, this time with more fatal effect. An officer, and a citizen, Robert Thompson, were struck, the latter dying in an hour and a half. Others were also wounded. The assailants retiring, the Asiatics for a moment were masters of the field. Thus far the Chinamen were wrong and deserved punishment, while the officers and the people acted rightly. But now followed one of those outbursts of demoniacal passion but too common in countries where the people are accustomed to think and act for themselves. Attracted by the firing, a crowd had gathered. Houses in the neighborhood had been closed, and iron shutters fastened. And now at the sight of blood, quicker than it takes to write it, a chain of men was thrown around the block so that none might escape. The evil element of the place, some in hope of plunder, others from love of slaughter, rushed to the front and assumed the offensive. Scores of pistols were drawn, and for a moment the shot rattled briskly against the Chinese tenements; then all was still. But it was the murderous stillness of the monster making ready its death grip. Then low curses |