3-052-442 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Chinese in San Francisco, 1880. Sketches by Mr. T. A. Harrison. '1. Chinese dwellings on the water; 2. A joss-house, or Chinese temple; 3. A street scrivener, or letter-writer; 4. Pulverising shrimps, by treading, for exportation; 5. Fishing-boats, by moonlight; 6. Opium-smokers; 7. Chinamen with a wrecked barque; 8. In the Chinese market-place; 9. Street in the Chinese quarter...the Legislative Assembly of California has passed a law...forbidding the employment of Chinese labourers in the works carried on by public companies or corporations. The Governor of the State has approved the bill. This is probably a step towards more stringent measures for the exclusion, or at least the compulsory diminution, of that race of Asiatic immigrants, who form a considerable part of the industrial population. They have long been obnoxious to the lower class of Americans and Irish in the city of San Francisco, and in some of the mining districts; but their services have been found useful to all large employers. The Chinaman is generally sober, industrious, obedient and docile...He comes over to California in quest of gain, not as a settler...They labour at the docks and quays, on the railroads, and in agriculture, road-making, and building operations'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.