The Meek and Mild Chinaman

1895

The Chinaman, although proverbially meek and mild, is a man of dauntless courage and unflinching fortitude. Voyages over vast tracts of stormy seas, extremes of heat or cold, prolonged separation from home and all he holds most dear and sacred, contumely and wrong at the hands of men among whom he casts his lot — nothing of all this can turn him from his own purpose in life — namely, the accumulation of a little store of dollars which 20 years forward will make him a rich man in the country of his birth, will enable him to provide for his parents and erect monuments to the honor of his ancestors and will cause him to be looked up to and envied by his fellow villagers.

To achieve this he goes everywhere — everywhere, at least, except to lands whose hostile laws of recent years block him at the ports of entry, and in countries where such laws have been passed the very fact shows that the Mongolian has already secured a foothold. We are told that there is no place of consequence the wide world over where a Scotchman is not to the fore. For myself I expect as confidently, wherever I wander, to find my Chinaman. — Nineteenth Century.