MISS MALONEY ON THE. CHINESE QUESTION.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1172, 15 November 1871, Page 2

MISS MALONEY ON THE. CHINESE QUESTION.

Och ! don't be talkin'. Is it howld on, ye say ? An' didn't I howld on till the heart of me was clane broke entirely, and me wastin' that thin you could clutch me wid yer two hands? To think o' naa toiliu' like a nager for the six year I've been in luck to the day I iver left the owld counthry !—to be bate by the likes o' them! (faix an' I'll sit down when I'm ready, so I will, Ann Ryan, an' ye'd hotter be listeniu* than drawin' yer remarks.) An' is it meself, with live good characters from respectable places, would be herdin' wid the haythins ? The saints forgive me, but I'd be buried alive sooner'n put up wid it a day longer, Sure an' I was the granehorn not to be lavin' at onct when the missus kim into me kitchen wid her perlaver about the mw waiterman which was brought out from Californy. *■• He'll be here the night," says she, "and Kitty, it's meself looks to you to be kind and patient wid him, for he's a furriner," says she,, a kind o' lookin' off. "- Sure an' it's little I'll hinder nor interfere wid him nor any other, mum, says I, a kind o' stiff, for I minded me how these French waiters, wid their paper collars and brass rings on their fingers, isn't compauy for no gurril brought up daciut and honest. Och! sorra a bit I knew what was comin' till the missus walked into me kitchen smilin', and says kind o' sheared : " Here's Fing Wing, Kitty; an'you'll have too much sinse to mind his bein' a little sihrange." Wid that she shoots the doore, and I misthrusting if I was tidied up sufficient for me fine buy, wid his paper collar, looks up and—Eowiy fathers ! may I niver brathe another breath, but there stud a, rale haythin Chineser a grinnin' like he'd just come off a tay-b.>x ! If you'll belave me, the crayture was that yeller it 'ud sicken you to see him ; and sorra a stich, was on him but a black night-gown over his trousers, and the front of his head, shaved claner nor a copper biler, and a. black tail a-hangii' down from it behind, with his two feet stook into the heathiuestest shoes you ever set eyes on. Och t; but I was upstairs before you could turn about, a givin' the missus warniu' an' only stopt wid her by her raisin' me. wages two dollars, and playdin' wid me how it was a Christian's duty to bear wid heathins and taitch 'em all in our. power —the saints save us ! Well, the ways and trials I had wid that Chiutser,. Ann Ryan, I couldn't be teViin'. Not a. blissed thing cud I do but he'd be lookiu ? on wid his eyes cocked up'ard like two poomp-handles, an' he widout a speck or suiitch o' whiskers on him, and his finger nails full a yard long. But it's dyin' you'd be to see the missus a'larnin', au' be a grinnin' an' waggin* his pig tail (which was pieced out long wid some black stoo£ the haythin chate !) an' gettin' into her ways wonderful quick. I don't deny imitatin' that sharp you'd be shurprised, and ketchin' an' copyin' things the best, of us will do a-hurried wid work, yet, don't want comin' to the knowledge of. the family—bad luck to him ! Is it ate wid him ? Arrah, an' would I be sktin' wid a haythin an* he a-atin' wid drum-sticks —yes, an' atin' dogs an' cats uuknownst to ine, I warrant you, which it is the custom of them Chineser, till' the thought made me that sick I could die. An' didn't the crayture proffer to help me a wake ago come Toosday, and me a foldin' down me clane clothes for the ironin' an' fill his haythin mouth with wather, an' afore I could hinder squirrit it through his teeth stret over the best linen table-cloth, and fold it up tight, as innerceut as a baby, the dirrity baste ! But the worrest ol it all was the copyin' he'd be doin' till ye'd be dislit'iracted. It's yerself know the tinder feet that's ou me since ever I've bin in this counthry. Well, owing to that, I fell into a way o' slippiu' me shoes off when I'd be settling down to pale the praties or the likes o' that; an', do ye mind ; that haythin would do the same thing afther me whiniver the missus set him to parin' apples or tooi.arterses, The saints in Heaven couldn't have made him belave he cud kape the shoes on him when he'd be payliu' anythiu'. Did I lave for that ? Faix an' I didn't. Didn't he get me into thruble wid my missus, the haythin! You're aware yerself how the booudles comin' in (torn the grocery often contains more 'n 'll &° into any thing daciatly. So, for that matter, I'd now and then take out a H h

tf sugar, or flour, or tay, an' wrap it in paper, an' put in me bit of a box tucked under the ironin' blanket, the how it cuddent be bodderin' any one. Well, what sbud it be, but this blessed Saturday morn the missus was spakin' pleasant and respectful wid me in me kitchen when the grocer-boy comes in an' stands fornenst her wid his boondles, an' she motions like to Fing Wing (which I never could call him by that name nor any other but just haythinj —she motions to him, she does, for to take the boondles an' empty out the sugar an' what not where they belongs. If you'll belave me, Ann Ryan, what did that blatberiu' Chineser do but take out a sup o' sugar an' a handful o' tay, and a bit o' cbaze, right afore the missus, wrap them into bits o' paper, an' I spacheless wid shurprise, and he the next minute up wid the ironin' biankit and pulling out me box, wid a show o' bein' sly to put them in. Och, the-Lord forgive me, but I clutched it, an' the missus sayiu' " 0 Kitty ! " in a way that 'ud ciuklle your blood. " He's a haythiu nager," says I. "I've found you out," says she. " I'll arrist him," says I. " Ir's you who ought to be arristed," says she. " You won't," says L " I will," says she. And so it went till she give me such sass as I cuddent take from no lady; an' I gave her warniu' an' left that instant, an' she apointiu' to the doore.